The Only Song Worth Singing

The Only Song Worth Singing

In Randee Dawn’s latest book, she mixes folklore with modern day urban living in a unique way that suggests that older lore, though hidden now, affects us in a very real way. Magical creatures stay just out of sight and their morals and rules can look very different from humankinds. When they do contact us, we are often unprepared, having forgotten the old ways. Making bargains, getting involved and not believing in the supernatural often have disastrous consequences for the humans involved.

The Only Song Worth Singing is an epic fantasy adventure that follows the path of three Irish musicians that are on their first international tour on the east coast of the United States. The three young men, friends since childhood, they are out on their own, experiencing the rock and roll lifestyle far from home when they start to meet mysterious women that are more than they seem. At first, the band takes them for run of the mill groupies, just there as a perk of their status as young, party hard musicians on the rise. However, things quickly start to turn dark and it becomes clear that the band is being targeted by supernatural beings for unknown reasons. As a wedge is created between the three, their friendships start to splinter and each of them becomes increasingly isolated.

As the brotherly bonds between them are tested, all is eventually revealed about these strange women. A supernatural world that remains hidden from most humans and the reasons that the youngest grew up with an absent father and cruel mother is suddenly made clear. As the band heads into its final concert stateside, it has become increasingly obvious that the struggle has become life or death and they will need each other to survive.

In this book, Dawn perfectly captures the experience of young musicians out on the road away from the safety of their families and friends. She shows us not only the excess and adventures of young musicians with permissive managers, but also the vulnerability, isolation and uncertainty of being away from their community and reliant on people who see them as a money making commodity. She draws upon her experience as an entertainment and lifestyle writer to paint a realistic picture of how the rock and roll lifestyle can make young artists susceptible to the bad faith actions of parasitic creatures only in it for themselves. The supernatural aspects of it remind us that, as opposed to sex and drugs, folklore, craic and rock and roll is really what our brains and bodies need.