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This deeply researched and hugely entertaining history begins where country music itself emerged: the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s, the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation—a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today.
But above all, Country Music is the story of the musicians. Here is Hank Williams's tragic honky tonk life, Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood, and Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere. Here too are interviews with the genre's biggest stars, including the likes of Merle Haggard to Garth Brooks to Rosanne Cash. Rife with endlessly fascinating anecdotes, the stories in this sweeping yet intimate history will captivate longtime country fans and introduce new listeners to an extraordinary body of music that lies at the very center of the American experience.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 10, 2019 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780525588870
- File size: 522507 KB
- Duration: 18:08:33
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Sadly, listeners won't hear the songs on this companion volume to Ken Burns's PBS documentary series. The stories stand tall without them, though. Listeners can imagine narrator Brian Corrigan's clear, slightly accented voice hosting a country music show. He gives quotes from music figures a natural conversational tone, although listeners won't mistake Corrigan for Dolly Parton. Many listeners will have heard the basics of the lives of stars like Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. The familiar stories are told with engaging charm, and there's always a new tidbit to chaw on. Dayton Duncan adds a likable personal note at the end as he narrates his own afterword, while Ken Burns introduces the audiobook with a sense of importance and grandeur. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from August 12, 2019
This voluminous and hugely entertaining introduction to country music coincides with the release of the eponymous PBS series, by producer and writer Duncan (Out West) and producer and filmmaker Burns (The Civil War). The authors take readers through the history of country music, including Jimmie Rodgers’s performance on Asheville’s first radio station in 1927, the gospel-infused strains of the Carter Family in the 1930s and ’40s, the country and western stylings of Ernest Tubb in the 1950s, the strings-drenched Nashville Sound of the 1960s, later, the outlaw country of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson and the California country of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard; and the 1980s and ’90s pop country sound of Garth Brooks, the Judd sisters, and Reba McEntire. The narrative—supported by concert photos and images of album jackets and various memorabilia—moves at a quick clip as the authors highlight the lives and music of such influential musicians as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Hank Williams. They also celebrate the venues that have become like holy temples, especially Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium—home of the Grand Ole Opry—and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, across the alley from the Ryman. Interspersed throughout are interviews with such country music stars as Rosanne Cash, Guy Clark, Marty Stuart, and Emmylou Harris (“The simplicity of country music is one of the most important things about it,” Harris says). Duncan’s and Burns’s lavishly illustrated and cinematic narrative will stand as the definitive history of the genre.
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