If you’re looking for a book to read this holiday weekend, I highly recommend this one.

What we’ve got here is something conventionally called a thriller, and normally I don’t read that kind of book, but reviews have been great and the action all takes place in the heart of San Francisco tech.

Jakob Kerr gets it right. Probably because he was one of the first employees at Airbnb. He could afford to take years off to write a book. And the funny thing is he’s just gone to work for Anthropic, you know, the AI firm that just settled with authors. But all the hype says he’s a lawyer, a role he hasn’t played in a long time, he’s a master of communications at these enterprises, but knowing the law Kerr could construct an interesting legal wrinkle that gets the book going.

So what we’ve got is a murder. Of a guy who runs an Uber-type company. He’s loosely based on Travis Kalanick. If you’re a student of the game, you can recognize the real people behind the characters.

Like Eleanor… She’s obviously based on Sheryl Sandberg, albeit with a bit more self-knowledge.

As for Hammersmith the VC… Kerr gets Sand Hill Road down right.

What makes the book so fascinating is not the plot, but the characterization of the world-beating techies. You’ve got the one only looking out for himself. The eccentric brilliant coder. The dreamer… They’ve all come together to make billions, and they all believe their sh*t doesn’t stink and they’re above the law.

So they’re pursuing the killer. And Mackenzie is translating for the FBI, she works for the VC, and she too started off in law, but gave up a gig at the big firm to go to the coast and try to make her fortune.

Furthermore, there’s a lot of lessons in this book. If you’re directionless, you might want to read “Dead Money” to learn the score.

“Dead Money” is the best fiction book about the tech culture I’ve ever read. And fiction is more honest than nonfiction, meaning there are some great nonfiction tales about tech, but usually the author is too invested, or at arm’s length, and can’t see what is really going in. “Dead Money” tells you the truth.

Having said that, the last section of the book, which concentrates on the plot, becomes somewhat fantastical, kind of like a movie, with twists and a scene at a popular location I won’t name, however the ending redeems the book.

This is an easy read. It will call out to you after you’ve read just a little bit, you will be hooked.

Wisdom is dropped throughout, I’m going to list some of what is said:

“Hammersmith had always been proof of an old Silicon Valley axiom: The worse a man dressed, the richer he was.”

If you’re rich you don’t have to prove anything. You’re satisfied with who you are. Sure, you want more, but you don’t have to advertise your wealth, you’re above that.

“It doesn’t matter how original your idea is: All that matters is how well you execute it.”

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Who has the perseverance to bring an idea to fruition? Very few.

“He wore expensive un-scuffed leather boots, the type favored by men who consider themselves outdoorsy because they take an annual trip to the Yellowstone Club.”

Kerr nails the players. He makes you laugh. People don’t understand that you can see right through their trappings.

“You work yourself into the right places, get connected to the right people. Eventually you’ll be met with an opportunity… A chance at something truly big.”

You’ve got to be in the game. Even founders can’t exist outside the game, they need the VC’s money. I’ve found this paradigm in music. Those who think they know the most, who drop names, are often completely outside the game.

Once you get a toehold, you’ve got to find a way to advance. Will you choose to do what Mackenzie does? If you want the big money you have to play by different rules.

“Humans have yet to discover a sum of money large enough that they couldn’t find a manner of wasting it.”

My grandmother gave each grandkid 10k upon her death. She would harangue my mother over the details of the giving and how it would be used. And my mother’s response was, THEY CAN SPEND $10,000 IN A DAY!

“Our world is not built on fairness. It’s not built on right and wrong, hard work, smarts. It’s built on one thing and one thing only: ruthlessness. Our system rewards those who sacrifice. Those who are ruthless enough to give things up in pursuit of their goal. Give up their friends, give up their time, give up their ideas about the way they thought their life was supposed to go.”

Wow, I should just send these words to all the people complaining to me that the system is stacked against them, that with a level playing field they’d succeed. IT’S NOT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD! And Kerr doesn’t embrace the trope that nepo babies will get their comeuppance, oftentimes that’s not true. “Ruthlessness” has a bad connotation. Unfortunately, to succeed in business that’s usually the way you have to be. Unless you’re a worker bee. And sacrifice? That’s another thing the wannabes have no idea of. They complain they can’t make the car payment and mortgage and can’t put shoes on their kids with their Spotify revenue. Who told you to buy a house, have kids, even have a car? You think this is unfathomable, but these are the kinds of sacrifices winners make.

