Hidden country: the secret family tree of country music.
Reason › Vol. 34 Nbr. 5, October 2002
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Culture and Reviews - Book Review
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Hidden country: the secret family tree of country music.
Where Dead Voices Gather, by Nick Tosches, New York: Little, Brown, 330 pages, $24.95
Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture, by Barbara Ching New York: Oxford University Press, 186 pages, $22 THE INDIGENOUS AMERICAN art form of country music is frequently slandered, shunned, and mocked. It's routinely dismissed as either tacky nostalgia or the soundtrack for menacing rednecks. Often condemned by tastemakers and the tragically hip as one of the most conservative and stifling arenas of popular culture, country is bigger than its detractors imagine. More U.S. radio stations program country music than any other format, while country album sales netted a cool $1.5 billion in 2000. And in spite of the fact that most big city critics probably can't name one of his songs, Garth Brooks is the biggest selling solo act in history. Two recent books, Nick Tosches' Where Dead Voices Gather and Barbara Ching's Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture, help tell country's long, complex, and fascinating story. In the process,...See the full content of this document
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