The Music Lover's Guide to North America: Museums, Historical Sites, and Other Points of Interest

by Josephine Matyas, Craig Jones

Genres: Travel, History, Music, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2025

Reviews

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews]

Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and Netgalley for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love all kinds of music, so I thought this book would be a slam dunk. Sadly, it wasn't. Focusing mainly on country music, with some jazz and blues represented, there seemed to be an effort to include as many obscure people and places as possible. I mean, I've studied music history since high school in the late 1980s, and some of these musicians I'd never heard of.

This book seems like it's for academics who travel during the summers.

[Chrissy]

​An exhaustive and well-researched directory for any music nerd. I didn't "finish" this in the traditional sense because it's designed to be used as a reference rather than read as a story. It’s perfect for dipping in and out of based on where you're traveling. Keeping this on my shelf for my next cross-country road trip!

[Beth]

Music and travel are two of my favorite things in the world, so this book should be a home-run for me, right? Sigh. There were almost no photographs at all, which was extremely disappointing. The sections focused almost entirely on the blues, jazz, and country music - which, while they're all great, are such a small piece of American music history and present. The information was really fascinating and made me want to visit many of these places, however - I just wish there was more variety covered.