"A carefully curated, cheerfully opinionated guidebook surveying 201 of the most significant selections from the Great American Songbook, ranging from celebrated masterpieces to forgotten gems"--

Whether documenting the sinking of the Titanic or a long-forgotten local murder, these 70 recordings are audio messages in a bottle, reflecting a lost world where age-old ballads rubbed up against songs inspired by the day's headlines. "In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Depression gripped the nation. It was a time when songs were tools for living. A whole community would turn out to mourn the loss of a member and to sow their songs like seeds....

What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened.