Nightstand
Phil Madeira
For the last few years, Madeira, 61, has spent a lot of his time on the road playing accordion and guitar for Emmylou Harris. As a singer-songwriter, he has had his work recorded by Alison Krauss, Bruce Hornsby and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Madeira, a Southern Evangelical by birth who has gone on to experience many different faith and religion practices, recently released his first book, God on the Rocks: Distilling Religion, Savoring Faith. Madeira will be visiting the Tampa Bay area, performing at the Safety Harbor Music Festival Thursday through Saturday as well as holding a book signing and acoustic set at Inkwood Books on Saturday. (See Book Talk, Page 7L)
What's on your nightstand?
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival by Louise Murphy. It's about two children surviving the Holocaust.
That period of time, World War II and the Holocaust, is very intriguing to me. I'll be flying out to Seattle, and I'll probably take two books of fiction with me, that one and also Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. I also have Hot Burritos: The True Story of the Flying Burrito Brothers by John Einarson with Chris Hillman. I'm pretty much finished with it, but it is still on my stand.
You probably already knew the story of the Flying Burrito Brothers backward and forward, so did anything surprise you?
No, but it's written with a lot of interviews with Chris Hillman, and I love Chris. I think Chris Hillman has a journey I can relate to. He's been a journeyman his entire life. He's about eight years older than me, but his story is about making music, not being a big star. I think Gram (Parsons) probably valued stardom more than he did what they were doing. He seemed enamored by stardom. It's a great book.
Piper Castillo can be reached at pcastillo@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4163.