“He texted like a Boomer—sporadically, with unnecessary punctuation”

Boomers HATE hearing this, they consider themselves digitally-savvy and no one can tell them otherwise, even though in most cases this is untrue.

“Tennessee Quick Cash” stood out in the Pulse of Americana playlist on Spotify. That’s what you’re looking for, something that jumps out and grabs you, and this did, so I decided to dive deeper. And I found that Crockett had a new album, “Dollar a Day,” that came out on August 8th, and his previous record, “Lonesome Drifter,” had just come out in March.

“Tennessee Quick Cash” was on the new album, so I decided to fire it up and have been playing it ever since.

Kinda reminds me of Ry Cooder. Not the sound really, but Cooder started to get traction with his second solo LP, 1972’s “Into the Purple Valley,” which focused on songs from the past that became contemporary when remade by Cooder. “FDR in Trinidad”? Most listeners were completely unaware of Roosevelt’s 1936 trip, but that didn’t inhibit enjoyment of the music.

I purchased “Into the Purple Valley” unheard, and believe me, it didn’t sound like anything I’d heard before, but it penetrated me, I got into it and played it incessantly, I can sing every word on the album. Even though the radio played none. But I went to see Ry in Jackson Hole in the fall of ’74, and bought every album for a long while.  But “Into the Purple Valley” was always my favorite, and I believe it’s the best, but the slickly produced debut and “Paradise and Lunch” are close. Ultimately Ry got some mainstream press, with the supposed first digital album, “Bop Till You Drop,” and entered the public consciousness with his movie soundtracks. But when Ry was making albums in the seventies, he was in his own lane, his own genre, he wasn’t in the traditional music business, but I was a big fan and I wasn’t the only one.

Now Charley Crockett’s music is not as out of date as Cooder’s, not as idiosyncratic, but this is not the kind of stuff you find in the Spotify Top 50, not even in the country chart, but it resonates more than all that stuff because there’s an authenticity, an honesty not found elsewhere. Along with changes and…

At first you might be caught off guard by Crockett’s voice. It’s not traditionally radio friendly. More akin to a Texas troubadour, someone from the sixties and seventies. But the more you listen…

Which is what I did.

The opener, the title cut, “Dollar a Day,” is a cover, but it’s intimate, an introduction, just Crockett, a guitar and vocal. It’s a prelude. Instead of hitting you over the head, it’s an invitation, you get the sense something serious is going on here. And there’s a delicious change in the middle and the song is not even two minutes long and the album segues into “Crucified Son,” which sounds like the Dust Bowl. With background vocals akin to “O Brother.”

“Caught a plane out of Austin

This morning in the drizzling rain

Bluebonnets line the highwayside

Let me know it’s spring”

You can visualize it. This is not the platitudes of wannabe hit music.

And then:

“They wanna put me in a TV show

I don’t know if it’s right”

There’s self-knowledge involved, we’re living in the present, the music is not a complete throwback. And when was the last time an act wondered if a TV appearance was right for them? Crockett ultimately does it, but he thought about it.

But the best song is track four, “Ain’t That Right,” which has a honky tonk feel. As well as a bunch of changes, which is a revelation after hit music based on one chord.

And this ain’t modern Nashville music, with babies and trucks and church. And it’s neither left nor right. More the story of an adventurer. Which reflects Crockett’s nomadic life. Which is not brief like the barely pubescent wannabe chart toppers. Charley is forty one. Didn’t they used to say this was too old?

Not anymore, there are no rules.

Furthermore, Crockett’s made fifteen albums. I don’t know what kept him going, a lot of self belief. But also some positive indicators. If things aren’t improving and you continue to make albums you’re probably more of a hobbyist, but to have a career you’ve got to cause a reaction, such that people want to pull your music in the future, and tell people they know about it, and want to see you.

