Emily D. Edwards's "Bars, Blues, and Booze"

Emily D. Edwards is a professor of media studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She began her media writing career as a journalist, reporting for ABC and NBC affiliates in Alabama and Tennessee. She has written and produced news stories and documentaries for both radio and television. In the early 1970s when employees in small and medium market stations wore many hats, Edwards wrote, produced, and directed television news, commercials, and public service programs. In 1984 she earned a Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and moved back to Alabama to direct the broadcasting program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1987, she joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she is now a professor in the Department of Media Studies.

Edwards applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Bars, Blues, and Booze: Stories from the Drink House, and reported the following:

I had not heard about the page 99 test before, so it was interesting to open the book to page 99 and see part of the interview with Bob Baskerville and Penny Zamagni where they describe the enthusiasm for blues music in Europe and the seeming disregard for that same music in American sports bars. Does page 99 represent the entire book? It does represent an important theme but the book reflects the experiences of many different people -- it's a joyous romp through American bars, joints, and drink houses as told by musicians, fans, and the bar owners who experienced them.

Visit the official Bars, Blues & Booze website.

Writers Read: Emily D. Edwards.

--Marshal Zeringue