Wolfe takes some of the best and least-known personalities of Traditional Country and gives them life in succinct but informative vignettes...Still, whether Wolfe is retelling well-known lore or delving into the fascinating, forgotten, yet influential lives of lesser-knowns; he provides vivid. loving portraits of a country music that barely exists anymore. -- David M. Turkalo, Booklist
An essential book for popular music collections. -- ray Olson, Booklist
In lively, easy-going prose, he undertakes honest, generous, largely biographical investigations of the musicians to whom he's devoted his career... His sensitive, masterful essays elucidate the contributions these artists made to the great unifying, nourishing stream [that] runs through the history of country music. -- Publisher's Weekly
Charles K. Wolfe, Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, is the author of sixteen books on folk, country, and popular music, including A Good NaturedRiot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry (1999), The Lifeand Legend of Leadbelly (cowritten with Kip Lornell, 1992), and The Devil's Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling (1997). He has produced or annotated over one hundred albums of music, for which he has received three Grammy nominations.