They Made Me Play a Polka

A heartbreaking and hilarious cautionary tale about how to fail in the music business, this memoir from Connecticut singer-songwriter Sue Menhart is a laugh out loud inside look at 30 years of trying to "make it," with tales of nightmare gigs, shady club owners, and extremely large uvulas (that's the thing at the back of your throat ). The book is jam-packed with useful tips, tricks, pitfalls, and atrocities associated with trying to succeed in the biz with plenty of pop culture references from the boom boxes of the 1980s to the digital complexities of the 2000s. Influenced by the early days of MTV, and after opening for REO Speedwagon on the back of a flatbed truck in 1981, she ponders, "How can I possibly not be super famous by now?" She chronicles the craft of music-making, interviews other musicians from around the world, and imparts suggested business knowledge to those seeking stardom, including how to go about attempting to win a Grammy. The memoir describes how musicians feel on and off stage, without ever getting to be a Bruce Springsteen or a Taylor Swift. Why do they do it? How do they do it? What must they endure? The book is enlightening and entertaining and lastly, inspiring.