Country Music USA

“Still stands as the most authoritative history of this uniquely American art form . . . Bill Malone [was] an indispensable guide in making our PBS documentary.” —Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, Country Music: An American Family Story

This is the newly updated edition of Country Music USA, “considered the definitive history of American country music” (Los Angeles Times). Starting with the music’s folk roots in the rural South, it traces country music from the early days of radio into the twenty-first century. In this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Bill C. Malone, the featured historian in Ken Burns’s 2019 documentary on country music, has revised every chapter to offer new information and fresh insights. Coauthor Tracey Laird tracks developments in country music in the new millennium, exploring the relationship between the current music scene and the traditions from which it emerged.

Praise for Country Music USA:

“The country-music history bible.” ―Rolling Stone
 
“This groundbreaking work, now updated, is the definitive chronicle of the sweeping drama of the country music experience.” —Chet Flippo, former editorial director, CMT: Country Music Television and CMT.com

“The definitive history of country music and of the artists who shaped its fascinating worlds.” —William Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities and coeditor, Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
 
“If anyone knows more about the subject than [Malone] does, God help them.” —Larry McMurtry, from In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas