Country category: 255 books

West Virginia has been known for a century as a rich repository of traditional country music and musicians. Beginning in the mid-1920s, phonograph recordings and radios brought this music to a wider audience. With the passing of time and the influence of commercialization, this music developed into what...

Contrary to popular belief, the roots of American country music do not lie solely on southern farms or in mountain hollows. Rather, much of this music recorded before World War II emerged from the bustling cities and towns of the Piedmont South. No group contributed more to the commercialization of...

In this comprehensive study, Joe Carr presents all the major country guitar styles in tablature and standard music notation. Beginning with basic chords and strum patterns, this book/audio combination covers flatpicking, fingerpicking and the major country lead styles including Rockabilly, Swing and...

-Peter Cooper, a well-respected music writer and musician, was the music writer at the Tennessean for over a decade and is now the Editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame. -The top music and radio genre in the US, the interest in country music continues to grow stronger and wider annually. -The popularity...

In this ethnography of Navajo (Diné) 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...

Attention all harmonica enthusiasts! Join in the fun of playing at a bluegrass festival with a bluegrass band. This book brings to you the often performed tunes by every bluegrass and country player of all instruments. Select a few of these tunes and play them on your harmonica and you will be an...

Loretta Lynn’s classic memoir tells the story of her early life in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, and her amazing rise to the top of the music industry. Born into deep poverty, married at thirteen, mother of six, and a grandmother by the time she was twenty-nine, Loretta Lynn went on to become...

Retracing the life of Buck Owens-from his poverty-stricken youth as the son of a sharecropper to one of the nation’s best-loved and wealthiest entertainers-this biography pays tribute to the man and his music by revealing his genius, his warmth, his humor, his vulnerabilities, and his flaws. It...

A story about the early days of country music in the Knoxville area, including milestone shows such as WNOX's "Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round" and the TN Barn Dance, and the stars who shone bright and those who later moved on to stardom in Nashville.

Platinum-award winning country music star Scotty McCreery shares his path from North Carolina to American Idol to the top of the country music scene. It was just a simple singing competition that would be fun to audition for. Who knew what kind of doors it might open for a sixteen-year-old...

Country music star Brad Paisley salutes others in the music world in this funny, personal, and fascinating portrait of what it’s like to be country’s leading guitar hero. The Story of a Life with Strings Attached Brad Paisley is one of country music’s leading men—admired as a...

Often dismissed by rock historians as a product of the antiseptic Californian country-music scene, an artist who relied on watered-down covers of classic rock n’ roll and pop standards, this description of Linda Ronstadt couldn’t be further from the truth. Throughout a recording career that has...

The book that inspired the major motion picture I Saw the Light. Originally published as Hank William: The Biography. In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "Jambalaya"...

James and Annetta White opened the Broken Spoke in 1964, then a mile south of the Austin city limits, under a massive live oak, and beside what would eventually become South Lamar Boulevard. White built the place himself, beginning construction on the day he received his honorable discharge from the...