«On The Road Not Taken» by Paul Dodgson

On the Road Not Taken is a memoir about the transformational power of music. It begins with a boy growing up in a small town on the Kent coast in the 1970s, who learns to play the guitar and dreams of heading out on the open road with a head full of songs. But when the moment comes to make the choice, he is not brave enough to give it a go.Time passes but the desire to explain the world through songs never goes away. And as the years go by it gets harder and harder to sing out loud and risk looking like a fool. Eventually, thirty-four years later, when it feels like time is running out, he walks out onto a stage in front of a theatre full people and begins to sing again.The book is journey of self-discovery that links the pop hits of Mud, the prog rock of Genesis and the explosion of punk with folk music and contemporary guitar wielding troubadour, Frank Turner. There are stories of gigs in living rooms, old people’s homes, pubs, theatres and festivals as the agony of anxiety makes way for the ecstasy of performance. On The Road Not Taken is a humorous, life-affirming story about what happens when you finally do the thing you most wanted to do.