“Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.”
ABOUT ME
ROCK BIOGRAPHER, MUSIC COLUMNIST, fILM/BOOK/ALBUM/LIVE REVIEWER, ARTIST INTERVIEWER, FICTION WRITER.
I was born and raised in Manhattan, amidst two parents who were (and still are) rock ‘n’ rollers, so I believe very strongly in the power and importance of rock ‘n’ roll. I believe in the power and importance of high-quality music and art criticism, especially that of Lester Bangs (whose writing reads and sounds like rock ‘n’ roll) and Greil Marcus (whose writing always manages to connect rock to everything else in the history of humankind, as he does in Mystery Train).
I have written numerous reviews for The Vinyl District, Film International, Live for Live Music, The Observer, No Depression, Journal of Popular Music and Society, CMUSE, Film Matters, and Senses of Cinema. I was also the music columnist at Red Paint Hill Journal from 2015 until 2017. I earned my BA (Cinema Studies '11) and MA (Humanities and Social Thought '15) from New York University. My Master's Thesis, "Let the Broken Hearts Stand," explored and examined the disappointed American characters in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town.
My original teen fiction series Crushing (six-volume episodic) was released in 2017 through Epic Press. My authorized biography of classic rock band America entitled America, the Band - an Authorized Biography was released in May 2020, in conjunction with the band’s 50th anniversary. I wrote a chapter analyzing The Band’s 1970 album ‘Stage Fright’ for the anthology Rags and Bones: an Exploration of the Band, published by University of Mississippi Press in 2022.
My next book Lowdown: the Music of Boz Scaggs will be published by Chicago Review Press in early 2025.
THECURATEDARCHIVES
A PERSONAL SELECTION OF REVIEWS,
INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES.
Lowdown: the Music of Boz Scaggs
by Jude Warne
to be published by Chicago Review Press
April 8th 2025
Boz Scaggs has always been a musical artist of complexity.
Scaggs founded his connection to music through the blues, but his lasting legacy is one of glamourous and romantic pop songwriting. He possessed a somewhat shy and sensitive demeanor never totally at home in the public eye, yet his claim to several chart-topping singles and albums, particularly the millions-selling and critically acclaimed Silk Degrees (1976) demanded constant exposure. The persona he expressed through his music was laid-back, effortlessly cool, sophisticated, stylish, romantically charming, and suave. But the immense success he achieved in his career pointed in part to the driven and determined artist within him who was moved to create uniquely authentic records.
Lowdown: The Music of Boz Scaggs examines the uniqueness of these contradictions and Boz Scaggs’s sixty-years-plus long career and musical catalogue. Over those years, Scaggs collaborated with an array of talented heavies: from the Steve Miller Band to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (which included a young Duane Allman) on Boz Scaggs (1969), from the session players who would form hit band Toto on Silk Degrees (1976), to Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald on the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue tour (2008).
This first-ever book on Boz is constructed around intensely thorough analysis of his complete discography, and new and exclusive in-depth interviews with a selection of Scaggs’s associated colleagues from his vast career.
PRE-ORDER HERE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lowdown-jude-warne/1145966162
University Press of Mississippi / Amazon.com
The first scholarly study of one of the most renowned groups in the history of rock 'n' roll.
Contributions by Joshua Coleman, Christine Hand Jones, Kevin C. Neece, Charlotte Pence, George Plasketes, Jeffrey Scholes, Jeff Sellars, Toby Thompson, and Jude Warne.
After performing with Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks (1957–1964), The Band (Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and Levon Helm) eventually rose to fame in the sixties as backing musicians for Bob Dylan. This collaboration with Dylan presented the group with a chance to expand musically and strike out on their own. The Band’s fusion of rock, country, soul, and blues music—all tinged with a southern flavor and musical adventurousness—created a unique soundscape. The combined use of multiple instruments, complex song structures, and poetic lyrics required attentive listening and a sophisticated interpretive framework. It is no surprise, then, that they soon grew to be one of the biggest bands of their era.
In Rags and Bones: An Exploration of The Band, scholars and musicians take a broad, multidisciplinary approach to The Band and their music, allowing for examination through sociological, historical, political, religious, technological, cultural, and philosophical means. Each contributor approaches The Band from their field of interest, offering a wide range of investigations into The Band’s music and influence.
Commercially successful and critically lauded, The Band created a paradoxically mythic and hauntingly realistic lyrical landscape for their songs—and their musicianship enlarged this detailed landscape. This collection offers a rounded examination, allowing the multifaceted music and work of The Band to be appreciated by audiences old and new.
Reviews
"It’s about time there was a solid collection of essays on The Band. The essays here are informative, engaging, and lucidly written. It’s enjoyable as well as insightful. An excellent collection."
- Thomas M. Kitts, St. John's University, author of John Fogerty: An American Son
america the band. an authorized biography.
release date: May 15th 2020
As if recovering from a raucous dream of the 1960s, Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek arrived on 1970s American radio with a sound that echoed disenchanted hearts of young people everywhere.
The three American boys named their band after a country they’d watched and dreamt of from their London childhood Air Force base homes. What was this country? This new band? Classic and timeless, America embodied the dreams of a nation desperate to emerge from the desert and finally give their horse a name.
Celebrating the band’s fiftieth anniversary, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell share stories of growing up, growing together, and growing older. Journalist Jude Warne weaves original interviews with Beckley, Bunnell, and many others into a dynamic cultural history of America, the band, and America, the nation.
Reliving hits like “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” and of course, “A Horse with No Name” from their 19 studio albums and incomparable live recordings, this book offers readers a new appreciation of what makes some music unforgettable and timeless. As America’s music stays in rhythm with the heartbeats of its millions of fans, new fans feel the draw of a familiar emotion. They’ve felt it before in their hearts and thanks to America, they can now hear it, share it, and sing along.
Order here:
BOOKS
Lowdown: the Music of Boz Scaggs. Available for Pre-Order at Barnes & Noble.
to be published via chicago review press (april 8th 2025).
America, the Band - an Authorized Biography. Available at Rowman & Littlefield and Amazon.com
published via Rowman & Littlefield (2020).
“Caught in the Spotlight: The Band’s Performance Anxiety in Stage Fright" - Chapter in Rags and Bones: a Multidisciplinary Exploration of The Band
PUBLISHED VIA UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI PRESS (2022). eDITORS: jeff sellars and kevin c. neece.
Crushing: The Six-Part Series. Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com
published via Epic Press (2017).
PRAISE IN THE PRESS FOR AMERICA, THE BAND - AN AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY
America’s Gerry Beckley discusses the book on Australia’s Studio 10
JUDE’S RADIO, PODCAST, AND VIDEO APPEARANCES FOR AMERICA, THE BAND - AN AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY
JUDE’S PODCAST APPEARANCE FOR RAGS AND BONES - AN EXPLORATION OF THE BAND
The Band: a History: https://podbay.fm/p/the-band-a-history/e/1669968000
For Autographed Copies of America the Band - an Authorized Biography
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of America, the Band - an Authorized Biography signed by author Jude Warne, please email judewritermgmt@gmail.com with your mailing address, if you would like personalization, and your Venmo (or Paypal) username . We will then send you a Venmo or PayPal request for $36, which includes domestic shipping. Thank You!