Set List: A Novel by Raymond L. Atkins

Set List: A Novel by Raymond L. Atkins

SET LIST begins in 1970, when Blanchard Shankles and John Covey come together and start making music in a rock and roll band named Skyye. They were two young men from Sequoyah, Georgia, with limited prospects and big dreams, who were joined in their quest for fame and fortune by their friends Ford Man Cooper, Chicken Raines, Jimbo Tant, Tucker McFry, and Simpson Taggart. These fledgling musicians set out upon a musical voyage that spanned four decades, fifty states, and uncounted miles as they pursued the elusive success that was always just one song ahead of them.

Along the way the band played bars and clubs, carnivals and dances, dives and festivals, and together through good times and bad, sickness and health, romance, marriage, divorce, birth, and death, they each built two lives: the one out under the lights that they were drawn to like moths to a flame, and the one they came back to when the music stopped and the crowds went home.

The story alternates between present-day North Georgia and the 1970s and is the story of a bar band as told primarily through the eyes of its lead guitar player, Blanchard Shankles, and its bass player, John Covey. Each chapter is built around an original song in the band's repertoire plus an iconic song from the archives of rock and roll, and together these songs and these chapters form the set list of the band members' lives.

“After reading CAMP REDEMPTION and SWEETWATER BLUES, I became a serious fan of Raymond Atkins's writings. With his latest novel, SET LIST, I may have just become his biggest fan. The novel and its main character are more than a little identifiable to me personally. Blanchard Shankles is a sixty-year-old, life-long guitar player who has played in bands for over forty-five years. Now the rough life of a rock and roll musician is catching up with him, landing him in the hospital with serious heart problems and forcing him to look closer than ever into the deepest recesses of his own life. Atkins titles each chapter after a rock song, usually the songs that most of us players of that same age have performed countless times, from "Free Bird" to "Crazy Mama," "Lucky Man," and "Heart of Glass." The conversations and nostalgic memories discussed by Blanchard, and his songwriting partner John Covey, ignite a fire within those of us who recall the music with love and happiness. One side note that I found absolutely cool was Atkins including actual, complete lyrics of many songs penned by Shankles and Covey. SET LIST is an honest, well-written novel for anyone who longs for the days of Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, or the James Gang--a story of life, love, mortality, and music--a true rock and roll dream.” --Michael Buffalo Smith, author of FROM MACON TO JACKSONVILLE

Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia, where he is an instructor of English at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. He lives on the banks of the Etowah River in an old house with a patient wife and a fat dog. His hobbies include people-watching, reading, and watching movies that have no hope of ever achieving credibility. His first novel, The Front Porch Prophet, was published by Medallion Press in 2008 and was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. His second novel, Sorrow Wood, was published by Medallion Press in 2009. His third novel, Camp Redemption, was released by Mercer University Press in 2013 and was awarded the Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction and the 2014 Georgia Author of the Year Award for Fiction. His fourth novel, Sweetwater Blues, was a Townsend Prize nominee and 2015 Georgia Author of the Year runner-up for fiction. South of the Etowah, his first creative non-fiction book, was released on March 1, 2016.