Tim Lawrence's Hold On to Your Dreams Starts Strong

It's barely been released from our warehouse, but already people are talking about Tim Lawrence's new book Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992. Lawrence was in New York City last weekend for a conference devoted to Russell, attended by many music journalists as well as academics. And the book is already garnering rave reviews. Writing in The Wire, Ken Hollings calls the book a "sensitive and thorough biography" and adds, "with Hold On to Your Dreams, the outline of an outstanding and prescient artist can now be more clearly made out." (This review is not available online, alas.) In Time Out New York, Michaelangelo Matos calls the book "obsessively researched" and praises Lawrence's "overriding thesis—that Russell's boundary crossing was as important as the work he made." And a new review by John McLeod in Flagpole says, "Lawrence . . . is a wonderful writer, able to ruminate on music in a way that is deeply knowledgeable without ever losing the groove and the beat." We expect more great reviews to come!