Cyril E. Vetter has teamed up with LSU Press to bring out both print and e-book editions of Dirtdobber Blues, Vetter’s work of “faction,” a fictionalized account of his friend Butch Hornsby’s life. Vetter expresses his opinion that Hornsby was never as commercially successful as he should have been—as a singer or artist—and this multimedia project serves to bring Hornsby’s creativity to a wider audience than he enjoyed in his lifetime.
Both versions of the book offer short fascinating scenes in Hornsby’s life that are interspersed with Philip Gould’s photographs of Hornsby’s art pieces, photographs of the artist himself and recordings of Hornsby’s songs. Some of the music was recorded by Hornsby in the 1970s, but most songs are more recent covers performed by Will Kimbrough and Duke Bardwell, Hornsby’s friend and bass player for Elvis.
Bardwell and Vetter both appear as characters in the book, as do Hornsby’s wife and children. Vetter writes himself into his own narrative as Cy, the producer of Hornsby’s session at Malaco Studios in the 1970s and one of the people trying to keep Hornsby on track, despite his every attempt to derail himself.
