Access In The Country Of Country: A Journey To The Roots Of American Music Fabricated By Nicholas Dawidoff Hardcover

remember two on Goodreads is an "ok" rating, That's what I felt or rather didn't feel about this book, It is ok . This book was a revelation to me as I clearly knew so very little about the formation and artists of country music.
Certainly names were often familiar but this book gave me a much greater understanding not only of them but the music.


An enjoyable read which has led me to explore so much further, It was pretty good except he seems to have something against Johnny Cash, It sort came unexpected after how he treated the others, Dawidoff covers country and bluegrass and the places the music comes from hills of the US southeast, the plains of Texas, the oil and cotton fields of California.
The people covered include Harlan Howard, Chet Atkins, The Carter Family, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, The Louvin Brothers, Doc Watson, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Rose Maddox, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders, along with others mentioned throughout the text.
He spent time interviewing each of the subjects, except the ones who were already passed by the time he wrote the book in thes.
Overall a pretty good, if opinionated, read, One thing is he keeps trashings country music, but lots of people had the same opinion of Chet Atkins in his day.
A series of essaies about country music and the people who make it, Organized by geography. A great read. Totally engrossing personal account of the lives of some of the most famous and not so so famous people invovled in country music.
Dawidoff uses Garth Brooks as the cut off line for what true country is, and is not, as such it may not be agreeable to some modern country listeners, In a series of indelible portraits of country music, Dawidoff reveals, among others, Jimmie Rodgers, the “father of Country” Johnny Cash, the “Man in Black” and Patsy Cline, a lonely figure striding out bravely in a mans world.
In the Country of Country is a passionate and expansive account of a quintessentially American art form and the performers that made country music what it is today.

 
Both deeply personal and endlessly evocative,  In the Country of Country pays tribute to the music that sprang from places like Maces Springs, Virginia, home of the Carter Family, and Bakersfield, California, where Buck Owens held sway.
Bestselling author Nicholas Dawidoff takes readers to the back roads and country hollows that were home to Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, Emmylou Harris, and many more.
This book is based on the authors first hand interviews with either the people hes profiling or those who knew them, as well as his travels to the places they hail from.
Many of the chapters are interesting, if not exactly covering new ground the Johnny Cash profile, for example, is very well written but pretty similar to other profiles written about Cash in thes.
Dawidoff is at his best when he engages more critically with his subjects, as opposed to just reporting their stories.
Theres some mercurial distinction between a music writer and a person writing about music, and while Dawidoff clearly loves the music he writes about, he falls into the latter category.
He doesnt dig into his subjects quite as deeply as more seasoned music writers might, though the book is overall a pleasant read.
My favorite chapters covered Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Excellent book! Takes you to the roots of country music and how it originated as a regional sound, from bluegrass to Texas swing to the Nashville sound, and the influence of the particular cultures in each area a big one being the AfricanAmerican community that is often overlooked as a huge influence.
Also, discusses all of the greats from The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Jones, Cash, Loretta, Rose Maddox, etc, Historical and entertaining! A strong, conventional ramble through the history of country music, I've always been more into classic rock, but in the last couple of years I've stumbled across a number of great young country musicians most notably Colter Wall, Charley Crockett, Tyler Childers, Nick Shoulders and Sierra Ferrell and felt like I didn't know enough about the well they were drawing from.
With the notable exception of Johnny Cash, and the occasional Hank Williams song or other country standard covered by a rock band, I didn't know much about country music.


Nicholas Dawidoff'sbook In the Country of Country was a useful remedy to this, While of course there is no substitute to listening to the music directly, this book did provide a useful orientation to the genre, particularly the early pioneers like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.
I learned about the integration of yodelling into country music, the importance of the Grand Ole Opry, and the differences between bluegrass and country the former is defined by its restrictions pg.
it's what Bill Monroe called "hillbilly jazz" pg,. Dawidoff wrote when many of these country giants were still alive, and it's a mark very much in favour of his book that he's able to pick the brains of Cash, Monroe, Charlie Louvin and Rose Maddox among others directly.


