"Full of humor and humility . . . Since Benson started Asleep at the Wheel as a working-class country band, it's one helluva ride worth telling." — The Austin ChronicleA six-foot-seven-inch Jewish hippie from Philadelphia starts a Western swing band in 1970. It sounds like a joke but—more than forty years, twenty-five albums, and nine Grammy Awards later—Asleep at the Wheel is still drawing crowds around the world. The roster of musicians...

"Refreshing . . . candid . . . poignant. . . . One of the best of country's tell-alls, as warm, peculiar, and individualistic as Jennings's music itself." — Entertainment WeeklyEqual parts outlaw, renegade, and legend, Waylon Jennings enjoyed a stellar music career for four decades and this no-holds-barred autobiography reveals the story of a man who infused country music traditions with the energy of rock and roll to rewrite the rules of ...

A candid country music memoir from superstar guitarist and songwriter Brad Paisley, this personal and humorous account traces his journey from small-town West Virginia to becoming one of Nashville’s most celebrated performers.Long before CMA Awards and sold-out arenas, Brad Paisley was an eight-year-old boy handed a Sears Danelectro guitar by his beloved grandfather, Warren Jarvis. That Christmas gift became more than an instrument—it became an identity. In Dia...

Boozing. Womanizing. Brawling. Singing. For the last forty years George Jones has reigned as the country's king--the singer many have called the Frank Sinatra of country. And for most of that time, his career has been marked by hard-living, hard-loving, and hard luck. From his early east Texas recordings through his marriage with Tammy Wynette to his latest acclaim as a solid citizen and "high-tech red-neck," Americans have been fascinated with Jones, never even knowing whether he's going ...

A complete history of Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern, “the Birthplace of Canadian Rock,” to coincide with its seventieth anniversary.Like the Queen Street strip that has been its home for seven decades, the Horseshoe Tavern continues to evolve. It remains as relevant today as it did when Jack Starr founded the country music club on the site of a former blacksmith shop. From country and rockabilly to rock ‘n’ roll, punk, alt/country, and back to roots music, t...

THE DAZZLING RISE OF A YOUNG COUNTRY STARWho is this singer with the incredible voice, the youngest ever artist ever nominated for a Country Music Association Award, and winner of the Grammy Award for Best New Artist? Jo Sgammato traveled from Nashville to LeAnn's hometown of Pearl, Mississippi, then followed her path to Dallas and beyond to reveal her inspiring life. From singing at eighteen months through dazzling performances at talent shows, opry stages and sports arenas, here ...

An investigation of the fictional representations of the city in contemporary British and American television drama, assessing their political, sociological and cultural implications. The book draws on the following five key case studies for specific and detailed analysis:* Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City* Homicide & Life on the Street* Queer as Folk* The Cops* Holding OnEach is discussed in terms of structure, content, characterisation and ...

"If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones." - Waylon JenningsThis is the second in the "Legends of Country Music" series.This does for Country Music what "The Legends of Rock & Roll" series does for rock and roll. It is a mini-biography of one the great performers from Country Music, George Jones.George Jones has been called the greatest Country Music singer of all time.I have always loved every genre of music, but didn't get...

In popular music, country music, also called country and western music or country-western, is an amalgam of popular musical forms developed in the Southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, Celtic Music, Blues, Gospel music, and Old-time music that began to develop rapidly in the 1920s.The term country music began to be widely applied to the music in the 1940s and was fully embraced in the 1970s while country and western declined in use. "Encompassing a wide rang...

Eric Sams' study of Schumann's 246 songs (Faber 1961, revised 1993) - a companion volume to his The Songs of Hugo Wolf, also available in Faber Finds - remains a classic text. By providing a translation, commentary and notes for each of the songs, tracing original sources and relating recurring themes vividly to Schumann's life, Sams provides a unique documentary of Schumann's song-writing art.The book includes a foreword (to the First Edition) by the legendary acc...

Volumes 3 and 4 of the The Encyclopedia of More Great Popular Song Recordings provides the stories behind approximately 1,700 more of the greatest song recordings in the history of the music industry, from 1890 to today. In this masterful survey, all genres of popular music are covered, from pop, rock, soul, and country to jazz, blues, classic vocals, hip-hop, folk, gospel, and ethnic/world music. Collectors will find detailed discographical data—recording dates, record numbers, Billboard ...

The only performer to earn 5 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gene Autry was the singing cowboy king of American entertainment. Now, in Public Cowboy No.1, Holly George-Warren offers the first serious biography of this singular individual, in a fascinating narrative that traces Autry's climb from small-town farm boy to multimillionaire. Here for the first time Autry the legend becomes a flesh-and-blood man--with all the passions, triumphs, and tragedies of a flawed icon. Georg...