Jimmie Rodgers
Author: Nolan Porterfield
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 516
ISBN-13: 9781604731606
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Meeting Jimmie Rodgers
Author: Barry Mazor
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Published: 2009-05-15
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 0195327624
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHere is the first book to explore the legacy of Jimmie Rodgers, offering a lively look at Rodgers' career, tracing his rise from working-class obscurity to the pinnacle of renown. As Mazor shows, Rodgers brought emotional clarity and a unique sense of narrative drama to every song he performed. But more than anything else, Mazor suggests, it was Rodgers' shape-shifting ability to assume many public personas--working stiff, decked-out cowboy, suave ladies' man--that connected him to a broad public and set the stage for the stars who followed.
My Husband, Jimmie Rodgers
Author: Carrie Cecil Williamson Rodgers
Publisher: Country Music Foundation
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9780915608164
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOriginally published in 1935, this affectionate biography was for decades the only detailed account of the life of the "Father of Country Music." The new edition includes photographs, index, and a new, critical introduction by award-winning Rodgers biographer Nolan Porterfield. Distributed for the Country Music Foundation Press
Meeting Jimmie Rodgers
Author: Barry Mazor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009-05-15
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 0199716668
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn Meeting Jimmie Rodgers, the first book to explore the deep legacy of "The Singing Brakeman" from a twenty-first century perspective, Barry Mazor offers a lively look at Rodgers' career, tracing his rise from working-class obscurity to the pinnacle of renown that came with such hits as "Blue Yodel" and "In the Jailhouse Now." As Mazor shows, Rodgers brought emotional clarity and a unique sense of narrative drama to every song he performed, whether tough or sentimental, comic or sad. His wistful singing, falsetto yodels, bold flat-picking guitar style, and sometimes censorable themes--sex, crime, and other edgy topics--set him apart from most of his contemporaries. But more than anything else, Mazor suggests, it was Rodgers' shape-shifting ability to assume many public personas--working stiff, decked-out cowboy, suave ladies' man--that connected him to such a broad public and set the stage for the stars who followed him. In reconstructing this far-flung legacy, Mazor enables readers to meet Rodgers and his music anew-not as an historical figure, but as a vibrant, immediate force.
Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music (Enhanced Edition)
Author: Barry Mazor
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2015-04-01
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 1613733887
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is the first biography of Ralph Peer, the adventurous—even revolutionary—A&R man and music publisher who saw the universal power locked in regional roots music and tapped it, changing the breadth and flavor of popular music around the world. It is the story of the life and fifty-year career, from the age of cylinder recordings to the stereo era, of the man who pioneered the recording, marketing, and publishing of blues, jazz, country, gospel, and Latin music. The book tracks Peer’s role in such breakthrough events as the recording of Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” (the record that sparked the blues craze), the first country recording sessions with Fiddlin’ John Carson, his discovery of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family at the famed Bristol sessions, the popularizing of Latin American music during World War II, and the postwar transformation of music on the airwaves that set the stage for the dominance of R&B, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. But this is also the story of a man from humble midwestern beginnings who went on to build the world’s largest independent music publishing firm, fostering the global reach of music that had previously been specialized, localized, and marginalized. Ralph Peer redefined the ways promising songs and performers were identified, encouraged, and promoted, rethought how far regional music might travel, and changed our very notions of what pop music can be. This enhanced e-book includes 49 of the greatest songs Ralph Peer was involved with, from groundbreaking numbers that changed the history of recorded music to revelatory obscurities, all linked to the text so that the reader can hear the music while reading about it.
Traditional Country & Western Music
Author: Karl Anderson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 128
ISBN-13: 1467105392
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTraditional Country & Western Music presents historical photographs, memorabilia, and stories about an enduring music genre that took root in America from the late 1920s through the mid-1930s. Although many of our early folk songs originated from the British Isles, Jimmie Rodgers (the "Father of Country Music") and Gene Autry ("America's Favorite Singing Cowboy") became the foundation of modern country and western music. Many regional styles and variations of country and western music developed during the first half of the 20th century, including hillbilly, bluegrass, honky-tonk, rockabilly, southern gospel, Cajun, and Texas swing. Local artists, live radio shows, and regional barn dance programs provided entertainment throughout the Great Depression, World War II, and into America's postwar years. During the 1950s, country and western music became homogenized with the Nashville sound and the Bakersfield sound. By the end of the 1960s, country music completed its move to Nashville, and "western" was dropped from the equation. This book recalls the golden age of country and western music from the late 1920s through the 1960s. Each of the featured artists and programs in this book were once household names. We celebrate these early legends, live radio and television shows, unsung heroes, and local performers from Maine to California.
