Some books arrive with a quiet confidence. Others arrive at exactly the moment when the world seems ready to listen.
Stalebread and the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band is one of those moments.
This book represents years of deep, careful research by Michael Shurtz into a story that sits just outside the usual spotlight of jazz history. Not because it isn’t important—but because it has been hiding in plain sight. Street corners. Homemade instruments. Newsboys. Music made from whatever was at hand, long before anyone agreed on what to call it.
We’re proud of this book not because it stands apart from the rest of our list, but because it embodies what we value most as publishers: curiosity, rigor, heart, and a willingness to follow the story where it actually leads.
Which makes this week especially meaningful.
On Thursday, January 15, 2026, Michael Shurtz will be the keynote speaker on opening night of the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival, held at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. His talk will be livestreamed by the museum at
5pm PT / 8pm ET on the New Orleans Jazz Museum YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/NOLAJazzMuseum
There’s something quietly perfect about that setting. A book about music born from ingenuity and necessity being celebrated in a space dedicated to the living roots of that tradition. No grand revisionism. No inflated claims. Just a story finally being told in full.
If you care about where music comes from, how culture actually forms, or how creativity survives when resources are scarce, this is a story worth spending time with.
We’re honored to have helped bring it into the world.