Banshee '94

In 1994, Fiona Reilly, lead guitarist and songwriter for Brokensmoke, disappeared after a gig in Chicago. Singer Lori Blackstone was found dead the next day. Reilly's notebooks were found in a nearby hotel, telling a story that turned began as a "road diary" and grew into a harrowing supernatural mystery. Reilly claimed to be the daughter of a banshee, the death messengers of Irish folklore, and said that she not only had the power to know when someone was dying, but that she regularly sang to announce deaths herself - sometimes onstage. "Keening" gave her a high that proved dangerously addictive...

Were these diaries a novel Reilly was writing? A publicity stunt idea that got out of hand? A real confession? Whatever they were, they formed a fascinating snapshot of a band on the road, full of humor, squalor, sex, drama, and romance in the bygone era of MTV and alternative rock.

Thirty years later, this is a complete edition of Fiona Reilly's "Banshee Diaries," with rare photos. It includes a new introduction and extensive notes by Chicago historian Adam Selzer, an early Brokensmoke fan who has interviewed bandmates and scoured the country looking for more clues to the Brokensmoke mystery. (The print edition contains more photos).

(This "Banshee in a Rock Band" book draws on real folklore, real history, and real rock 'n' roll. Adam Selzer is the author of such books as Play Me Backwards (Simon and Schuster 2014), Just Kill Me (Simon and Schuster 2016), I Put a Spell on You (Random House 2009), Graveyards of Trinity Church, and H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil. He is a historian and tour guide in Chicago, and swears that in 1994 KGGO Des Moines would play sometimes alternative songs without bleeping the F word).