7pm March 19, 2010, Resistencia Bookstore, casa de Red Salmon Arts, 1801-A South First St., Austin, Tejas 512-416-8885

Red Salmons Arts presents Bitter Tears: a performance reading & book signing with Antonino D’Ambrosio, author of A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears.

Music by Martin Perna (Antibalas & Ocote Soul Sounds) and other special guests.

Writer, filmmaker, photographer and musician Antonino D’Ambrosio first chronicled the intersection of popular music & social movements with his book Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Politics of Joe Strummer. His new book A Heartbeat and a Guitar tells of the collaboration of iconoclast Johnny Cash and little known folk artist Peter LaFarge, the album they created, Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, and the personal, political & cultural struggles that informed the album. The book is not a musical biography but rather a dynamic snapshot of an unknown cultural history as Cash did this record 4 years before the American Indian Movement was formed, 4 years before he performed at Folsom, and 6 years before he recorded Man in Black. D’Ambrosio will tell the story of Bitter Tears this evening with words & music, along with fellow musicians Martin Perna (Antibalas & Ocotte Soul Sounds) and other special guests.

OUTSTANDING PRAISE FOR A HEARTBEAT AND A GUITAR: Chosen as one of the best of the year by The Progressive, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe

“This book is a truly fascinating journey, charting the historical and social context of a courageous musical statement by one of our greatest rebel voices. Long since locked away in the “denial drawer” (aren’t First Nations people just an extinct species, systematically exterminated by European “progress”?), D’Ambrosio admirably shines his investigative lantern into every darkened corner, finally offering some greatly appreciated illumination.” –Jim Jarmusch

“Antonino D’Ambrosio is the voice of a new generation—passionate, intelligent, and fierce—whose work educates and inspires. He now brings his unique voice to tell a unique story of Johnny Cash’s recording of the protest record Bitter Tears. It’s the album no one knows about but is perhaps Cash’s greatest record—and Antonino proves it.” –Chuck D of Public Enemy

“Antonino D’Ambrosio’s book on the making of Johnny Cash’s album “Bitter Tears” is much more than the story behind those extraordinary songs. It is a rich history, not only of Johnny Cash’s life, but of the Indian struggle for justice, which inspired Peter La Farge to write the song “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” and Cash to sing it. The book is full of fascinating character sketches of the great folk singers of the Sixties, and their part in the social movements of that exiting era. I believe D’Ambrosio has made an important contribution to the cultural history of our time.” –Howard Zinn