Country Music, U.S.A.

Since its first publication in 1968, Bill C. Malone'sCountry Music, U.S.A.has won universal acclaim as the definitive history of American country music. Starting with the music's folk roots in the rural South, it traces country music from the early days of radio through the first decade of the twenty-first century. This third revised edition includes an extensive new chapter in which new coauthor Jocelyn R. Neal tracks developments in country music in the post-9/11 world, exploring the relationship between the current scene and the traditions from which the music emerged.

Immersed in country music since his birth, Bill C. Malone has been both a scholar and a performer of the music for several decades. On the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Country Music, U.S.A. in 2008, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music. His other books include Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class, Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music, and Southern Music: American Music. Jocelyn R. Neal is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Legacy in Country Music.