Author: Paul Hemphill Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9780143037712 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
Hank Williams, the quintessential country music singer and songwriter, lived a life as lonesome, desolate, and filled with sorrow as his timeless songs. From Williams's dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, Lovesick Blues is the definitive biography of the man and his music.
Author: Paul Hemphill Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0143037714 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Hank Williams, the quintessential country music singer and songwriter, lived a life as lonesome, desolate, and filled with sorrow as his timeless songs. From Williams's dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, Lovesick Blues is the definitive biography of the man and his music.
Author: Nick Tosches Publisher: Da Capo Press ISBN: 0786750987 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
Celebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys; honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven; medieval myth and musical miscegenation; sex, drugs, murder; and rays of fierce illumination on Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others, famous and forgotten, whose demonology is America's own. Profusely and superbly illustrated, Country stands as one of the most brilliant explorations of American musical culture ever written.
Author: Bill C. Malone Publisher: University of Illinois Press ISBN: 9780252005275 Category : Country musicians Languages : en Pages : 514
Book Description
A collection of essays, written in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry, that provides portraits of the personal lives and careers of nineteen country music stars, with a chapter devoted to early pioneers such as Fiddlin' John Carson, and Carl T. Sprague.
Author: Paul R. Nail, Ph.D. Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency ISBN: 1682359654 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 734
Book Description
Volume II picks up in 1943-44, right where Volume I left off, with Hank’s courtship and marriage to first wife, Audrey (Sheppard) Guy Williams, his rise to fame at the Louisiana Hayride, 1948-49, and at the Grand Ole Opry, 1949-50, before success began closing in on him by December 1950. Hank was only 27 years old at the time, and no one knew that he had only two more years to live. Despite Hank’s growing alcoholism, marital and health problems, and eventual addiction to prescription drugs, his last two years were perhaps the most productive and successful of his career. “A special feature of Volume II is that Dr. Nail devotes an entire chapter to the art and craft of songwriting. Here, Nail provides what I believe is the most accurate and comprehensive analysis to date of the relative contributions of Hank and his publisher/song editor, Fred Rose, to Hank’s songs. Like Volume I, Volume II is a must-read for anyone seeking greater understanding and insight into the short but fabulous life and career of the legendary Hank Williams. I wholeheartedly recommend it.” – Ed Guy, noted Hank Williams expert
Author: William MacEwen Publisher: Back Bay Books ISBN: 0316074632 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 267
Book Description
- Long considered the last word on Hank Williams, this biography has remained continuously in print since its first publication in 1994.- This new edition has been completely updated and includes many previously unpublished photographs, as well as a complete catalog detailing all the songs Hank Williams ever wrote, even those he never recorded.- Colin Escott is codirector and cowriter of the forth-coming two-hour PBS/BBC television documentary on Hank Williams, set to broadcast in spring 2004, and coauthor of "Hank Williams: Snapshots from the Lost Highway.- HANK WILLIAMS was the third-prize winner of the prestigious Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award.
Author: Patrick Huber Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199349886 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
When Hank Williams died on New Year's Day 1953 at the age of twenty-nine, his passing appeared to bring an abrupt end to a saga of rags-to-riches success and anguished self-destruction. As it turned out, however, an equally gripping story was only just beginning, as Williams's meteoric rise to stardom, extraordinary musical achievements, turbulent personal life, and mysterious death all combined to make him an endlessly intriguing historical figure. For more than sixty years, an ever-lengthening parade of journalists, family and friends, musical contemporaries, biographers, historians and scholars, ordinary fans, and novelists have attempted to capture in words the man, the artist, and the legend. The Hank Williams Reader, the first book of its kind devoted to this giant of American music, collects more than sixty of the most compelling, insightful, and historically significant of these writings. Among them are many pieces that have never been reprinted or that are published here for the first time. The selections cover a broad assortment of themes and perspectives, ranging from heartfelt reminiscences by Williams's relatives and shocking tabloid exposés to thoughtful meditations by fellow artists and penetrating essays by prominent scholars and critics. Over time, writers have sought to explain Williams in a variety of ways, and in tracing these shifting interpretations, this anthology chronicles his cultural transfiguration from star-crossed hillbilly singer-songwriter to enduring American icon. The Hank Williams Reader also features a lengthy interpretive introduction and the most extensive bibliography of Williams-related writings ever published.
Author: William MacEwen Publisher: Little, Brown ISBN: 0316315060 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
The book that inspired the major motion picture I Saw the Light. In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "Jambalaya" sold millions of records and became the model for virtually all country music that followed. But by the time of his death at age twenty-nine, Williams had drunk and drugged and philandered his way through two messy marriages and out of his headline spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Even though he was country music's top seller, toward the end he was so famously unreliable that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall. Colin Escott's enthralling, definitive biograph -- now the basis of the major motion picture I Saw the Light -- vividly details the singer's stunning rise and his spectacular decline, revealing much that was previously unknown or hidden about the life of this country music legend. Originally published as Hank William: The Biography.
Author: Michael Kosser Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1493073532 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 441
Book Description
How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A. was first published in 2006 and quickly became the go-to reference for those seeking to understand the Nashville music industry, or write about it. Now, Michael Kosser, prolific songwriter and author, returns with an updated and expanded edition, bringing the history of Music Row up to the present, since so much has changed over the last fifteen years. This new edition of How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A. details the history of the Nashville song and recording industry from the founding of its first serious commercial music publishing company in 1942 to the present. Kosser tells the history of Music Row primarily through the voices of those who made and continue to make that history, including record executives, producers, singers, publishers, songwriters, studio musicians, studio engineers, record promoters, and others responsible for the music and the business, including the ambitious music executives who struggle to find an audience who will buy country records instead of just listening to them on the radio. The result is a book with insight far beyond the usual media stories, with plenty of emotion, humor, and historical accuracy. Kosser traces the growth and cultural changes of Nashville and the adventurous souls who fly to it to be a part of the music. He follows the changes from its hillbilly roots through its “Nashville Sound” quasi-pop days, from the outlaws, the new traditionalists, and the mega-sellers to the recent bro country and the rise of mini-trends. This edition also bears witness to the huge influence of Music Row on pop, folk, rock, and other American music genres.
Author: Paul Hemphill
Author: Paul Hemphill
Author: Nick Tosches
Author: Bill C. Malone
Author: Robert W. Harwood
Author: Paul R. Nail, Ph.D.
Author: William MacEwen
Author: Patrick Huber
Author: William MacEwen
Author: Michael Kosser