Rick Shefchik

The story of the Minneapolis musicians who were unexpectedly summoned to re-record half of the songs on Bob Dylan's most acclaimed album When Bob Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks in New York in September 1974, it was a great album. But it was not the album now ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the ten best of all time. “When something’s not right, it’s wrong,” as Dylan puts it in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”-and something about that original recording led him to a studio in his native Minnesota to re-record five songs, including “Idiot Wind” and “Tangled Up in Blue.” Six Minnesota musicians participated in that two-night recording session at Sound 80, bringing their unique sound to some of Dylan’s best-known songs-only to have their names left off the album and their contribution unacknowledged for more than forty years. This book tells the story of those two nights in Minneapolis, introduces the musicians who gave the album so much of its ultimate form and sound, and describes their decades-long fight for recognition. Blood in the Tracks takes readers behind the scenes with these “mystery” Minnesota musicians: twenty-one-year-old mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko; drummer Bill Berg and bass player Billy Peterson, the house rhythm section at Sound 80; progressive rock keyboardist Gregg Inhofer; guitarist Chris Weber, who owned The Podium guitar shop in Dinkytown; and Kevin Odegard, whose own career as a singer-songwriter had paralleled Dylan’s until he had to take a job as a railroad brakeman to make ends meet. Through in-depth interviews and assiduous research, Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik trace the twists of fate that brought these musicians together and then set them on different paths in its wake: their musical experiences leading up to the December 1974 recording session, the divergent careers that followed, and the painstaking work required to finally obtain the official credit that they were due. A rare look at the making-or remaking-of an all-time great album, and a long overdue recognition of the musicians who made it happen, Blood in the Tracks brings to life a transformative moment in the history of rock and roll, for the first time in its true context and with its complete cast of players.

If you didn’t experience rock and roll in Minnesota in the 1960s, this book will make you wish you had. This behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal account relates how a handful of Minnesota rock bands erupted out of a small Midwest market and made it big. It was a brief, heady moment for the musicians who found themselves on a national stage, enjoying a level of success most bands only dream of. In Everybody’s Heard about the Bird, Rick Shefchik writes of that time in vivid detail. Interviews with many of the key musicians, combined with extensive research and a phenomenal cache of rare photographs, reveal how this monumental era of Minnesota rock music evolved. The chronicle begins with musicians from the 1950s and early 1960s, including Augie Garcia, Bobby Vee, the Fendermen, and Mike Waggoner and the Bops. Shefchik looks at how a local recording studio and record label, along with Minnesota radio stations, helped make their achievements possible and prepared the way for later bands to break out nationally. Shefchik delves deeply into the Trashmen’s emblematic rise to fame. A Minneapolis band that recorded a fluke novelty hit called “Surfin’ Bird” at Kay Bank Studios, the Trashmen signed with Soma Records, topped the local charts in late 1963, and were poised to top the national charts in early 1964. Hundreds of Minnesota bands took inspiration from the Trashmen’s success, as teen dances with live bands flourished in clubs, ballrooms, gyms, and halls across the Upper Midwest. Here are the stories of bands like the Gestures, the Castaways, and the Underbeats, and the triumphs-and tragedies-of the most prominent Minnesota-spawned bands of the late 1960s, including Gypsy, Crow, and the Litter. For the baby boomers who remember it and everyone else who has felt its influence, the 1960s rock-and-roll scene in Minnesota was an extraordinary period both in musical history and popular culture, and now it’s captured fully in print for the first time. Everybody’s Heard about the Bird celebrates how these bands found their singular sound and played for their elated audiences from the golden era to today.

From retreats for the middle class to playgrounds for the rich, golf clubs have been sources of recreation, fellowship, and business for Minnesotans for more than a century. Minnesota’s courses have hosted some of the sport's most dramatic tournaments and legendary players-including Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods-and its clubs have been deeply involved in the development and popularizing of golf throughout North America. From Fields to Fairways is the first book to thoroughly explore the history, architecture, and joie de vivre of Minnesota golf clubs, bringing to life the personalities who founded and shaped the clubs and courses, including forgotten details of how the greatest courses were built. Rick Shefchik highlights the best-known golf architects and the clubs they designed, such as Donald Ross (Woodhill, Interlachen, Northland), A. W. Tillinghast (Golden Valley, Rochester), William Watson (Minikahda, White Bear Yacht Club), and Seth Raynor (Somerset, Midland Hills, Minnesota Valley). He also traces the evolution of the state’s public courses, which provided affordable playing grounds for the middle class as well as African Americans, who were not allowed to join private clubs. Another chapter focuses on the creation of private clubs by Jewish golfers, who were likewise once excluded from Minnesota’s elite golf clubs. Featuring more than two hundred photos from newspapers, clubs, museums, and private collections-many of which have never before been seen by the public-From Fields to Fairways will be the book of record on Minnesota’s illustrious golf history for fans and players of all handicaps.

After a second World Championship in four years, the Boston Red Sox have finally buried the Curse of the Bambino— or have they? Sox owner Louis Kenwood receives an extortion note signed "Babe Ruth" claiming that the 2004 World Series was fixed—and demanding $50 million to keep the information from getting to the press and the Commissioner's office. If the allegation of a fix becomes public, Kenwood fears irreparable damage to the value of his franchise and to his legacy as Lucky Louie, a the man who finally brought a championship to Boston after 86 years. Thus, the Red Sox turn to private detective Sam Skarda to find out who's behind the extortion plot. Kenwood insists that his beautiful executive assistant Heather Canby accompany—and monitor—Sam on every step of his investigation. Unsure whom he can trust, Sam follows the clues to the Los Angeles underworld and then to the slums of Venezuela. Can he assemble all of the pieces to this puzzle before more lives are lost and scandal blasts the Red Sox Nation? Green Monster is the second novel in the Sam Skarda series, following Amen Corner.