The book does have its disadvantages, Starting out, as the subtitle puts it, as 'a journey to the roots of American music', In the Country of Country soon develops tunnel vision.
Initially, as we learn about Jimmie

Rodgers, the Carter Family and Bill Monroe, we get a real sense of how this genre was built, but it all becomes a bit isolated.
It's like blues and folk music don't exist here, though in reality the crosspollination was considerable, and Dawidoff's brief interaction with Bob Dylan reminds us that there's plenty of hinterland here which he hasn't even touched.
The second half of the book loses its dynamism, focusing on more contemporary artists in a way that becomes a bit more paintbynumbers and magazineprofilelike.
These later chapters are often colourless, end abruptly, and don't really contribute to our 'journey to the roots of American music'.


That said, In the Country of Country covers many of the relevant bases, and if it can't be said to be an essential book, or even an essential introduction, it's certainly a solid approach.
While it's always better to hear a song than read a description of it, this book does communicate some of the real flavour of the genre.
Dawidoff addresses, though rarely directly, the central tension in the countryloving community: the battle over authenticity and purity the earthy, rough music of various regions versus the safe, homogenised 'hat acts' of Nashville.
He notes how the music began as "a means of solidarity for people who felt marginalized by American society" but which has since become commodified pg.
. We come to realise that the obsession with 'purity' is less to do with gatekeeping and more about a desire to preserve the music's emotional maturity against the assault of tight jeans and songs about pickup trucks.
In the course of his rich but middleoftheroad journey, Dawidoff reminds us of country's appeal: "This is not music for swinging teens.
It's raw stuff for grownup people who aren't getting any younger and know something about disappointment" pg,. In preparation for an upcoming trip to Nashville, Super informative about some wellknown country and some newtome country legends, Also, he ends the book with Bruce Springsteen, so we know he's right, In The Country Of Country is enthralling, Nicholas Dawidoff has compiled hours of research and interviews with country singers and musicians and their acquaintances to put together a real down home study of some of those folks who have made country music great.
From Jimmie Rodgers to Jimmie Dale Gilmore amp The Flatlanders, Dawidoff uses the experiences of the people who have been there to go a long way towards explaining what country music is all about.


There's a great deal of deserved rancor for the then current spate of Nashville rock masquerading as country singers.
Guys like Garth Brooks don't hold much water with the real country folk, the hard core country people, While those pop singers in tight jeans and cowboy hats were pulling down millions and getting airplay all over the world, the surviving originators and torch carriers were doing what they'd always done making music for and about the common people.
They're the same people who get left out of history books and who are more or less ignored when it comes time to pass laws, get opinions or take stock of the situation.
They're you and me and, if they ain't you, you ain't like me,

Probably the best chapter here is on the late Johnny Cash, Somehow, maybe because of his angle for In The Country Of Country, Dawidoff puts forth a view of The Man In Black that I hadn't encountered before.
That alone makes this book worth reading,

But even more important is the thread of purity and purpose that runs through every story on every character in this book.
Real life folks living real life and writing the songs to prove it,

The historical information on life in America in the lateth and earlyth century is as valuable as the stories of the performers.
Because the performers covered range across a large expanse of years, you get a real and very clear picture of America during that time.
At least, a real clear picture of what the have nots had and what they made of themselves, These stories are poetry and they contain a clean, simple beauty having little to do with rock star excess or mainstream appeal.
Which isn't to say Hank Williams or Johnny Cash didn't destroy themselves with the best of them,

Getting an intimate, inside look into the lives and personalities of Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Merle Haggard or Earl Scruggs is a real treat.
Reading about these people, regardless of the obstacles they faced or the choices they made, is inspirational, I'd like to shake Dawidoff's hand and personally thank him for this book, It's something else! In the Country of Country by Nicholas Dawidoff Random House,,pp, sitelink./. explores country music from its earliest recognized and recorded luminaries The Carter Family amp Jimmy Rodgers through the great periods of classic and outlaw country to the newest musicians on tour at the time of the In the Country of Country's writing in the late's.
The book is filled with anecdotes that surprise and enlighten, For instance, Dawidoff recounts a story heard from Charlie Louvin about a boy near a show in Dyess Arkansas who showed him to the nearest bathroom.
On the way back, Charlie ate a soda cracker, When the boy asked him why, he said, “To keep from starving, ” The kicker: that's why Johnny Cash ate crackers before every performance, Such connections between the early practitioners who emerged in the's and great of the last decades of the twentieth century appear everywhere.
While I read the book, I listened to recordings of the subjects of each chapter, thereby enriching my experience and deepening my understanding.

