Coleman, Rick (Earl Coleman)

PERSONAL:

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Education: Attended Louisiana State University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—LA. Office—St. Tammany Parish BHSF, 21454 Koop Dr., Ste. B, Mandeville, LA 70471. E-mail—rickneworleans@bellsouth.net.

CAREER:

Music critic, writer, and state worker. Has worked for the State of Louisiana in various capacities.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD) Indie Award, 1990, for liner notes for a Little Richard album.

WRITINGS:

Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll, Da Capo Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to publications, including Billboard, Offbeat, Wavelength, Goldmine, and Rolling Stone.

SIDELIGHTS:

A lifelong admirer of Antoine "Fats" Domino, Rick Coleman spent twenty years composing a biography of the rhythm-and-blues great. In addition to providing biographical information on Domino, Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll puts Domino's career in the context of the drastically changing social backdrop of his time. Coleman's friendship with Domino gave him unprecedented access to the musician and his wife, and led to Blue Monday being Domino's first full-length biography. Guardian Unlimited reviewer Andrew Mueller remarked that the book is "not just a masterly biography, … but an expansive social and musical history." Mark Reynolds wrote in a review for PopMatters: "Coleman's labor of love preserves a sense of Domino as a pivotal figure in our pop culture." OffBeat contributor Jeff Hannusch concurred, calling the biography a "fine and insightful tribute to the most underrated artist of the rock 'n' roll era."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Guardian Unlimited,http://www.guardian.co.uk/ (September 16, 2006), Andrew Mueller, review of Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll.

OffBeat,http://www.offbeat.com/ (July 26, 2007), Jeff Hannusch, review of Blue Monday.

PopMatters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (June 5, 2006), Mark Reynolds, "Negritude 2.0: Coming Out of the Hazy Past," review of Blue Monday.