Nashville: Pilgrims of Guitar Town [Hardcover]

Robert Hicks (Author), Michel Arnaud (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2000

A photographic portrait of Nashville, Tennessee, and of the residents and newcomers who have all bee seduced by the promise of 'Music City, USA'. Photographer Michel Arnaud and writer Robert Hicks wander beyond the Grand Ole Opry and Music Row to a place filled with high hopes, hard work, and, more than anything else, guitars. Likening the city to 'Hollywood in the 1920s', Hicks introduced Arnaud to residents famous and infamous, from the struggling pickers still waiting to be discovered to local legends who bask in the spotlight.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michel Arnaud has chronicled the lives of the rich and famous around the world. His photographic portraits have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and House & Garden. Robert Hicks is a music producer at Polygram Music in Nashville, and writes a monthly column for Nashville Life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang; First Edition edition (July 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556709897
• ISBN-13: 978-1556709890
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,996,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Visual Ballad of Dreams, October 21, 2000

By 

Vicki (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville: Pilgrims of Guitar Town (Hardcover)

At first glance I thought this book was going to be just another "picture" book about famous country stars; I was happily and totally mistaken. While Arnaud and Hicks have captured some beautiful images and descriptions of the Nashville scene's legendary greats, the unique quality of this book is the fact that it also depicts the "stars" of Nashville whose lights have yet to shine, or whose lights may never shine. I found this book to be a wonderful tribute, not necessarily to those who have "made it," but more to the "pilgrimage" of those brave souls who journey to Nashville seeking to "make it" in the music business.

Although I am not a big fan of country music, nor am I musically inclined, as I gazed at the faces in this book, some recognizable, but many not, I felt a connection with them. That connection being the subject of hope and dreams.

The common thread among the people photographed in this book is not only their journey to Nashville, but their hopes and dreams of acquiring success in the music business. Arnaud and Hicks have incredibly captured the visual and written theme of this pursuit of success. I applaud Arnaud and Hicks for not just honoring and capitalizing on the images of those who have "made it," but for honoring the image of the journey and those "pilgrims" still on its path in Nashville.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nashville Photo Album, October 22, 2000

By 

Mr Roy W Waters (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville: Pilgrims of Guitar Town (Hardcover)

High marks for Michel Arnaud's photographic tour of Nashville. It seems to me that his (mostly) black and white portraits capture the essence of a generation - that host of Country and Western aspirants who flocked to Opreyville like the budding movie stars flocking to Hollywood. A few succeeded; many failed. There is less pulchritude in Michel Arnaud's book than if he had chosen to point his camera around Los Angeles, but many more characterful faces. He is a portraitist of the enthusiast, evoking the drink-fuelled abandon of the busking has-beens; the relaxed humanity of the established old-timers; the bounce of the new populists. They all come across as natural and relaxed: Alan Jackson lounging in split jeans on one of the floats of his private seaplane; Ray Wylie Hubbard peering cheerfully at the camera through steel-rimmed specs; wiry Chet Atkins, absorbed in tuning his guitar. The Roots win hands down for me, but there is something for everyone in this evocative album, which shows the Nashville that still retains its vitality underneath the publicised image.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nashville Photo Album, October 22, 2000

By 

Mr Roy W Waters (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville: Pilgrims of Guitar Town (Hardcover)

High marks for Michel Arnaud's photographic tour of Nashville. It seems to me that his (mostly) black and white portraits capture the essence of a generation - that host of Country and Western aspirants who flocked to Opreyville like the budding movie stars flocking to Hollywood. A few succeeded; many failed. There is less pulchritude in Michel Arnaud's book than if he had chosen to point his camera around Los Angeles, but many more characterful faces. He is a portraitist of the enthusiast, evoking the drink-fuelled abandon of the busking has-beens; the relaxed humanity of the established old-timers; the bounce of the new populists. They all come across as natural and relaxed: Alan Jackson lounging in split jeans on one of the floats of his private seaplane; Ray Wylie Hubbard peering cheerfully at the camera through steel-rimmed specs; wiry Chet Atkins, absorbed in tuning his guitar. The Roots win hands down for me, but there is something for everyone in this evocative album, which shows the Nashville that still retains its vitality underneath the publicised image.