Country (Nick Tosches Book)
Encyclopedia
Country was the first book published by Rolling Stone
magazine critic Nick Tosches
. Released in 1977 under the title Country: The Biggest Music in America, it was retitled in later editions as Country: Living Legends and Dying Metaphors in America's Biggest Music and Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll.
Rather than a detailed, chronological study of country music, the book is arranged like a fan's scrapbook, leaping across time and subject. Throughout Country, Tosches makes a point of paying tribute to pivotal but undersung figures in country, hillbilly, and blues music, including Emmett Miller
, Cliff Carlisle
, and Val and Pete. He also pays tribute to early music writers, such as Emma Bell Miles
, whose 1904 essay "Some Real American Music" Tosches called "the most beautiful prose written of country music."
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine critic Nick Tosches
Nick Tosches
Nick Tosches is an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet of Albanian and Italian descent.- Life :After different odd-jobs, Tosches started writing with poetry and rock-'n'-roll magazines, including Creem, Fusion, and Rolling Stone.Tosches' second book, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis...
. Released in 1977 under the title Country: The Biggest Music in America, it was retitled in later editions as Country: Living Legends and Dying Metaphors in America's Biggest Music and Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll.
Rather than a detailed, chronological study of country music, the book is arranged like a fan's scrapbook, leaping across time and subject. Throughout Country, Tosches makes a point of paying tribute to pivotal but undersung figures in country, hillbilly, and blues music, including Emmett Miller
Emmett Miller
Emmett Miller was an American minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his falsetto, yodel-like voice. Little-remembered today, Miller was a major influence on many country music singers, including Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Milton Brown, Tommy Duncan, and Merle Haggard...
, Cliff Carlisle
Cliff Carlisle
Cliff Carlisle was an American country and blues singer. Carlisle was a yodeler and was a pioneer in the use of the Hawaiian steel guitar in country music.-Biography:...
, and Val and Pete. He also pays tribute to early music writers, such as Emma Bell Miles
Emma Bell Miles
Emma Bell Miles was a writer, poet, and artist whose works capture the essence of the natural world and the culture of Southern Appalachia.-Early life and education:...
, whose 1904 essay "Some Real American Music" Tosches called "the most beautiful prose written of country music."