Lost Highway: The True Story of Country Music

by Colin Escott

Book Overview

The real history of the musicians, songwriters, and producers who made country music the "Voice of America." This is the definitive history of country music, the quintessential soundtrack of American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588341496
• ISBN13: 9781588341495
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.9" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Lost Highway The True Story of Country Music

Very informative and thoroughly researched. The author could have given more information about the foundations of country music from the 1920's and 1930's, and even influences that started in the 1800's. There could have been many more and much more thorough biographies. Generally I did enjoy the book, however, this is only an introduction to Country Music History and the author missed an opportunity to provide a complete history in one convenient volume. There were many influential country music icons that were either not mentioned or given just a passing glance. (G. B. Grayson & Henry Whitter; The Delmore Brothers; Al Dexter; Hank Penny; Bill Haley [country yodeler before a pop artist]; Bob Wills, Leon McAuliffe, Jerry Byrd, and the whole swing era; among others.) The book is actually too small.

With Country Music ,the past is the future.

Colin Escott gives us the what,when, where, who, why and wence of Country Music in this excellent book that tells it all;by someone who knows about as much about the subject as anyone.Escott has also written other books,"Hank Williams-the Biography" (see my review dated October 23,2003) and "Hank Williams-Snapshots From the Lost Highway" (see my review dated October 4,2003 )which are also excellent. Another book, "Lovesick Blues" by Paul Hemphill,(see my review dated July 12,2007) is also excellent. In this book ,Escott traces the history of the music we have come to love, under the large umberella of Country Music.He goes right back to the beginning,covers the different artists and all the different forms and of course;the music and songs themselves.More than that,he shows how and why changes took place. Some of these changes were made by the artists,but many were made by the "industry". In many cases ,the people who had control,made changes that were in their interests as opposed to the interests of the artists and partitularly those of the fans. They said ,this is the way it's going to be whether the fans like it or not---often the fans didn't,and many walked away. Country Music fans have alwys been open to change and have embraced many forms;When "the business" pushes aside what the fans want,and gives them something they don't want,usually for what they think will be monetaty gain with new audiences;they have failed. Escott sums it up pretty well with this; "Honky-Tonk music has gone in and out of vogue ,(with the industry) but in times of crisis country music has retreated to its honky-tonk roots.Drinking songs,cheatin' songs,and beer hall shuffles were the white man's blues.And,like the blues,honky-tonk music is profoundly adult music.Whenever country music chases the youth dollar,its honky-tonk roots are the first to go,but whenever it tries to rediscover its greatness and uniqueness,honkey-tonk reappears." This book is both a clebration of the strange,raw spirt of authentic country music and a critique of the bland,soulless product that often passes for country today. Country Music fans know what they like ,it's Hank Williams,Hank Snow,Merle Haggard,Webb Pierce,Jim Reeves,Red Foley,Bobby Bare,June and Johnny Cash,Loretta Lynn,Tammy Wnnette,George JonesHank Cochran,The Carter Family,Bill Monroe,Patsy Cline,Willie Nelson,Ray Price,Marty Robbins,Conway Twitty and a host of other great songwriters ,singers and musicians. Authentic Country Music is still what the fans want;and the soundtrack to "O Though"Brother Where ArtThou" sold millions and left the industry scratching their heads. The fact that Shania and Garth Brooks and many of the stars today,may make a lot of money;they just don't capture the countriness in country music. This book does an excellent job of capturing how I feel about Country Music and is why I return to my old favorites and by and large pass by most of the stuff coming out of Nashville today. Thanks Colin

Lost & Found Highway

This book was produced in conjunction with a 4-part BBC series on Country Music, and the name of the author, Colin Escott, sounds British, so I googled him to find out where exactly was he comin' from. Though there was a race car driver who rode in Le Mans in 1959 with that name, the nearest I could gather was that he is Toronto-based, and he came to Nashville over 30 years ago on a Greyhound Bus and started writing this book--doing the research on the music that had intrigued him from afar. He has written a lot of other books on Country Music, and lots of articles and sleeve notes. I mention this because this book conveys such a deep understanding of Country Music, but at times it seems to be written from an outsider perspective. Just as a prophet is never honored in his hometown, sometimes an outsider can more fully appreciate something that is taken for granted by those who grew up with it. Colin Escott has an ear for poetry, and he finds it in the rural setting of Country Music lyrics, and elsewhere. His prose makes references to Proust, Lord Tennyson, and Monty Python, but they are never gratuitous, like Dennis Miller making an analogy to Agememnon during Monday Night Football, but always supremely apt. The first chapter is entitled `Seize the Palpitating Air' and he takes it from a quote from Thomas Edison. As a demonstration of his newly created phonograph in 1887 he recorded a salutation that went: "I seize the palpitating air, I hoard music and speech. All lips that breathe are mine." This is tied in to Country Music because records, recording technology, and Country Music are deeply intertwined. The book begins with very early examples, like banjo player Dock Boggs and fiddling champion J.T. Stallings, picks up steam with early Country stars like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, and comes full circle towards the end with the soundtrack to O, Brother Where Art Thou? winning the 2002 Grammy for album of the year. Between it covers all or most of the essential musicians who contributed to Country Music: Willie Nelson, Lefty Frizzell, Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, Webb Pierce, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, and of course Hank Williams, both Junior and Senior. Jimmie Rodgers: The Singing Brakeman Hank Williams: The Complete Hank Williams Lefty Frizzell: Life's Like Poetry Merle Haggard: Hag: The Studio Recordings 1969-1976 It also covers the less mainstream--but nevertheless integral contributions--of people such as David Allan Coe, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Paycheck, Gram Parsons, Kris Kristofferson, and Dwight Yoakam. Of course, Country Music megastars like Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Glen Campbell, and Olivia Newton John are covered--and treated fairly, in spite of their questionable Country credentials. The book chronicles the rise of Nashville as a Country Music Mecca, but it also takes into consideration Bakersfield, California; B