My First Country Guitar Picking Songs is an ideal book for beginners interested in learning country-style guitar and basic reading skills. Author Steve Kaufman uses his award-winning method to teach principles of flatpicking, basic chord fingerings and notation, within the context of classic country songs. This book emphasizes the versatility of the country guitarist as a lead instrumentalist and rhythm accompanist, from lyrical melodies to swinging strumming techniques.

This book and accompanying audio are the perfect primer for anyone interested inlearning blues guitar played with a pick. An addition to Steve Kaufman's My First series, the book starts the student from the very beginning. Basic chords and notation are presented, progressing to blues strumming patterns and lines. Lessons also cover blues scales, tablature, I-IV-V chords and more. The book is perfect for anyone interested in learning blues guitar, and experienced tab readers who wish to learn standard notation

My First Gospel Banjo Picking Songs is a fun and easy approach to gospel music for five-string banjo. The book explains right and left hand techniques, notes, basic chords, and practice tips. Twenty-four great gospel songs are presented intablature, including Amazing Grace, Just Over In Glory Land, What a Friend We Have In Jesus, and more. This method is a great introduction to the banjo and its wonderful role in gospel music. The book comes with audio

Julia Crowe interviews the world's leading guitarists, from Les Paul, Carlos Santana, Peter Frampton and Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Satriani, Melissa Etheridge, to Lee Ranaldo, George Benson and Jimmy Page. In interviews that offer an intimate insights into their beginnings as they recall their first instrument and share their memories of the inspiration, challenges, and successes of their early days. "Collecting these tales has been admittedly addictive because each story is as unique, compelling and illuminating as the performer... My intent was simple - to ask the artists to speak for themselves." - Julia Crowe Crossing a vast array of genres, showing the common experience of all guitarists, Julia Crowe offers intimate and deeply human insights into a musician's beginnings as her interviewees recall their first instrument and share their memories of the inspiration, challenges, and successes of those early days.

This illustrated A-Z guide covers more than 700 country music artists, groups, and bands. Articles also cover specific genres within country music as well as instruments used. Written in a lively, engaging style, the entries not only outline the careers of country music's greatest artists, they provide an understanding of the artist's importance or failings, and a feeling for his or her style. Select discographies are provided at the end of each entry, while a bibliography and indexes by instrument, musical style, genre, and song title round out the work. For a full list of entries, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary website.

Waylon Jennings relates the story of his life as a country music star. His beginnings were poor but he became Buddy Holly's protege before sinking into drug abuse and 3 failed marriages. His success came when he met his present wife, Jessi Colter.

Country music maintains a special, decades-long relationship to American military life, but these ties didn't just happen. This readable history reveals how country music's Nashville-based business leaders on Music Row created partnerships with the Pentagon to sell their audiences on military service while selling the music to servicemembers. Beginning in the 1950s, the military flooded armed forces airwaves with the music, hosted tour dates at bases around the world, and drew on artists from Johnny Cash to Lee Greenwood to support recruitment programs. Over the last half of the twentieth century, the close connections between the Defense Department and Music Row gave an economic boost to the white-dominated sounds of country while marginalizing Black artists and fueling divisions over the meaning of patriotism. This story is filled with familiar stars like Roy Acuff, Elvis Presley, and George Strait, as well as lesser-known figures: industry executives who worked the halls of Congress, country artists who dissented from the stereotypically patriotic trappings of the genre, and more. Joseph M. Thompson argues convincingly that the relationship between Music Row and the Pentagon helped shape not only the evolution of popular music but also race relations, partisanship, and images of the United States abroad.

The contributors comprise a "Who's Who" of country music in this book of anecdotes, funny songs, and a tribute to the late Chet Atkins.

Immediately upon publication in 1998, the Encyclopedia of Country Music became a much-loved reference source, prized for the wealth of information it contained on that most American of musical genres. Countless fans have used it as the source for answers to questions about everything from country's first commercially successful recording, to the genre's pioneering music videos, to what conjunto music is. This thoroughly revised new edition includes more than 1,200 A-Z entries covering nine decades of history and artistry, from the Carter Family recordings of the 1920s to the reign of Taylor Swift in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Compiled by a team of experts at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the encyclopedia has been brought completely up-to-date, with new entries on the artists who have profoundly influenced country music in recent years, such as the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The new edition also explores the latest and most critical trends within the industry, shedding light on such topics as the digital revolution, the shifting politics of country music, and the impact of American Idol (reflected in the stardom of Carrie Underwood). Other essays cover the literature of country music, the importance of Nashville as a music center, and the colorful outfits that have long been a staple of the genre. The volume features hundreds of images, including a photo essay of album covers; a foreword by country music superstar Vince Gill (the winner of twenty Grammy Awards); and twelve fascinating appendices, ranging from lists of awards to the best-selling country albums of all time. Winner of the Best Reference Award from the Popular Culture Association "Any serious country music fan will treasure this authoritative book." --The Seattle Times "A long-awaited, major accomplishment, which educators, historians and students, broadcasters and music writers, artists and fans alike, will welcome and enjoy." --The Nashville Musician "Should prove a valuable resource to those who work in the country music business. But it's also an entertaining read for the music's true fans." --Houston Chronicle "This big, handsome volume spans the history of country music, listing not only artists and groups but also important individuals and institutions." --San Francisco Examiner "Promises to be the definitive historical and biographical work on the past eight decades of country music. Well written and heavily illustratedan unparalleled work, worth its price and highly recommended." --Library Journal

Adam Granger self-published the first edition of Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar in 1979. A second edition was published in 1994. Now Mel Bay Publications presents the third edition of the book. This 236-page book is the most extensive and best-documented collection of fiddle tunes for the flatpicking guitar player in existence, and includes reels, hoedowns, hornpipes, rags, breakdowns, jigs and slip-jigs, presented in Southern, Northern, Irish, Canadian, Texas and Old-time styles. There are 508 fiddle tunes referenced under 2500 titles and alternate titles. The titles are fully indexed, making the book doubly valuable as a reference book and a source book. In this new edition, all tunes are typeset, instead of being handwritten as they were in the previous editions, making the tabs easier to read. The tunes in Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar are presented in Easytab, a streamlined tablature notation system designed by Adam specifically for fiddle tunes. The book comes with a link which gives access to mp3 recordings by Adam of all 508 tunes, each played once at a moderate tempo, with rhythm on one channel and lead on the other. Also included in Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar are instructions for reading Easytab, descriptions of tune types presented in the book, and primers on traditional flatpicking and rhythm guitar. Additionally, there are sections on timing, ornamentation, technique, and fingering, as well as information on tune sources and a history of the collection. Mel Bay also offers, The Granger Collection, by Bill Nicholson, the same 508 tunes in standard music notation.