Miriam Linna
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Miriam Linna, since 1986, has run the Brooklyn-based independent record label Norton Records with her husband, singer-songwriter Billy Miller.
Born in Sudbury, Ontario, she was the second drummer with The Cramps (September 1976, to August 1977), following Pam "Ballam". [citation needed] Linna left The Cramps to join the rock and roll band Nervous Rex. After performing with the Zantees, Linna and Miller launched the A-Bones (named for a tune by the Trashmen) in 1984, released the 10" EP Tempo Tantrum in 1986, followed by the album Free Beer for Life! (1988) and four more albums between 1991 and 1996. The A-Bones have regrouped in recent years and continue to perform, most recently in Spain with Little Richard, Andre Williams, and the Great Gaylord.
Linna is also a writer and editor-publisher with a line of past magazines, including Kicks (co-edited with Billy Miller), Smut Peddler and Bad Seed. She has written lengthy liner notes for Norton and also for other labels. In 1997, she published The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco, a book about photographer Eddie Rocco, who contributed to Charlton's Ebony Song Parade and freelanced for Fort Worth's Sepia magazine. Printed on quality stock with duotones in an attractive graphic design, The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco collects many unknown, previously unpublished 1950s and 1960s pictures, including shots of Ruth Brown, Esquerita, Roy Orbison and the Treniers. After finding a copy at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History bookstore, Dr. Ink (aka Dr. Roy Peter Clark) highlighted the importance of Rocco's work in an April 2, 2003 review of the book, "Jukin' with Eddie Rocco".
In 2004, Linna co-edited Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties (Feral House), also contributing an article, "Ron Haydock aka Vin Saxon," about the twisted career of novelist-musician Ron Haydock. She owns one of the world's largest private collections of vintage paperbacks, including complete runs of Avon, Beacon, Signet and others. Her collection includes over 500 juvenile delinquent paperbacks, and she featured the covers of some of these in her book, Bad Seed: A Postcard Book, published in 1992 by Running Press. She currently is compiling an encyclopedia about post-WWII juvenile delinquency fiction, The Bad Seed Bible.
