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A crazy idea, when it arises from passion’s fire, is always the best idea. “Motorcycles. Banjos. Graves.” Notionally, Steven Sherrill’s quest to visit the final resting places of his banjo heroes and play in homage is simple, private, quixotic. But his account proves the opposite: his is a complex journey that ends at the crossroads of the Appalachian region and the music it gave birth to, the author’s own history, the idea of the journey of each individual’s life, and the deep mysteries of creativity. He takes an odyssey into the nature of the odyssey itself. The dreamlike voice of Motorcycles, Minotaurs, & Banjos—funny, sharp, melancholic yet finally triumphant—is sui generis, as is this book. The ostensibly unrelated constituents of the pilgrimage it recounts fuse into an indivisible whole that is unlike any work of literature you will ever read. —Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of The Perfect Vehicle

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[Motorycles, Minotaurs & Banjos] in which Steven Sherrill pays homage to the ghosts of Appalachian folk music and takes us on a thrilling journey to the heart of America. As in the best road trip stories, the goals become urgent and yet mysterious, the destination proves unexpected, and the answers show us questions that we didn’t even know we had. This volume sits on the shelf among the masters of the open road—Jack Kerouac, Cheryl Strayed, and Robert Persig. Hold it to your heart and get ready to find stillness amid constant motion, wisdom above the rumbling motor of a Royal Enfield 650, and shelter inside the quirkiest Airbnbs of all time. —Elizabeth Kadetsky, author of The Memory Eaters

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Steve Sherrill really takes off on this one, a mystical ethereal illustrated journey down the Appalachian spine to visit the graves of America’s legendary folk banjo frailers. On the trail of some kind of personal equipoise through musical communion with these lost soloists, he finds their graves, peace offers figural totems, plunks out and sings their signature songs, rain or shine as day or night winds wail. Talk about ride sharing. Minotaurs, Motorcycles, & Banjos is an odyssey worth taking.— Jerry Zolten, author of Great God A’mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds

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If you’re overly-concerned about being obsessive, please read Motorcycles, Minotaurs, and Banjos. Steven Sherrill has you beat. This diary of a man intent on commiserating with dead 5-string icons, riding a named motorcycle, shackled with a named banjo, badgered by past foibles—taking on a journey befit for Odysseus—will leave you in awe. If “in a long, strange trips it’s been” hadn’t already been used, rightly, I’d use it. —George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories