Rockin Garages

DIV "Ken Gross is one of the premiere auto writers in the United States. This is a terrific book... a great Father's Day gift and a great read." - Jay Leno Cars and rock ‘n roll have always gone hand in hand. Whether it’s a garage band piling into some decrepit rig to get to the next gig or a killer guitar riff blasting from a Mustang, rock ‘n roll keeps us moving when we’re behind the wheel. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the music world’s big names are also serious car guys. Jimmie Vaughn, Billy Joel, Brian Johnson (AC/DC), J Geils, Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), and others each spend as much time behind the wheel as they can. Hot rods, customs, muscle cars, motorcycles, race cars, and sports cars—the variety of vehicles is as eclectic as rock ‘n roll itself. Rockin’ Garages showcases top performers, their cars, and their garages. Authors Tom Cotter and Ken Gross profile each musician, revealing the story behind their moto-lust and what drives their car collecting. Each profile is complemented by Michael Alan Ross’ top-notch photography. Rockin’ Garages puts you behind the wheel with some of your favorite musicians. /div

Join “The Barn Find Hunter” Tom Cotter for a thrilling, illustrated behind-the-scenes look at how he deploys his well-honed auto-archaeology skills to ferret out amazing collector car stashes. Since 2016, author Tom Cotter has been The Barn Find Hunter for an ongoing series sponsored by Hagerty Classic Insurance and found on their popular YouTube channel. Since that time, Cotter and crew have filmed more than 100 episodes throughout the US and even visited the UK. Some of Cotter’s most popular episodes have views in excess of 5 million! Cotter has uncovered everything from pre-WWII classics to postwar exotics like Porsche, Jaguar, and Ferrari. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool car guy, and the collectors he finds can’t resist sharing their treasure and revealing the stories behind their stashed cars. In Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter, Cotter gives you an entertaining and informative look at how he works his barn-find magic, offering tips, hard-won perspectives, and why the thrill of discovery never dies in his pursuit of the next “lost” car. The book is illustrated throughout with images from his most epic finds. Attend any auction or any car show and it’s immediately clear that collectors cannot get enough of barn-find and survivor vehicles and the stories behind them. In Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter, Cotter takes you along for what has been the ride of his lifetime.

Ride along with author Tom Cotter and photographer Michael Alan Ross as they pilot their Ford Bronco/Airstream Basecamp combination 8,881 miles along the lower 48’s back roads and byways. Tom Cotter has spent decades ferreting out lost “barn find” collector cars. The process has made him an ardent road tripper, logging thousands of miles every year on America’s back roads. Previous journeys have traced Route 66 in his 1939 Ford Woody wagon and followed the Lincoln highway coast to coast behind the wheel of a 1926 Model T. Cotter’s journeys led him to wonder: What could be the most epic American road trip? The answer: Key West, Florida, to Deadhorse, Alaska, its thousands of miles recounted in America’s Greatest Road Trip. Cotter and Ross drove across the country, through British Columbia and the Yukon, and finally through Alaska to the literal end of the road. Ross documented their road time in thousands of photographs. Along the way, the pair met fellow road trippers, adventurers, small-town Americans, world travelers, and rolled through an ever-changing geography from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi Delta to the Great Plains and Mountain states through the Northwest Passage and finally several hundred miles of Alaska’s challenging ALCAN Highway. Cotter’s observations of Two-Lane America are complemented by Ross’s beautiful photography capturing both the sweep and the detail of life off the beaten path. Join them on their once-in-a-lifetime journey—you’ll be glad you came along for the ride.

A photo-filled account of traveling the Lincoln Highway in a century-old automobile, and contemplating a future of self-driving cars: "[An] epic road trip." —USA Today Driverless cars are on the horizon, but before the world falls asleep at the wheel, let's look back down the road from whence we have come. Ford Model T Coast to Coast documents the cross-country adventure of two brave drivers as they pilot a hundred-year-old Model T on a 3,000-mile journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Coast. This book is as much a contemplation of early-twentieth-century American life as it is a fond farewell to the automotive age. Can the car still be the vehicle of freedom and discovery when we're no longer in command? Or will we finally be able to fully appreciate the scenery rushing past? Accompanied by Michael Alan Ross' evocative photography, Tom Cotter stops in small towns, meets local people, and hears their stories about cars, travel, and life. The two also explore back roads adjacent to his main route, the Lincoln Highway—the first transcontinental road. Significant cross-country runs, such as those by speed-record setter Cannonball Baker and literary adventurers Jack Kerourac, John Steinbeck, and Bill Bryson, are considered in light of the driverless future. Cotter also drives some of the same roads that a young Edsel Ford traveled in his father's Model T upon high school graduation in 1917. In addition to the central road trip, Cotter visits interesting automotive and transport museums as well as "keepers of the flame" such as Model T clubs, mechanics, junkyards, and collectors across the country. He also records the numerous trials and tribulations in keeping a very old car operating on a very long journey—something the driverless car of the future is unlikely to encounter.

Follow 3 guys as they embark on a real-world collector car hunting road trip. You'll love the stories of their adventure & the gorgeous photos of their finds.

The music world exploded into Technicolor on February 9, 1964, when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and ignited the music phenomenon dubbed “The British Invasion”. In the weeks and months to come, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Ottawa teenagers put away their hockey sticks and picked up guitars, starting up bands in basements and garages, with visions of screaming girls and stardom dancing in their heads. For some, that dream came true, in packed High School Gymnasiums, Church basements, bowling alleys and every other venue they could find. Groups were working three or four nights a week on both sides of the Ottawa River. The Esquires, The Staccatos, The Townsmen, Don Norman and the Other Four and many others cut records that were as good as anything coming out of Britain or the States. DJ's Gord Atkinson, Nelson Davis and Al "Pussycat" Pascal make them stars by playing their records. Sandy Gardiner followed their exploits in his weekly "teen" column in the Ottawa Journal, and we checked out the weekly "Swing Set" to get the lowdown on the newest groups. From the day Elvis Presley came to town in 1957, to the release of The Five Man Electrical Band’s mega-hit “Signs”, we relive those memories with the bands, the clubs, the concerts and the colorful cast of characters who made it happen. Pull back the curtain on the magic of "Ottawa’s Golden Age of Rock and Roll”,

Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present tells of a musical phenomenon whose continuing influence on global popular culture is immeasurable. The story begins in 1950s America, when classic rock ’n’ roll was reaching middle age, and teenaged musicians kept its primal rawness going with rough-hewn instrumentals, practicing guitar riffs in their parents’ garages. In the mid-1960s came the Beatles and the British Invasion, and soon every neighborhood had its own garage band. Groups like the Sonics and 13th Floor Elevators burnt brightly but briefly, only to be rediscovered by a new generation of connoisseurs in the 1970s. Numerous compilation albums followed, spearheaded by Lenny Kaye’s iconic Nuggets, which resulted in garage rock’s rebirth during the 1980s and ’90s. Be it the White Stripes or the Black Keys, bands have consistently found inspiration in the simplicity and energy of garage rock. It is a revitalizing force, looking back to the past to forge the future of rock ’n’ roll. And this, for the first time, is its story.

This book traces the musical phenomenon that is rock and roll through its most impactful years from 1945 to 1964. But it doesn't just look at what and who made the music, it looks at the bigger picture of the post-war world - the political and cultural changes that were happening and the mood of the times.