Description
Book SynopsisThe essential companion to the 2019 Ken Burns documentary on country music, in which Bill Malone appears as a featured historian, this fiftieth-anniversary edition of Country Music USA traces the music from the early days of radio into the new millennium.
Trade ReviewAn important book. . . the first to tell the genre’s complete story, beginning with its folk, religious and early commercial origins — the ballads of the British Isles, the tent revivals, the 19th-century minstrel shows and the 1927 recording session in Bristol, Tennessee, that saw both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family make their first recordings. * Texas Observer *
Considered the definitive history of American country music. * Los Angeles Times *
Country Music USA has been an authoritative and detailed history lesson and reference manual for country music, paralleled in quality and scope by few other works. It’s country music’s biography, starting with country’s very beginnings in primitive folk, and ranging all the way to the present day. * Saving Country Music *
[
Country Music USA] was, and remains, a staggering work of scholarship that became a cornerstone of American music history—anyone writing seriously about country must reckon with it. * Longreads *
Malone's book provides a veritable treasure trove of information regarding the musicians, musical styles, and distribution networks (primarily the radio and phonograph recordings) of country music. . . Malone presents his readers with discrete insights into the particular musical acts that gave rise to and perpetuated the country music tradition in all of its internal contradictions, negotiations, and accommodations. * PopMatters *
If you've long been passionate about music, especially early country music's acoustic forms, Malone's books are a validation of your passion. They are also a retro road map of how the musicians and tunes that moved our souls arrived in our lives. * Mandolin Café *
The country-music history bible. * Rolling Stone *
A seminal document in logging [country music's] story. * Billboard *
[Country music's] definitive history. * New Yorker *
Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Henry Sapoznik
- Preface
- Chapter 1. The Folk Background before Commercialism
- Chapter 2. The Early Period of Commercial Hillbilly Music
- Chapter 3. The First Country Singing Star: Jimmie Rodgers
- Chapter 4. Country Music during the Depression
- Chapter 5. The Cowboy Image and the Growth of Western Music
- Chapter 6. The War Years: The National Expansion of Country Music
- Chapter 7. The Boom Period: The Emergence of a Big Business, 1946–1953
- Chapter 8. The Development of Country-Pop Music and the Nashville Sound
- Chapter 9. The Reinvigoration of Modern Country Music, 1960–1972
- Chapter 10. Bluegrass
- Chapter 11. Country Music, 1972–1984
- Chapter 12. Tradition and Change: Country Music, 1985–2000
- Chapter 13. A New Century
- Notes
- Bibliographical Essays
- Index
- Index of Song Titles
