From Trauma to Transcendence with Alice Randall

Season 4 commences with Nashville legend Alice Randall, author of the book Black Bottom Saints, among others. Mike sits down with Alice to discuss her formative years in the “Caramel Camelot” days of midcentury Detroit – the setting of the novel – as well as her memories of the bustling area growing up. Alice loves a good cocktail, and they discuss how she married characters in the book with cocktail recipes at the end of every chapter. She also discusses her own triumphs through tragedy and why it was so special that this book came out in 2020. Also, was Tom Bullock (the first black man to publish a cocktail book in 1917) the most skilled bartender of his day?

This is the first installment of Liquid Gold’s fall series “Books and Booze,” in which Mike and Kenneth talk with some of their favorite authors about writing, reading, and of course, drinking!

Follow Alice Randall on Instagram @msalicerandall. Find her books at Parnassus and other fine booksellers and listen to her podcast, Black Bottom Saints, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.