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Acknowledgments

A Change Is Gonna Come represents a momentary pause in a series of interlinking conversations about music that began on the streets of Colorado Springs with Brian Berry, Mike DeLong, Kent Lawyer, and Jim Allen. It’s a conversation that has been enriched by the voices of Steve Schultz, Dan Schultz, Michael and Keisha Bowman, Shanna Greene, Donia Allen, David Wright, Gloria Abney, Brian Bischel, Mikki Harris, Yorel Lashley, Duer Sharp, Bill Van Deburg, Kevin Stewart, Mike Reese, Karah Stokes, Mike Allen, Steve Baker, Aja Brown, Sam Chaltain, Tess Scogans, Yasmin Cader, Barbara Ewell, Jerry Speir, Ben Fisher, Eli Goldblatt, Trudi Witonsky, Craig McConnell, Sue Christel, Richard Powers, Nellie McKay, Ron Radano, Sandy Adell, Anthony Stockdale, Malin Pereira, and many others, including the folks down at the Harmony Bar. Missy Kubitschek and Barbara Talmadge will know why this book closes a circle with a long circumference.

For the last decade, the most important part of the conversation for me has grown out of the classes I teach on black music at the University of Wisconsin. The students of Afro-American Studies 156 and 403 have taught me far more than they could possibly have learned. Special thanks to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, Ed Pavlic, Melvina Johnson Young, Glenn Berry, Gant Johnson, Scott Sherman, and Lori Leibovich, all of whom taught me to hear the beauty in what I’d sometimes thought was noise. As always, I have been blessed with a wonderful family: my father, my brothers, Brian and Blake, the Nelson clan that’s somehow gotten used to me, and my nieces and nephews. My deepest love to my wife, Leslee Nelson, and our daughters, Riah and Kaylee.

I owe a lot to Dave Marsh for helping A Change Is Gonna Come become what it is. Among many other things, Dave put me in contact with Greil Marcus, Jon Landau, and Danny Alexander, who provided useful suggestions as the book developed. Howard Fields, Steve Brown, Sarah Heal, Dave Lieben, and Nancy Humphreys aided in my research. Jeanne Comstock saw to it that words made it from computer to page without catastrophe. Irwin Soonachan of Goldmine Magazine generously got me in touch with many of the musicians whose voices carry the story along. Thanks to my agent, Dan Greenberg of James Levine Communications, and my editor, Deborah Brody, both of whom kept reminding me to get out of the way and let the story tell itself.

Finally, A Change Is Gonna Come is dedicated to Geoff King, who insisted that the best ideas not be left lying on the table around a pitcher of beer, and Tim Tyson, who, in addition to heroically finishing the pitcher, put the manuscript back on the right path so often he should probably be listed as co-author. It’s your turn, guys.