Adapted with permission from Octopus' Garden fanzine, Volume 29, Issue #3, March 2020. Review by Tom Aguiar.
Music Legends In The Heavens by Terri Whitney. Rockin’ Rhymer.
From a very early age, Terri Whitney has had
two passions: music and poetry. Both were encouraged by her parents and Terri
brought both of these passions into her everyday life. Music Legends in the
Heavens is one of the ways she has done this. This is the second book that Whitney has
published relating to musicians and the music they have given us. Her previous
book was Any Rhyme At All: A Beatle Fan’s Journey.
Music Legends In The Heavens is a
poetry book that covers 50 musicians who have gone before us, but left us with
plenty of music or have been an influence on many of our current
musicians. All poems have been written by Terri Whitney and each poem has its
own hand-drawn illustration by Marti Edwards.
Each of the poems beautifully captures the
personality of the musician that is no longer with us before presenting his or
her artistic accomplishments and ending with the impact that the icon had on us
culturally before leaving this world behind. Whitney creates a passage that
identifies the artist in a way that reminds the reader of the gift that each
musician gave to the world.
The style of Whitney’s poetry is narrative within free style
structure using both 4 line and 6 line form.
Her work is well-structured and clearly conveys a feeling or
attribute about the topic of the poem. Each poem is sprinkled with personal
feelings or general feelings about the subject. They made a difference in
people’s lives whether individually or collectively, and that message comes
through in her writing.
A well-known impression of each artist at a
particular moment in time is done in pencil and is strikingly captured by
illustrator Marti Edwards. Edwards graduated from The School of the Art
Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1969 and has won
numerous awards for her art and designs. Marti is also a multi-media painter
and works in oil, pastel, water-color, and acrylic.
Whitney’s words, along with Edwards’
illustrations, invoke emotional images that justify the term “legend” in the
title. They were not legends in our minds when they were alive because we lived
with them. It was only later when they were gone that we realized their true
impact in the world of music.
Music Legends In The Heavens will bring a smile to the reader’s face as it bring back
memories of these 50 musical icons that helped shape music as we know it today.
The book earns a grade of A.
