Crackerjack Bands
Joy’s nonfiction book, Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters: The Story of a Minnesota Music Man, was published in July 2019 (Nodin Press).
It recounts the extraordinary exploits of her paternal great-grandfather, a pioneering band director, and his talented pianist wife through times of war, peace, economic hardship, and personal tragedy. Ultimately, it’s about the power of music to transform lives and connect people across generations.
Buy it through Content Bookstore in Northfield, or from your favorite local bookstore!
Also available through Indiebound, the Beltrami County Historical Society, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Itasca Books.
Read more about it here:
G. Oliver Struck Up a Band Like Few Others Did – Star Tribune column by Curt Brown, April 2020
Celebrating the Legacy of Minnesota’s Real-Life Music Man – Minnesota Public Radio Classical story by Dan Wascoe, January 2020
BOOK DESIGN BY JOHN TOREN
BAND PHOTO COURTESY OF THE POLK COUNTY (MN) HISTORICAL SOCIETY
“Impeccably researched and told with heart, Joy Riggs illuminates how one musician’s lifelong passion for teaching and performing inspired generations of young musicians.
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“Joy Riggs has pulled from the folds of Minnesota history the remarkable story of a man who changed the musical landscape of the state. With warmth, intelligence, and insight, she describes his profound impact on the musicians he taught and the grace and happiness he brought to countless audiences in an era when the highlight of a week’s entertainment might be an afternoon concert in the park.
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“Joy Riggs offers not only an intriguing family story, but one that reveals something about the world we live in today. Through impeccable research and engaging writing, Riggs has crafted a riveting history of her great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, a real-life ‘music man’ bandleader in Minnesota and points beyond. Riggs’s own story serves as the harmony to G. Oliver’s melody, and I was fascinated by the people and places she discovered on her journey into the past.
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“Joy Riggs’s portrait of her great-grandfather is far more than a family history. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in band music, small-town Minnesota life, or multi-generational family relationships. She makes this man and his music resound gloriously.
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“G. Oliver’s life and work is far enough in the past to be legendary, but recent enough that living people still remember him. This makes for both a lively review of American community band history and a chronicle of charming interviews. It is also an affirmation of the town band as a vital part of the American way of life.
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“With grace and compassion for the music man she never knew, Joy Riggs takes us on an engaging journey of discovery from the Civil War battlefields to the small towns of Minnesota. Her sharp eye for detail, compelling story and personal yearning illuminate the life of her great-grandfather—a man who inspired a generation of musicians, molded young boys into men, and whose legacy continues to reverberate through the American heartland today.
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“It’s a story about a bandmaster, it’s a story about the history of bands in the Midwest, it’s a story about a great-granddaughter’s search to connect with her great-grandfather, and at its heart it’s a story about the power of music and the joy and pride it brings to those who make it.
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