The History one of New York City’s most vibrant havens for musicians and artists — from Dave Van Ronk, Sonny Rollins and Bob Dylan to Shawn Colvin and Suzanne Vega — will be chronicled in the new book, Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital, by Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne.
Out Sept. 17 via Hachette Books (and available to pre-order now), the book traces the rise and heyday of neighborhood’s music community, where art, bohemian culture, and politics collided for much of the second half of the 20th century. Focusing on the Fifties through the Eighties, Talkin’ Greenwich Village will dig into the scene’s origins in the late 1950s as a young generation of musicians, poets, and artists flocked to the neighborhood at a fraught moment in New York City history, marred by racial tensions and police crackdowns.
Over the next several decades, the art that came out of Greenwich Village would spread around the world and have a massive effect on popular music and culture. As the book explores, the scene began to falter in the mid-Eighties as storied venues like Gerde’s Folk City finally closed to mark the end of an era.
Browne interviewed over 150 people for the book, including Village denizens like Vega, Colvin, Herbie Hancock, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Sonny Rollins, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Carolyn Hester, Joan Baez, John Sebastian, Terre and Suzzy Roche, Steve Forbert, Christopher Guest, David Johansen, and members of the Blues Project.
