Don't Lose Your Good Thing

The people, politics, and preservation battles behind saving America's most storied music sites.

Don't Lose Your Good Thing explores how the places that shaped American popular music are essential to understanding the nation's broader history. From the Gennett and King Records buildings in the Midwest to Stax and Capricorn Studios and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in the South, Charlie B. Dahan examines how these sites of musical innovation have been preserved, neglected, or reborn. Drawing on years of archival research, fieldwork, and interviews, the book combines public history and music industry insight to reveal how the struggle to save these landmarks reflects larger stories of creativity, race, labor, and community in America. It shows why the spaces where music was made remain vital to preserving our shared cultural memory.