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April 28, 2026 - ZE Books has launched a new paperback series devoted to music: books by writers, critics, musicians, and record impresarios who have spent their lives listening closely. Out today, is Brian Cullman’s How to Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music and Time and Joe McEwen’s Tastykakes, Soul Songs & Shining Stars: Affections and Reflections 1973–2025.
About Brian Cullman’s How to Prepare for the Past:
An acclaimed musician, journalist and quintessential (tenth-generation) New Yorker, Brian Cullman captures an era when music was pervasive and insistently urgent, tracing his life through friendships and first-hand encounters with luminaries like Nick Drake, Lester Bangs, Miles Davis, Tim Hardin, Van Morrison, Chuck Berry, George Martin, Bo Diddley, Big Joe Turner and more.
These include his years as Crawdaddy's London correspondent with Nick Drake, John Martyn and the members of Fairport Convention, his time as a fly on the wall watching Doc Pomus and Dr. John write songs together in Pomus' NYC apartment, late nights in English hotels with Van Morrison picking up his tab (unbeknownst to Mr. Morrison), eating hot dogs with Big Joe Turner on Third Ave, and the otherworldly, centuries-old sounds from the mountains of Jajouka, Morocco.
Listen to a companion playlist curated by Cullman, featuring many of the voices and figures who move throughout the pages - “the cast of characters is fascinating and too many to name” (as MOJO recently put in a 4-star review). Cullman’s poetic, incisive voice is shaped by decades of work for The Paris Review, Rolling Stone, CREEM and more.
To celebrate release, there will be a special NYC book talk and signing taking placeThursday, May 7th from 5-7PM at Housing Works Book Store (126 Crosby St.), where Cullman will be in conversation with author & journalist Alan Light. Event details & RSVP.
Praise for How to Prepare for the Past:
“Wherever you found yourself, The Bottom Line, Tottenham Court Road, Miss Cranston’s tea shop in Glasgow, Brian was there at the epicentre of everything. He saw and heard some things and we are lucky to be able to read about them.”
- Linda Thompson
“Brian Cullman knows music from the inside out, as performer, scribe, and keen observer of those who make wonder out of soundwaves. His new collection of tales is a candid earwitness account of artisans and their process, personal and revelatory.”
- Lenny Kaye
“Brian Cullman always knew where the great music was hidden and writes about it with wit and elegance. His descriptions of close encounters with Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, and so many others are as good as music reportage gets.”
- Joe Boyd, record producer and author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain
“A fantastic memoir of a lifelong love affair with music, intertwined with recollections of a time when Music functioned as a Power in the Earth. Cullman’s recollections are written from a wry, wise, and witty vantage point: that of an undaunted, participating witness to an extraordinary time in history.”
- Vernon Reid
“Brian Cullman has found himself at the very inside of so many of music’s defining moments that his place as a discerning observer gives way to a kind of unguarded poetry that never fails to lift everyone out of the drabness of this world. What an artist!”
- Youssou N’Dour
“A deeply, casually stylish secret autobiography, of a musician and writer smart enough to find the meaning in the moment, over and over, for decades. A life in the arts.”
- R.J. Smith, author of Chuck Berry: An American Life
“True coolness. A revelation.”
- Danny Fields
“A downtown NYC Almost Famous by a de-facto rock critic godfather, though he was other things, too. Literary, elliptical, electric, hilarious, these are snapshots of a disappeared world, and they’re as good as music journalism gets.”
- Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed: The King of New York and Love Goes to Buildings On Fire
“Brian has always been drawn to the most elect and unusual people…These vignettes are so beautifully written—worldly, poetic, full of curiosity and confidence while inviting the reader along as a companion. I cannot imagine hanging out with a wiser guide.”
- Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer
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