Self-described as "a hilarious double helix of country music and physics," Black Hole Blues is the outlandish debut novel of Kentucky-based writer Patrick Wensink. Sample the first chapter below. Someone once said: “Being a genius is a real shot in the nuts. Shit’s exhausting as all hell.” That someone was country music legend J. Claude Caruthers. When said philosophical nugget was scratched into his autobiography, Nashville’s Shakespeare, Caruthers had no idea how true it … [Read more...]

Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly:Country Music's Struggle for Respectability, 1939-1954University of Georgia Press, 2004Jeffrey J. LangeIf 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 again. This book is not so much about how the public perception of country music changed during those years as it is about how the music … [Read more...]

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 inspiration for the newest addition to the Country California lineup, a series of decidedly unhip book reviews which will hopefully become a valuable resource for those interested in … [Read more...]