By Jake Fain
Staff Writer
About 40 Union students and guests from local high schools attended a creative writing workshop March 14 in Penick Academic Complex held by award-winning author Peter Guralnick.
Later in the day, Guralnick hosted a reading of his written works in the Carl Grant Events Center.
Guralnick, a 69-year-old Boston native, has authored “Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley,” “Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley,” “Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians” and “Searching for Robert Johnson.”
“I always wanted to be two things – a baseball player and a writer,” he said.
Guralnick greeted the crowd with a reading about Elvis Presley as a young boy and went on to read extensive excerpts from several of his biographical works. He also read from a work in progress about Sam Phillips, the record executive and producer who discovered Presley.
Guralnick also touched on the social and racial sides of music, beginning with an excerpt from his novel based on the life of R&B musician Sam Cooke.
One reading told the story of a recording artist who had to play in front of a large crowd of Ku Klux Klan members in his book, “Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom.”
During a brief Q&A session after the reading, a member of the crowd asked Guralnick how he felt the music industry of today compares to the era of music about which he had written.
“There is no music industry anymore — just a lot of people making money,” he said. “The rich are just getting richer.”
Guralnick got his start at a young age by writing short stories, but it wasn’t until he reached his late 20s that he began to write about music.
Guralnick felt that the lives and careers of famed jazz, blues and rock players should be put into greater context so that people could better understand their real stories as well as their music.
“I started writing about music because I wanted to let people know about this kind of music,” Guralnick said. “I was always struck by these artists because their music stemmed from their belief in the word.”
Guralnick’s many other achievements include writing the Grammy-winning liner notes for “Sam Cooke Live” in his performance at the Harlem Square Club.
He also wrote the scripts for the musical documentaries “Sam Cooke/Legend” and film maker Martin Scorsese’s “Feel Like Going Home.”
Guralnick spends part of the year at his home in Massachusetts. He spends the rest of his time teaching creative writing courses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
The Union University Lyceum Committee and the Department of English invited Guralnick to speak on campus.
The committee is made up of professors who delegate budgeted funds to hosting activities on campus involving theater, creative writing, art and music.