Carved in Rock

Editor Greg Kihn is a popular west coast disc jockey who has spent 20 years as a professional musician. Along the way he has met thousands of fellow performers who share a gift for storytelling and an aptitude for artistic adventure. Storyteller collects the short fiction from the most talented of them. The anthology includes a startling array of musicians, each with stories on a wide variety of topics. Ray Manzarek of the Doors contributes a retelling of the creation myth in “The Lady of the Valley.” David Byrne ruminates on a genetic future of designer chromosomes, Graham Parker depicts a farcical vision of liberal politics in the hands of illiberal men, and Lydia Lunch presents a dark fable of miscarried sexual justice. Mary Lee Kortes’s “Summer Vacation” has the sparse addictiveness of a song without music and Larry Kirwan imagines what would have happened to the Beatles if they had not become famous. Other contributors include Dee Dee Ramone, Eric Burdon, Richard Hell, Mick Farren, Joan Jett, Johnny Strike, Marc Laidlaw, John Shirley, Suzzy Roche, Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Wynn, Steve Earle, Suzanne Vega, Tom Verlaine, Pete Townsend, and best-selling novelist Kinky Friedman who produces his first short story ever. These stories provide a new window into the lives and creativity of dozens of musicians we already know through their concerts and recordings. Reading the collection is like getting to know them all over again.