OUT NOW from Other Press
A ghostwriter for a reclusive, mercurial folk music icon attempts to glean fact from fiction, only to discover the deeper he digs into the musician’s past, the more his own past rises to the surface.
Despite his fame, Eli Page is a riddle wrapped in a myth, inside decades of mask-making. His past is so shrouded in gossip and half-truths that no one knows who he is behind the act. Jack Wyeth, a budding writer, joins Eli in Galesville, a small town on the border of New York and Vermont, only to learn that the musician’s mind is failing. As he scrambles to uncover the truth, Jack is forced to confront his own past, his own hang-ups, and his own fears. At the same time, he falls for a local artist who has secrets of her own, he becomes linked to a town controversy, and he struggles to let go of his childhood idols and bridge the divide between myth and reality.
Set against a folk Americana aesthetic, Lay Down Your Weary Tune is an emotionally charged exploration of myth-making, desire, and regret, and the inescapable bond between the past and present.
Praise for Lay Down Your Weary Tune
BEST BOOK OF FICTION 2016 | ADIRONDACK LITERARY AWARDS | Adirondack Center for Writing
“[A] richly textured novel about folk music...Belcher brings the folk music scene to life, but best of all is his ability to craft a cast of memorable characters.”
“Mingling elements from both literature and the blues, Belcher has crafted a memorable tale about how the masks and myths we create can become prisons that ultimately disconnect us from ourselves.”
“In Lay Down Your Weary Tune, ‘upstate debut novelist Belcher modulates his chord changes skillfully.’”
“This story will pluck countless heartstrings.”
“A heartening, timeless, and stirring song for the ‘perfectly broken.’ Beautifully thrownback. Openhanded. True. W.B. Belcher is my kind of writer.”
“As beautiful and artfully constructed as an old guitar, LAY DOWN YOUR WEARY TUNE feels both familiar and wholly original. W.B. Belcher’s debut is a highly readable wonder.”
“Like Russell Banks, Richard Russo, and even Bill McKibben, W.B. Belcher’s warm, lyrical prose brings to life the upstate New York I know and love so well, and even more, he does it with the clarity, compassion, and humor of a master storyteller. A terrific debut novel.”
“W.B. Belcher’s debut novel evokes the legend and timelessness of a true folk song ... he weaves together a carefully crafted, mysterious, and epic world of characters whose stories will keep you guessing until the very end. A folkloric treasure trove and a great read.”