Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Introduction

1 Behind the "big bang": The roots of country music
2 "Wildwood flowers": Country music goes mainstream: 1923-1930
3 "Back in the saddle again": The birth of the singing cowboy, 1930s-1945
4 "Honky-tonkin'": Postwar country music: 1945-1959
5 "Make the world go away": Nashville and countrypolitan sounds, 1957-1980
6 "Mama tried": Country alternatives, from Bakersfield to Austin, 1965-1980
7 "Friends in low places": Retro-country and country-pop since 1980
Coda: Country music in a new millennium

Further Reading
Index

About the Author

Richard Carlin is the Grammy Award-winning author of numerous books on popular music, including The Big Book of Country (1995) and Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways (2008). He is also an executive editor of art, art history, and music at Oxford University Press.

Reviews

"A nice pocket sized book, you don't have to be an academic to read it. It takes you right up to the start of country music and brings you just about bang up to date. Very readable." -- Paul Braithwaite, BBC Radio Cumbria & BBC Tees