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Steeples is a
unique snapshot of North Adams as it begins the transition from a declining mill town to a center for contemporary art. Through
a blend of oral histories, photographs and poetry, the author portrays this quiet little city in the Berkshires, as its people
remember the good old days and await the opening of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in 27 factory
buildings left vacant in 1986 by the Sprague Electric Company. The story of the city and its immigrant people is told through
the oral histories, which will remain a valuable document as memories fade with time. The photographs show the city as it
was, as it is now, and as it may never be again. The poetry evokes the stillness and nostalgia of a quiet Main Street and
the beauty of the geographical setting in the Berkshire Mountains.
In Gig at the Amtrak, Joe Manning
plays words like a jazz musician plays the saxophone - edgy, earthy, blue-noted, a little behind the beat - like Hank Mobley,
who inspired the title poem. And especially in the poetry born of his journeys in North Adams, Massachusetts, he paints with
the faded colors of Edward Hopper’s urban landscape. Haunting, stark, often very funny, his verses are spiced with scraps
of overheard conversations in cafes, candid comments from locals, and the author’s sympathetic and penetrating observations.
But Manning offers us much more than his poems. Always the unconventional writer, he carefully and cleverly weaves in
curious and sometimes heartbreaking old newspaper articles and stories he discovered while doing historical research.
I Love Baseball is fifteen original
songs written by Joe Manning and Steve Vozzolo, plus an exciting new arrangement of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," with the
original verses written in 1908. All of the original songs have been accepted as part of the permanent collection of baseball
music at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
All The Colors Of The World is a musical tribute to Norman Rockwell, one of America’s greatest
and most beloved painters. He is known for his sympathetic portrayals of family relationships, emotions, hopes, dreams and
expectations. Joe Manning and singer Steve Vozzolo wrote "Norman Always Knew" a few years ago, and it was recorded by Arlo
Guthrie. Since then, Manning and Vozzolo have written close to 20 songs that have been inspired by Rockwell’s paintings.
Those songs now appear together on Steve Vozzolo’s haunting and unique concept album. This beautifully produced
collection, written in a timeless Americana style (pop, rock, folk, country, gospel and swing) is destined to become
a classic.
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