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Bub: Essays from Just North of Nashville
Nashville native Drew Bratcher writes musically about memory and memorably about music in uncommonly beautiful essays that announce the arrival of a major new voice.
The title essay, a requiem in fragments, tells the story of a grandfather through his ear, comb, hands, El Camino, and clothes. Bratcher delivers a tough and moving tribute to a man who "went on ahead, on up the road, and then the road turned." Elsewhere, Bratcher directs his attention to Johnny Cash's looming presence over his childhood, the relative pain of red paper wasp stings, Dolly Parton's generative homesickness, the humiliations and consolations of becoming a new father, the experience of hearing his name in a Taylor Swift song, and the mystifying hymns treasured by both his great grandmother and D. H. Lawrence.
Seamlessly blending memoir and arts criticism and aiming at both the heart and the head, this is a book about listening closely to stories and songs, about leaving home in order to find home, and about how the melodies and memories absorbed along the way become "a living music that advances and prevails upon us at formative moments, corralling chaos into the simple, liberating stockade of verse, chorus, verse."
The title essay, a requiem in fragments, tells the story of a grandfather through his ear, comb, hands, El Camino, and clothes. Bratcher delivers a tough and moving tribute to a man who "went on ahead, on up the road, and then the road turned." Elsewhere, Bratcher directs his attention to Johnny Cash's looming presence over his childhood, the relative pain of red paper wasp stings, Dolly Parton's generative homesickness, the humiliations and consolations of becoming a new father, the experience of hearing his name in a Taylor Swift song, and the mystifying hymns treasured by both his great grandmother and D. H. Lawrence.
Seamlessly blending memoir and arts criticism and aiming at both the heart and the head, this is a book about listening closely to stories and songs, about leaving home in order to find home, and about how the melodies and memories absorbed along the way become "a living music that advances and prevails upon us at formative moments, corralling chaos into the simple, liberating stockade of verse, chorus, verse."
- GenresNonfictionMusicEssays
190 pages, Paperback
Published November 2, 2022
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114 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 8, 2023
If you like beautiful memoir, southern storytelling, country music, family lore, or simply fantastic writing I cannot recommend this wonderful book by Drew Bratcher highly enough. As I neared the end of it I wished there was more.
March 3, 2025
Loved seeing the Nashville area through his eyes!
This was a beautiful book about what it’s like to grow up around Nashville and be inspired by its music, the people, and the culture. It’s also a book about family and how they stay with us wherever we are.
This was a beautiful book about what it’s like to grow up around Nashville and be inspired by its music, the people, and the culture. It’s also a book about family and how they stay with us wherever we are.
May 19, 2023
Solid stuff!
December 15, 2022
The writing is good. A collection of essays that have appeared in other publications. Most of the short chapters center around a popular country singer of the 80's and or the 90's. Although he was born in Nashville and fell in love with country music as a child, he does not live here in Nashville now, and has not lived here for a long time. I was hoping for more connections to the present Nashville. He often delves deep into the meaning of a particular song; sometimes too deep to hold my interest. He holds up the importance of earlier country music to music of the present.
May 25, 2023
Liked the storytelling. Enjoyed the music analysis, but it makes me painfully aware how little I know about old country. His words about Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift were pretty spot on. Thanks for the breather, Dr. Bratcher.
October 19, 2022
I preordered this book as soon as I knew it existed. It arrived yesterday, and I finished reading it today. Drew Bratcher is an amazing writer. He has the ability to thoroughly describe moments and feelings with great detail. He has a love for words (as do I) and it shows in his writing. The details he includes while describing his granddaddy “Bub” are so eloquent, sincere, and truthful- not shying away from Bub’s hard life.
Bratcher’s love for music and lyrics and the creative side much a part of his Nashville upbringing are interwoven with stories relating to the artists, himself, and his family. He describes the struggles of leaving home and his family’s support and guidance…reminding him from whence they came (coal mining) and their belief in all the possibilities of where he could go with his education and abilities.
I enjoyed the essay format of the book, with his stories of Bub being the longest section. Cheers to many more books from Drew Bratcher!
Bratcher’s love for music and lyrics and the creative side much a part of his Nashville upbringing are interwoven with stories relating to the artists, himself, and his family. He describes the struggles of leaving home and his family’s support and guidance…reminding him from whence they came (coal mining) and their belief in all the possibilities of where he could go with his education and abilities.
I enjoyed the essay format of the book, with his stories of Bub being the longest section. Cheers to many more books from Drew Bratcher!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 12, 2023
Amazing writer. It didn’t really pull me along, though, due to my ignorance of the country-music world.
April 24, 2023
Fun little book of southern essays, a lot of them about country music
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews