In the Country of Country-Prologue and Part 2

Prologue

The book starts off with Dawidoff researching Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers was born in 1897 and grew up around Meridian which seems to be a pretty conservative area. He was a little racy for the area-a big drinker and he got around a bit. Rodgers is one of the first country musicians to have recorded music (along with the Carter Family in 1923). He played "plantation melodies, old river ballads, sentimental weepers, novelty numbers, swinging Dixie-land style...and country blues." He is well known for his yodel and the emotion that he puts into his voice which is partially contributed to by a bout with tuberculosis when he was young.

In the 1990s country music was considered the most popular genre based upon radio play. This country however is considered "real country" which basically as put by Dawidoff means that it is overprocessed, unemotional, has bad lyrics, and is insincere. Dawidoff prefers the more raw country which involves feeling that is associated greatly with many of the less popular country musicians including: Merle Haggard, Iris DeMent, Jimmie Rodgers and others.

Part 2: Three Women

Sara Carter was born in 1900 and was an Appalacian orphan after her mom died shortly after her birth. She married A.P. Carter when she was 16 and together along with Maybelle Carter, A.P.'s sister-in-law, they formed the Carter Family. In that time just about all of the well known musicians were men so A.P. took the forefront in publicity so that the ladies could show off their skills. In reality A.P. tended to contribute very little and he didn't need to because of the overpowering effect of Sara's voice which was drowning with emotion. They continued playing with each other after Sara and A.P.'s divorce in 1939 until Sara moved to California in 1943. She was never as tied to the music and having a career as A.P. and discontinued having performances after moving west.

Kitty Wells didn't live the hard life that she portrayed through the emotion in her voice that many people thought that she did. She did not write her own songs but was still able to infuse them with so much emotion that people thought the stories in her songs were real-life experiences. Kitty and John Wright were married for 59 years at the time the book was written and she relied a lot more on him than her feministic ideals songs would lead a listener to believe. She was generally happy and very sincere and greatly enjoyed being a housewife and singing.

Patsy Cline is the most controversial of the three women discussed in this chapter. She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in 1932. She dropped out of school to help earn money to support the family after her dad walked out on them when she was 16. She started singing in the honky tonks when she was 13 and as she grew older she acted like one of the guys-cursing, drinking, and alluding to different things. She was married and divorced to Gerald Cline before marrying Charlie Dick in 1957. She had a wide vocal range and style that was filled with emotion. In 1961 Patsy Cline had a big hit "I Fall to Pieces." She died in a car crash in 1963, but she is still very well known and her songs are still among the top most played juke-box songs.