Classic Country: Legends of Country Music

Charles K. Wolfe, Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, is the author of sixteen books on folk, country, and popular music, including A Good Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry (1999), The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (cowritten with Kip Lornell, 1992), and The Devil's Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling (1997). He has produced or annotated over one hundred albums of music, for which he has received three Grammy nominations.

"Wolfe takes some of the best and least-known personalities of "Traditional Country" and gives them life in succinct but informative vignettes...Still, whether Wolfe is retelling well-known lore or delving into the fascinating, forgotten, yet influential lives of lesser-knowns; he provides vivid. loving portraits of a country music that barely exists anymore." -- David M. Turkalo, Booklist
"An essential book for popular music collections." -- ray Olson, Booklist
"In lively, easy-going prose, he undertakes honest, generous, largely biographical investigations of the musicians to whom he's devoted his career... His sensitive, masterful essays elucidate the contributions these artists made to the "great unifying, nourishing stream [that] runs through the history of country music." -- Publisher's Weekly

Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1 From the Hall of Fame 1a. The Carter Family 1b. The Carter Family on Border Radio 2a. Roy Acuff I 2b. Roy Acuff II 3. Lefty Frizzell 4. grandpa Jones 5. Pee Wee king 6. Bill MOnroe 7. Hank Snow 8. Kitty Wells Part 2 From the Victrola 9. Fiddlin' John Carson 10. Vernon Dalhart 11. Riley Dalhart 12. Charlie Poole 13. The Georgie Yellow Hammers 14. Darby and Tarlton Part 3 From the Airwaves 15. Lew Childre 16. The Blue Sky Boys 17. Brown's Ferry Four 18. Cousin Emmy 19. The Monroe Brothers 20. Wayne Raney 21. Karl and Harty 22. Bradley Kincaid Part 4 From the Shadows: Unsung Heroes 23. Tommy Magness 24. Arthur Q. Smith 25. Zeke and Zeb turner 26. Johnny Barfield 27. The Rouse Brothers 28. Seven Foot Dilly 29. The Jordanaires 30. DeFord Bailey 31. Emmett Miller 32. Tommy Jackson 33. Jimmie Riddle .Part 5 From the Stage: Classic COuntry 34. Curly FoX and tTxas Ruby 35. The Delmore Brothers 36. Don Gibson 37. The Louvin Brothers 38,. The Statler Brothers 39. Martha Carson 40. The Carlisles 41. Albert E. Brumley 42. Stringbean Part 6 From the West 43. Girls of the Golden West 44. Billio Maxwell 45. Red River Dave 46. Skeet McDonald .Part 7 New Fogies 47. Hazel and Alice 48. Doc Watson 49. Roy Harper 50. The Freight Hoppers index