I always approach new biographies with mixed feelings. I'm eager to learn more about the person I'm interested in but hesitant to discover they're not the person I expected them to be (how messed up is that?). Ultimately I usually find this discovery process to be helpful - it brings the artist down off the pedestal I put them on and makes them more human. Unless, of course, the book is a puff-piece, written with the glowing language of a press release. I especially love reading biographies of musicians because I am so interested in the process of making music - whether it's learning of the inspiration for a particular song or details of how a song was crafted in the studio; learning about the economics of the industry or how a musician created a new sound.

In a new unauthorized biography, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, author Barney Hoskyns strikes the right balance between adoration and criticism. He clearly considers Waits to be one of America's finest songwriters yet isn't afraid to use his extensive critical experience to tell the reader about musical moments that don't live up to that standard. The result is an informative portrait of Waits' career from the beginning to the present. Waits comes across as private and cryptic some of the time, engaging and funny at other times (much like one of his heroes, Bob Dylan). For me, the end result of reading the book was the inspiration to give another chance to some of his more recent music, much of which I've struggled with.

You can find this book at the Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County libraries.