The Music City Reader 2005 Gathers Great Writing on Country & Bluegrass Music

NASHVILLE - If the best country music has always been about great stories, what could be better than a collection of great stories about country music?

That is the premise behind the Music City Reader 2005, available this October from Music City Books. In the tradition of the Best American series -- gathering the best writing in a specific style or format -- the inaugural Music City Reader compiles some of the finest recent writing on country and bluegrass music by the genre’s foremost journalists, culled from the magazines, newspapers and journals that know it best.

“I love country and bluegrass music and am always curious what others are writing about it,” says editor and publisher Randy Rudder. “I often find myself sharing articles I’ve read, or telling friends and fans about something I’ve read that they might have missed. So I figured compiling some of the best of that writing in one place was the easiest way to get the word out and share my passion.”

With an understanding of the range of styles and artists that make up country and bluegrass music, Rudder paired pieces on new and contemporary performers with ones on classic artists and traditionalists, and crafted a compilation for every taste. There are pieces on Keith Urban and Tim McGraw alongside writings about Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. Ricky Skaggs and Bill Anderson get equal ink next to Rhonda Vincent and Brad Paisley, while Loretta Lynn and Gretchen Wilson share space between the book’s covers and an affinity for their roots.

“This is an essential for any country music reader,” adds country music superstar Marty Stuart. “There aren't very many sources today for in-depth country music knowledge, but now Randy Rudder has come through for us.”

With a foreword by the Ragin’ Cajun, fiddler Doug Kershaw, highlights from the Reader include Phil Sweetland’s profile of Kristofferson from American Songwriter, Bill DeMain’s interview with Dwight Yoakam from Performing Songwriter, Michael McCall’s in-depth look at John Prine from The Nashville Scene and Peter Cooper’s detailing in The Tennessean of Keith Urban’s fight with substance abuse and an anything-but-overnight rise up the country-music ranks.

Sure to be the talk of all who read it is Martha Hume’s piece on Lynn from The Journal of Country Music, complete with a hilarious interchange between the writer and Lynn on the supposed effects of a certain cash crop on the female anatomy.

The book also reaches beyond Nashville’s publishing scope. Reprinted here is an extensive expose on Gillian Welch and David Rawlings from The New Yorker that finds Rawlings doing most of the talking on Welch’s behalf. Regardless of Welch’s desire to reveal little, by the end of the article we at least know one thing: even she can’t resist homemade ice cream from Bobbie’s Dairy Dip.

From The Strad in London, writer Nick Shave reveals the “Voice of America” that is fiddle player and composer Mark O’Connor. And from The Atlantic Monthly, Francis Davis does his best to absorb the news of Johnny Cash’s death while shining a light on the massive depth and range of the artist’s talent, Christian values, and American patriotism. The piece, “God’s Lonely Man,” kicks off the Music City Reader, and is the perfect introduction to the depth and range of the book itself.

Edward Morris, former Billboard editor and author of Garth Brooks: Platinum Cowboy, says that “Rudder vaporizes the notion that country music is a simple or primitive art,” while Steven Womack, Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, calls the Reader “enlightening, comprehensive, and complete.” “This book belongs in every country music fan’s home,” he adds.

Randy Rudder has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Memphis and is an assistant professor of English at Nashville State Community College. He lives near Nashville with his wife Clare and daughter Abigail. For more information about the Music City Reader 2005, please visit www.musiccityreader.com. For advance review copies, please contact us at 615-269-0474 or by writing cathy@gurleybiz.com

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