Sad News

I mentioned in my return post that I had read a book on Hee Haw when I finally got back around to reading music related books. There are a couple of reasons that that was my first book.

The first is, quite simply, that I love the show. For all of its corny humor and what might be viewed as simple comedy, it still makes me laugh. I also love to see many of the country stars in their prime, or even before their prime.

Longtime readers of Music tomes might recall that one of the reasons I put the blog on hold is because my son was born. He is now 17 months old and his absolute favorite show is Hee Haw. He laughs when they do. He dances when the music is on. He cheers - "Yay, Buck" - when Buck Owens takes the screen. He can identify Buck (alternately "Buck" and "BuckOwens"), Roy, Grandpa, Junior, Archie, Gordie, and the Hagars. That's the second reason I read the book.

A new Hee Haw related book was released a month or so ago, this one written by co-creator John Aylesworth. Aylesworth, along with Frank Peppiatt, created the show targeted at an audience of country music lovers they saw as under served. They had experience in comedy with the "Jonathan Winters Show," which is where they met Roy Clark. Aylesworth also had experience producing music-oriented shows like "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music," "Your Hit Parade," and "The Judy Garland Show." He would later produce "Dolly" for Dolly Parton and the very short-lived new country showcase "Nashville Palace."

A review of Aylesworth new book, "The Corn Was Green: The Inside Story of Hee Haw" is forthcoming. Two days ago I exchanged emails with Mr. Aylesworth setting up an interview for the site. Tonight I received an email from his wife with the sad news that Mr. Aylesworth passed away last night at the age of 80.

My condolences go out to her and the family.

A Slight Return...

It's been a while since I have had the opportunity to post here. Work and my baby boy have kept me busy, which meant reading time was near zero.

But there has been a change in fortune in that area and that means there will be sporadic postings of reviews and interviews forthcoming.

I have, in the past month or so, had the time to read through some older music-related volumes I've been meaning to get to.

The first was the 1996 book "Life In The Kornfield" by Hee Haw producer Sam Lovullo. The book is structured with a short intro to and history of the show followed by Lovullo's recollections on members of the cast and many of the guests. Why, after so many months of not reading music related books, was this the first on my stack? That will be answered in this blog in the very near future.

The next book I got to was "Freebirds" by Marley Brant, a 2002 biography of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I have been a huge Skynyrd fan since high school 20+ years ago. This was the last bio of the band I had left to read. If you haven't read anything on the band, this is the most comprehensive of the three books on the band. It isn't without it's weak points, but overall it was pretty good.

I'm currently making my way through "Where Dead Voices Gather," Nick Tosches 2002 biography of minstrel singer, and early country music influencer, Emmett Miller. I'm only about half way through, but fans of early country music and those interested in where different musics and influences cross paths will enjoy this book.

It might be a couple of weeks, but I will be back.

They're dropping like flies, kids...

Like I said a few posts ago, this blog focuses mainly on blogs, but I love music journalism in all mediums. Well, a couple more bits of bad news on that front.

Radio & Records announced today (Here) they will be closing their doors after 35 years of publication.

Also announced today is the news that Performing Songwriter will also be shutting down operation (Announcment here.

The moral of the story: If there is a magazine you enjoy out there, support it.

Book Signing

I'll be back later this week with a couple of reviews and hopefully an interview next week. One of the books I'll be posting a review for is the new book by Patsi Bale Cox, The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom. Let me say, even if you aren't a fan of Garth Brooks, you will enjoy this book, but more on that later.

I received an email from the Country Music Hall of Fame this morning and it noted that this Friday (June 5) Cox will be there discussing the book and signing copies. more info here: Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

(On a related note, if anyone sees a book signing of interest coming up, please feel free to pass it along. These book signings are a good way to learn a little more about a subject than is in the book and a good turn out is encouraging to the authors.)

Interview with Barry Mazor

One of my favorite music journalist, Barry Mazor, has a new book hitting shelves on May 15, (although, I believe, it is shipping from Amazon right now) titled Meeting Jimmie Rodgers: How America's Original Roots Music Hero Changed the Pop Sounds of a Century. In it he takes a look at the legacy and influence of Rodgers music as well as putting the performer in context, discussing how his contemporaries viewed him. It is a book I heartily recommend. (You can read my previous interview with Mazor here.

In addition to the release of his first book, Mazor will be honored at the 2009 International Country Music Conference with the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. A prestigous award in the field of country and roots music journalism. Barry was kind enough to take a few minutes to talk to me about the new book and what the award means to him.

Music Tomes: Your new book, Meeting Jimmie Rodgers, comes at the subject of Jimmie Rodgers music from a different angle researching the far-reaching influence of his music rather than attempting to be a straight biography. How did the idea come to you to approach it in that way?

