All Music Guide to Country: the Experts' Guide to the Best Country Recordings

Jacket Description/Back: For country music fans everywhere, this is a comprehensive guide to the entire spectrum of the music, from string bands and old-timey country, to new traditionalists, alternative country, and today's Nashville superstars. A wealth of great country music has been made over the course of the 20th century, but unfortunately that music hasn't always been well presented. Country has a history of poorly assembled studio albums, quickly recorded cash-in albums, budget-priced compilations, and rerecordings. This book helps listeners to sort through all of this and find the best recordings of old favorites, as well as to discover some great music they may not have heard before. The All Music Guide to Country points out which albums have all the original recordings, which budget-line collections are actually worth acquiring, and which old records are worth a search. Designed for devoted country fans and newcomers alike, this book is packed with fascinating and informative features, including biographies of more than 1,000 artists and groups, providing thorough and concise overviews of their careers; reviews and ratings of the best recordings of each performermore than 5,500 in all; historical essays and "music maps" charting the roots and evolution of country music, its styles, instruments, key artists, and more; and country resources, including book reviews, magazine listings, online sites, and mail-order sources. Publisher Marketing: Reviews and rates the best recordings of country artists and groups, provides biographies of the artists, and charts the evolution of country music. Publisher Marketing: For country music fans everywhere, this is a comprehensive guide to the entire spectrum of the music, from string bands and old-timey country, to new traditionalists, alternative country, and today's Nashville superstars. A wealth of great country music has been made over the course of the 20th century, but unfortunately that music hasn't always been well presented. Country has a history of poorly assembled studio albums, quickly recorded cash-in albums, budget-priced compilations, and rerecordings. This book helps listeners to sort through all of this and find the best recordings of old favorites, as well as to discover some great music they may not have heard before. The All Music Guide to Country points out which albums have all the original recordings, which budget-line collections are actually worth acquiring, and which old records are worth a search. Designed for devoted country fans and newcomers alike, this book is packed with fascinating and informative features, including biographies of more than 1,000 artists and groups, providing thorough and concise overviews of their careers; reviews and ratings of the best recordings of each performermore than 5,500 in all; historical essays and "music maps" charting the roots and evolution of country music, its styles, instruments, key artists, and more; and country resources, including book reviews, magazine listings, online sites, and mail-order sources. Review Citations:

Booklist 11/01/1997 pg. 506 (EAN 9780879304751, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 482 (EAN 9780879304751, Paperback)

Rec Ref Bks in Paperback 01/01/2000 pg. 188 (EAN 9780879304751, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Various The Marvel and Other Short Stories is a collected anthology of six short stories written by the winners of the Austin Macauley World Book Day short story competition. Contributor Bio:  Erlewine, Michael Erlewine is executive editor of the All Music Guide. Contributor Bio:  Bogdanov, Vladimir Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of All Media Guide. Contributor Bio:  Woodstra, Chris Woodstra is staff editor for AMG. Contributor Bio:  Erlewine, Stephen Thomas Stephen Thomas Erlewine is an AMG senior editor. They all live in Ann Arbor, MI.