Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll by Peter Blecha

Folio is thrilled to welcome Seattle author and historian Peter Blecha for his first Folio presentation and reception on his latest book Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll.

Long before the world discovered grunge, the Pacific Northwest was already home to a singular music culture. In the late 1950s, locals had codified a distinct offshoot of rockin' R&B, and a surprising number of them would skyrocket to success, including Little Bill and the Bluenotes, the Wailers, Ron Holden, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Kingsmen, Merrilee Rush, and the Sonics.  With entertaining accounts gleaned from hundreds of interviews, Peter Blecha tells the story of music in the Pacific Northwest from the 1940s to the 1960s, a golden era that shaped generations of musicians to come. The local R&B scene evolved from the area's vibrant jazz scene, and Blecha illuminates the musical continuum between Ray Charles (who cut his first record in Seattle) and Quincy Jones to the rock 'n' rollers who forged the classic jazz-tinged "Northwest Sound." DJs built a teen dance circuit that the authorities didn't like but whose popularity pushed bands to develop crowd-friendly beats. Do-it-yourself enthusiasts launched groundbreaking record companies that scored a surprising number of hit songs.  Highlighting key but overlooked figures and offering a new look at well-known musicians (such as an obscure guitarist then known as Jimmy Hendrix), Blecha shows how an isolated region launched influential new sounds upon an unsuspecting world.

Peter Blecha is a Staff Historian and Contributing Editor with HistoryLink.org; the Director of the Northwest Music Archives; and an award-winning author of ten books. A longtime member of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild, and former longtime Senior Curator at Seattle’s EMP music museum (today’s MoPop), Blecha has been acknowledged over the decades as: “the premier expert in his chosen field of research” (Seattle Weekly, 1988); “Seattle’s best-known collector” (Scram Magazine, 2006); the “Indiana Jones of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (The Rocket, 2000); and a writer who “deserves a place in Northwest music history for his important role in preserving its history and promoting its legacy” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2005).