By Brenda Lee with Robert Oermann and Julie Clay When Brenda Lee published her autobiography in 2002, I purchased a copy to use as source material for my Faron Young biography. Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee was co-written with Robert Oermann and Julie Clay. Her first-person story is interspersed throughout […]
By Jared Bibler During the global financial crisis of 2008, the three largest banks in Iceland failed within days of each other: Glitner on October 6, Landsbanki on October 7, and Kaupping on October 9. Iceland’s Secret: The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Con—part memoir, part investigative journalism—chronicles the financial collapse, the history of […]
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 […]