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Title: All Music Guide to Country: The Experts' Guide to the Best Recordings in Country Music by Michael Erlewine, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ISBN: 0-87930-475-8 Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: July, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Country, plus much that isn't
Comment: I've been listening to country music for more than four decades, plus recently brushing up on music history while researching Faron Young's life. This book contains much good information, but I wonder how the writers define "country." In spite of all their hits, the Wilburn Brothers rate a two-inch column and David Houston gets three inches. Yet many, many performers I've never heard of (and non-country ones I have heard of) get a page or more. How often has Grateful Dead ever been played on a country station? Faron Young--a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame--is allotted one page, but Neil Young gets six. How many times did he appear on the country charts? None that I recall. Even the historical Carter Family is limited to two pages. There would have been room to give more information about more performers if the book had fulfilled the promise of its title.
Rating: 5
Summary: It's The Tops
Comment: Books like this make know-it-alls like me shudder: now everyone can have decades worth of hard-won musical knowledge at their fingertips, for just a few bucks. Hardly seems fair. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Effort
Comment: I'm a big fan of this series, which is prized among buffs for its reliable and informative album ratings. This volume gets big points for unusually inclusive coverage, which makes sense for the "big tent" that is country music. We get everything from rockabilly to country-oriented rock acts to straight-up honky tonk. Also, you get good coverage of some fairly obscure artists (finally, Michael Hurley in a reference book!).
Complaints? I've got a few. The editing in this volume is not up to the series' usual standards. Some of the biographical sketches are sloppily written and some artists seem to have been left out unintentially (for example, Area Code 615 is mentioned many times in the text, but doesn't get an entry). Also, as long as I'm complaining, some of the decisions about who to include are a little loopy -- the Greatful Dead but not John Prine? And music reference books go stale fast -- the latest entries in this one are from mid 1996, so a new edition is called for.
With all that said, I spent half the night reading through this one, promising myself that I'd go to sleep after I read just one more entry... If you're anything more than the most casual country fan, you need this book.
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Title: All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ISBN: 0879307366 Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ISBN: 087930653X Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Rough Guide Country Music (Rough Guides) by Kurt Wolff, Orla Duane ISBN: 1858285348 Publisher: Rough Guides Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: All Music Guide to Jazz - 4th Edition by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ISBN: 087930717X Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $32.95 |
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Title: The Rough Guide Country: 100 Essential Cds by Kurt Wolff ISBN: 1858286026 Publisher: Rough Guides Pub. Date: 23 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.00 |
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