And I was immediately thinking of seeing Crockett listening to his music. This is the kind of sound you can get into, not the overamplified wash of noise that is too often experienced at the venue. This music is more intimate, without being precious. It’s about the vocal and the lyrics, you get to know Crockett’s persona, they all come together to paint a 3-D picture. This is the kind of music you don’t have to know to enjoy the live show, and that’s very rare, and if you do know the songs you sing along with a smile on your face.

As for “Tennessee Quick Cash,” you’re hooked from the lyrical picking of the intro, which slowly becomes louder and louder.

“Well I’m hard to understand

And I can’t work for the man”

THERE’S the essence of being a musician, it’s the only thing you can do, not because you don’t want to work for the man, but because you CAN’T! You don’t fit in, you can’t subjugate your personality, play by insane rules, kiss ass to move up the ladder, no, you can only be yourself, expressing yourself.

“I earn my livin’

Playin’ one night shows

On a long and windin’ road

I don’t care about where it goes”

This is not the star business, this is the music business, earning enough to make it all work, not worried if everybody knows your name. And the funny thing is the more you adopt this persona, the more people are drawn to you. You’re not living your life in public on TMZ, you’re not ripping us off with multiple versions of the same damn album to move up the chart, it’s solely about the music. And if the music is good enough… And this Charley Crockett album is…good, that is.

“Well the memory it stays with me

I went on before the committee

They put me up so late

The doggone joint was closed

But before they cut out the light

On number eighty two that night

A woman lockin’ the door

Gave me some good advice”

Once again, there’s self-knowledge, and you can relate. Open mic night in Nashville, a rite of passage if you want to make it, but it’s disheartening, you play late to a tired, jaded audience, what are you going to?

GET A PAYDAY LOAN!

“If you need some money fast

Hit the Tennessee Quick Cash”

Not that Charley doesn’t know the downside:

“Now I know what you’re about to say

About their predatory ways

But brother at least they let you know it right up front

‘Cause if you take that ride downtown

Where them rounders hang around

You’ll find anything in the world but a fair deal”

If you’re broke and desperate, you’ve got no choice.

For more go to: 

https://tnquickcash.com

It’s a real place, if it’s a real story I don’t know, but I do know the business wouldn’t exist if it didn’t have customers. It’s not only hard to get ahead, it can be very hard to keep your head above water.

But irrelevant of the lyrics, the music has you nodding your head, tapping your toe, and there’s that rollicking piano and everybody’s having a good time, even if they don’t have any money.

Now when you make records like this…your goal is to capture lightning in a bottle, it’s not about having a hit, you just want your music to have that something extra that catches the ear of people. It’s not do or die. It’s not the label needing something commercial. It’s digging deep and driving on instinct. Trying to convey emotions, so people can relate. People can admire hit music, but usually it’s hard to relate to. Whereas this sounds like real people playing real music, sans artifice, just like you.

Do I expect Charley Crockett to suddenly become a critics’ darling, with features in every publication to man? No. Hell, “Dollar a Day” isn’t even fleshed out on his Wikipedia page, for that you need an army of rabid fans. Then again, Wikipedia will give you the outlines, but you can’t hear it. And today you can hear everything, even for free. But so much is dreck you find yourself not wanting to listen to anything new. But then you find something and it’s like an oasis in the desert.

That’s how I feel about Charley Crockett’s “Dollar a Day.” 

She’s got a new album, “Hard Headed Woman.”

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/margo-price/id1316200737?i=1000723863463

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/11644543-e6f4-4d0b-a19c-aff3914a6f05/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-margo-price

The Oasis Reunion is one of brotherly love. My son, Joey Waronker, is now drumming for the Gallagher Brothers. He began when Liam invited him to join he and Jon Squire to record an album two years ago and tour the UK. In January 2025, Noel requested a visit from Joey in London to meet. In mid-May Joey returned to London to begin rehearsal for this monumental event of brothers reuniting and coming together through music to heal the past. My husband Jered and I attended the concert in Toronto on 8/25 to witness and share in the ecstasy of the crowd’s celebration they have been waiting for. As an artist from the Sixties experiencing Beatlemania, I find this experience as a parallel.

