Keep on Believin’

The Life and Music of Richie Furay

Thomas M. Kitts

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$34.95 | Hardcover Edition
ISBN: 978-0-271-09523-3

Available as an e-book

288 pages
6" × 9"
15 b&w illustrations
2023

American Music History

Keep on Believin’

Name: Keep on Believin’: The Life and Music of Richie Furay
Price: 34.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: By Thomas M. Kitts
ISBN: 9780271095233

The Life and Music of Richie Furay

Thomas M. Kitts

“Presented here is the first book to examine critically the full range of Richie Furay's songcraft. Using Furay's life story and his successive recordings to outline the chapters of the book, Thomas Kitts engages pertinent contemporary evaluations of Furay's artistry and also reflects critically upon those assessments in light of subsequent developments in ongoing rock and roll culture.”—Theodore Louis Trost, co-editor of Love Across the Atlantic: US-UK Romance in Popular Culture

One of America’s great rock and roll pioneers, Richie Furay played alongside Neil Young and Stephen Stills in Buffalo Springfield, producing some of the signature sounds of American folk rock. He went on to form Poco, one of the bands that founded California country rock, and then Souther-Hillman-Furay.

After declaring himself a Christian in 1974, Furay released four solo albums before taking up the ministry in 1983. He began recording again in 1997, and over the next twenty-five years he released two Christian and five secular albums.

In this biography of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Richie Furay, Thomas Kitts provides an intimate look at Furay’s life and music. Kitts chronicles the musician’s upbringing, his musical career, and his Christianity, drawing on interviews with Furay and others close to him. In documenting Furay’s extraordinary talent as a songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist, Kitts argues that although he never attained the level of stardom of many of his bandmates, Furay is a pivotal figure in American popular music.

Fans of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and country-rock music will enjoy this quintessentially American story of a young man on a quest to fulfill his rock-and-roll dreams.

“Presented here is the first book to examine critically the full range of Richie Furay's songcraft. Using Furay's life story and his successive recordings to outline the chapters of the book, Thomas Kitts engages pertinent contemporary evaluations of Furay's artistry and also reflects critically upon those assessments in light of subsequent developments in ongoing rock and roll culture.”—Theodore Louis Trost, co-editor of Love Across the Atlantic: US-UK Romance in Popular Culture

“Keep On Believin’ sheds light on Furay’s role(s) in the world of music of the ’60s and ’70s and provides an interesting insight into how Furay’s Christian conversion is part of that story. This book is a mix of journalism and scholarship—which is the best kind of writing for pop culture.”—Don Cusic, Belmont University

Thomas M. Kitts is Professor of English at St. John’s University. He is the author or editor of numerous books on popular music, including Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else, Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, and John Fogerty: An American Son. He also coedits the journals Rock Music Studies and Popular Music and Society.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 “We Were the Dreamers”: Richie Furay and Yellow Springs

2 “Consequently, So Long”: Otterbein College and Greenwich Village

3 “What a Day”: Laurel Canyon and Buffalo Springfield

4 “Merry-Go-Round”: Confusion in the Springfield

5 “Anyway Bye Bye”: The End of Buffalo Springfield

6 “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”: Poco

7 “C’mon”: Hope and Frustration

8 “What Am I Gonna Do”: Decisions

9 “On the Line”: SHF, Marital Problems, Conversion