Dennis McNally discusses and signs "On Highway 61"

Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes author Dennis McNally to the store to discuss and sign his new book, On Highway 61, on Tuesday, October 7th at 7pm.

On Highway 61 searches for the deeper roots of American cultural and musical evolution for the past 150 years by studying what Western European culture learned from African American culture in a historical progression that reaches from the minstrel era to Bob Dylan.

On Highway 61 starts with America’s first great social critic, Henry David Thoreau, and his fundamental source of social philosophy: his profound commitment to freedom, to abolitionism, and to African-American culture. As the first post-Civil War generation of black Americans came of age, they introduced into the national culture a trio of musical forms that would dominate popular music to this day: ragtime, blues, and jazz