Charles R. Cross Reading

Tonight we were at the Elliott Bay Bookstore to see Seattle-icon Charles R. Cross read from his new book Room Full of Mirrors, a biography about Jimi Hendrix (another Seattle-icon).

The reading was excellent, probably one of the best I've been to. He read the Prologue of the book (a story about Hendrix and band-mate Noel Redding being refused service in an England pub) and a couple of stories from the book that were related to Seattle. Each of the excerpts Cross read from the book were fascinating and definitely piqued my interest in picking up a copy.

Another interesting aspect of the reading was the fact that there were several people with connections to Hendrix present. A few specific people Cross pointed out in the audience were Hendrix's brother Leon, one of Hendrix's cousins, a high school class mate, fellow biographer Mary Willix, and one of Hendrix's first girlfriends. The combination of having people who actually knew Jimi in the audience and the stories about his life in Seattle (he once lived only a few blocks away from the bookstore) made the whole experience feel more intimate, almost as if the man himself was there with us. All in all a fascinating night.

You can read an excerpt from Cross' new book in the Seattle Weekly. Cross also had an article on Hendrix published in a recent Rolling Stone, part of which is available on-line here.