Reader recommendation: Caffè Lena
Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.
January 17, 2014
Caffè Lena: Inside America's Legendary Folk Music Coffeehouse by Jocelyn Arem is about Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. This is a very new book about the place which helped launch the careers of many famous folkies, e.g. Bob Dylan. I saw Mississippi John Hurt there shortly before he passed. This book and the three-box CD set released last fall by Tompkins Square Label will probably be as important in music history as the John and Alan Lomax books.