More Memories

The country music legend continues his account of life in the world of entertainment and broadcasting, offering anecdotes about such performers as Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Billy Ray Cyrus, and many others.

Country music broadcasting legend Emery continues, again with coauthor Carter, the reminiscences he began with his bestselling Memories . He displays a fine eye for detail and a command of his subject that is the product of 40 years on the Nashville scene, most recently as host of Nashville Now , a country music talk show on the Nashville Network (TNN). In language as unabashedly sentimental as the lyrics of a country song, the anecdotes and interviews here cover the entire range of performers, from superstars to talented second-rank personalities and the mostly anonymous studio musicians whose contribution to the genre is immeasurable. Emery contends that country music is today too much of a business and mourns the loss of a sense of community which existed when he first entered the field. Of particular note are his descriptions of the reaction to the deaths of Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, and his interview with Dick Clark, whom Emery praises as a professional without peer in the broadcast industry. The story of how the Grammys first came to Nashville is a sterling example of the gentle humor and goodnatured style of this affectionate remembrance. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Emery and Carter prove lightning can strike in the same place twice: Witness this scintillating follow-up to their 1991 megabestseller, Memories. Emery (whose prime-time cable-TV show Nashville Now has 60 million viewers) reprises his humble beginnings in broadcasting at WTPR--a dusk-to-dawn 250-watter in Paris, Tennessee (pop. 5000). After broadcasting farm-to-market news at $45 a week, he began programming a Sunday morning country-music show--until his first fan letter informed him that listening to country on Sunday mornings was like eating green beans for breakfast. Switching to a gospel format featuring live services, Emery would race to the first church and set up a microphone, then speed back to the station to introduce the service. Jumping back into the station's jalopy, he'd rush to set up a mike at the next church while the first preacher was having his half hour on the air. The bulk of the narrative here, though, offers not autobiography but more of Emery's fascinating insider's anecdotes about the foibles of country-music stars; their families; the origins of their songs; and the zany behavior they use to drive away the boredom of working 300 one-nighters on the road each year. One bright episode concerns the silver-screen debut of Mel Tillis--a notorious stutterer but one of the first Nashville singers recruited by Hollywood. Facing the cameras for the first time, Tillis characteristically botched his lines with his stutter. When the furious director castigated him for improvising, the humiliated singer retired to his trailer for some liquid consolation. Meanwhile, the cast and crew convinced the director that Tillis's stutter made the line funny, and Tillis was invited back for another take: Intoxicated, he delivered his lines without hesitation--only the next morning did a sober Tillis finally declaim to perfection, stumbling over every word. Captivating, and likely to capture another top rung on bestseller lists. (For a less satisfied glance at Emery's life, see Skeeter Davis's Bus Fare to Kentucky, reviewed above.) (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In the follow-up to his best-selling Memories, Emery has compiled more anecdotes from his encounters with country music stars during a career that has pinnacled with his position as host of the Nashville Network's "Nashville Now" show. Stories range in time from the early raucous days of country music, when Emery was host of a radio gospel show, to his "Nashville Now" interview with his rock equivalent, Dick Clark. Extensive coverage is given to the years 1963 and 1964, when the lives of country legends Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Jim Reeves were suddenly taken by one plane crash and one car wreck, leaving Nashville stunned. On a lighter note, Emery includes some pranks and funny incidents that occurred during the heavy-drinking days of Nashville stars. Emery also includes a chapter of interviews with the husbands of such famous stars as Barbara Mandrell, Patsy Cline, and Tammy Wynette. Emery's latest book is sure to be as successful as his first. Caroline Paulison