The Catchers

by Xan Brooks

Spring 1927. The birth of popular music. John Coughlin is a song-catcher from New York who has been sent to Appalachia to source and record the local hill-country musicians. His assignment leads him to small-town Tennessee where he oversees the recording session that will establish his reputation. From here he ventures further south in search of glory. He is chasing what song-catchers call the big fish or the firefly; the song or performer which will make a man rich.

Waylaid at an old plantation house, Coughlin gets wind of a black teenage guitarist, Moss Evans, who runs bootleg liquor in the Mississippi Delta. The Mississippi has flooded, putting the country underwater, but Coughlin is able to locate the boy and bring him out. Coughlin views himself as a saviour. Others regard him as a thief and exploiter. Coughlin and Moss – the catcher and his catch – pick their way across a ruined, unstable Old South and then turn north through the mountains, heading for New York.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Music

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Ben Dutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Catchers, by Xan Brooks, takes us to 1920s America, to Appalachia, and the birth of a new music. Brooks captures the spirit of the era beautifully, and the story is engaging, well written and evocative. I could smell those Appalachians mountains. His characterisation is equally well done, from the song hunter John Coughlin to the teenage guitarist Moss Evans: their adventures across a changing America make for a recommended read.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Brooks these days, writing is of secondary importance to his focus on cinema, for which he is an associate editor at the Guardian.
I very much enjoyed his first novel, The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times, and this is a strong follow-up.

It is set during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and concerns the growing popularity of ‘hillbilly music’ at the time. In the 1920s several record labels (Columbia, Brunswick for example) started to record and sell it. The recording lathe was invented which led to sing-catchers travelling Appalachia scouting for talent and carrying out recording sessions on location.

John Coughlin, the protagonist, is such a song-catcher, working for Humpty Rceords, and finds himself in small town Tennessee. He hears of a black teenage guitarist, Moss Evans, who works moving bootleg liquor in the Mississippi Delta. Meanwhile, the river begins to flood, bringing racial discrimination to a flash point.

There are many things Brooks does well here; his careful research and his lyrical descriptions of the landscape, the weather, and the simmering racial tensions.

But in the last third the novel loses its way. Coughlin decides to take Moss Evans back to New York instead of recording him on location, and the plot, which was captivating becomes increasingly bizarre and hard to follow.

It’s all very cinematic, and one of those books in which a really good story is in there somewhere, just frustratingly goes wandering in its latter section.

Here’s a clip..

What a name, what an act: the Blue Grasshopper Dirt Band.
Six drunk musicians, plus a hairless boy singer, no older than fourteen, who they introduced as the Cue-Ball Kid. The Cue-Ball Kid appeared to be missing an eye. He clutched a corncob pipe in one hand and sang angry scat versions of primitive folk pieces. And now Coughlin became aware of the chairs being moved to clear space for a dance. Stubb protested, but it was no use by this point, nobody could hear him. The Blue Grasshopper Dirt Band were in unruly full spate, tearing into an Irish jig that Coughlin dimly recalled from his youth. And he rose from his chair to see that the whole room was in motion: the men swinging their wives; lone farmers stamping their boots; children turning circles in order to make themselves dizzy. He thought that maybe a fight had broken out, too, where the dancing was at its most intense. But in craning his neck for a better view he spotted more shady business away in the back rows..

[Tom Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really uneven book. Some very good bits, some very average bits, and a plot that sort of fizzles out.

[Jo Clemmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ripping yarn set in the Appalachians of the 1920s. Brilliant characters and a meandering plot which kept my interest with sudden twists and turns. Not a period or activity I know much about - good fun.

[Rosie Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed and human lives stretched out to operate on a cataclysmic scale.

'The Catchers' is great little piece of historical fiction about song catchers in the 1927 Mississippi flood - we follow the stories of John Coughlin (catcher) and Moss Evans (caught) and their unlikely path towards each other against the backdrop of the dangerously swollen Mississippi.

Coughlin's dogged perseverance and belief in music is tested the further and further he travels perilously down south with his recording kit in search of 'the one'. His travels lead him inadvertently towards Moss Evans, a hooch boy, guitar and glasses to his name, who serves the workers right up close at the flood defence of the Mississippi - Moss' music is transfixing, original, alive.

Brooks' writing is at its best when it's discussing music, landscapes, and the eerie, meandering side characters that edge their way into 'The Catcher's plot. The final third of this was pacy, it gears up to a brilliant finish and I couldn't put the final 70 pages or so down!

[MavM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Xan Brooks first book (All the clocks in this house tell different times) a lot. A slightly farcical novel set in an aristocratic house in 1920's Britain, it had a different feel. I am pleased to say, that despite being set in the 1920s, his second book has the same feel. This is partly because the decade is the only thing that links the two books. Upper class England is replaced by a epic travel journey down the Appalachian mountains towards Mississippi. Catchers, we learn in the opening pages, are song recorders, catching music to be pressed into vinyl. This is their imagined life.

The feel is Steinbeck crossed with Salinger, but with the anger drained out - it's good enjoyable fayre without being genius.

I enjoyed it a lot, but do want to go off on a tangent. The Bechdel test was devised in the 80's. To pass it, a book or film has to have at least one conversation between two female characters, who must both have names, where the subject of the conversation is not a man. The Catchers fails this test. It's not even close.

[Alex Knighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this initially hard to penetrate, the book at times I found was slightly confusing and there are quite lengthy tangential passages that I found initially frustrating. However once I got into it I felt that the descriptive parts of the book and the large use of metaphors was in fact the best bit, and I felt that the pace of the book really picked up towards the second half. I thought the portrayal of the main character as a sometimes self aware, ethically problematic, appropriator, and at the same time funny and likeable, provided a good texture to the book, and his adventures adventures with Moss, as well as the tension created by the threat to Moss' life and work, really drove the narrative, especially in the second half.

[Daniel Rees · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1927, an Irish immigrant living in New York heads out on the road in his capacity as a song catcher to embark on a journey that will change his life and that of a complete stranger Moss Evans.

The catchers is beautifully written without being overly literary, and encompasses enchanting pose with a great story. Funny in places and touching in others, the Catchers toils with the theme of racism that was rampant in 1920s America, and takes the reader on a non-stop adventure, with twists and turns that entertain and educate.

[Max Clemens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only just started this book and I’m giving it 5 stars.

[John Bleasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent work

A meditation on art and commerce, race and history, the novel is rooted ina brilliantly realized environment and time but has as much to say about today.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant story

What a superb story, full of radiant characters. I loved this - every page of it. Movie next. I’d certainly book to see it.