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A reissue of Joe Oestreich's legendary memoir, featuring a new introduction by Rob Harvilla (60 Songs that Explain the '90s) and a new afterword by the author.

Everyone knows the price of fame. Hitless Wonder measures the price of obscurity. What happens when you chase a dream into middle age and, in doing so, risk losing the people you love?

This book recounts the two-week tour that forces Joe Oestreich-singer, songwriter, and bassist of the band Watershed-to decide if he and his longtime bandmates still have a future together. In the mid-'90s, Watershed's large Midwest following led to a six-figure deal with Epic Records. But the band never had a hit, and the label dropped them. Seventeen years later, long after their more famous peers have called it quits, Watershed keeps climbing into the Econoline and touring mop bucket bars.

But Joe can't help but wonder: Are he and his bandmates-approaching forty with wives and kids and mortgages-admirable or pathetic? Successes or failures? The tour tests the bonds of Joe's friendships and the strength of his marriage, as he's torn between the lure of the road and the call to finally settle down.

"Hitless Wonder is a thoroughly enjoyable rock and roll memoir—funny, honest, and full of inside dope. I'm sorry Watershed never made it big, but I'm glad Joe Oestreich wrote this wonderful book about a lifetime devoted to music and friendship, a book about a scrappy band that doesn't know how to quit."
n—Tom Perrotta, author of Election and The Leftovers

"BEST. ROCK. BOOK. EVER. Hitless Wonder is the truest thing ever written about life in a band. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you will believe in The Power of Rock even as it tries to crush the souls of those who believe in it most. An amazing book. Get it."
n—Lou Brutus, Sirius XM and hardDrive Radio

"This insightful and entertaining story of a band that almost-but-didn't-quite make it big in the 1990s is equal parts fascinating autobiography and a hilarious and savvy look at the harsh realities of the music industry."
n—Publishers Weekly

"Finally, somebody gets it right: the real story of rock and roll is not about limos and paparazzi; it's about driving all day in a beat-up van to play your ass off in a scroungy dive for gas money, year after year, hoping for that big break. Believe me, Joe Oestreich's superbly written HITLESS WONDER is the best and most honest memoir about the thwarted desire for rock stardom that you will ever read."
n—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff

"Hitless Wonder is one of the best music memoirs I've ever read, and I've read a lot of them. The writing is wonderful, the stories great, but what stands above all of that is the deep question we all have to wrestle with: What is worth spending our precious time on in this life? Hitless Wonder doesn't provide any answers, but it's a hell of a fun way to grapple with the big questions."

—Eric Zimmer, author of How a Little Becomes a Lot and creator of The One You Feed podcast.

Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll, 15th Anniversary Edition

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