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At the cusp of the 1980s, at the close of the Woodstock decade, The New York Times cavalierly proclaimed the death knell for country music, predicting its imminent demise. But the musicians who played and the devotees who listened heeded no such nonsense from New York. The nation’s theme music was instead poised to experience its greatest 20-year boom into the new millennium and beyond. How could music that reflects the great human universals – love, loneliness and heartache – do anything but thrive along with its country? Unabashedly sentimental and pun-prone, country music is the polar opposite of its American cousin – rock. Country music cares little about being cool, and rather concerns itself with being common. Though the sound is a close runner-up, the story is always paramount, always the winner. "When country artists open their hearts to an audience, they’re sharing their deepest feelings. Music is a motivator. It will make you leap up and move. It will make you dance. It will make you do jumping jacks. Country music gets people to feeling good," writes Willie Nelson in the foreword. Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America was produced by the Country Music Hall of Fame and DK Publishing.  Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America – produced in partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame and DK Publishing – features hundreds of images and stories that chart the history and development of the music, from its genesis in folk traditions on porches and dancehalls, through the emergence of recordings and radio, and continuing with the significance of Nashville to the modern sounds of country. The book includes essays by some of the most respected recording artists – Rosanne Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter among them. Evocative images and memorabilia from the Frist Library and Archive of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum give readers a full experience of the nation's genre. Edited by acclaimed authors Paul Kingsbury and Alanna Nash – with a foreword by Willie Nelson – this lushly illustrated volume takes readers on a chronological tour through the history of America and her native music. The book is organized into 12 chapters, each dealing with a particular era of country music, a conceit that renders the work an easy reference tool for both the expert and uninitiated. For all its scholarly gravitas – which is considerable – Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America is an easy, gliding kind of read for anyone, not just lovers of the genre. As much as it tells the story of the music and its makers, the book reflects on the story of the 20th century, underscoring that country music is – and will always be – America’s soundtrack. Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America
DK Publishing: ISBN 0-7566-2352-9.
$40.00 – 360 pages illustrated in full color. About The Editors Paul Kingsbury is the author of BMI: The Explosion of American Music; The Grand Ole Opry History of Country Music; and Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers, 1947–1989, co-author of Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop, and a contributing author to The Country Music Pop-Up Book. He has been editor-in-chief of numerous country music books and of The Journal of Country Music between 1985 and 1997. He has also produced a documentary film on bluegrass, contributed to numerous magazines and has been interviewed on the subject of country music on various radio and television programs.  American folk musician and artist Thomas Hart Benton painted the folkways of rural America. In 1973, the Country Music Foundation commissioned him to create a large mural illustrating the music's roots, now on display at the Country Music HOF. A feature writer for Entertainment Weekly, USA Weekend, and The New York Times, Alanna Nash is a long-time chronicler of popular culture. She is the author of six books, including Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia, and Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, which was the basis for the feature film Up Close and Personal. Named one of the "Heavy 100 of Country Music" by Esquire magazine, Nash holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the Society of Professional Journalists’ National Member of the Year in 1994. List of Contributors Among the top country music scholars contributing to Will The Circle Be Unbroken, all recruited by editors Paul Kingsbury and Alanna Nash, are Barbara Biszick-Lockwood, David Cantwell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, Kevin Coffey, Peter Cooper, Wayne W. Daniel, Chrissie Dickinson, Colin Escott, Chet Flippo, Holly George-Warren, Michael Gray, Douglas B. Green, Craig Havighurst, Murphy Henry, Elek Horvath, Geoffrey Himes, Martha Hume, Jack Hurst, Beverly Keel, Rich Kienzle, Paul Kingsbury, Guy Logsdon, Bill C. Malone, Michael McCall, Edward Morris, Michael Martin Murphey, Alanna Nash, Robert Oermann, Jay Orr, Nolan Porterfield, Ronnie Pugh, Tom Roland, John W. Rumble, Dave Samuelson, Tamara Saviano, Mike Seeger, Charlie Seeman, Richard D. Smith, Michael Streissguth, Jon Weisberger, David Wilds, and the late Charles K. Wolfe. John Budris is the editor of HOFMAG.com. He can be reached at
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