Barry Mazor: I knew that what I wanted to do, the mission of the project in a way, was to make the sense of power of Jimmie Rodgers and his music really palpable to people again - in the way that people more broadly get how and why Elvis or Johnny Cash, for examples, have mattered and still can, even after 75-80 years. And a lot of that impact in Jimmie's case came after he was dead, or in places he never got when he was alive. So combine that with the fact that there was a solid and thorough biography already out here, and it was pretty clear that just taking a stab at a conventional "life of Jimmie Rodgers" couldn't do the job. I came to that conclusion pretty quickly.

The subject — and it's reflected in the title that I eventually came up with — had to be what happens when audiences and other performers have encountered Jimmie's msuic and image and the very idea of him, from his day to ours. It's the part most often left out of looks at pop music of any sort — what other people took the performer to be, what they made of him. I'd seen books that track the sort of idea where the subject was, say, Shakespeare or Leonardo or, for that matter, Jesus, and there were hundreds of years of changes of how the subject was taken to be - but not a book on pop that worked that way. But in Jimmie Rodgers, we've got over 80 years from when he first started working till today, and so many directions his music and the way he handled himself taken up in that span — and it's on the record, or could be. I thought it could be done, with enough first-hand interviews and research, and that's what I've tried to do. And I hope that readers will find that it has the additional benefit of being an involving story!

MT: Nolan Porterfield published the definitive Rodgers biography over 30 years ago and it seems very little research has been brought to light in the time between. But you were able to uncover some never seen bits of information including family scrapbooks and concert schedules. Do you remember what was the first piece you found that you realized hadn't been published yet? Can you describe the feeling?

BM: I'm not sure that I can remember the order those things came in at this point, Eric, but I certainly recall the feeling. Some of these were not just new things about Jimmie Rodgers, I should point out, but new things about Tommy Duncan (the great Rodgers-interpreting vocalist from Bob Wills' Playboys), or new things about Johnny Cash's obsession with Jimmie, or how Jimmie's music worked its way into Jerry Lee Lewis's — or how exactly Dolly Parton came to sing '"Muleskinner Blues" as she did - according to them. As the full title says, the book's about the pop sounds of a century. And I definitely had moments of, "Boy; I think I've got something there," with things like those.

But in terms of Jimmie Rodgers bio information itself, many of the hard new revelations came because I got access to documents like those scrapbooks you mentioned, a personal road diary Jimmie kept in his last year, and the letters he wrote to his wife from the Taft Hotel in New York immediately before he died, so we learn of his state of mind at the end of his short life. I'll admit to trembling a little holding those and reading them - in a bank vault in San Antonio. His widow Carrie mentions them in her memoir; she received them after he was gone. But they've not been detailed before. This was thrilling to be able to relate.

MT: Something I found very interesting about the book was in the very last chapter, to close the book, you do something most authors don't do and that is introduce yourself by way of a brief biography and description of what roots music means to you. I thought it was a great way to wrap up the book. How did you come to include that part and why at the end rather than the beginning?

BM: That was something I felt like I had to do. One reason for pinpointing the different mutations and reinterpretations in the life story of Rodgers' music was to clear them out of the way — so we could better understand what he was up to himself, without middlemen - or women. And so I needed to lay out where I was coming from just like I had with everyone else. I'm not a privileged character.

MT: In you research, did you run across anything that surprised you about Rodgers or his influence?

BM: Lots. But I'll sort of give you an example. One of the stories that really got hold of me, and which I think people coming to it will find pretty engaging and funny, too, is how Jimmie Rodgers' music came to hit the top of the rock and roll charts through the one hit wonder band The Fendermen. Where they got the idea for their manic, near punk version of "Muleskinner" is none of the places I or most any chroniclers had thought. It's a great story involving divine intervention and the Strategic Air Command - and people are gonna have to read the book to hear that one!

MT: Following Rodgers legacy forward, how do you see it fitting in with the seeming dicothomy that is often argued between art and commercialism? Many current country artists are dismissed as being "too pop" or courting an "non-country" or cross-over audience, but didn't also Rodgers and the Carter Family to an extent?

BM: Jimmie Rodgers certainly did - and to a very considerable extent. And there have been those who thought that he was too commercial! Look; I'm of the school that says he was a part of pop culture, and what he created was, too - and that there's no automatic clash between that and art or truth. In fact, how he reached out to audiences through commercial channels is an important part of the music's story. Anyone - in his day or ours - has the perfect right to sit on the porch or parlor and play their heart out for themselves alone. But when they venture before audiences, and ask that audience to come back again, they're in the marketplace, whether they own up to it or not. I'm not saying that whether a record or song sells or not is inevitably a measure of its value, but it's not an inevitable measure of its lack of value either!

