Customer Reviews

Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942

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The long-awaited labor of love by respected discographers and country music experts Tony Russell and the late Bob Pinson has finally been published -- and it's been well worth the wait. The comprehensive discography is everything and more a collector of old-time country music could ask for. As well as being THE reference book on old-time country recordings, this magnum opus makes fascinating recreational reading. The sheer depth of scholarship is astounding, with collectors and discographers from around the world contributing. As Tony Russell says, though, it is regrettable that Bob Pinson didn't live to see the finished book. I have no hesitation in recommending this book. If Amazon allowed it, I'd award it a 10-star rating.

After a long wait, Tony Russell and Bob Pinson's massive discography of pre-war Country Music records has finally been published. The discography lists all known country recordings before 1943 by artist and includes full recording and release information. They are all here from the famous (Acuff, Davis, Rodgers, Wills) to the lesser known (Hartman's Heartbreakers, the Alley Boys From Abbeville). The book is well organized and easy to use with two indices--one for song titles and another for session players. There is not enough praise for this labor of love, which belongs in every serious student of country music's library.

This product came highly recommended to me by some of the premier historians in the country music genre. It's a wonderful thing, almost miraculous, that Mr. Russell was able to put together such a monster of a research project in such a user-friendly format. Kudos to him and his team! I've spent hours looking through it and find it thoroughly informative and inspiring. I will certainly use it for all future research projects.

This book is exactly what I've been looking for for some time, a discography for every Country record from 1921-1942, with session dates, accompanists, if any, with what instruments played, matrix numbers and catalog numbers of records actually issued and on what labels. A collectors' dream. Same format as Dixon & Godrich's Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943, and Brian Rust's Jazz Records 1897-1942. I was interested in Cajun reecords, which, until this volume, were not well covered.

Very thorough, beautifully laid out, with guide words at the top, a nice introduction and user's guide, and perhaps as important as any feature, a terrific title and performer index in the back. If a title was done by multiple performers, this index even breaks this down with the appropriate page numbers. It is astonishing how many otherwise wonderful discographies have been written, only to have left out the all-important title index. Not so here! It is user-friendly, and you will love it if you are interested in early country music.
Warren Hodgdon (warrensdiscs)