Miriam Linna
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Since 1986, Miriam Linna has run the Brooklyn-based independent record label Norton Records with her husband, singer, producer and songwriter Billy Miller. Her skill as a drummer earned her a "May I recommend?" nod from Bob Dylan on his XM Theme Time Radio Hour program (episode 37) in January 2007.
Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Linna is part of the diaspora of musicians that emerged from the Cleveland, Ohio punk rock scene, including the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu. When the re-formed Rocket From The Tombs performed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 2003, singer David Thomas dedicated the band's signature song "Amphetamine" to her. Linna was the drummer with The Cramps, a brief but curiously lingering association in the minds of many (she appears on none of their legitimate releases) that lasted only from September 1976 to August of 1977. 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. The A-Bones released the 10" EP Tempo Tantrum in 1986, followed by the EP Free Beer for Life! (1988) and four full 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. She also played drums on Maureen Tucker's 1994 album Dogs Under Stress. On July 7, 2007, Linna and A-Bones bassist Marcus "The Carcass" Natale guested on a new recording session by the protopunk band Figures of Light, produced by Billy Miller for Norton Records.
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duotones in an attractive graphic design, The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco collects many unknown, previously unpublished 1950s and 1960s images, including shots of Ruth Brown, Esquerita, Roy Orbison and the Treniers.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.
