By Don Reid The Statler Brothers spent almost four decades touring and recording as one of the top draws in country music. Brothers Harold and Don Reid, along with Phil Balsley and Lew DeWitt, two boyhood friends from their hometown of Staunton, Virginia, joined the Johnny Cash show as the Statler Brothers in 1964. While […]
By Rachel Louise Martin Rachel Louise Martin grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, with roots three generations deep. When she returned home in 2013 after an eight-year absence, she was surprised to hear about a culinary dish that had become internationally famous—Nashville-style hot chicken. How had she never heard of it? Hot, Hot Chicken: A Nashville […]
By Olivia Newton-John I recently read Olivia Newton-John’s 2018 memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’. Her goal in life is to find a cure for cancer. She talks about her three bouts with cancer and her relationship with the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She was born in Cambridge, England, in 1948. […]
By Boxcar Willie, a.k.a. Lecil T. Martin I recently reread Boxcar Willie: My Life Story, published in 1995 by Boxcar Willie AKA Lecil Travis Martin. He talks directly to the reader while telling his story in a series of individual paragraphs separated by blank lines. “My wife tells me I am a little bit different […]
By Lydia R. Hamessley When Lydia R. Hamessley, a professor of music at Hamilton College in New York, was asked by the University of Illinois Press to write a book about Dolly Parton’s songs, she accepted the challenge. Analyzing a catalog containing over 3,000 songs, including 450 that have been recorded, was no small feat. […]
Edited by Steve Haruch Nashville, Tennessee, has always been one of my favorite cities, due to the Grand Ole Opry and other country music connections. In recent years, I’ve been a frequent visitor while writing and promoting several biographies. I eagerly delved into Greetings from New Nashville: How a Sleepy Southern Town Became “It” City. […]
By Wayne Warner Backstage Nashville: The Undisclosed Story of a Major Label Recording Artist is Wayne Warner’s memoir of his life as a musician in the country music world. Warner talks about touring the country and headlining shows where he followed Lonestar and “Amazed,” Josh Turner and “Long Black Train,” and Billy Ray Cyrus of […]
By Heather Cox Richardson In her new book, How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America, Heather Cox Richardson says oligarchy and democracy are two incompatible ideologies woven into the fabric of this nation. While readers may disagree with her premise, and many will, it […]
By Andrew Marble General John Shalikashvili [shalli-kash-VEE-lee] served from 1993 to 1997 as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. His thick European accent made people wonder about his heritage. Descended from a line of Tsarist Russian princes and born in Poland in 1936, he and his family had come to the United States […]
By S. C. Gwynne C. Gwynne tells the story of the final year of the American Civil War in Hymns of the Republic. From the first chapter, “The End Begins,” which puts the reader in the nation’s capital city at the beginning of 1864, he allows the reader to feel and understand events as they […]