Known to many as a local fixture and friend, the late Jack Sonni—former guitarist for Dire Straits and later head of Water Valley’s Cool Dog Sound—has left behind a remarkable final gift in Sagamore, a novel that peels back layers of America’s past.
Jack finished Sagamore shortly before his untimely passing on August 30, 2023, at age 68, and the book has now been published and will be available for purchase on the first of August.
A release event is being held at Proud Larry’s on Sunday, August 3, at 5 pm, and will feature a reading from local authors as well as a performance by his band The Leisure Class. Square Books will be on hand to sell copies.
Jack’s ties to Proud Larry’s include a house rocking set at their two-day 30th anniversary celebration back in 2023, but the venue also hosted his tribute show along with local rock group Rocket 88.
Sagamore is a gripping historical novel set in hardscrabble 1930s Pennsylvania coal country and unfolds like a slow-burning stick of dynamite.
It may seem a long way from Mississippi, but the storyline—moving along with harsh clarity and purpose—eventually leads its main characters down South. It explores themes of injustice and immigrant perseverance, both which reverberate far beyond state lines.
The story centers on Corky Trunzo, a young Italian-American boy growing up in the rugged mining town of Sagamore. With coal dust in the air and violence always nearby, Corky’s coming of age is interrupted by a string of brutal acts committed by a state game warden named Ed Markle. Supposedly a protector of wildlife, Markle uses his badge and twin Colt revolvers to terrorize Italian immigrant hunters, who have to shoot songbirds to survive.
As Corky watches Markle’s escalating cruelty, including the killing of his dog and the murder of a friend’s father, the question becomes not just if—but how—justice can prevail in a system that has turned its back on the very folks who power it.
At the center of the resistance is Corky’s tough grandmother, Gina Ferraro, a quietly feared fixer who may or may not have Mafia ties—and whose resolve runs deeper than the nearby coal mines.
Though Sonni hailed from Indiana, Pennsylvania, he spent his final years in Taylor, Mississippi, and his storytelling in Sagamore carries a kind of lyrical grit that feels right at home. At times it recalls the moral weight of Faulkner as well as the sharp social insight of Southern Gothic literature. The novel is both a violent and tender portrait of a community pushed too far.
Though Sagamore is partly set against the snowy backdrop of the Allegheny Mountains, it tells an American story that Mississippians will recognize, which is of working people navigating a deep tension between the law and what’s right.
Any reader expecting a musician’s vanity project will be greatly surprised by this serious, elegant, and fearless literary achievement.
Echoing some of the menace of a Cormac McCarthy novel, Sagamore is all about what it takes to push back. Against a man with a badge and a gun, and the system that protects him. Against the quiet pull of giving up. With a searing heart and a clear sense of history, Jack has given us a tale of pain and perseverance that reminds us why fiction matters.
The book is not just a tribute to his storytelling but to Jack’s chosen Southern home. The lyrics of Blackberry Smoke’s “One Horse Town”, which opens the book, could just as easily describe a one-stoplight Mississippi town as it could a coal town in decline.
With Sagamore, he cements his legacy not only as a musician, but as a storyteller of depth. It’s a book that lingers and demands to be read.
It’s also a thrill to enjoy the voice of a seasoned, world-class musician inserted into fiction—especially when Corky and his companion, in search of adventure, visit a juke joint on the far outskirts of town and encounter a famous bluesman.
Sagamore is available now through Cool Dog Sound and Square Books.
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