Who knew that one of Santa Barbara’s most beloved musicians could write? With the publication of Backstraw, Tom Ball, half of the venerable duo of Kenny Sultan and Tom Ball, proves he can pen a story. “I never took any creative writing courses,” Ball said when we spoke by phone recently, “but I’ve always been drawn to accessible writing by people like John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and Truman Capote.” Eight years in the making, Backstraw follows the life of Tim DiAngelo from his tragic childhood in a small East Texas town to laid-back Santa Monica, California, and from there to an extended trek across Asia, from Tokyo to war-ravaged Laos, Bangladesh, India, and Afghanistan.
There are dark moments in Ball’s tale, and several mysteries linger until the end. My reaction when I read the final page was a visceral satisfaction. It was the same feeling I’ve experienced reading Charles Dickens. Ball writes with empathy and humor and an eye for detail. During our phone conversation, I teased him about possessing more talents than one man is entitled to. Besides being a fixture on our local music scene and the festival circuit for four decades, Tom Ball has now added novelist to his CV. The interview that follows has been edited for clarity and length.
The scenes when Tim DiAngelo is traveling across Asia are particularly vivid. Did that spring from research or personal experience?