REVIEWS
Daniel Davis
Award Winning Actor of stage, screen and television
Voices on the River is absolutely wonderful! As Shakespeare described, “pastoral, comical, historical, tragical”! I cherish this book. It’s a worthy successor to Life on the Mississippi. I had a smile on my face the entire time and, every once in a while, a tear in my eyes. This book should be required reading.
William C. Davis
Prize winning author and historian
Americans discovered early on that our rivers get in our blood. They brought the world to us and took our goods to the world. River towns were not like other towns, and the rivermen were a singular and colorful breed. They still are. Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River captures those echoes in print in his account of 22 days on the iconic steamboat Delta Queen in 1986. More than a simple travel narrative, Voices on the River is a wonderfully written voyage into the soul of America, a thoughtful, informative testament to our sense of ourselves and our eternal aspirations as reflected through the flowing arteries that still sustain the heart of America.
Kevin Kline
Academy Award and Tony Award-Winning Actor
I spent one fateful and formative summer during my college years working on an Ohio River showboat, during which time I fell under the spell of live theater performances as well as riverboat living.
When I opened Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River, the first thing I saw was a photo of the Showboat Majestic. There was the door to my river view living quarters! There was the deck where I stood between rehearsals and watched the great steamboat race between the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville.
How I loved reliving this halcyon era in Voices on the River. Even if you’ve never set foot on a steamboat, read this book and you’ll wish you had.
​Anybody who loves the Delta Queen Steamboat would appreciate the amount of history contained in this book.
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Patti YOung
VP of Public relations, Delta Queen steamboat Co. '82-'97
If you were ever smitten by the charm of the Delta Queen – as a passenger or a member of the crew, or even from afar if you saw her magically glide past – you will enjoy Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen. Oh, the people you will meet: Betty Blake, Pat Fahey, Tom and Mary Greene, John Hartford, Helen Hayes, Justin Wilson – and that much-loved steamboater, Capt. Fred Way, who is so beautifully and gently restored to life on these pages. Although the Delta Queen no longer plies America’s inland waterways, thanks to Voices on the River her legend will live on.
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Bobby Horton
Singer, Songwriter, Troubador
Because I had the privilege to perform many times on the beloved Delta Queen steamboat, I am often asked, “What was that boat like? Why do people still love it so much?” Now I can answer these questions by encouraging everyone to read Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen. Every page of his unique narrative paints such pleasant pictures in my mind and rekindles vivid memories. (What a delight to get to spend time with the great John Hartford again!) Thank you, Dennis, for Voices on the River.
Nadine Louviere
Cruise Director,
Delta Queen steamboat co. '84-'94
In Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen, Dennis Brown takes us on a journey through the heartland of America and introduces us to some of the most interesting characters we will ever meet. More than a book about a cruise, or even about a boat, Voices is about people. I learned so much from it. Thank you, Dennis, for sharing your love of steamboating with all of us!
If you haven’t had the opportunity to take a trip aboard the Delta Queen, reading Dennis Brown’s “Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen” is the closest literary equivalent you can have...
Clarence E. Olson, Book Editor Emeritus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The smooth-flowing Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen by Dennis Brown is wonderfully inventive. As Dennis travels the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on an antiquated steamboat, he displays a keen sensitivity to the currents that flow both through the minds of the people he meets as well as to the great rivers themselves.
David Tschiggfrie, Editor-in-Chief
I was hooked from page one. Dennis Brown’s engaging Voices on the River is the nearest thing to a page-turner I have encountered in quite some time. It matters not whether you have cruised on the Delta Queen or never laid eyes on the Delta Queen, this narrative is great storytelling.
Arielle North, author of the prize-winning The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter
I wanted to savor many sentences twice – to marvel at Brown’s presentation of constantly fascinating material in an eloquent, yet conversational, style.
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Ron Osborne
Nationally recognized playwright
Only a gifted writer who truly loves steamboating could craft a book like Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen. Dennis Brown’s chronicle is both a terrifically entertaining day-by-day travel log and an up-front-and-personal introduction to some of the most colorful folks you’ll ever meet, some famous, some not. Hop aboard Voices on the River for a cruise you will long remember.
Lewis Hankins
A.k.a. "Mark Twain" on the American Queen Steamboat
I have just had the good fortune to read Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River: 22 Days on the Delta Queen while riding the Mississippi River on the American Queen steamboat. This book has touched my very soul. A passenger just stopped to ask me, “Why are you crying?” I showed him the beautiful dust jacket. Between sniffles, I replied, “I’ll bet you can’t read this book without crying, either.” Here's what I know: Regardless of whether you read Voices on the River on land or on water, you will be happy you did.
Barry Bostwick
tony award-winning actor of stage, screen, and television
During my reading of Dennis Brown’s Voices on the River:
22 Days on the Delta Queen, I was taken on a memorable
voyage down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. I slept, ate,
and conversed in a world that is so foreign to me, a
slower world than I have ever known, perhaps even a lost
world never to return. Dennis Brown loves that lost world.
He delights in introducing his readers to the many colorful
characters he has met on the river, fascinating people you
might never encounter anywhere else. And yet, by book’s
end, Dennis becomes the most fascinating of them all.
