“Up the Rouge!” — the audio version

By Joel Thurtell

Almost there: The audio version of the Wayne State University Press book by Detroit Free Press photographer Patricia Beck and me will be for sale next week. 

The audio book will be published by Hardalee Press of Plymouth, Michigan.

There’s plenty about our book on its blog, uptherouge.com.  You can even order it through a shopping cart using major credit cards and have it shipped to your home. Soon, the audio book will be for sale the same way.

Pat and i paddled, towed, dragged, pushed and tossed a canoe 27 miles up the Main Branch of the Rouge River over five days in June 2005. It was a Detroit Free Press project and fueled a 2-day series about the Rouge October 12-13, 2005 that won the Harry E. Schlenz Medal for Public Service of the Water Environment Federation in 2006.

Last March, Wayne State University Press published the book version, with dozens of amazing photos Pat took from the bow of the canoe. While Pat was taking pictures, I was describing what we saw and did for a little digital audio recorder hung from a loop around my neck. The narrative of our book, “Up the Rouge! Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River,” is largely based on that audio log, though I did plenty of original research for the Prologue and Epilogue.

Since the Press was not interested in producing an audio book, we retained the audio rights to the book. A couple months ago, I spent nearly five hours reading my text at my friend Ken Sands’ recording studio. I hired an audio studio to create a master set of discs. They also edited into the narrative the sounds of our trip.

You can hear the roar of blast furnaces on Zug Island.

Scolding of redwing blackbirds annoyed by the invasion of our canoe.

Rush of water over the dam at Henry Ford’s Fair Lane mansion.

A red-eyed vireo talking from the tops of trees somewhere in the heart of Detroit.

The rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker drumming on a tree.

Near-continuous explosions from the firing range of the Detroit Police Department as cops practiced marksmanship near the Rouge.

And much more.

The experience lasts about five hours and is captured on four CDs. The CDs will be packaged in a fat DVD case with a cover resembling the book’s cover. The individual CDs will have labels that also resemble the book cover.

The price will be $35, same as the book. The audio book should be available by June 10 and by that time, we will have a shopping cart on uptherouge.com so you can order the audio book as well as the book.