Poets, teachers, and musicologists fusing studies of form, scansion, and musical creation to redefine the place of the American bard

Women have been pivotal in the country music scene since its inception, as Charles K. Wolfe and James E. Akenson make clear in The Women of Country Music. Their groundbreaking volume presents the best current scholarship and writing on female country musicians. Beginning with the 1920s career of teenage guitar picker Roba Stanley, the contributors go on to discuss Polly Jenkins and Her Musical Plowboys, 50s honky-tonker Rose Lee Maphis, superstar Faith Hill, the relationship between Emmylou Harris and poet Bronwen Wallace, the Louisiana Hayride's Margaret Lewis Warwick, and more.

The swelling interest in popular music studies has far outpaced the outlets for publication. Country music, with its all-too-familiar stereotypes, has been particularly slow to gain scholarly acceptance. With the Country Music Annual, scholars, students, and even fans now have a outlet for the dissemination of research and ideas. Each volume of this new yearbook is devoted to all aspects of country music and is the only forum for series studies of the subject. Specific topics include old-time music, western swing, bluegrass, honky-tonk music, Cajun, instrumental music, Nashville sound era, new traditionalism, country rock, alternative country, Americana, modern folk, and contemporary Nashville, as well as biographical studies and interdisciplinary approaches to music, geography, gender, class, race, media, and culture. This inaugural edition defines country music in a broad sense and reflects the marvelous complexities of what has often been called a simple cultural form. The articles look at old-time music, Western swing, honky-tonk, Bluegrass, Cajun, country rock, and the many other incarnations country music has taken. Contributors explore country music in Hollywood and Nashville, humor, country's complex relationship with religion, music careers, sound mixing, and teaching country music in the classroom. Analysis of music, lyrics, and aesthetics stand alongside discussions of Minnie Pearl, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Shania Twain, and many more artists. Advisory Board: Bill C. Malone, Nolan Porterfield, Jimmie Rogers, Curtis Ellison, William K. McNeil, Wayne W. Daniel, Joli Jensen.

This series of biographical profiles shines a spotlight on that special place "Where the West meets the Guitar." From Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to contemporary artists like Michael Murphy, Red Steagall, Don Edwards and Riders in the Sky, many entertainers have performed music of the West, a genre separate from mainstream country music and yet an important part of the country music heritage. Once called "Country and Western," it is now described as "Country or Western." Though much has been written about "Country," very little has been written about "Western"--until now. Featured are a number of photos of the top stars in Western music, past and present. Also included is an extensive bibliography of works related to the Western music field.

Readers will get an inside look at the personal stories behind their favorite country songs as songwriters get up close and personal with exclusive stories about how and why they wrote them. Songs tell a story, and now many of country music’s most famous singers and songwriters are sharing more of the story! These artists reveal the inspiration, influence, and background, and when and why they wrote their most famous songs, in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music. Book includes great photos of the songwriters and lyrics of many of the songs. A great gift for anyone who loves country music!

Popular music may be viewed as primary documents of society, and America's Musical Pulse documents the American experience as recorded in popular sound. Whether jazz, blues, swing, country, or rock, the music, the impulse behind it, and the reaction to it reveal the attitudes of an era or generation. Always a major preoccupation of students, music is often ignored by teaching professionals, who might profitably channel this interest to further understandings of American social history and such diverse fields as sociology, political science, literature, communications, and business as well as music. In this interdisciplinary collection, scholars, educators, and writers from a variety of fields and perspectives relate topics concerning twentieth-century popular music to issues of politics, class, economics, race, gender, and the social context. The focus throughout is to place music in societal perspective and encourage investigation of the complex issues behind the popular tunes, rhythms, and lyrics.

The composers, writers and musicologists who contributed to this issue embrace aesthetics as far apart as neo-romanticism and post-Darmstadt "complexity," whole-scale computerization and non-computerization and deal with problems of word-setting and operatic composition in English, German, Italian and Swedish.

This new book fully expands our understanding of how historically marginalized groups are represented in music videos. Author Michael Austin explores the ways in which Asian and Pacific Islanders, Indigenous communities, the LGBTQIA+ community, drag performers, religious minorities, and the incarcerated are represented. The book also covers several contemporary controversies involving music videos, especially cultural appropriation. Importantly, this book also explores the ways in which marginalized communities use music videos as a way to find their own voice and represent themselves.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

Choice is not the same as free moral agency. Choice is scriptural, while free moral agency is not. Free moral agency has the connotation that man has the ability to become God. Choice is our decision to allow God to perfect himself in us through the pitfalls of life. Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:6–7).