New! Riding with Strangers: A Hitchhiker's Journey
(Chicago Review Press, 2006)

Having set out in my teens to be a rambling musician in the Woody Guthrie mode, I've mostly written about the music but eventually had to get around to the rambling.... For more info, check out my hitchhiking page.

I have been a writer, mostly on music, for about twenty-five years, with seven books and hundreds of articles (many of which are in my articles archive) in various magazines and for the Boston Globe. I was the Globe’s world and roots music critic for over a decade, and I have also written album liner notes for various discs (which are listed on the album projects page), and some political commentary pieces (which are up on TomPaine.com and Alternet). Forthcoming projects include Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music, due from Routledge in Fall 2006.

My earlier books, in reverse chronological order, are:

 River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi
(St. Martin’s, 1998, with John Junkerman)

This is the book version of a four-part PBS TV series sponsored by the Smithsonian, in which we traveled the length of the Mississippi, visiting musicians who seemed representative of each region, from gospel choirs to blues singers, German polka to riot grrl punk bands to Spanish ballad singers. The book is full of photographs and interview segments, designed to introduce the regions and musical styles, but, above all, the musicians themselves. There a lot more information on River of Song’s website, and you might also want to check out the companion CD on the Music and Albums page. This book is widely available (sometimes as a low-priced cut-out so shop around).

Exploding the Gene Myth

This is an exploration of the complexities, misinformation and dangers of the new genetics technologies. The primary author is my mother, Ruth Hubbard, a biochemist who taught for many years at Harvard University. My job was to make it all easily readable by laypeople like myself. It is meant as a guide to the pitfalls of all the new genetic breakthroughs being ballyhooed in the popular and scientific press, dealing with questions like who really gains from genetic testing and how genuine are the "discoveries" of genes for this or that condition. It has been regularly updated with prefaces and epilogues, and is also available in Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.