The Color of Water: A Surprising Thing About James McBride

James McBride, the author of The Color of Water, is very talented in many different topics. One of those being a music composer. Yes, I said music composer. Not an author, all though that is one of his talents.  James was raised in Brooklyn. His dad was Rev. Andrew D. McBride, who was African-American and dies at 45 because of cancer. His mom had many different names, her most recent one being Ruth McBride Jordan. He is Jewish but also notes that his mom is converted to Christianity. A quote from him describing this is, "I'm proud of my Jewish history....Technically I guess you could say I'm Jewish since my mother was Jewish...but she converted (to Christianity). So the question is for theologians to answer. ... I just get up in the morning happy to be living" James is the 8th child out of 12. Two of his brothers, Dennis and Billy both have doctorates in medicine. James has a master's degree in journalism.

James McBride is also talented in music, not just being an author of books. James plays the saxophone for the Rock Bottom Remainders. The Rock Bottom Remainders are considered an American Rock and Roll band. The members of the band are all authors of books, newspapers, etc.
According to Wikipedia, " The band's members have included Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Cynthia Heimel, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, Aron Ralston and honorary member Maya Angelou." James also writes songs for artists including Grammy winning Anita Baker. James McBride also has won many awards including: the 1997 American Music Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award and the 1996 American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award.

Researching James McBride allowed me to know many things about him. Some things were already known because of the book. Some things were surprising to me like him writing songs for a Grammy winning artist. Overall, James McBride is talented in many ways and has been very successful in his life.


Below is a picture of some of the members in the Rock Bottom Remainders.