Brian  D’Ambrosio 

Brian D’Ambrosio is a prolific author of non-fiction books, as well as magazine and newspaper articles. His favorite topics and subjects of choice include music, art, history, Italian Americana, and travel. In his newest book, "Troubadour Truths: Truth, Songs, and the Long Way Home," D’Ambrosio gathers more than forty intimate portraits of musicians whose lives and songs illuminate the enduring spirit of the American troubadour. Drawn from interviews and encounters spanning more than a decade, the book explores how artists across folk, Americana, blues, and roots music transform personal experience into song—and how music becomes both refuge and revelation along life’s uncertain road. The collection brings together an eclectic cast of voices: legendary songwriters such as Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and John Hiatt; contemporary torchbearers including Brandi Carlile, Sarah Jarosz, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Josh Ritter; and fiercely independent artists like Slaid Cleaves, Amy Speace, Anna Tivel, and Jessica Lea Mayfield. Along the way, readers also meet musicians who exist beyond easy labels—actor and songwriter Jeff Daniels, blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland, Southern rock icons The Marshall Tucker Band, and the psychedelic revivalists of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.