Long Beach author Alan Rifkin, the author of "Signal Hill," will perform (yes, perform) his new book, "Alt.Country," at 7 p.m. at Fingerprints Music, 4612 E. Second St., in Belmont Shore.
Tonight's event will feature "a live novel in concert, featuring songs from and for the text performed live by Jerry and Debbie Burgan of pivotal Grammy-nominated '60s folk-rock ensemble We Five; roots rocker Stanley Wycoff''s band with Rick Shea on steel guitar; and singer-songwriter David Stadalnikas of Uninvited Dinner Guests," according to a news release from Rifkin.
Here's a description of Rifkin's unsual book:
A musical and online novel, 'Alt. Country' traces the legend and love story of Harvey Kooper, a country rocker in a last-chance marriage. Haunted by a lifetime's mistakes, he runs from near-fame, leads spiritual fasts in the San Fernando Valley ("Country Music's Salinger," a bartender calls him), finds Jesus, marries a radio host who spins musical dreams of half-remembered pasts . . . and then recreates all the chaos and tragedy he had tried to break free of. Meanwhile he is shadowed by a faded Rolling Stone reporter who believes that the artist's slide to obscurity is a story for our times.
Rifkin, who teaches English at Cal State Long Beach, is a former contributing editor to Details magazine who has also written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Premiere, L.A. Weekly, Buzz and The Quarterly.
Tim Grobaty recently wrote about Rifkin's novel at http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_11937633
The District Weekly profiled Rifkin at http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/print/features/the-give-it-away-man/
You can read Rifkin's new novel and hear the songs at http://www.alanrifkin.com/
