Customer Reviews

Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives, 1961-1971

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If you should try to locate the Golden Age of country music you wouldn't get past the year 1941 - some believe the golden age ended there, some believe it started. But when you browse through "Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives, 1961-1971" you are left with a strong feeling that it was limited in time to the 1960s and geographically to two hideaway outdoor parks on the east coast, about 750 miles from Nashville. "Pure Country" is a truly inspiring photo book with pictures from New River Ranch outside Baltimore and Sunset Park outside Philadelphia. People went there every Sunday with the entire family to listen to music and meet other people. The musicians (all the greats of the era played there) often mingled with the audience between performances and sat down at the picnic table to eat or talk. At these parks a cultural form that obviously lived on borrowed time was alive and well and Eddie Dean points out that "It was a subculture bypassed altogether by mainstream Americans during the Eisenhower Era." For $1 per carload everyone was welcome. It certainly appears to have been a Golden Age and we must thank Leon Kagarise (1937-2008) that we can get a glimpse of it today.

Leon reportedly said that: "I was trying in my own little way to stop time." We must certainly be thankful for that effort and the result as pictured here is marvelous. In total there are about 750 color slides (about a quarter of them are published here) of audiences, posters, tickets, programs and surroundings but mostly, of course, the artists - Ernest Tubb, Louvin Brothers, Porter Wagoner, Reno & Smiley, Ray Price, Jimmy Martin, George Jones, Stanley Brothers, Roy Acuff, Hank Snow, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash to mention a few.

The importance of the pictures are that they are in full color, but mostly because they catch the artists off guard and back stage - relaxed with arms along their sides, looking straight into Leon's $20 Zeiss camera without trying to pose. Perhaps it was Leon's status as an amateur that made them relax. That's what makes these pictures interesting but they also catch an era - the American 1950s evolving into the 1960s. Just look at the clothes, the cars, the amplifiers and the microphones.

I don't think there are that many photo books around covering country music (golden age or not), therefore it's a pity that it appears to have been rushed out onto the market without enough proof reading - page references in the index are not always correct, some names are misspelled and the picture of "Ralph Stanley" is of course Carter Stanley. And a friend of mine is quite certain that "Johnny Wright" on page 126 is Bill Phillips. These blemishes shouldn't stop anyone interested from getting this lovely book. We may have to wait for the tapes (the fact that the Library of Congress, Country Music Hall of Fame, Smithsonian Institution and some record companies have shown interest is probably an indication of the dignity of the material) but these pictures, according to Eddie Dean, reveal "... one man's glimpse of a paradise he found here on earth, at least for fleeting moments of Sundays many summers ago". A few pictures have lost some color over the years but take a look at your own pictures from 1963, 1966 or thereabout and you will find that they have lost some color too but they will still transport you back to a time when most things were different.

Since there's no such thing as "pure" country music anymore (I doubt if Rascal Flatts ever heard of Ernest Tubb, unless their press agent happened to slip the name to them), it is a relief to find a book like this one to assure me and other purists out there that the faces in it are not forgotten. These photos provide a unique and detailed look at those who created real music for the sake of the music. It is an amazing archive, but it's Eddie Dean's fine writing that really brings it all home. Besides being an excellent writer, he's obviously a fan, as well. His enthusiasm for these pictures is infectious.

A wonderfully vital union of pictures and prose. Eddie, please give us more books like this one.

I went to the music parks and saw the acts. my own photos were blurry because I used to get so excited when I saw the musical stars that my hands shook (yes it IS funny). so this was a lovely book and a keepsake. the seller was prompt and his mailing package kept this book in nice shape -- it is a coffee table type book so even when you buy it used, you want a nice copy.

... what else is there to say. There's more out there ... please bring it on !!