Country Music: The Complete Visual History Book | Explore the Evolution & Icons of Country Music | Perfect for Music Lovers, Collectors & Gift Giving

Compiled using the CMA Hall of Fame archives, this book presents the history of the music based around the way its sounds and styles have changed through the years. While this seems the obvious way of doing it, most histories tend to focus more on the star names rather than the actual music. A consequence of the approach adopted here is that some artists who were major stars over a period of many years get mentioned only briefly (as in the case of the Statler brothers) or not at all (as in the case of Lynn Anderson and Connie Smith). Maybe the co-editors didn't feel they did anything to change the direction of country music, but there are other books that focus on the people and their individual achievements. I have read some of those books, but I like this one precisely because its approach is a little different.This book starts well before the era of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family, with a chapter on the very roots of the music, particularly in the nineteenth century, and another chapter on the pioneer recordings of the 1920s. I love these chapters, which make it very clear that the music of the region from which country music originally evolved was distinctive because of its multi-racial population. Segregation may have prevented social interaction, but people nevertheless heard music from other cultures and were influenced by the different sounds even though they could not or would not socialize with each other. Interesting stuff, but it goes a long way to explaining why the music of the southern states sounded quite different from other regions even before the era of recorded music.The history thereafter has traditionally been more thoroughly documented and is therefore more predictable, but there are always new things to learn even here. It takes us through the depression era, the era of Hollywood cowboys, bluegrass, the emergence of rock'n'roll and all other major developments up to the time the book was put together for its publication in 2006.With plenty of pictures, timelines and other information, this is a fascinating book that should interest anybody who is interested in the history of country music's evolution.