MT: This year you will be one of two recipients of the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. What does this award mean to you?

BM: That's a real surprise and it means a lot. Most of what I do, is cover what happens in music — country most often, and many other kinds, too - today. I want to see the music I care about have a past, a present, and a future, so it's touching to be cited for helping with that in some way. I'd also like to see music journalism have a future, too, and that may be more in question right now. We certainly all benefit from hearing the musical reactions and ideas of all sorts of people - and I guess the very idea behind Meeting Jimmie Rodgers shows that I mean that. But it's also good to have people with the time and focus to do the homework before the talking - and that mostly comes from those paid to do the job - somehow or other.

MT: The award is for Country Music Journalism and you do a good bit of freelance work for papers like the Wall Street Journal in a time when many newspapers are cutting arts related coverage or closing altogether. Many outlets, such as No Depression, a magazine you are closely associated with, are attempting to move online. If you can look into your crystal ball, what do you see the future of music journalism looking like?

BM: I'd like to know! Motley and changing and unpredictable I imagine. You never know. I can reach millions of people through the Journal, but the online version of No Depression was unable to sustain itself, so its already had to drop the pro writers and gone to a "community" Facebook-style model. As I was saying, music journalism is a profession to me, with value, not a hobby, and you can expect to see me in some new places besides the Journal before long.


Barry is adding dates to a book tour that kicked off at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "I had a talk and video presentation about the book, along with the terrific singer John Lilly, at the Country Music Hall of Fame here in Nashville last week," he says, "and they tell me that a video of the whole program will be viewable on their website soon. And I'm about to have what looks like a lot of fun–a book tour across the heart of Jimmie Rodgers' original home territory, from Memphis to Meridian across the Mississippi delta."

If you are in that area, catch one of his appearances at one of the following stores (check their site for times and details):

May 11 - Square Books in Oxford, MS
May 12 - Turnrow Books in Greenwood, MS
May 13 - Lorelei Books in Vicksburg, MS
May 14 - Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS
May 15 - Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian, MS

Music Journalism

When I started this blog my goal was to, in even a small way, bring some focus and attention to some deserving books on music and musicians. I like a lot of different types of music and wanted a place to be able to put those reviews out there, in one place, so they can, hopefully, turn other people on to some great books they might not otherwise hear about.

I wanted to include interviews with authors because I am deeply interested in the craft of writing and am fascinated to hear an author talk about their writing process and inspirations.

Another reason I started this blog was because there is less and less space for such reviews and interviews in other mediums. I do book reviews for a couple of other sites, but I started out in my limited freelance career doing features and other stories and reviews. Each year I like to set goals for my writing and in 2008 I set five goals. Four of them had to do with making inroads at specific magazines. I put those goals on paper in December of 2007 and by April 2008, three of those four magazines were out of business. A couple tried to move to the Web, but haven't found much luck.

That's perhaps the long way around to saying that I will be adding an occasional post that focuses not on book length writing, but articles of music journalism I find to be a good read. The bottom line is that the blessing and the curse of our new Internet media is that anyone can start a blog or site (just like I did), but that also means that, more often than not, the articles go unchecked by any type of editorial process. There are many good sites out there that feature good, journalistic work, but there are, perhaps, just as many with, at worst, questionable ethics and, at best, a lack of knowledge on their subject.

So, here is the first entry in the new section of this blog.

I've been a fan of The 9513 since the very beginning. I remember when it was two great guys trying to keep in touch with their sister. Now, the site has grown immensely and regularly features a slew of interviews, articles and reviews. Currently on their site there is featured an article by Drew L. Wilson entitled "Just Another King Following In The Footsteps Of The First." The article is a great look at Merle Haggard and his influence and the influence Bob Wills had on him. I recommend checking it out. And if you haven't been to the site before I also recommend the "Forgotten Artist" series by Paul W. Dennis.

Why You Been Gone So Long...

Well, I apologize for the lack of posts in the past couple of months. There are a few reasons for it, but there are two big ones. The first is burn out. But that's getting better.

The second is the most important. My son was born on Feb. 17 and, really, not much else matters right now.

But I'll be back! Two books I'm excited about are on the horizon. The other day I received a copy of the upcoming Barry Mazor book on Jimmie Rodgers and his influence. I've just started the book, but Barry is hitting on something not touched on before.

The second is the upcoming book by Patsi Bale Cox on the marketing machine that was Garth Brooks. Patsi has a new blog centered on the book here: http://patsibalecox.blogspot.com/

I'll be back, but I can't say when :)