If It Sounds Good, It is Good: An Interview with Richard Manning
By the Montana Book Festival
September 10th, 2020
Conducted by Joey Paxman of PM Press
This conversation is a mere teaser for what will be a great live, MBF+ event in October! (Richard promises he’ll bring his guitar next time.)
Music is fundamental to human existence; it is embedded in our evolution and encoded in our DNA, which is to say, essential to our survival. Academics in a variety of disciplines have devised explanations that Richard Manning, a lifelong journalist, finds hollow, incomplete, ivory-towered, and just plain wrong.
In If It Sounds Good, It’s Good: Seeking Subversion, Transcendence, and Solace in America’s Music, Manning approaches the question from a wholly different angle, using his own guitar and banjo as instruments of discovery. In the process, he finds himself dancing in celebration of music rough and rowdy.
