Offers a pictorial look at the life and career of singer Dolly Parton as seen through her song lyrics. Parton presents the lyrics from 175 key songs in her career that spans six decades, and provides personal stories, insights, and memories behind their creation and performance. In the process, she reflects on her childhood, family, rise to fame, the singers she worked with, her films, her charitable projects, and her legacy. Includes personal photographs,...

A biography of country music singer and songwriter Dolly Parton. Born in a little cabin in Tennessee, Dolly Parton always dreamed big, and she was right to! She wrote her first song at age five and became a country music star by the time she was in her early twenties. Of course, her success didn't stop there. Dolly Parton is also an actress, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist whose "Imagination Library" reading initiative reaches children throughout...

Dolly is a little girl with a BIG voice. Music fills Dolly's heart so plumb full she has to let it out! She'll even sing to her cornhusk dolls or a pen full of pigs. She makes her own drum from a pot and her own guitar from a broken mandolin. But what Dolly dreams of is performing for a real audience--people who would hear her sing, and applaud!

Little Dolly grew up in Tennessee in a family "as poor as dirt." She started performing at an early age, singing on local radio and television. After graduating high school, she moved to Nashville to pursue her singing dreams. Her managers wanted her to sing pop, but she followed her heart to sing and write country songs. Her heart was right--Dolly became a musical superstar, but she never forgot where she came from. She now uses her wealth to give...

"Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a "lively, engaging, and often wise" (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite...

"Beloved around the world, Randy Travis has sold more than 25 million albums in both country and gospel and is considered one of the finest performers of his generation, admired by superstars across the musical landscape, from Garth Brooks to Mick Jagger. From a working-class background in North Carolina to a job as a cook and club singer in Nashville to his "overnight success" with his smash 1986 album Storms of Life--which launched the neotraditional...

The iconic Country Music Hall of Fame artist and 10-time Grammy winner shares the story of his personal life and career, from his early ambitions and indelible relationships through his bankruptcy and founding of Farm Aid.

The Incredible Story of a Country Music Legend

Few artists have left a more indelible mark on America’s musical landscape than Charlie Daniels.

Readers will experience a soft, personal side of Charlie Daniels that has never before been documented. In his own words, he presents the path from his post-depression childhood to performing for millions as one of the most successful country acts of all time and what he

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Willie Nelson writes about his life in the form of letters that also include musings about America. There are also song lyrics to some of his biggest hits.

While on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, journalist and novelist Paul Hemphill wrote of that pivotal moment in the late sixties when traditional defenders of the hillbilly roots of country music were confronted by the new influences and business realities of pop music. The demimonde of the traditional Nashville venues (Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Robert's Western World, and the Ryman Auditorium) and first-wave artists (Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Lefty...