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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Contemporary popular music > Country & western
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.
In the nearly eight decades since his death from tuberculosis at
age thirty-five, singer-songwriter Jimmie Rodgers has been an
inspiration for numerous top performers--from Woody Guthrie, Lead
Belly, Bill Monroe and Hank Williams to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash,
Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, and Beck. How did this Mississippi-born
vaudevillian, a former railroad worker who performed so briefly so
long ago, produce tones, tunes, and themes that have had such broad
influence and made him the model for the way American roots music
stars could become popular heroes?
In Meeting Jimmie Rodgers, the first book to explore the deep
legacy of "The Singing Brakeman" from a twenty-first century
perspective, Barry Mazor offers a lively look at Rodgers' career,
tracing his rise from working-class obscurity to the pinnacle of
renown that came with such hits as "Blue Yodel" and "In the
Jailhouse Now." As Mazor shows, Rodgers brought emotional clarity
and a unique sense of narrative drama to every song he performed,
whether tough or sentimental, comic or sad. His wistful singing,
falsetto yodels, bold flat-picking guitar style, and sometimes
censorable themes---sex, crime, and other edgy topics--set him
apart from most of his contemporaries. But more than anything else,
Mazor suggests, it was Rodgers' shape-shifting ability to assume
many public personas--working stiff, decked-out cowboy, suave
ladies' man--that connected him to such a broad public and set the
stage for the stars who followed him.
Mazor goes beyond Rodgers's own life to map the varied places his
music has gone, forever changing not just country music but also
rock and roll, blues, jazz, bluegrass, Western, commercial folk,
and muchmore. In reconstructing this far-flung legacy, Mazor
enables readers to meet Rodgers and his music anew--not as an
historical figure, but as a vibrant, immediate force.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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