The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Country Music

This is the definitive guide to selecting the finest recordings in country music. Artists such as Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus outsell established pop and rock giants in the United States, and they are becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Yet this very popularity means that it is now more difficult to define just what ‘country music’ is.

The Guide looks at the key recordings in ten major areas of the music, selecting a main library of 100 discs — the majority of them currently available CDs, but with a few harder-to-find specialist items — that should form the core of any country collection. In addition, over 300 supplementary albums are listed and described, enriching the coverage of each style. Crossover artists are discussed (who adapted their styles to the vast pop audience), as are many of the other musicians who can make this vast and relatively uncharted area of music confusing for the first-time buyer and aficionado alike. The Guide alleviates confusion, and charts a clear course through the mass of releases that form the country catalog, past and present.

The Blackwell Guides are short reference books intended to bring specialist help and guidance to those building a library of recordings. Written and edited by the world’s leading authorities, they can be relied upon for balanced and comprehensive information.

Contributors: Bob Allen, Tom Gilmore, Frank and Marty Godbey, Geoffrey Nimes, Pete Loesch, Nick Tosches, Charles Wolfe, Laurence J. Zwisohn.

Other titles in the Blackwell Guides series

The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues edited by Paul Oliver

The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz edited by Barry Kernfeld

The Blackwell Guide to the Musical Theatre on Record Kurt Gänzl

The Blackwell Guide to Soul Recordings edited by Robert Pruter

Forthcoming title

The Blackwell Guide to Contemporary Composition on Record Brian Morton