Book
“Daughter of a Song”
Texas Tech University Press
Description
Born in a Dust Bowl dugout on the hard, flat plains outside Lubbock, Texas, Sonny Curtis picked cotton as a kid, formed a band with his high school friend Buddy Holly, and opened shows for Elvis—and that was just by the age of twenty-two. Now at the end of his long career, Curtis is considered a rock ‘n’ roll trailblazer. He toured the world with the Crickets and with Waylon Jennings. He wrote the classic songs “I Fought the Law,” “Love Is All Around” (the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and the country standard “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” Curtis has left an impression on American myth and music that has gone heretofore undocumented.
But to the author, Sonny was a loving if cryptic father as elusive as the spotlight itself. Part biography, part memoir, Daughter of a Song braids together an insider’s perspective on an outsider’s life. With Sonny out on the road for long stretches, Sarah Curtis pieced his life and legacy together through research and recollection, following her father from the 1950s birth of rock ‘n’ roll in West Texas to the 1960s Hollywood scene where Sonny met his wife, a Vietnam War protester and California hippie. The two of them would leave Hollywood behind for the rural Tennessee cattle farm where they raised Sarah.
With vivid storytelling, cultural commentary, lyrical prose, and a dose of humor, Daughter of a Song considers the complexities of fate and fame, the cultures we shape and the ones that shape us. It is the story of a man saved by art, and the daughter who must navigate to the center of his creativity to reckon with her own.
Advanced PRAISE FOR “DAUGHTER OF A SONG”
“The story of Sonny Curtis the singer-songwriter is part of rock and roll history. The candid and emotional story that his daughter Sarah has told here is even richer. Her heartfelt biography of Sonny will make his millions of fans love him even more.”
– Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning
“Daughter of a Song is a haunting melody of a memoir, filled with the lively rhythms of country music and the complex harmonies of the human heart. Sarah Curtis has inherited an ear for storytelling, and she has written a book that is memorable, generous, and wise.” —Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire
“Sarah Curtis has been doubly blessed: she has a story to tell, and the chops to tell it. Daughter of a Song is about music, about America, about a father and a daughter and fame and poverty and talent and hard work, and the blessing and curse all these matters of life and death can sometimes be. Throw in Buddy Holly, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Waylon Jennings, and a long-suffering mother who speaks truth in love, and you have everything you need for a terrific and fabulous and very real book.
This is it.”
– Bret Lott, author of Jewel and The Hunt Club
“Daughter of a Song is a deeply moving and gorgeously written book, at once a sweeping and compelling history and an intimate personal tale of a Southwestern American family. Sarah Curtis unspools her father’s journey from the humblest of origins to the international stage via rock and roll, contributing some of the greatest songs in the popular music canon along the way. But at its heart, it’s the story of Sarah’s place in the family, from her youth as the only child of a musician father and supportive mother, to her adult roles as a mom, wife, caring daughter, and, thankfully for us, a writer. As in a great novel, each character is finely and compassionately drawn. Every parent should be so lucky to have a son or daughter who writes such an eloquent tribute to their family.” —Bill Janovitz, author of The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told
“Like the man brought to life on its pages, Daughter of a Song occupies a space all its own. No mere celebrity biography, this is a work of literature exploring the complexities of fate and fame, roots and home, and cultural pressures that can either hem us in or set us free. Sarah Curtis reminds us where songs come from—and how they endure. A stunning debut by a gifted storyteller.”
– Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, author of Finding Querencia: Essays from In-Between
“Sarah Curtis is the daughter of Sonny Curtis, a member of the Crickets who backed Buddy Holly; he’s also a successful songwriter. However, this isn’t a let-me-tell-you-about-my-famous-father memoir. It’s, well, more. Daughter of a Song explores popular culture, class, family dynamics, the allure and toxicity of fame, and personal identity. The story Curtis writes is simultaneously intimate and epic—moving from the dust of Lubbock, Texas, to the glitz of LA, to stops in between and beyond. Curtis has the literary chops to make things come alive with words, whether she’s relating her father’s literally dirt-poor upbringing, the emotional minefield of a Waylon Jennings party, or her own complicated feelings about her upbringing. Like her father, Curtis is a pro; she has honed her craft. And, like her father’s music, Daughter of a Song is the real deal.”
– Sue William Silverman, author, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences