Michael Streissguth

Outlaw: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and the Renegades of Nashville serves as a great in-depth overview of the heyday of the Outlaw Country Music Movement that fueled Nashville, TN. and Austin, TX in the 1970s. The book surveys the careers of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson while also mentioning the likes of Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, and Guy Clark. The book proves that Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson truly changed the Country Music scene in the 1970s. Outlaw shows just how the three singer-songwriters didn't quite fit in, and how they saved country music from itself (at least for a time).… (mere)

Highways and Heartaches by Michael Streissguth is a fascinating look at both a specific era in country music as well as one of its many influences: bluegrass.

I listen to a little of everything but neither country nor bluegrass has ever been my primary genres. The country I like I tend to like a lot, and bluegrass is a form I prefer live to recorded. I have thoroughly enjoyed every bluegrass festival I have attended but had no desire to purchase albums. So I am coming to this with a knowledge of the names and a very small understanding of where they came from, in other words, not a fan but definitely a lot of respect.

I really enjoyed reading about the circuits these musicians traveled on their way to country stardom. My preference, as far as the two in the book title, has always been Stuart. I come away from this book with a better appreciation of both, as well as the many others mentioned. This is a book that is enriched by taking the time to look up music and videos. Reading about something is great, but also seeing/hearing it makes a world of difference.

Like any genre, what came before influences what comes after, whether through paying homage or working against some aspects. When we are talking about the intersection of two genres, there is a bit of crosspollination taking place, an adding or subtracting or even a substitution. Reading about the context within which such expression takes place is both fun and educational. That combination also leads to a better appreciation of the musicians and the music.

While bluegrass and country fans will be especially interested, I can easily recommend this to music lovers in general. Particularly if you supplement the book with audio and video you look up. If you like some of the peripheral people in this story (for me that includes Ronstadt) it will allow you to see them in a new light as well.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)

In 1968 it had been ten years since Cash had such huge success with "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line". He was now a performer with a drug habit and the reputation for often no-showing at appearances, or playing when he was too high to remember the lyrics. His band had become his babysitters.
His appearance for two shows at Folsom was a big deal for the prison and inmates, but not much for Cash's label, Columbia Records. They barely participated, never thinking they'd end up with anything marketable, especially with an audience of inmates who might misbehave. Cash and his band, which included June Carter and guitarist Carl Perkins, did two shows on January 13, 1968. Included in their set was a song written by a Folsom inmate, and when the album became so big and was a career changer for Cash, it also changed the inmates life, securing him an early release from prison and a job with Cash's company, though the man ultimately couldn't adapt.
The author takes the reader in unexpected directions. You probably wouldn't expect a book about the recording of a famous album, even one recorded in a prison, to spend time explaining how prison prostitution works, or how race gangs pick their victims, but that information is here. There's a discussion of the record company's lack of interest in the recording until it became a hit, and of Cash's admiration and friendship with Bob Dylan, which may have played a part in the record's success. There are plenty of photos of the day and performance included.… (mere)