The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music

When Atlanta journalist Paul Hemphill wrote his first book, The Nashville Sound (Simon & Schuster) in 1970 he captured a snapshot of a truly honest and integral brand of American music on the verge of gentrification. Although he had no way of knowing it, the times they were a changin', and so was the country music industry. Prior to the `70s the very words "country" and "industry" were at odds. Country music was an untapped tune made "by the folks for the folks" embracing estranged working class anthems forged in America's backwoods, small towns and luminous Southern cities. Songwriters with prickly tongues and unhurried twangs raged against the man and lamented the women who caused them grief, which only fueled their humble and creative fires. Through impeccable research and interviews with country music innovators, including Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash and the likes, Hemphill drafted the definitive work on the bittersweet sounds rising from Music City USA. The book was a commercial and critical success. The Chicago Sun-Times even called it, "The best book ever written about country music." Thirty-five years after The Nashville Sound hit the streets Hemphill's work remains as solid, honest and evocative as it always has in this age of vanilla tunes, plastic production and beaming yes men man-handling the media. Rarely do such works of music journalism stand up to the test of time. The Nashville Sound served as the gateway for Hemphill to embark on a lengthy and distinctively Southern career as a writer, penning several other works of both fiction and non-fiction, including Leaving Birmingham which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. After three-and-a-half decades Everthemore Books has repackaged The Nashville Sound (280 pages) to reacquaint the music and its old heroes with a new generation of country music lovers. Hot on the heels of Hemphill's fifteenth offering Lovesick Blues; the Life of Hank Williams (Viking), The Nashville Sound brings the writer full-circle, offering a glimpse into his voice at its humblest beginnings.