Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music by Bill C. Malone
In this book Bill C. Malone recalls the lost worlds of pioneering fiddlers and pickers, balladeers and yodelers. As he looks at hillbilly music's pre-commercial era and its early popular growth through radio and recordings, he shows us that it was a product not only of the British Isles but of diverse African, German, Spanish, French, and Mexican influences.