The Encyclopedia of Country Music
Author: Michael McCall
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-02-01
Total Pages: 665
ISBN-13: 0199920834
DOWNLOAD EBOOKImmediately upon publication in 1998, the Encyclopedia of Country Music became a much-loved reference source, prized for the wealth of information it contained on that most American of musical genres. Countless fans have used it as the source for answers to questions about everything from country's first commercially successful recording, to the genre's pioneering music videos, to what conjunto music is. This thoroughly revised new edition includes more than 1,200 A-Z entries covering nine decades of history and artistry, from the Carter Family recordings of the 1920s to the reign of Taylor Swift in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Compiled by a team of experts at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the encyclopedia has been brought completely up-to-date, with new entries on the artists who have profoundly influenced country music in recent years, such as the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The new edition also explores the latest and most critical trends within the industry, shedding light on such topics as the digital revolution, the shifting politics of country music, and the impact of American Idol (reflected in the stardom of Carrie Underwood). Other essays cover the literature of country music, the importance of Nashville as a music center, and the colorful outfits that have long been a staple of the genre. The volume features hundreds of images, including a photo essay of album covers; a foreword by country music superstar Vince Gill (the winner of twenty Grammy Awards); and twelve fascinating appendices, ranging from lists of awards to the best-selling country albums of all time. Winner of the Best Reference Award from the Popular Culture Association "Any serious country music fan will treasure this authoritative book." --The Seattle Times "A long-awaited, major accomplishment, which educators, historians and students, broadcasters and music writers, artists and fans alike, will welcome and enjoy." --The Nashville Musician "Should prove a valuable resource to those who work in the country music business. But it's also an entertaining read for the music's true fans." --Houston Chronicle "This big, handsome volume spans the history of country music, listing not only artists and groups but also important individuals and institutions." --San Francisco Examiner "Promises to be the definitive historical and biographical work on the past eight decades of country music. Well written and heavily illustratedan unparalleled work, worth its price and highly recommended." --Library Journal
Me, the Mob, and the Music
Author: Tommy James
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2010-02-16
Total Pages: 249
ISBN-13: 1439142645
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNow in paperback, after five hardcover printings, Tommy James’s wild and entertaining true story of his career—part rock & roll fairytale, part valentine to a bygone era, and part mob epic—that “reads like a music-industry version of Goodfellas” (The Denver Post). Everyone knows the hits: “Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Crimson and Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” All of these songs, which epitomize great pop music of the late 1960s, are now widely used in television and film and have been covered by a diverse group of artists from Billy Idol to Tiffany to R.E.M. Just as compelling as the music itself is the life Tommy James lived while making it. James tells the incredible story, revealing his complex and sometimes terrifying relationship with Roulette Records and Morris Levy, the legendary Godfather of the music business. Me, the Mob, and the Music is a fascinating portrait of this swaggering, wildly creative era of rock ’n’ roll, when the hits kept coming and payola and the strong-arm tactics of the Mob were the norm, and what it was like, for better or worse, to be in the middle of it.
Brother Robert
Author: Annye C. Anderson
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2020-06-09
Total Pages: 162
ISBN-13: 030684527X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 “[Brother Robert} book does much to pull the blues master out of the fog of myth.”—Rolling Stone An intimate memoir by blues legend Robert Johnson's stepsister, including new details about his family, music, influences, tragic death, and musical afterlife Though Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven years young and relatively unknown at the time of his tragic death in 1938, his enduring recordings have solidified his status as a progenitor of the Delta blues style. And yet, while his music has retained the steadfast devotion of modern listeners, much remains unknown about the man who penned and played these timeless tunes. Few people alive today actually remember what Johnson was really like, and those who do have largely upheld their silence-until now. In Brother Robert, nonagenarian Annye C. Anderson sheds new light on a real-life figure largely obscured by his own legend: her kind and incredibly talented stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This book chronicles Johnson's unconventional path to stardom, from the harrowing story behind his illegitimate birth, to his first strum of the guitar on Anderson's father's knee, to the genre-defining recordings that would one day secure his legacy. Along the way, readers are gifted not only with Anderson's personal anecdotes, but with colorful recollections passed down to Anderson by members of their family-the people who knew Johnson best. Readers also learn about the contours of his working life in Memphis, never-before-disclosed details about his romantic history, and all of Johnson's favorite things, from foods and entertainers to brands of tobacco and pomade. Together, these stories don't just bring the mythologized Johnson back down to earth; they preserve both his memory and his integrity. For decades, Anderson and her family have ignored the tall tales of Johnson "selling his soul to the devil" and the speculative to fictionalized accounts of his life that passed for biography. Brother Robert is here to set the record straight. Featuring a foreword by Elijah Wald and a Q&A with Anderson, Wald, Preston Lauterbach, and Peter Guralnick, this book paints a vivid portrait of an elusive figure who forever changed the musical landscape as we know it.
A Deeper Blue
Author: Robert Earl Hardy
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13: 1574412477
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA biography of Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt, discussing his troubled childhood, the development of his career as a wandering folk singer, and his relationships with women, and including analyses of his songs.
