This is a very thorough, well researched, readable and useful reference book. If you’re a music junkie like me, and you like anything that could conceivably be called country music, you could probably spend many happy hours thumbing through MusicHound Country. I already have, and look forward to many more.
Graff and Mansfield and a stable of 41 contributing writers, and a slew of editors and researchers, have put together 600-plus pages of album reviews and thumbnail histories of everybody who is anybody in the world of country music. Their definition takes in the likes of Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello, Hank Williams and Garth Brooks, The Byrds and The Jayhawks, The Holy Modal Rounders and Ricky Skaggs.
To be sure, the book only covers artists like Costello if they have made recordings of country or some other kind of American traditional music. But their inclusion highlights the influence country music has had on pop and rock singers from around the world, and also shows just how big a roof the house of country music has.
This book is, first and foremost, an album guide. Open the book to any entry and you’ll find a brief biography and career overview of the artist or group. If it’s a group, you get the names of all the members; if the group’s been around a while, you get the years each member was in the group.
Then you get the album ratings under sections called “what to buy,” “what to buy next,” “what to avoid,” and “the rest.” Some include “worth searching for.” For some acts, the only entry is “what’s available.”
Each album listing includes label, year and producer, and is rated with bones instead of stars … MusicHound, get it? Five bones is essential, no bones is self-explanatory. A record that’s a real dog gets a “WOOF!”
Each entry also lists influences going both ways. Emmylou Harris, for example, was influenced by the Carter Family, Buck Owens, Louvin Brothers, Hazel & Alice, Tom Rush, and Gram Parsons; and was an influence on Alison Krauss, the Mavericks, and the Cowboy Junkies.
Hmm, who are Hazel & Alice? Just over a few pages from Harris … let’s see, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard … also influenced Iris DeMent, the Judds, Kate Brislin … now, who’s that? Not listed, but there’s David Bromberg …
Well, you can see how easy it is to fritter away the hours, just flitting from one entry to another.
The entries are for the most part well written and thorough but concise, which is no mean feat in itself. This sometimes leads to inequities, such as Randy Travis getting nearly twice as many column-inches as Merle Travis (grumble, grumble), but in most cases, the editors have done a good job of keeping these artists in perspective. And this is, after all, an album guide, not a Who’s Who.
The best way for me to evaluate this kind of book is to plunge in and start reading what it has to say about some of my favorites. I did just that, and found myself agreeing more than disagreeing with the assessments.
One of life’s most delightful little pleasures is finding out that “they” agree with me on some obscure little record that I like a lot but haven’t seen in anybody else’s collection. One such case is John Fogerty’s album of old country standards, Blue Ridge Rangers, which MusicHound calls “a stunning product of an obsessive musical mind sorting through personal portraits of Americana that finds its wobbly, awkward way straight to the heart of the matter.” Amen.
Anyone with any opinions about music can always find bones to pick with the reviewers, and MusicHound Country is no exception. Emmylou Harris gets a good write-up, but I disagree with some of the ratings. Wrecking Ball deserves its five bones, but Elite Hotel rates more than two-and-a-half, and both Light of the Stable and the first Trio are overrated. In my humble opinion.
But that’s more than half the fun of such a book.
Another joy is finding new artists and acts to pursue. I’ve added to my list of CDs to look for, a performer who calls himself “The Legendary Stardust Cowboy” (p. 258).
MusicHound Country has a number of other features, some more useful than others. Among the more superfluous are introductory articles by Jim Lauderdale and Suzy Bogguss, and occasional sidebars in which country stars list five of their favorite records under the heading, “Five for My Fans.” Oh, and there’s a sampler CD tucked into the back cover, with eight tracks from Mercury Nashville artists.
At the back of the book are appendices of all sorts of country-related information: books, magazines and newspapers; webpages; fan clubs; music festivals; radio stations; record labels; movies; awards; five-bone albums; compilation albums; band member index; producer index; roots index; and category index.
The books, magazines and newspapers section inexplicably omits “No Depression” magazine, although its editors are among the book’s contributing writers. The listing of webpages is always a frustrating exercise, since websites come and go with astonishing rapidity. I didn’t try any of the pages listed; if you do, don’t be surprised to see “404 — Not Found” pop up on your browser.
Of course, the same could be said of nearly every entry in any book like this. The minute it goes to press, it’s obsolete, considering the dozens of new releases that hit the stores every month. Nonetheless, this is a useful book and should remain one for a long time. It already occupies a treasured spot on my music-related bookshelf.
(Visible Ink Press, 1997)
