Did you ever yearn for life as a musician? Ecstatic fans, groupies falling all over themselves, roadies jumping and a fetching to serve your genius and record companies lining up to sign you to the deal of a life time?
Then read Power Ballads, because that isn’t how it goes. Will Boast, winner of the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award — bestowed on a first time author for short fiction by the Iowa Writers Workshop — has written a collection of stories that are powerful and moving and that explore the real life of a musician. From the moment you are bitten by the muse, to that moment you first play in public. From your first paying gig, to the ego of the other players that will complement your life.
The stories also explore the complications a musician's life takes on with relationships, romance, his own ego, and priorities. The necessity of ‘selling out’ to pay the rent. It’s all here, from the hotel barroom gigs to the stadiums, the sound studios of legendary status to sleeping in your practice space. And underneath it all, like the steady thrum of a bass, is the muse, the ‘high,’ the addiction of your need to play music.
The stories read with a rhythm worthy of a great piece of music. The pace, collectively and individually, is that of a symphony. Thought-provoking, emotionally moving, bringing tears of loss and joyful laughs the next moment. The stories and the plot – all fiction must have a plot – seem to write themselves. They don’t seem contrived or made up, but pulled from the lives of real road-worn musicians. And the characters, ah the characters. I know these guys. I have shaken my head at some of them and punched out others. I have high-fived them on dive-bar stages, and bought them drinks at the Ramada Inn at 2 a.m. I’ve sabotaged their gear and sat in awe of what they could do with a piece of wood or brass.
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