Ramblin' Rose: The Life and Career of Rose Maddox (Hardcover)

by Jonny Whiteside (Author) "Boaz, Alabama is a small, isolated town some ninety miles northeast of Birmingham..." (more)
Key Phrases: Maddox Brothers, West Coast, Rose Maddox (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Undeservedly obscure today, Rose Maddox was one of country music's biggest stars in the years after World War II; her gospel-based singing and gutsy personal style set the standard for subsequent female country artists. Music journalist Jonny Whiteside's affectionate biography spins a classic tale of hardscrabble beginnings in rural Alabama and early fame with her brothers as "the most colorful hillbilly band in America." Frank accounts of Maddox's relationships with her domineering mother and two husbands are set against a valuable delineation of the forgotten West Coast country music scene.

From Kirkus Reviews
A future country music legend travels with her family from rural America to the ``promised land'' of California, only to find herself embroiled as she grows up in unexpected fame, domestic strife, and teenage pregnancy. The similarity of at least part of this story to The Grapes of Wrath is not lost on journalist Whiteside. Rose's mother, Lula, was, in her way, as determined as Steinbeck's great heroine Ma Joad. She and her husband left Alabama in 1933, walking and hitchhiking to California, with five children in tow. Once there, they found life to be at first little better. It was music that saved them. Rose, born in 1925, was the youngest and from childhood a gifted singer. The iron-willed Lula helped her children form the Maddox Brothers and Rose in 1937, a singing group that enjoyed steady regional (and intermittent national) popularity for 20 years. Following the breakup of the group, Rose, having finally escaped the control of her domineering mother, went on to a successful solo career. Interviewed extensively for this biography, Maddox demonstrates both frankness and true southern charm. She offers salty recollections of her career and her famous contemporaries, including Patsy Cline, who accused her of having more body than talent (``I do not get up there and shake,'' Rose heatedly observes, ``my body keeps time with my singin', is all''), and an enamored Johnny Cash, whom she rebuffed (``And that's when he hired June Carter. . . . You know what happened then''). The record of her life is also a fascinating portrait of the once thriving West Coast country music scene. A somewhat rushed synopsis of the postBritish Invasion years is balanced by a wonderful introduction, a previously unpublished letter about Rose and her brothers written in 1949 by folk giant Woody Guthrie. A solid biography, and a welcome addition to the history of modern American popular music. (50 illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Country Music Foundation Press; 1st edition (March 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826512690
• ISBN-13: 978-0826512697
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,482,629 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depression-era history thru music's back door, December 20, 1999

By	Jill Van Vliet (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

Ever since I saw a PBS documentary on Woody Guthrie about 15 years ago, I was anxious to find more on Rose Maddox, someone who got a brief mention on the show for her radio show with Guthrie in the Central California Valley.

Since then, I've become a big fan of her bluegrass collaborations and the dusty, hard-scrabble existence they evoke. Her plain as dirt reading of classic folk & bluegrass songs is clearly one prototype (along with Hazel Dickens) for singers like X's Exene Cervenkova, who seek to convey the joy and dignity of American country music to new generations.

Reading about the incredibly tenacious Maddox family during the Dust Bowl days is actually more about that period in American history than it is merely just Rose's musical story. One need not be a fan of the music to regard her incredible tale with awe. It is a story about overcoming odds, about remaining irrepressible in the face of tumult and poverty, and having the wisdom to trust in what brings you joy.

"Ramblin' Rose" should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of the Okie migration to the West Coast. Its vivid portrait of Rose's own life becomes the telling of universal human truths.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad but informative, heartfelt bio, August 10, 2001

By	Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This biography of West Coast country pioneer Rose Maddox is not to be missed. Actually, it's a rather heart-wrenching story: despite the phenomenal success of her family's kickass country band (Rose Maddox and the Maddox Brothers), Rose herself had a terribly hard life. Shrewishly dominated by her mother, screwed over by her first husband, and unable to sit still long enough to enjoy her family life, she struggled for decades to try and find equilibrium and independence. Reading about such a talented person being so unable to assert herself for so long is a rather painful experience. Yet the book is also a compelling history of one of the great hillbilly bands of all time: beloved by country and rockabilly fans alike, the Maddoxes were one of the most popular hard country acts of the 1940s and early '50s. They played everything in hyperdrive and did much to sculpt the sound of rocknroll, as well as the late '50s hard country revival in Bakersfield. Whiteside does a great job conveying what it was like working in the honkytonk bars, and the informal nature of the scene back then. Sadly, Rose Maddox passed away in early 1998, but this book is a fine tribute.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Nerdy, August 14, 2003

By	Amber Watney (Encinitas, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I give one star to the author for his anecdotes about Rose Maddox's colorful mother and another star for his descriptions of the hootenannys where the Maddox family performed. But the rest of the book is too gossipy. And the prose style is too nerdy. Is this book about country & western music or ain't it ?

Who cares if Johnny Cash made a pass at Rose when they were both young and obscure ? We've heard so many times on Larry King Live about Mr. Cash's pharmaceutical drug problem and we've seen the poster in which he gives the finger to music industry executives. But we never hear about him lusting after another woman besides June Carter, daughter of Maybelle Carter. Let's keep it that way. If the author wants to smear people, why isn't he straightforward about it ? He could start a new version of the National Enquirer based in Nashville.