Reviews for The best of country music

The average rating for The best of country music based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-10-13 00:00:00 Michael Acuna While it is a bit hopelessly out of date (ending in 1984) this book is still an insightful and entertaining collection of reviews of hundreds of country music albums and compilations that will serve as a worthy addition to any country music fan's library. This book is especially useful for fans looking to own the best vinyl versions of different artist's work since the book virtually ends right before CDs took over.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-01-25 00:00:00 Nichole Serna John Morthland wrote this way back in 1984 and I'm afraid it's been pretty much out of print ever since. It was recommended to me a very long time ago now by Morthland's fellow Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh, and its subtitle probably gives you the description you need: "A Critical and Historical Guide to the 750 Greatest Albums." It's one of the truly great books of country music criticism (which I know is a pretty small category, even today, but still...), and one of the very first (maybe THE first?). There are things I'd quibble with him on now, but at the time it was unassailable to me and mostly still is: He does just a great job of culling the best live an studio albums, many of which, probably most at this point, are out of print (and almost all of the anthologies he recommends are gone too, though they at least have been replaced with newer, usually bigger and better, collections) but even when that's the case, he nails distinctions and descriptions of varying eras and subgenres, and tells you what you need to know to get started with figures both major and minor in the country scene. Big influence on me...Bill F-W's and my Heartaches by the Number was, described one way, a country version of Marsh's Heart of Rock 'n' Soul, but it would be just as true to say that it was a singles version of Morthland's book.