Throughout, Waksman tilts the frame of music history and changes the image utterly. Open Live Music in America to any of its 692 pages and something will catch your interest. There are endless parallels with the music business of today, at every stage of the journey. * Pollstar * Documenting American live music history, Steve Waksman tours archives from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé, vaudeville circuits to open-air festivals. Our theaters and arenas, he shows, became the other place (alongside recordings) for new cultural forms to seek social ratification. This is the Springsteen at the Meadowlands of music books: a sweeping testimonial. * Eric Weisbard, author of Top 40 Democracy and Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music * I've spent countless hours of my music-critic life absorbing music in the company of strangersin tiny clubs and ornate theaters, on muddy fields and in sports arenas. Until now, no book has existed that fully documents the complexity and impact of music's live side. From the antebellum craze over touring Swedish opera star Jenny Lind to Beyoncé's Movement for Black Lives-powered 2018 Homecoming celebration, Steve Waksman illuminates the ways live music has not merely reflected but shaped the American body politic. This is the kind of book you won't want to put down unless you're running out to a show. * Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music * Waksman makes a powerful case for how indispensable and vital live music has been for the human experience. * Wendy Fonarow, Journal of Popular Music Studies * This is a monumental book, dazzling in its ambition and breadth. * Martin Cloonan, Popular Music * This is a timely book,... Extensively documented, this is a definitive resource on the evolution of live music in the US. Essential. All readers. * Choice * Extensively documented, this is a definitive resource on the evolution of live music in the US. * R. J. Phillips, CHOICE * Collective experience concertgoers share, this history recognizes the significant roles of those who work behind the scenes choosing performance venues, promoting concerts, designing stage and sound elements, and otherwise supporting live performances. * P. D. Sanders, Choice * This history recognizes the significant roles of those who work behind the scenes choosing performance venues, promoting concerts, designing stage and sound elements, and otherwise supporting live performances. * Choice * Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé, Waksman clarifies many of the significant developments and acknowledges many well-known and lesser-known individuals who enabled the live-music industry to progress, and like the recording industry, to transform US culture. His compelling history would be an excellent addition to any high school, public, or university library-and will appeal to anyone interested in live music in the US, as well as the history of US music, music technology, and the music industry. Waksman has done an admirable job of taking a complicated topic and making it comprehensible. * Chris Durman, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association. *