Join us in-store November 20th to celebrate the new release.
The Hours Are Long, But the Pay is Low
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“The music business is not a meritocracy: it is a crapshoot taking place in a septic tank balanced on the prow of the Titanic, a venal snake pit where innovation, creativity, and honest business practices are actively discouraged.”
Rob Miller arrived in Chicago wanting to escape the music industry. In short order, he co-founded a trailblazing record label revered for its artist-first approach and punk take on country, roots, and so much else. Miller’s gonzo memoir follows a music fan’s odyssey through a singular account of Bloodshot Records, the Chicago scene, and thirty years as part of a community sustaining independent artists and businesses.
Hilarious and hundred-proof, The Hours Are Long, But the Pay Is Low delivers a warm-hearted yet clear-eyed account of loving and living music on the edge, in the trenches, and without apologies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
In 1993, while working as a house painter in Chicago, Rob Miller co-founded the Bloodshot Records label which featured independent artists that blended the spirit of punk and country music that he first discovered in dive clubs and oddball record stores, on flea market 45s and end of the dial radio shows. Although Bloodshot nurtured unknown artists into grammy winners and sellers of hundreds of thousands of albums, Miller and the label remained fiercely independent for more than 25 years helping build the music community in Chicago and prioritizing off-the-beaten-path showcases, indie record stores, and music venues like the ones Miller worked at in his boyhood city of Detroit as a stage manager, roadie, and end-of the-night custodian.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER:
Martha Bayne is the coeditor of “Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O’Connor Means to Us,” a collection of essays by women and nonbinary writers on the impact and legacy of the iconic singer, published in July 2025 by Atria/One Signal. A recovering journalist, she has published reported work and essays widely in local and national outlets, and currently writes an erratic Substack newsletter titled “Range of Motion.” She also is the editor of three collections of writing about Chicago and the Midwest, all published by Belt Publishing, and the author of a narrative cookbook based on the long-running community food project she founded titled “Soup & Bread Cookbook: Building Community One Pot at a Time.” She currently serves as a senior acquisitions editor at the University of Illinois Press, where she acquires titles on the arts, history, politics, and culture of Illinois and the Midwest for the 3 Fields Books regional trade imprint.