Kentucky country Book

This book focuses on what Country music meant to the history of the state by tracing the development of several prominent bands (Maddox Bros. and Rose, Buck Owens, etc.)--some homegrown, some not--into national acts. But WMB is a huge bore for those wanting a cultural and socio-political bent on how the music cam via the "Okies" who migrated here through the first half of the 20th C. Haslam is much too fond of trumping bands for their resistance to Nashville, and he does so frequently while indelicately ignoring many interesting things that have nothing to do with the music industry. Another book could be written on the subject of Bakersfield vs. Nashville, but aside from the occasional deferral to Capitol Records, I personally care very little about it.

In fact, being an East Bayer all my life, I felt somewhat slighted. For one thing, seeing how Richmond, Vallejo and Oakland are within less than 50 miles of each other, all war towns in the 40's and 50's, supplying thousands of jobs to recent arrivals from the South and Midwest, you'd think a great deal more of the book would devote itself to this area.

But no. Haslam devotes about three quarters of his book to Bakersfield and Southern California, and the rest is pretty much devoted to bands' staunch refusal to move to Nashville. The occasional passing comments on Oakland are total revelations, which are of course gold to the people who write these books. I was fucking stunned to learn that Bob Wills recorded his Tiffany Transcriptions somewhere on Telegraph Avenue. Come to Oakland today and you won't see a trace of Hank or Buck or anyone else. It is these exhumations of history that writing on subjects that are commonly ignored is all about.

Decent read, well written, but I was disappointed with Haslam's approach.