The Rose & the Briar

For The Rose & the Briar, editors Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus have invited a broad swath of writers to sing their own versions of the songs that changed their lives and the life of their country. The Rose & the Briar takes up the music of the ballad and the worlds from which it sprang as no other book has ever done, uncovering such classic songs as "Come Sunday," "El Paso," "Frankie and Albert," and a score more - while calling out the demons that called the tune. Following clues left by artists both forgotten and acclaimed - from Bill Dooley to Bruce Springsteen - the novelists, critics, short-story writers, poets, historians, cartoonists, songwriters, and performers gathered here have pushed the limits of scholarship and storytelling. In essays and fiction, poetry and collage, they have produced a book that both echoes and sustains the voice of the American ballad as it has been performed and heard for more than three hundred years.