I can actually pinpoint the exact moment I caught the record collecting bug. It was my 1972 spring break vacation at my grandfather's house in Norman, Oklahoma. I was eleven years old. My parents had recently given me a hand-me-down radio and had begun to bestow a weekly allowance on me. I had a lot of free time that week, and I began to hang out in the record racks of a department store nearby. This convergence of events triggered something in me, and I was hooked. I spent all my money on the Top 40 hits of the day, but shortly thereafter I began to pay attention to country music, as well. It was Oklahoma, after all.

I had good reason. The early 1970's were a fertile time commercially and artistically for country music. The country-politan sound of Charlie Rich was changing the direction of Nashville (for the worse, it later turned out), and other stars of the day like Lynn Anderson and Donna Fargo were scoring big pop hits. The talents of Freddy Fender and Charlie Pride enriched the palette of the Grand Ole Opry, and, by the mid-70's, the outlaw music of Waylon, Willie, and the rest had begun to foment a revolution that continues today. My heart might have been in rock and roll, but I quickly developed a keen appreciation for the unique heritage of country music.

Of course, then as now there were evil forces at play in what is arguably America's greatest native art form. Crossover has never been a dirty word in Nashville, and a lust for gold has for years continually subverted country music's hillbilly roots. Lame-ass pretenders like Olivia Newton-John in the 70's, Alabama in the 80's, Garth Brooks in the 90's, and Shania Twain today have tried as hard as they could to fuse mainstream pop sensibilities with country music, and the results have almost invariably been execrable.

Thankfully, each generation also produces rebels who respect country's hallowed forbears and seek to advance the form without betraying its tradition. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Steve Earle, and Wilco are but a few of the outlaws who have held down the fort during my lifetime, and the artistic resurrection of Johnny Cash at the zenith of the 1990's alternative rock revolution just goes to show that honest, raw, country music will always survive.

So, on the following pages you'll see me praise a wide variety of country stars from the pre-war years to the present. Some will be slicker than others, but all will use the plainspoken, heartfelt language that has appropriately earned country music the tag of "white soul." Country music speaks to me in a unique way, a way that rock and roll or rhythm and blues does not. I cannot always explain this, but maybe you feel the same way. Drop me a line...

Randy Anthony

I dreamed of a hillbilly heaven...

The Country Music Bookshelf

• Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'N' Roll (Nick Tosches, 1977, revised 1996)
• Country Music U.S.A. (Bill C. Malone, 1968, revised 2002)
• In the Country of Country (Nicholas Dawidoff, 1997)
• Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians (Peter Guralnick, 1979)
• Rough Guide To Country Music (Kurt Wolff, 2000)

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Country Music On The Web

• All Music Guide
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Country LP Discography
• Keep It Country
• No Depression
• Roughstock
• Texas County Line
• Thanks For The Music
• TwangCast
• Google

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