The Encyclopedia of Country Music The Ultimate Guide to the Music

by Kingsbury, Paul; The Country Music Foundation

• ISBN13: 9780195116717
• ISBN10: 0195116712
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-11-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

To its millions of fans, country music is America's music, offering a window on the sweet dreams and cruel disappointments of ordinary American lives. Now the renowned Country Music Foundation, custodian of Nashville's legendary Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, has compiled afascinating and infinitely useful guide to this beloved musical genre--The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Nearly 1,300 complete and up-to-the-minute alphabetical entries put eight decades of country music at readers' fingertips, from the earliest '20s recordings of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to the '90s chart-topping albums of LeAnn Rimes and Garth Brooks. A distinguished field of 137contributors provides an eminently readable and reliable guide to the singers, songwriters, record companies, and industry movers and shakers who have made country music the increasingly popular--and profitable--juggernaut it is today. There are entries for influential radio and televisionprograms, and for key country landmarks from Nashville's Music Row to Bakersfield's Blackboard nightclub. Ten longer essays probe the historical, cultural, religious, artistic, and financial forces shaping country music. Hundreds of photographs, some never before published, accompany the text,including 75 color photographs from the CMF Library's record collection, surveying the history of the country music album cover. Twelve appendices provide lists of country's all-time best-selling albums, country music stations nationwide, all the country music awards won over the years, and muchmore. Authoritative, accessible, and unerringly accurate, The Encyclopedia of Country Music will delight fans. It is an essential reference for libraries, radio stations, and the entertainment industry.

Author Biography

Paul Kingsbury is author of The Grand Ole Opry History of Country Music. A Deputy Director for the Country Music Foundation and an editor of Journal of Country Music, he lives in Nashville.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(2)
Emmylou Harris
Introduction	ix	(4)
Acknowledgments	xiii
The Entries, A-Z	3	(122)
Essay Articles	125	(484)
The Look of Country: The Colorful History of Country Music Costuming	125	(63)
Holly George-Warren
The Folk and Popular Roots of Country Music	188	(30)
Norm Cohen
The Gospel Truth: Christianity and Country Music	218	(94)
Bill C. Malone
Extra! Read All About It!: The Literature of Country Music	312	(52)
Nolan Porterfield
Country Music as Music	364	(21)
Bill Evans
The Center of Music City: Nashville's Music Row	385	(80)
John Lomax III
The Talking Machine: How Records Shaped Country Music	465	(57)
Colin Escott
It All Begins with a Song: A Brief History of Country Songwriting	522	(7)
Walter Carter
The South and Country Music	529	(27)
Bill C. Malone
From Schoolhouses to Arenas: A History of Country Music Touring	556	(53)
Ronnie Pugh
Color Section: The Sound Seen	Follows page 274
Appendices	609
Country Music's All-Time Best-Selling Albums	609	(5)
The ASCAP Most Performed Country Song of the Year Awards	614	(1)
Country's Share of the U.S. Recorded Music Market	615	(1)
Full-time Country Radio Stations in the U.S.A.	615	(1)
BMI's Most Performed Country Song of the Year Awards	616	(1)
Grand Ole Opry Members and the Dates They Joined the Show's Cast	616	(1)
Country Music Hall of Fame Members and Their Years of Election	617	(1)
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame	617	(1)
Grammy Awards Related to Country Music	618	(5)
Country Music Association (CMA) Awards	623	(2)
Academy of Country Music Awards	625	(4)
Music City News/TNN Awards	629	(3)
Contributors	632