Country category: 255 books
Reading Country Music
Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky Tonk Bars
Language: English
Release Date: July 23, 1998
With its steel guitars, Opry stars, and honky-tonk bars, country music is an American original. The most popular music in America today, it’s also big business. Amazing, then, that country music has been so little studied by critics, given its predominance in American culture. Reading Country Music...
Country Boys and Redneck Women
New Essays in Gender and Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: February 8, 2016
Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current...
by Preshias Harris
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2016
“I Know Country!” is the day-by-day book of country music questions and answers. 366 challenging questions about Blake Shelton, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Hank Williams, Chris Young,...
Sing Me Back Home
Love, Death, and Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: May 27, 2008
The years from about 1950 to 1970 were the golden age of twang. Country music's giants all strode the earth in those years: Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, George Jones and Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. And many of the standards that still define country were recorded then: "Folsom...
Hidden in the Mix
The African American Presence in Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: July 10, 2013
Country music's debt to African American music has long been recognized. Black musicians have helped to shape the styles of many of the most important performers in the country canon. The partnership between Lesley Riddle and A. P. Carter produced much of the Carter Family's repertoire; the street...
A Boy Named Sue
Gender and Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: November 2, 2004
From the smiling, sentimental mothers portrayed in 1930s radio barn dance posters, to the sexual shockwaves generated by Elvis Presley, to the female superstars redefining contemporary country music, gender roles and imagery have profoundly influenced the ways country music is made and enjoyed. Proper...
Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks
The Countercultural Sounds of Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene
Language: English
Release Date: May 20, 2011
Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture. But in 1972, the city of Austin, Texas became host to a growing community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who saw country music as a part...
by James Hoag
Language: English
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Garth Brooks has been certified one of the bestselling artists in history. In the United States, he is third, only behind Elvis Presley and The Beatles. That includes all types of music, not just country. The Legends of Country Music explores the life of Garth Brooks, but more importantly, it considers...
Country Music Records
A Discography, 1921-1942
Language: English
Release Date: October 7, 2004
More than twenty years in the making, Country Music Records documents all country music recording sessions from 1921 through 1942. With primary research based on files and session logs from record companies, interviews with surviving musicians, as well as the 200,000 recordings archived at the Country...
by Travis D. Stimeling
Language: English
Release Date: June 1, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: June 1, 2017
Now in its sixth decade, country music studies is a thriving field of inquiry involving scholars working in the fields of American history, folklore, sociology, anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and geography, among many others. Covering issues of historiography and practice...
Marty Robbins
Fast Cars and Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: July 26, 2007
From his first performance in the late 1940s until his early death in 1982, Marty Robbins established himself as one of the most popular and successful singer/songwriters in the latter half of the 20th century. On the country charts, he racked up 15 #1 hits, including the crossover smashes El Paso...
A Happy Type of Sadness:
A Journey Through Irish Country Music
Language: English
Release Date: July 6, 2018
Country music fandom is at an all-time high in Ireland; social dancing has never been as popular. New artists, bands and venues proliferate; it seems each week ‘Ireland’s latest country sensation’ is brought to the public’s attention through the ever-widening media outlets populated by the...
Wrong's What I Do Best
Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture
Language: English
Release Date: July 19, 2001
This is the first study of "hard" country music as well as the first comprehensive application of contemporary cultural theory to country music. Barbara Ching begins by defining the features that make certain country songs and artists "hard." She compares hard country music to "high" American culture,...
Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock
Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock
Language: English
Release Date: September 23, 2012
On September 19, 1973, Gram Parsons became yet another rock-and-roll casualty in an era of excess, a time when young men wore their dangerous habits like badges of honor. Unfortunately, his many musical accomplishments have been overshadowed by a morbid fascination with his drug overdose in the Joshua...