Pop Matters Review

Under the heading Art Imitates Death, a great big beast of a review for I Shot a Man in Reno has appeared over at PopMatters (it's worth clicking the link just to see Johnny Cash's ravenously cool 1965 mug-shot). Andrew Gilstrap gives one of the best overviews I've so far read of the book's aims and themes - and he really likes the book, too, which obviously helps. He concludes with the following:

"Those moments where Thomson steps into the narrative work really well
throughout Shot a Man in Reno, reminding the reader that despite the
dark subject, music is cathartic, fun, and liberating, and that our close ties
to it drive us to mix it up a little when something bugs us. For all the
research and interviews that went into the book, Thomson isn’t trying to write a
dry scholarly tome, so he has plenty of chances to include himself in the
discussion. And the book, already fascinating and fun to begin with, is better
for it..... The only real problem with the book? It’s a shame it couldn’t come
with a CD."