Country California

Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly:Country Music’s Struggle for Respectability, 1939-1954University of Georgia Press, 2004Jeffrey J. Lange
If the mention of respectability in the subtitle of Jeffrey J. Lange’s Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly leads you to expect a reception-based account of what was happening in country music between 1939 and 1954, think [...]

A fateful encounter with the country music section of a university library some months ago set me on a book-buying mission which never quite turned into a book-reading mission. As a result, I have a shelf half-full with country music books constantly reminding me of my sloth and ignorance. That shelf is the [...]