Country music : an illustrated history
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The rich and colorful story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the 20th century--based on the upcoming eight-part film series to air on PBS in September 2019.

Country music emerged from the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation-- a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today. But above all, it is the story of the musicians: Hank Williams's tragic honky tonk life; Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood; Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere, and many more. -- adapted from jacket