Donna Loren

________________________________________

You are spot on. When the shows were first announced, I was caught in the initial hype and so close to dropping serious $$ for tickets/travel to NYC.

Then I started thinking, beyond the “Morning Glory” album, what have they really accomplished?  Not much as you noted. This band has such an aura because of the brotherly drama which I think leads to the hype. You didn’t mention Eagles “Hell Freezes Over” but this is such a money grab. God bless them if people are willing to pay it.  It just won’t be me.

Frankly, the more successful band is the opening act Cage The Elephant. And that is who I’d rather see. So, I’ll pass on the Oasis hype and catch Cage this fall as they do their own tour. I can pay a fraction of the cost to see them in a more intimate venue playing 2 hours of material, which isn’t enough time to cover the strength of their repertoire.

Thanks for your work.

Kevin Smith

________________________________________

It may be an age thing – I have noticed that a lot of the super-fan letters have come from folks right around my age (49). Oasis was a revelation to many of us when, during our freshman year in college, they ushered in a period of post-grunge, melodic brit-rock with attitude. My friend and Penn classmate played for me a bootleg of them covering “I am the Walrus” and I was floored.

I went on to see them twice during Spring Break (March ’95) – first at the Stone Pony and then I went into the city to try and find tickets to see them at the Academy. When I was almost out of time and luck, I saw Matt Pinfield outside and let him know I saw him introduce the band at the Pony a few days earlier. He asked if I was going to the show and I said that my friend and I couldn’t find tickets. He handed me a ticket, saying “here is one, I’ll be right back.” Two minutes later, he handed me the second ticket and this 18-year old kid was sold forever on the power of rock and roll.

My buddy Barry and I ended up backstage with Bonehead and snuck into the after-party (Liam actually announced onstage that they will be partying at Rebar on 16th and 8th after the show), even though we didn’t have fake IDs. Barry and I had a good chat outside the coat room with Liam about Dennis Rodman’s purple hair – he was really into the NBA at the time.

Fast forward to early sophomore year when, using dial-up internet, we were able to access a 30-second clip of Wonderwall before it came out. It is hard to describe in words the impact of that moment. We grew up listening to our baby boomer parents talk about that night on Ed Sullivan and spent our lives to that point waiting for our version of that event – this tugged those strings. It was such a blast following the band around during the fall of 1995 as the country was gradually waking up to the incredible songs coming off the pen of Noel Gallagher. We hung by their tour bus outside Hammerjack’s and accidentally tried to sell an extra ticket to Sheryl Crow outside the Roseland Ballroom.

Jonathan Zucker

Santa Monica, CA

________________________________________

I’m an Oasis fanatic, so I admit bias at the start of this email. I traveled from the USA to the show July 16 in Manchester, England, and here are two aspects about the resonance of this reunion tour I think you missed.

One, Oasis reached its peak right before the true dawn of the digital age. It was one of the last globally big bands at its creative and popular zenith right before digital technology began to infiltrate our lives. So, while everyone has their phones up at these shows, the music and communal joy at these shows revive memories of a simpler time without social media and other apps. You lived more in the moment than in front of a screen, and I got that vibe at the Manchester show more than any I’ve attended in the last 25 years.

The evidence of people desiring that return to a simpler time was overwhelming in Manchester. Everyone sang every word at the top of their lungs for two hours. Grown men were weeping — those reports are not exaggerations; I SAW it right in front of me.

Plus, I’m 60 and have been to a ton of shows, and the communal experience at the Oasis show was incredible. Unlike anything I’ve experienced. People hugging. Proper strangers turning around and embracing me and calling me a “f*cking legend, mate,” all because I came to the show from America. Everyone enjoying each other in complete communal joy. No assholes.

But the biggest reason this tour resonates is that unlike most 401K tours by aging bands, Oasis sounds AMAZING. Liam must be off cocaine and cigarettes because his voice has turned back its biological clock to the late 1990s. The band’s sound is monstrous with secret weapon and original member Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs back in the lineup in a three-guitar attack for the first time. Noel is back on lead guitar for the first time since Oasis broke up in 2009, and while never being mistaken for Stevie Ray Vaughan or Eric Johnson, the man is unleashed.

