The conceit of Geoffrey Himes’ In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985 is that a group of ambitious country and pop musicians found a way to make country even more adult than it had been previously.
In Cocaine and Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Tyler Mahan Coe explains how the two greatest singers in country music history balanced conservatism and innovation in a blatantly commercial genre. Coe will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.
The music scene in Nashville is tricky and hard to describe until you figure out how obsessed the city is with the relationship between conformity and rebellion. Brian Fairbanks provides plenty of detail about the full-cylinder lives of country music iconoclasts Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings in Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever.
Margaret Jones’ The Life and Times of Patsy Cline portrays a complex woman and a gifted artist whose best records transcend genre.
Taylor Hagood’s Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Music Legend lays out David Akeman’s life story and details the murder of Akeman and his wife, Estelle, at their house near Nashville on November 10, 1973.
James Talley’s Nashville City Blues chronicles the singer/songwriter’s career and his encounters with the music business.
