Are You Ready For The Country: Elvis Dylan Parsons And The Roots Of Country Rock - Softcover

Doggett, Peter

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9780140261080: Are You Ready For The Country: Elvis Dylan Parsons And The Roots Of Country Rock

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140261087 ISBN 13: 9780140261080

Publisher: Penguin UK, 2001

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In 1969, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, American music changed for ever. Bob Dylan, the most daredevil spirit of the rock era, took the stage for the first time with Johnny Cash, country music superstar. This show at the temple of country music, The Grand Ole Opry, was the most public evidence of a collision of styles which first occurred in the mid-1950s and has sent shockwaves through American music ever since. Country Rock, as played by the Byrds, the Eagles and Gram Parsons, was to become the dominant style in American music during the 1970s. In this work, Peter Doggett introduces us to all the main personalities - from pioneers like Hank Williams and Elvis Presley, through icons such as the brilliant but self-destructive Gram Parsons and Johnny Cash, to superstars like Neil Young and Willie Nelson and modern artists such as Beck and Wilco. In doing so he traces the uneasy and often explosive relationship between country and rock, which has mirrored the cultural divide between North and South, between Yankee and Rebel.

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About the Author:

Peter Doggett was born in 1957. He has been writing about music for 20 years, has interviewed hundreds of rock and country stars in Britain and America and was the editor of Record Collector magazine from 1982 to 1999. Introduced to country by the late 60s recordings of Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons, he has become a passionate champion of all forms of the music, from bluegrass to alt.country.

From Library Journal:

Doggett, a former editor of Record Collector magazine, offers an exhaustive examination of the interplay between country music and rock'n'roll. In the first section, he tackles the same topic as John Einarson's excellent Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock (LJ 3/1/01), dealing with country rock from its inception in the late 1960s to its full flowering several years later. He begins with Bob Dylan's infatuation with country, shows the critical impact of Gram Parsons on the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, charts the rise of the Band, Poco, and Linda Ronstadt, and ends with the Eagles as the commercial high-water mark of country rock. The author devotes a second section to the role of country in the birth of rock with the rockabillies, discussing Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley as well as Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Country pop and alternative country rock are also discussed at length in a third section. Based upon dozens of interviews, this detailed but readable compendium will serve as a useful guide to anyone interested in the intersection of rock and country during the last 50 years. Recommended for all music fans. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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