I expected to see a band rediscovering itself in its 50s, not a band that was as tight and even more powerful than its mid-90s peak when the band members were in their 20s and 30s.

Nostalgia is great, but it doesn’t mean sh*t if the band sounds lousy. And Oasis sounded BIBLICAL July 16 in Manchester.

Love the newsletter.

Thanks,

Paul Kelly
Marcellus, New York

________________________________________

Hi Bob! Being from a small town and being brought up in a less-than-ideal home situation, the Oasis rags-to-riches story resonated with me as much as the music did. I bought every record, single, poster, magazine and even dressed like them. I was loyal and followed them all the way through their last LP Dig Out Your Soul. One of my stories about seeing the band on that tour is featured in a new book by Melissa Locker (And After All: A Fan History of Oasis) so I guess you could call me a pretty big Oasis fan. However, I didn’t bother to purchase tickets for this tour and haven’t even taken up a few offers to go for free. As Liam sings in “Hello”…”it’s never gonna be the same”. Plus, I’m sober these days so the pre-gig pub ritual certainly wouldn’t be as wild!

-Greg Glover

KNRK-FM Portland

________________________________________

“Now I can completely understand why Oasis sold out stadiums in the U.K. It’s not only the music, but the cultural element. Northern lower middle class boys giving the finger to London and those who think they’re better. There were hits, a whole movement. But in America?”

Which is so ironic Bob as that’s the lifestyle they pursued and achieved. Locations in London don’t get much more desirable than Maida Vale or Primrose Hill.

Liam is a lovely bloke though and I didn’t “get them” until I saw the noise they made on stage which was quite hypnotic. The Albums weren’t exactly my idea of great but the self belief was and I do admire the honesty interviews especially in this current climate. They inspired arrogance in place of talent in the Punk tradition.

The far more middle class Blur did the post grunge “Woo Hoo” song but they didn’t like slogging the States at that level like many of us Brit artists doing well. Europe is so individually cultured, closer and easier compared to the Mid-West, not to mention the financial returns are so much better.

Paul Godfrey – Morcheeba

________________________________________

I caught the first show in Cardiff not knowing what to expect and it was one of the greatest concerts I’ve seen anywhere, the fans, the energy the pre show hype, it was worth the travel from London. Catch a show if you can, you might be pleasantly surprised.

DANNY ROBSON

________________________________________

Plant singing his brother’s  once-in-a-lifetime songs. A band that generates a lyricism through a mix of loud, bleeding, and distorted guitars. However, Oasis, like the Beatles, will only appeal to those who were once young – those who were born old will simply never understand.

It ain’t over yet, my brother.

With from Toronto,

Nigel Russell

________________________________________

I was a 1990s teenager and, while there was nothing like the hysteria for Oasis that I now know was happening in the UK, my recollection is that Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova were constants on MTV and the radio, back when both counted for a lot.  They were big enough to play arenas when they toured (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? in America.  In August 1996, right before the start of my senior year of high school, I saw them in Philly (side note: the arena there was then named the First Union Center. A Philly venue being called the FU Center was perfect).  What a disappointment, one of the worst live acts I’ve ever seen.  They obliterated all the dynamics the songs had on record and didn’t bring any string or keyboard players with them so it was all the same loud mush.  I love when a band is more aggressive live than on record (cf Radiohead) but that wasn’t what was going on that night, they just didn’t give a sh*t.

I heard a story once that when Oasis were playing some club at the beginning of their career, a record excec ran up to the stage in the middle of their cover of I Am The Walrus to sign them.  Probably not true, but if it is, that guy’s ears were busted.  The played it in Philly and it sucked.  The only musical enjoyment I got out of the night was Noel’s three song solo acoustic set.

Some of the old hits still sound OK to me, but I had zero motivation to try for a ticket on the reunion tour.  A lot of people writing in seem to’ve had a great time and good for them, but I’m not taking a chance after seeing them in their prime and knowing, even as a teenager, that the performance was lousy.

Jeremy Berg

________________________________________

Americans don’t understand Oasis, simple as that

Sàndor Von Mallasz