Poems, prose, correspondence, emails, rantings, manifestos, observations, songs, and soliloquies by singer-songwriter, troubadour, and proto-punk Peter Case and writer, music journalist, educator, folklorist, and drummer David Ensminger. EPISTOLARY REX comprised of correspondence between friends and colleagues Houston beat/punk David Ensminger and California troubadour Peter Case, inspired by hero Allen Ginsberg's letters with his peers, and other documents of the once-upon-a-time counter-culture, in this day (and night) of materialist madness and right wing surges world-wide, while the...

In Mavericks of Sound: Conversations with the Artists Who Shaped Indie and Roots Music, music scholar David Ensminger offers a collection of vivid and compelling interviews with legendary roots rock and indie artists who bucked mainstream trends and have remained resilient in the face of enormous shifts in the music world. As the success of the concerts at Austin City Limits have revealed, the fan bases and crowds for indie and roots music often blur and overlap. In Mavericks of Sound, Ensminger brings to light the highways and byways trod by these music icons over the course of their careers...

Punk rock has long been equated with the ever-shifting concepts of dissent, disruption, and counter-cultural activities. As a result, since its 1970s and 1980s incarnations, when bands in Britain--from The Clash and Sex Pistols to Angelic Upstarts, U.K. Subs, and Crass--offered alternative political convictions and subversive lifestyle choices, the media has often deemed punk a threat. Bands like Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, and Millions of Dead Cops followed suit in America, pushing similar boundaries as the music mutated into a harsher "hardcore" style that branched deep into...