Customer Reviews

Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As someone who has been studying and collecting American popular music for more than four decades now I am always on the lookout for new resources to add to my knowledge and understanding of this music. I am quite excited to report that the London based music historian Tony Russell has come up with a real gem with his splendid new book "Country Music Originals: The Legends and the The Lost". This book is a virtual treasure trove of information for anyone who is interested in the origins of the genre that would eventually evolve into what we now call country music.

I am in complete agreement with another reviewer who indicated that for most collectors and country music afficianados "Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost" is probably more appropriate as a reference volume. As a cover to cover read I found that the book could become a bit tedious at times. But having said that I learned an awful lot about the early history of country music in this volume. Tony Russell introduces his readers to a whole host of colorful and quirky vocalists, duets, fiddlers, stringbands and groups that would make an indelible mark in the development of this genre. You have to love the names of some of these artists. There is Fiddlin' John Carson, The Skillet-Lickers, The Carolina Tar Heels, Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, The Georgia Yellow Hammers, Light Crust Doughboys and Lulu Belle and Scotty to name but a few. Now some of those featured in "Country Music Originals" were regional acts who were popular for a relatively short period of time. Others would go on to long and prosperous careers in the music business. All in all, Tony Russell offers up essays on more than 100 artists who made a name for themselves in the period from about 1926 when this music was in its infancy until the late 1950's or early 1960's. Russell also presents revealing portraits of some of the better known figures in early country music such as Vernon Dalhart, Bradley Kincaid, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. And of course no book about the history of country music would be complete without a close look at the careers of legendary figures Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family. It is positively fascinating to discover how this music has evolved over the decades. In addition, the text is sprinkled with more than 200 rare photos and illustrations depicting many of the artists being discussed as well as images of some of the actual record labels, newspaper clippings and advertisements from the period. I found that this material greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this book. It was also quite interesting to learn how many of the earliest recordings were done. In the middle to late 1920's it was fairly common for the three major record companies of this period, namely Victor, Columbia and Gennett to send recording equipment directly to towns like Bristol, Tenn. in search of promising new artists to record. This is precisely how both Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family and dozens of other important acts of this period were discovered. It was certainly a much different world in those days!

As I indicated earlier "Country Music Originals: The Legends and The Lost" succeeds more as a reference volume than as a narrative. I plan to add a copy to my library in the very near future. This is a book that I am likely to refer to again and again in future years. There is so much new information in this book about the rich heritage of country music that I simply have not seen anywhere else. A well thought out and nicely done project! Highly recommended!

Tony Russell is one of the finest writers in the field of early recorded country music and blues. He has spent decades researching the facts about the artists and listening to the historic recordings. Now, with "Country Music Originals," he shares with us his synthesis of all this knowledge on the subject of old-time country music.
Russell writes true criticism, based on his extraordinarily rich and deep listening experience. He is articulate in spelling out the reasons he finds one artist's work compelling and another's pedestrian. He writes with enthusiasm about several artists I've never heard, and so now I'm seeking out their recordings.
Mind you, I know just enough about this music, and have just enough listening experience of my own, that I have my occasional quibbles with Russell's facts and opinions. That's only to be expected when it comes to discussing art. I thoroughly enjoy my mental conversations and arguments with someone as articulate and knowledgeable as Russell.
Why, oh, why is there no index? There isn't even an alphabetical listing of the 100+ articles. Since they are, quite reasonably, organized chronologically, in order to find a particular artist, I have to take a guess as to when they first recorded -- information I'm not nearly so in touch with as is Russell. The indexes are part of what make Gunther Schuller's definitive jazz history books ("Early Jazz" and "The Swing Era") so great and useful. Those indexes cover every single mention of every musician, composer, and song.
The discographies in "Country Music Originals" are superb. They're compact, yet very informative, covering most of the currently-available CDs of old-time music. On my first reading of the book, I kept noticing one particular JSP anthology that includes many of the artists I find most interesting. So that set moved to the top of my shopping list. I've also been stimulated to go back to my collection to take another listen to particular artists and tracks Russell comments on.
Printing booklets is an expensive component of CDs, so most of the old-time music reissues come with rather inadequate texts. "Country Music Originals" complements these discs beautifully, giving much richer (and better-written) information, enhancing both our enjoyment and our understanding of the recordings.
This is a valuable addition to the limited library of serious writing on old-time country music. -- Hoyle Osborne

An excellent work for hard core fans of old time and pre-Nashville Country music. Russell's research is comprehensive and he has a very accessible writing style. The book, as others have noted, is really not designed for a cover-to-cover read but makes a great night stand book where you can read a biography or two before bed. I also recommend two JSP box sets, Mountain Blues and Serenade in the Mountains, where works by many of the covered artisits can be heard. Now if only I could find a comparable work for pre-war blues artists...

At least that I've read. He hints that he has enough material for a Vol. 2 ready to go and I for one can't wait. Invaluable.

I never really knew much about old-time music so this book seemed like a great starting point. I'd recently taken an interest in hillbilly music and wanted to know where country music of today really began. The book was a wonderful introduction to the founders of the genre like Uncle Dave Macon right through Gene Autry and many others I had never heard of. The short but often detailed bios were interesting and the material was well-researched and very informative. Highly recommended.

These concise biographys of early recorded country music performers are very informative and form a nice history of the development of the music. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to gather information and better understand who developed the music that we love and how the songs that are considered standards became standards.

Tony Russell has expanded some profiles he wrote earlier for the Old Time Herald and similar periodicals and added a wealth of new writing and research to create this brisk read. He vivifies and fleshes out the characters and also provides a context for them with short overviews or "bridges" that mark the progressive eras and locales, such as "Western Swing and Honkytonk" which links amplification, Swing Jazz, the wartime economy and the increasingly confessional vocal content that would lead to Hank Williams - all in less than a page. There is discographical information at the end of each entry to tell you how you can hear each artist for yourself. Once again, Tony Russell has demonstrated that he is an authoritative guide to the earliest period of commercial sound recording, possibly without peer.

The writer is British. His focus is early string music. His concentration there is interesting, but in the process he misses many of the early greats. Interesting, but narrowed scope.

I have had an interest in early "country" music for decades, but this book seems to me to be worthwhile for the die-hard specialist rather than the casually curious consumer. Short biographies, CD discographies, and photos are presented here for more than 100 stage, recording and radio artists active from the 1920's into the '50's. Almost everyone profiled here was born earlier than 1925. A few are truly famous: Gene Autry, The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, and Ernest Tubb. The rest are more obscure, and in many cases, much, much more obscure. Unless you are willing to search the internet for the CD's onto which their old records have been transcribed, or you are a musician yourself needing to hear some fiddle or mandolin technique as played by its originator, you will never encounter the actual work of most of these artists. And frankly, you don't need to know about them if not a scholar or a person doing roots music yourself. If your curiosity is just casual, as mine was, get the book from the library, as I did, and just skim it until your pleasure runs out.