By a found­ing mem­ber of the leg­endary Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears — a man who played the Mon­terey Pop Fes­ti­val and Wood­stock, had affairs with famous folk singers, and jammed with every­one from Mose Alli­son to Jimi Hen­drix — comes a blues-folk-rock mem­oir of resigned exis­ten­tial­ism and decid­ed­ly New York Jew­ish humor (what if Woody Allen had been a rock star)? But this mem­oir is more than the lurid, par­ty-with-your-pants-down mem­oir that has become the norm for rock ​’n’ roll books. It is an hon­est and per­son­al account of a life at the edge of the spot­light — a priv­i­leged van­tage point that earned Steve Katz a bit more objec­tiv­i­ty and earnest out­rage than many of his col­leagues, who were too far into the scene to lay any hon­est wit­ness to it. Set dur­ing the Green­wich Vil­lage folk/​rock scene, the Six­ties’ most cel­e­brat­ed venues and con­certs, and behind closed doors on inter­na­tion­al tours and gru­el­ing stu­dio ses­sions, this is the unlike­ly sto­ry of a rock star as nerd, nerd as rock star, a nice Jew­ish boy who got to sit at the cool kid’s table and score the hot chicks.