Working for the Man, Playing in the Band: My Years with James Brown

Wood gives readers an insightful, close-up view of what it was like to be a part of James Brown’s globetrotting band. After an initial 1998 meeting with Mr. Brown, as he was always called, replete in “the gloves, the glasses and the grease,” Wood was a regular guitarist with the Soul Generals almost until the legendary singer’s 2006 death, But it was never a sure thing, as “holding down your spot in James Brown’s band was a tightrope walk without a net” due to the boss’s mood swings and flamboyantly confrontational style. As Wood recounts, Brown once “walked up to each person in the band, got in their face and demanded ‘Do you like your job? Do you want your job?.’ ” A white musician playing behind one of the funkiest men in music history, Wood says he was with the band for years “before I really began to understand how funk breathes.” Wood and Carson smoothly explain the intricacies of being a guitarist, detailing but never dwelling on minutiae such as Brown’s hand signals or tuning on the fly. Readers will come away with a deep respect for the skill and resilience needed to be a professional touring musician, especially one traveling and playing with a mercurial star. (May)