Michael Urban is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. Although his career has focused on the study of Russian politics--yielding titles such as The Rebirth of Politics in Russia (1997) and Cultures of Power in Post-Communist Russia (2010) -- it has also included space for the study of music and community -- as in Russia Gets the Blues: Music, Culture and Community in Unsettled Times (2004) -- which is extended with the present volume.