The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music (The Guinness Who's Who of Popular Music Series) - Softcover

This is a guide to the lives and careers of the stars of country music. The beginnings of this popular genre are traced in the rural southern states of America, with men and women such as Bill Monroe, the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, through the stars of the "Grand Old Opry" and "Louisiana Hayride" radio programmes, to the development of modern country in the 1950s with Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Chet Atkins, Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizzell, Jim Reeves and Hank Snow. The book covers the world of film and television, including Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell and Kenny Rogers, plus "outlaws" Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, to the current breed of "new country" stars such as Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks and k.d. lang. It also explores the turbulent lives of artists such as Tammy Wynette and Johnny Paycheck.