I have an interest in the political activism and the music of the 1960s counterculture. When I first learned that the music known as the “San Francisco Sound” was the biggest musical renaissance that had been experienced in American culture since the jazz innovations that took place in Kansas City in the 1920s and 1930s, it was the first ingredient in a cultural / musical based thesis which grew from there. Eventually understanding that the “birthplace of jazz” was enmeshed with New Orleans’ Storyville District; the “cradle of jazz” was linked to Tom Pendergast’s “wide-open” Kansas City; and “acid-rock” came out of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco, I recognized an obvious blueprint. The common theme was that Storyville from 1897 to 1917, “wide-open” Kansas City from 1925 to 1939, and the Haight-Ashbury from 1964 to 1969 were all extremely permissive social enclaves. By either political maneuvering or by social osmosis (or both), these three separate communities, which already had a relaxed presence of authority, attracted the perfect populace of indulgent inhabitants who were independent enough to question authority and open-minded enough to embrace the avant-garde frontiers that were being explored by the musicians of their time. When I was first exposed to the historical event known as the Shays’ Rebellion (a 1786-1787 tax revolt in western Massachusetts), I learned that a significant number of historians believe that it was the impetus for the framers to write the U.S. Constitution for the express purpose of giving the federal government more power to squelch any act of insurrection. Likewise, the Whiskey Rebellion (a 1791-1794 tax revolt in western Pennsylvania) was an uprising that was specifically brought to a close by these newly appointed federal powers. Seeing a common theme of questioning authority in the two tax revolts and in the enclaves that spawned the three musical renaissances, I was inspired to write my first book: Rebellion: A 300 Year Saga of One Family’s Struggle with Authority; The Shays’ Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, New Orleans’ Storyville, Pendergast’s Kansas City, the Haight-Ashbury, and beyond. The fictional Carmady family just like the real-life players in the story, experience triumphs and tragedies in their struggles during these significant historical events. The reader gets to witness the very personal struggles of the Carmady family but is also informed of the important personalities driving these cultural revolutions and the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering by those who were determined to bring them to an end. Read more about this authorRead less about this author