US author, Jimmy McDonough, has written biographies of figures that range from cult film director Russ Meyer to country star Tammy Wynette and Canadian singer-songwriter, Neil Young. Now, though, he’s turned his attention to the Arkansas-born singer who’s seen as one of the key figures in the rise of Hi Records and Memphis soul – AL GREEN.
The book is called Soul Survivor and over the course of 432 pages, McDonough puts Green’s life and music under the microscope as never before, which results in a compelling page-turner that offers new perspectives of the singer who started out in gospel music and then successfully crossed over to the secular field before returning to his church music roots. For those frustrated by the largely superficial, air-brushed self-portrait that was Green’s own memoir, 2009’s Take Me To The River: An Autobiography, Soul Survivor digs much deeper and thus offers considerably more insight into the man from Forrest City.
Soul Survivor: A Biography Of Al Green is out now via Da Capo Press
