A gorgeously illustrated and hugely entertaining story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the twentieth century—based on the eight-part film series. This fascinating history begins where country music itself emerged: the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s, the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation--a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today. But above all, Country Music is the story of the musicians. Here is Hank Williams's tragic honky tonk life, Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood, and Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere. Here too are interviews with the genre's biggest stars, including the likes of Merle Haggard to Garth Brooks to Rosanne Cash. Rife with rare photographs and endlessly fascinating anecdotes, the stories in this sweeping yet intimate history will captivate longtime country fans and introduce new listeners to an extraordinary body of music that lies at the very center of the American experience.

本書は、アメリカの魂の旋律を単なる音楽史を超えた壮大な人間賛歌として描き出しています。貧困や孤独、信仰といった感情がいかにして普遍的な詩へと昇華され、一国のアイデンティティとなったのか。スターたちの悲劇と栄光を綴る情熱的な筆致は、カントリーを血の通った一級の文学へと昇華させています。 映像版が音楽で情緒を揺さぶるのに対し、本書は緻密なテキストで歴史の深層を掘り下げます。映像の輝きを言葉で永遠の物語へと定着させるこの相乗効果こそが、音楽を聴くだけでなく、アメリカの原風景を追体験するような深い感動を授けてくれるのです。