Billy Edd Wheeler is a veteran of the country music scene, having worked as a Nashville songwriter since the early 1960s. Billy Edd knows country, and, as title-holder to the moniker "Dean of Country Humor," he also knows funny. "It's impossible to attend a recording session in Nashville without hearing lots of stories and jokes," Billy Edd observes. After all, stories and humor form the foundation of country music. Wheeler has gathered jokes from some of the greatest names in country music in what reads like outtakes from a long-running recording session. The list on contributors spans the music scene from Patsy Cline to Jimmy Dean.

A sampling of the highlights of Appalachian humor, collected from the Festival of Appalachian Humor, with illustrations by Jacqueline Froelich.