Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers - (Mercer University Lamar Memorial Lectures) by Bill C Malone (Paperback)

About the Book

As he looks at "hillbilly" music's pre-commercial era and its early popular growth through radio and recordings, Bill C. Malone shows us that it was a product not only of the British Isles but of diverse African, German, Spanish, French, and Mexican influences.

Book Synopsis

In this slim, lively book our foremost historian of country music 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, Bill C. Malone shows us that it was a product not only of the British Isles but of diverse African, German, Spanish, French, and Mexican influences.

Review Quotes

Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers is a very enlightening read regarding the roots of Country music and provides the definitive explanation and history of the connection between Country music (southern folk music) and cowboy hats.

--Midwest Book Review

A very enlightening read.

--BookPleasures.com

Goes a long way toward filling a bothersome hole in American musical history.

--Sing Out!

Provides great insight into country music and southern culture.

--Southern Historian

So succinct and well-documented, all the reader can do is believe it.

--Lexington Herald-Leader

The last word on the history of country music remains Malone.

--Canon

This book is good enough that readers can only want more.

--Journal of American History

This book shows not only the work of a master scholar, but also that of one attuned to the myths, the hopes, and the yearnings of ordinary people.

--Journal of Southern History

About the Author

BILL C. MALONE, as a performer and a scholar, has been immersed in country music for most of his life. Now retired from Tulane University, he lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he hosts a weekly radio show, "Back to the Country." He is the author of Country Music, U.S.A., Don't Get above Your Raisin', and other books.