By Wendy Greenberg

John Quincy Adams — the sixth U.S. president — was not especially musical, points out Princeton University Professor of American History Sean Wilentz. So how did a Grammy-nominated musician like Bob Crawford come to publish a book about Adams, and why?

Crawford, bassist for the folk rock band The Avett Brothers, and Wilentz will discuss Adams as the subject for Crawford’s new book, America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick (released March 10), and more, at Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street, on Saturday March 14 from 4 to 5 p.m.

The book tells the story of Adams’ “turbulent government career and his evolving views on slavery,” according to publisher Zando, noting that Adams “found himself at the center of the coalition that leveled the first blow against slave power in the United States.”

Crawford is already a storyteller, as cohost of the podcast The Road to Now, and hosts iHeart’s American History Hotline. He also earned a master’s in history degree from Arizona State University.

“I have always been interested in American History,” he said by email. “Since my childhood, I have enjoyed visiting historic sites and learning about history. In high school, I was a C student, but I excelled in a class where one semester was the History of New Jersey and the other half was Intro to Civics.” (He is from southern New Jersey.)

In the early 2000s, Crawford read Wilentz’s book, The Rise of American Democracy: From Jefferson to Lincoln (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize). “It was there I first learned about JQA and his extraordinary life and career of public service. His life of public service fascinated me. From witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill to succumbing to a stroke on the floor of Congress at the age of 80, he lived the most extraordinary life of any politician of his era. Maybe of the entire nineteenth century,” wrote Crawford.

Wilentz, for his part, calls Adams a “fascinating” subject. “Because his presidency was a political failure, John Quincy Adams has fallen from view,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Yet his post-presidential career in Congress, as a fierce defender of free speech and, in time, an ally of the abolitionists, left an extraordinary mark. More than any other national leader, Adams bridged the span from the age of the American Revolution to the cusp of the divisive era that would bring the Civil War.

“With a fine awareness of these times and Adams’ personal complexities, Bob Crawford has written an excellent study, at once seriously grounded and entertaining.”

For their upcoming conversation, Wilentz said he would be “curious to explore what connections, if any, he makes between his musical work and his historical writing. Adams himself, although appreciative of psalm-singing, was not especially musical, he tended to view secular music with a degree of suspicion.”

Wilentz added, “How does a Grammy-nominated artist like Crawford relate to someone so basically unmusical as John Quincy Adams?”

“Crawford stands on his own as a musician and songwriter,” said Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton, and the author of many books on American history and politics, including No Property in Man, The Politicians and the Egalitarians, and Bob Dylan in America. “Apart, though, from, Bob Dylan, and in very different ways, I can think of no contemporary musical artist who matches his passion for and comprehension of the American past, real and mythic.”

As a musician tackling a history book, Crawford said that “while writing this book, I bumped up against the limitations of my writing ability…. When that happened, I just tried to pretend I was telling a friend a story. I tried to explain Adams and his contemporaries in a way that would be relatable to people today. I wanted to show that history does not exactly repeat, but people have not changed at all. Technology has changed over the past 150 plus years, but people have not changed at all. We are the same people who lived back in the first half of the nineteenth century.

“This period between the Revolution and the Civil War is rife with intrigue and crisis, and filled with rich, complex characters. Today we seem to be experiencing unprecedented crises daily. We don’t know where this all will lead. We cannot even speculate, but we are living through a moment that analysts will scrutinize for years to come. “

Crawford is also dedicated to raising awareness about pediatric cancer, as co-managing partner, with his wife, for The Press On Fund, an organization that seeks to find less toxic treatments for childhood cancer.

“Press on Fund is a pediatric cancer charity my family is involved with, along with two other cancer families. My daughter, Hallie, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was almost 2. She has had three brain tumors since. Pediatric cancer funding has always lagged behind adult cancer research, but since the Trump administration ended the nation’s war on cancer, organizations like ours are essential to continue making progress towards less toxic treatments and hopefully cures.”

Registration is required for this free event, with the option to pre-order a copy of the book. Books will be available for sale and signing following the conversation. Register at labyrinthbooks.com/events.

Labyrinth will donate 10 percent of pre-order sales and book sales at the event to the New Jersey Council of the Humanities. There is an option to donate when registering.

“State humanities councils have been a cornerstone of American civic life since the 1960s, but recent funding cuts have put local stories and culture at risk,” states the Labyrinth website.