In a unique autobiography, the four Neville brothers--Art, Aaron, Charles, and Cyril--take turns chronicling their journey from a segregated, crime-ridden New Orleans to the heights of the music industry, as they offer an inspiring memoir about the importance of one's heritage and the bonds of family. 25,000 first printing. After decades as cult musicians, New Orleans's Neville Brothers spent the '90s solidifying their position as a minor American institution. Torchbearers for both tight, lean funk ( Art and Cyril were key players in the profoundly influential '70s combo the Meters ) and soul-gripping balladry ( Aaron scored a 1966 No. 2 hit with "Tell It Like It Is" before resurfacing as a solo and group star in the late '80s), the Neville Brothers band has found a diverse audience with open ears for its message of rhythm and community. Before that happened, though, the brothers lived thug life as hard as Tupac Shakur ever did. Open the first two-thirds of this oral history to any random page, and you'll find rhapsodies about musicians as far afield as Professor Longhair , Ellis Marsalis , and Billy Stewart --or something quite a bit darker, like Cyril's remembrance of a near deadly razor fight: "I'm bleeding like a hog.... [T]hey needed 180 stitches to sew my neck together... [and] some Demerol to get me even higher and let me go back to the gig--the same night--where I carried on, singing 'Cold Sweat' and 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' as though the shit had never happened." Vividly told by the Nevilles and smartly organized by Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye biographer David Ritz, this is a resounding look at how these musicians put drugs, violence, and industry troubles behind them to become a veteran touring act and Grammy machine. If not quite the equal of drummer (and fellow New Orleanian) Earl Palmer's Backbeat , this is a fine, often chilling look both back and forward. --Rickey Wright Driven to crime, drug addiction, and dysfunctional personal relationships by the relentless Southern racism of the 1950s and 1960s, the Neville Brothers survived to rise to their posts as New Orleans's premier musical ambassadors. Coauthor David Ritz, who assisted Aretha Franklin and B.B. King with their autobiographies, masterfully alternates passages from each brother to create a single coherent narrative populated by larger-than-life characters such as their Aunt Cat, Uncle Jolly, and rock'n'roll pioneer-turned-pimp Larry Williams. The brothers' musical careers circled around one another, occasionally intersecting in various combinations, before all four came together first as the Wild Tchoupitoulas and then as the Neville Brothers in 1977. Recently, they have found the personal and spiritual strength to battle their demons but are candid in describing the tensions that threaten to split the group and the deep fraternal bonds that keep them together. Despite the welcome discography, the book is skimpy on musical details, but the storytelling is as rewarding as any fiction.ALloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. The Neville brothers, collectively a New Orleans institution, take turns telling their story in a chatfest that Ritz has molded into a wonderfully coherent book. Musically, the brothers are the kind of get-down aggregation that even a dignified professional--perhaps, say, the president of a national organization of information specialists--might shake booty with at an annual conference. Here their story takes on texture as brother hands its telling off to brother. In true pop-music-legend fashion, the Nevilles lived hazardously when young, indulging various vices in a city famous for its smorgasbord of them. Their mother's family "had Creole roots and were Catholic," and Big Arthur, their Methodist father, was a Pullman porter and a merchant mariner. The diversity of their extended family and New Orleans' gumbolike musical melange contributed to their famous mixture of musical styles. Today the Nevilles keep busy with various outside projects as well as their corporate career. Informative, moving, and noncontroversial, this is a nice omnibus of information on these beloved performers. Mike Tribby Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved A patchwork group autobiography by the noted New Orleans musicians.Blame it, perhaps, on the recent craze for oral histories: rather than write a straightforward narrative of the Neville Brothers' inarguably influential musical career, as he did with his fine life of Marvin Gaye ( Divided Soul , 1985), music journalist David Ritz organizes this text in snippets, with each of the four brothers speaking more or less in turn to document their five decades' work. The brothers are markedly different: Artie, the eldest, has passions for technology, doowop, and science fiction; Charles, the next oldest, is a jazz aficionado; Aaron, an ex-junkie and would-be cowboy, brings a sweet tremul