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" &amp;quot;My goal was to make a good record and write a good book, as simple as that,&amp;quot; says Tom Maxwell, former singer of indie sweethearts the Squirrel Nut Zippers from 1994 to 1999, of his forthcoming album Tom Maxwell and the Minor Drag and memoir Hell: My Life in the Squirrel Nut Zippers. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m really proud of what I&amp;#039;ve done, especially after being away from it for so long,&amp;quot; Maxwell says, referring to the nearly ten-year hiatus he took, partly to get away from the music-business treadmill but even more because his son was battling leukemia. &amp;quot;I was rusty. And it was a battle to get back. But it wasn&amp;#039;t something I even had a choice in. I felt like I had to do it.&amp;quot;  The results are impressive. Maxwell&amp;#039;s book digs into the band&amp;#039;s early years in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, music scene, via intimate stories, and the band discovering and incorporating sounds and influences that may have seemed unusual to mainstream audiences, but were simply the result of young, adventurous musicians getting turned on to great music. Listen to Tom Maxwell&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;The Funky Knuckle&amp;quot; with Ani DiFranco, from Tom Maxwell and the Minor Drag, out August 26:      &amp;quot;There was certainly precedent for the kind of music we were doing,&amp;quot; Maxwell says, citing Tom Waits as one fellow traveler who found inspiration from swing, Dixie and gypsy jazz, klezmer, and Delta blues. &amp;quot;But I remember being asked what new music I was into and saying Muddy Waters, because it was new to me and I was excited by it. Besides, I don&amp;#039;t think of art and music as linear. It&amp;#039;s all really just one great continuum.&amp;quot; Maxwell penned the Squirrel Nut Zippers&amp;#039; hit &amp;quot;Hell&amp;quot; in 1996, propelling the band to multi-platinum sales. But the road and success took a toll, and by 1999 Maxwell felt he could see the writing on the wall.  &amp;quot;I just didn&amp;#039;t like where it was going,&amp;quot; he recalls. He dropped out of the music business, tending bar and moving on with his life, then taking time to deal with his son&amp;#039;s illness.  With his son on the mend, Maxwell took part in a charity concert that rekindled his love for playing live, and he found his thoughts turning to making new music. Soon he was back in the studio with longtime Zippers producer Mike Napolitano, feeling challenged and inspired.  Preparing for the release of both the album and his memoir, not to mention his first live shows in ages, Maxwell is ready to get back on the treadmill. &amp;quot;I want people to hear this record, and I&amp;#039;m not a road dog by any means, but I&amp;#039;m looking forward to getting out there and playing live, with or without a band,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s always that moment when someone comes up to you and says, &amp;#039;I know you&amp;#039;ve heard this a million times...&amp;#039; and then tells you some beautiful story about what your music means to them. It always gets me. And I always say, &amp;#039;Actually, I&amp;#039;ve never heard that story before and I&amp;#039;ve never heard it from you, so thanks.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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