Authors: Randy Owen. Allen Rucker.
Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: HarperOne
Publication Date: 2008-11-01


Reviews :

   

Randy Owen, the front man and lead vocalist for one of the biggest music groups of all time, was raised in rural Alabama, grew up working on a small sharecropper farm, and today lives on this same land that his family worked for generations. Born Country weaves together never-before-shared stories about life on the road with the legendary band Alabama, Randy's family, his experiences with temptation in the face of superstardom, and how he held on to his traditional Christian values through it all. Born Country is an inspiring story about how a poor country boy came to touch the lives of millions of fans.

...

Authors: Annie Kubler.
Board book, 12 pages
Publisher: Child's Play International
Publication Date: 2001-09


Reviews :

    The words to a familiar nursery song encourage babies and their parents to have fun together....

Authors: Johnny Cash. Patrick Carr.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: HarperOne
Publication Date: 2003-10-01


Reviews :

   

He was the "Man in Black," a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. In his unforgettable autobiography, Johnny Cash tells the truth about the highs and lows, the struggles and hard-won triumphs, and the people who shaped him.

In his own words, Cash set the record straight -- and dispelled a few myths -- as he looked unsparingly at his remarkable life: from the joys of his boyhood in Dyess, Arkansas to superstardom in Nashville, Tennessee, the road of Cash's life has been anything but smooth. Cash writes of the thrill of playing with Elvis, the comfort of praying with Billy Graham; of his battles with addiction and of the devotion of his wife, June; of his gratitude for life, and of his thoughts on what the afterlife may bring. Here, too, are the friends of a lifetime, including Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson. As powerful and memorable as one of his classic songs, Cash is filled with the candor, wit, and wisdom of a man who truly "walked the line."

...

Authors: Denise Jackson.
Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: 2008-09-02
Edition: Pap/Com

Reviews :

   

A fairy-tale life that fell apart and the perfect love that redeemed it all.

Written by Denise Jackson, with co-writer Ellen Vaughn, this inspirational book gives the reader an all-access look into one of country music's most famous couples: their love story, struggles, dreams, success, the near-failure of their marriage, and the resdiscovery of their faith and how that has dramatically shaped their lives.

...

Authors: Joe Nick Patoski.
Hardcover, 576 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: 2008-04
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    From his first performance at age four, Willie Nelson was driven to make music and live life on his own terms. But though he is a songwriter of exceptional depth - "Crazy" was one of his early classics - Willie only found success after abandoning Nashville and moving to Austin, Texas.

Red Headed Stranger made country cool to a new generation of fans. Wanted: The Outlaws became the first country album to sell a million copies. And "On the Road Again" became the anthem for Americans on the move. A craggy-faced, pot-smoking philosopher, Willie Nelson is one of America's great iconoclasts and idols.

Now Joe Nick Patoski draws on over 100 interviews with Willie and his family, band, and friends to tell Nelson's story, from humble Depression-era roots, to his musical education in Texas honky-tonks and his flirtations with whiskey, women, and weed; from his triumph with #1 hit "Always On My Mind" to his nearly career-ending battles with debt and the IRS; and his ultimate redemption and ascension to American hero (2008)...

Authors: David Brody.
Plastic Comb, 304 pages
Publisher: Oak Publications
Publication Date: 1983-12-31


Reviews :

    Contains nearly 500 jigs, reels, rags, and hornpipes from all the major fiddling traditions. Special introductory materials on regional styles, bowing, and ornamentation. Includes an extensive discography....

Authors: Sara Bareilles.
Paperback, 104 pages
Publisher: Cherry Lane
Publication Date: 2008-05-01


Reviews :

    A Northern California girl, Sara Bareilles has garnered comparisons to Norah Jones and Fiona Apple. She released her first CD in 2004, but "Love Song," featured as an iTunes free single of the week in June of 2007 and in a commercial for the online music service Rhapsody, catapulted her to stardom. Cherry Lane proudly presents the matching folio to her major-label debut, certified gold by the RIAA. The PVG songbook features her megahit "Love Song" and 11 others, plus photos and an introduction by Sara herself. Other songs: Between the Lines * Bottle It Up * City * Come Round Soon * Fairytale * Gravity * Love on the Rocks * Many the Miles * Morningside * One Sweet Love * Vegas....

Authors: Jimmy Webb.
Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: 1999-09-22
Edition: 1st Pbk. Ed

Reviews :

    Webb brings his insiders knowledge, experience, and star power to the ultimate guide for aspiring songwriters. With a combination of anecdotes, meditation, and advice, he breaks down the creative process from beginning to endfrom coping with writers block, to song construction, chords, and even self-promotion. Webb also gives readers a glimpse into the professional music world....

Authors: Trace Adkins.
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 2008-12-30
Edition: Reprint

Reviews :

    Country music superstar Trace Adkins isn’t exactly known for holding back what’s on his mind. And if the millions of albums he’s sold are any indication, when Trace talks, people listen. Now, in A Personal Stand, Trace Adkins delivers his maverick manifesto on politics, personal responsibility, fame, parenting, being true to yourself, hard work, and the way things oughta be.

In his inimitable pull-no-punches style, Trace gives us the state of the union as he sees it, from the lessons of his boyhood in small-town Louisiana to what he’s learned headlining concerts around the world. Trace has worked oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, been shot in the heart, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and braved perhaps the greatest challenge of all: being the father of five daughters. And shaped by these experiences, he’s sounding off.

• I’m incredibly frustrated with the state of American politics. If there were a viable third party, I’d seriously consider joining it.
• If anybody wonders who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in this world, just look at the way we teach our children as opposed to the way the fundamentalist Muslims teach their children.
• Organized labor now exists for the sake of organized labor, and not for the workers it once protected.
• I believe the easiest way to solve the illegal immigration enforcement problem is to go after the employers who hire illegal aliens.
• As a society, we’re unwilling to sacrifice our luxuries and our conveniences in order to conserve. We won’t change until we’re forced to.
• The war on terror is like herpes. People can live with it, but it’ll flare up from time to time.

Brash, ballsy, persuasive, and controversial, A Personal Stand isn’t just the story of Trace Adkins’s life; it’s the story of what life can teach all of us.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Woody Guthrie.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Plume
Publication Date: 1983-09-15


Reviews :

    "Bound for Glory" is the autobiography of Woody Guthrie, the founder of modern American folk music. It is a funny, cynical, earthy and tragic account of his life in an Oklahoma oil-boom town, of the Depression that followed, and of his subsequent travels in, on, and under trains, in stolen cars and on his feet, round an America going rotten from the top downwards....

    The original road novel--even though it takes the form of autobiography. If Guthrie didn't actually invent the footloose, no- strings-attached American hero (remember this guy Twain who wrote something about lighting out for the territory?), he certainly solidified the 20th-century version. Guitar slung over the shoulder as he sprinted to boost himself aboard freight trains, a man of the people equally at home with urban intellectuals, Guthrie incarnated for generations of Americans the artist as free spirit. This is the book that created the legend. ...