Individual chapters focus on major figures in the development of country music, including bluegrass, Dawidoff interviewed all of his subjects, including Bill Monroe, Earle Scruggs, George Jones, Kitty Wells, Doc Watson, Buck Owens, EmmyLou Harris, and more except Jimmie Rodgers, Sara Carter, and Patsy Cline, all of whom were deceased at the time of the writing.
One other luminary is strangely not included, although his name crops up in almost every chapter: Hank Williams, Perhaps Williams, who died inwas simply too big and dominating a character to be adequately covered in simply a chapter.


It's a joy to read a book about music by a writer who's taking on a subject rather than a fan who decided to write.
The use of lively imagery, thoughtful narrative, careful structure and apt description raise Dawidoff's writing above the pedestrian, bringing life to the characters who've enriched country music for nearly a hundred years.
Published in, the book uses living artists and extensive interviews with those who knew the subjects, bringing them to life in a way no other book I've read has managed.


In the chapter on Doc Watson, the actual voices of Tom Ashley and Ralph Rinzler give the descriptive passages a greater reality that brings Watson's background and development as a performer to life.
Insights, such as the fact that Doc grew up with music he heard on an old gramophone and the radio differentiated his music from that of others who learned theirs in church or on the front porch, giving it the distinctive precision that other country and bluegrass musicians of the time lacked.
Such connections, found in each chapter distinguish Dawidoff's pellucid writing as they permeate Watson's playing,

The Johnny Cash chapter examines the role of celebrity on productive song writing along with his image, life, and the road with comments from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
In the George Jones chapter, I learned more about the reality of Jones in one short chapter than I did in the entire Grand Tour bio by Rich Kienzle.
Part of this comes from the quality of Dawidoff's writing, and I think also from the distance he achieves by not being fully tied to the music community.
While the book is often admiring, it never falls into hero worship as it keeps a clear, though sympathetic but never sycophantical eye on the character and development of each person in every profile.


Dawidoff gives attention to the social and geographical mass movements of the mid and latetwentieth century, Often, this is a book of displacement and connection, Most of the singers profiled came to stardom in music when they brought their music to honky tonks, theaters, and recording studios far removed from the southern poverty so many of them were born into during the depression.
Even performers, like Rose Maddox and Buck Owens, who were from California, are the of product of southern migrations to places where they or their parents could find more lucrative employment or escape the rigors of depression era farming conditions.
His insights punctuate and extend the insight that today's country musicians don't share that experience, leading their music to go into other directions, because it has often come from less challenging circumstances.
EmmyLou Harris represents a changing voice and sensibility in country music, Discussing her view of country's past and future, she says, “We're bringing a different experience to it, and that's right.
Mimicking the past because the past is a safe bet is the worst thing to do, ”

Nicholas Dawidoff is the author of six books, One of them, The Fly Swatter, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and another, In the Country of Country, was named one of the greatest alltime works of travel literature by Conde Nast Traveller.
His first book, The Catcher Was A Spy: The Mysterious Life Of Moe Berg was a national bestseller and appeared on manybest book lists.
His latest book, Collision Low Crossers: Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football was published in, A graduate of Harvard University, he has been a Guggenheim, Civitella Ranieri and Berlin Prize Fellow, and is a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and the American Scholar.
The fact that he chooses a wide range of topics, including sports, family history, and country music suggests that Dawidoff brings broad experience to his writing, allowing unusual, piercing insights to emerge.


In the Country of Country by Nicholas Dawidoff Random House,,pp, sitelink./. was written after all the people he interviewed were well past their prime, Fortunately, he was able to interview them in their own contemporary setting before they left us, He portrays a time when what so many people today call “real” country was still a close memory, even while it had been replaced in popular music by rock and roll, contemporary pop, and hip hop.
His vivid profiles, along with my listening contemporaneously to the performers themselves, helped clarify their place in music history for me and to realize why the music so many people seem to yearn for lies in our past rather than our present.
I consider this book to be essential reading for anyone interested in the growth and development of country music, I read In the Country of Country in a used trade paperback version I bought through Thriftbooks,

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