SAN FRANCISCO AUTHOR BETH WINEGARNER RELEASES "READ THE MUSIC: ESSAYS ON SOUND"

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.—Native Bay Area author and former San Francisco Chronicle and Addicted to Noise music critic Beth Winegarner has published a new book on music, "Read the Music: Essays on Sound."

"Read the Music" follows in the essayist traditions of books like Bruce Hornby's "Songbook" and Glenn McDonald's long-running Web column "The War Against Silence." In its pages, Winegarner explores politics, culture, literature, history, spirituality, and mythology through the lens of albums such as Tori Amos' "Strange Little Girls," Imogen Heap's "Speak for Yourself," Nefilim's "Zoon" and two versions of the classic song "No Quarter" — Led Zeppelin's original and Tool's 2000 cover.

Winegarner, who became a lifelong music fan at 11 with the release of albums like Duran Duran's "Arena" and Cyndi Lauper's "She's So Unusual," went on to contribute rock reviews to high-school and college newspapers before vaulting into the world of professional rock journalism in 1995, when she began writing for the seminal online music magazine Addicted to Noise. She went on to contribute to such heavy hitters as The San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Music and ROCKRGRL.

In 2000, she took up a new form of music writing.

"Publications changed hands or went out of business, and I found myself weary of writing about music that, in many cases, did not matter to me. My interest in the professional rock-journalism world waned," Winegarner writes in the introduction to "Read the Music." "It was during that period that I wrote my first essays on music."

Music fans across the spectrum have responded enthusiastically to these essays, from the stream-of-consciousness piece inspired by A Perfect Circle's "Mer de Noms" to the deeply scholarly examination of the mythology expressed on Nefilim's "Zoon." Two of the pieces, "The Shaman in the Arena: The Concert as a Spiritual Journey" and "Magic in the Mix: Techniques in Recorded Rock Music" reached pagan readers in the San Francisco-based magazine Crescent.

"Read the Music: Essays on sound," ISBN 1-84728-716-6/978- 1-84728-716-8, is available through online sellers and bookstores.

FULL LIST OF ESSAYS:
"Words Like Weapons: Tori Amos' 'Strange Little Girls'"; "Back to the Garden: Tori Amos' 'Yes, Anastasia,'"; "The Soul is in the Software: Imogen Heap's 'Speak for Yourself'"; "A Siren in the Sea of Names: A Perfect Circle's 'Mer de Noms'"; "Out of the Mist: Two Views on 'No Quarter'"; "What You Couldn't See: Days of the New"; "Heart of Darkness: The 'Cult' of Apocalyptica"; "The Shaman in the Arena: The Concert as a Spiritual Journey"; "Magic in the Mix: Techniques in Recorded Rock Music"; "Three Heralds of the Storm: Celebrate, Psychonaut, Sumerland"; "Nefilim Reborn: 'Zoon'."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Beth Winegarner is a journalist, poet and the author of two other books: "Sacred Sonoma," a study of sacred sites and alignments in Sonoma County, California; and "Dream Brother," a romantic fairy tale told through short stories, poems and collage. She has worked as a full-time reporter and editor for various Bay Area newspapers since 1998. She lives in San Francisco with her partner of 11 years.


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MEDIA CONTACTS:

AUTHOR:
Beth Winegarner
beth@bethwinegarner.com
www.bethwinegarner.com

PUBLISHER:
Melissa London
pressreleases@lulu.com
www.lulu.com