In The Country Music Reader Travis D. Stimeling provides an anthology of primary source readings from newspapers, magazines, and fan ephemera encompassing the history of country music from circa 1900 to the present. Presenting conversations that have shaped historical understandings of country music, it brings the voices of country artists and songwriters, music industry insiders, critics, and fans together in a vibrant conversation about a widely loved yet seldom studied genre of American popular music. Situating each source chronologically within its specific musical or cultural context, Stimeling traces the history of country music from the fiddle contests and ballad collections of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the most recent developments in contemporary country music. Drawing from a vast array of sources including popular magazines, fan newsletters, trade publications, and artist biographies, The Country Music Reader offers firsthand insight into the changing role of country music within both the music industry and American musical culture, and presents a rich resource for university students, popular music scholars, and country music fans alike.

Country music in the Carolinas and the southern Appalachian Mountains owes a tremendous debt to freedom-loving Scotch-Irish pioneers who settled the southern backcountry during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These hardy Protestant settlers brought with them from Lowland Scotland, Northern England and the Ulster Province of Ireland music that created the essential framework for "old-time string band music." From the cabins of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains to the textile mills and urban centers of the Carolina foothills, this colorful, passionate, heartfelt music transformed the culture of America and the world and laid the foundation for western swing, bluegrass, rockabilly and modern country music. Author Michael Scoggins takes a trip to the roots of country music in the Carolinas.

“Sy bly nog steeds ná 50 jaar in die vermaaklikheidsbedryf ’n nooi soos Min!” – André H. van Dyk

In hierdie pragboek word foto’s en memento’s uit Min Shaw se persoonlike fotoalbums en plakboeke opgeneem. Min se herinneringe aan haar kinderdae, haar transformasie van onderwyseres tot sang- en filmster, en die mense wat haar op haar pad na sukses gehelp het, word in haar eie woorde weergegee. Min deel verder snaakse staaltjies uit haar verlede, skoonheidsgeheime en interessante “Min-feite”. Sy vertel hoe haar geloof haar positief en plat op die aarde hou. Boodskappe aan Min van bekendes soos Corlea Botha, Franz Marx, Lance James en Leon van Nierop word ook ingesluit.

Do you ever find yourself: Tumblin' out of bed and stumblin' to the kitchen? Searchin' for a cup of ambition? Sighin' and groanin' at the mundanity of life? We could all do with a bit more Dolly in our lives! With empowering advice on love, business, style and looking out for number one, these pages will help Dolly Parton lovers everywhere create the life they truly want.

In this ethnography of Navajo (Dine) popular music culture, Kristina M. Jacobsen examines questions of Indigenous identity and performance by focusing on the surprising and vibrant Navajo country music scene. Through multiple first-person accounts, Jacobsen illuminates country music's connections to the Indigenous politics of language and belonging, examining through the lens of music both the politics of difference and many internal distinctions Dine make among themselves and their fellow Navajo citizens. As the second largest tribe in the United States, the Navajo have often been portrayed as a singular and monolithic entity. Using her experience as a singer, lap steel player, and Navajo language learner, Jacobsen challenges this notion, showing the ways Navajos distinguish themselves from one another through musical taste, linguistic abilities, geographic location, physical appearance, degree of Navajo or Indian blood, and class affiliations. By linking cultural anthropology to ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology, and critical Indigenous studies, Jacobsen shows how Navajo poetics and politics offer important insights into the politics of Indigeneity in Native North America, highlighting the complex ways that identities are negotiated in multiple, often contradictory, spheres.

A pianist, arranger, and composer, William Pursell is a mainstay of the Nashville music scene. He has played jazz in Nashville's Printer's Alley with Chet Atkins and Harold Bradley, recorded with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, performed with the Nashville Symphony, and composed and arranged popular and classical music. Pursell's career, winding like a crooked river between classical and popular genres, encompasses a striking diversity of musical experiences. A series of key choices sent him down different paths, whether it was reenrolling with the Air Force for a second tour of duty, leaving the prestigious Eastman School of Music to tour with an R&B band, or refusing to sign with the Beatles' agent Sid Bernstein. The story of his life as a working musician is unlike any other-he is not a country musician nor a popular musician nor a classical musician but, instead, an artist who refused to be limited by traditional categories. Crooked River City is driven by a series of recollections and personal anecdotes Terry Wait Klefstad assembled over a three-year period of interviews with Pursell. His story is one not only of talent, but of dedication and hard work, and of the ins and outs of a working musician in America. This biography fills a crucial gap in Nashville music history for both scholars and music fans.

