This book is a love letter to the many artists, scenes, and sounds that define North Carolina's extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi has spent three decades immersed in the state's music culture, where tradition runs deep but the energy has expanded in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina's Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and everything in between. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and the stage of American Idol, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball.

Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina's sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.