Robert Earl Hardy is the author of A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt, published in 2008 by the University of North Texas Press. He has been a professional writer and editor for twenty-five years and has published articles on twentieth century American music, obscure baseball history, and the arts in newspapers, journals, and magazines, most recently in The Oxford American. Also a musician, from the 1970s through the early 2000s, Mr. Hardy played guitar in some of the seediest rock & roll, rhythm & blues, and honky-tonk bands in the Washington, DC, area. Based in Maryland with his wife, Marsha, he has a son (William) and two step-daughters (Julie and Lisa), lives in an old house, listens to old records, plays an old, out-of-tune piano, and has a roomful of old guitars. Mr. Hardy is currently doing research for a cultural history of 1960s and ‘70s suburban American garage bands.