Bill Anderson is one of the most successful songwriters, performers, and personalities in country music history. Known as "Whisperin' Bill" to generations of fans, Anderson's soft vocalisations and spoken lyrics are the hallmarks of his style. A long-standing member of the weekly Grand Ole Opry radio program and stage performance in Nashville, he also discovered future Country Music Hall of Famer Connie Smith and wrote her first hits, toured with Johnny Cash, hosted his own television show, sang eighty charting singles and thirty-seven Top Ten country music hits, and wrote songs recorded by James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Louvin Brothers, Dean Martin, Aretha Franklin, and many more. Anderson's current and reinvigorated career is covered in this revision and expansion of his 1989 autobiography. Over the past twenty years, he has won two Country Music Association Song of the Year prizes, been nominated for GRAMMY awards, won the Academy of Country Music's Song of the Year distinction, and had works recorded by superstars Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, George Strait, Vince Gill, Elvis Costello, and many more. In 2001, he entered the Country Music Hall of Fame. Whisperin' Bill: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music presents a portrait of a long-gone Nashville and introduces readers to the famous and fascinating characters who helped build what is now known as country music. Richly illustrated with black-and-white photos of Anderson interacting with the superstars of American roots music, including such legends as Patsy Cline, Vince Gill, and Steve Wariner, this autobiography highlights Anderson's trajectory in the business and his influence on the past, present, and future of this dynamic genre.

Today, country music enjoys a national fan base that transcends both economic and social boundaries. Sixty years ago, however, it was primarily the music of rural, working-class whites living in the South and was perceived by many Americans as hillbilly music. In Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly, Jeffrey J. Lange examines the 1940s and early 1950s as the most crucial period in country music s transformation from a rural, southern folk art form to a national phenomenon. In his meticulous analysis of changing performance styles and alterations in the lifestyles of listeners, Lange illuminates the acculturation of country music and its audience into the American mainstream. Dividing country music into six subgenres (progressive country, western swing, postwar traditional, honky-tonk, country pop, and country blues), Lange discusses the music s expanding appeal. As he analyzes the recordings and comments of each of the subgenre s most significant artists, including Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, and Red Foley, he traces the many paths the musical form took on its road to respectability. Lange shows how along the way the music and its audience became more sophisticated, how the subgenres blended with one another and with American popular music, and how Nashville emerged as the country music hub. By 1954, the transformation from hillbilly music to country music was complete, precipitated by the modernizing forces of World War II and realized by the efforts of promoters, producers, and performers.

An insightful and wide-ranging look at one of America's most popular genres of music, Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture examines how country songwriters engage with their nation's religion, literature, and politics. Country fans have long encountered the concept of walking the line, from Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" to Waylon Jennings's "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line." Walking the line requires following strict codes, respecting territories, and, sometimes, recognizing that only the slightest boundary separates conflicting allegiances. However, even as the term acknowledges control, it suggests rebellion, the consideration of what lies on the other side of the line, and perhaps the desire to violate that code. For lyricists, the line presents a moment of expression, an opportunity to relate an idea, image, or emotion. These lines represent boundaries of their kind as well, but as the chapters in this volume indicate, some of the more successful country lyricists have tested and expanded the boundaries as they have challenged musical, social, and political conventions, often reevaluating what "country" means in country music. From Jimmie Rodgers's redefinitions of democracy, to revisions of Southern Christianity by Hank Williams and Willie Nelson, to feminist retellings by Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to masculine reconstructions by Merle Haggard and Cindy Walker, to Steve Earle's reworking of American ideologies, this collection examines how country lyricists walk the line. In weighing the influence of the lyricists' accomplishments, the contributing authors walk the line in turn, exploring iconic country lyrics that have tested and expanded boundaries, challenged musical, social, and political conventions, and reevaluated what "country" means in country music.

Each year over 7,000,000 visitors come to Branson, Missouri. The town is home to over 100 shows and attractions ranging from country to pop, big band to magic. This book takes a look at a cross section of people who make Branson's entertainment community unique, from its pioneer entertainers to the superstars who've made the town their home to the performers who delight visitors day and night in theaters, restaurants and theme parks. It tells the story of a fruit truck driver who turned a vacant piece of land into a multi-million dollar entertainment mecca, a truck stop waitress from South Dakota who found the perfect place to wait tables while pursuing a singing and recording career, a country music superstar who tried to avoid Branson but eventually opened his own theater on the city's 76 Country Boulevard and others who have helped make the music show capital unique in all the world. Their stories are seen through the eyes of a veteran broadcaster who has spent thousands of hours over three decades interviewing hundreds of artists, business leaders and fans. His unique insights give an intimate account of the lives of these fascinating personalities.

Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard's Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle's music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music. The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of "the common man." Merle Haggard's story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer's infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters. The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike.

A favorite country music artist, Eddy Arnold has been recording since 1944. This work details each recording session, as well as the records on which each song appeared, and includes 104 songs that were never released. An appendix lists basic biographical information. Of interest to music historians, discographers, and fans, this is the most comprehensive discography available on Eddy Arnold, whose career spans six decades.