“[S]cholars will appreciate the depth of Gioia's research. Summing Up: Recommended.” — C. Wadsworth Walker, Choice
“Gioia here reinforces his reputation for combining inquisitive scholarship with lucid readability.” — Andrew Green, Classical Music
"Healing Songs provides a penetrating look at therapeutic music. . . . Healing Songs is the type of book which will certainly have a wide reading appeal among those who enjoy jazz, music, sonic techniques, and wish to know about music as a tool for healing. It is well-written, concise, and enjoyable. It will undoubtedly find a welcome spot on your bookshelf, frequently revisited in order to savor its contents. Healing Songs takes readers on a transcendent journey. Educational and enjoyable. Highly recommended." — Lee Prosser, JazzReview.com
"[Work Songs and Healing Songs] share much beyond a conviction that music speaks most eloquently when it is grounded in human life. Both break through the cultural and genre boundaries that determine the scope of most books on music, seeking out unsuspected parallels between widely separated cultures.” — Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph
"In the two books, which can be read separately or as two volumes of an intricately interwoven study, we are given a wide range of examples to explain why music has always been, and continues to be, such an integral part of the human experience." — Lahri Bond, Dirty Linen
“Ted Gioia enriches and makes real the powerful message that music is, and has always been, an integral part of the toolkit that ordinary humans have used to navigate life. He shows that, far from being a pastime to fill idle moments or a distraction from everyday preoccupations, music addresses fundamental issues of human existence, survival, and liberation. Gioia’s work offers hope to those who fear that the corporate mass media may have suffocated the age-old impulse of ordinary people to make music their own.” — John Sloboda, author of Exploring the Musical Mind