50 YEARS DOWN A COUNTRY ROAD

Name: 50 YEARS DOWN A COUNTRY ROAD
Author: Ralph Emery
ISBN: 0-688-17758-1

by Ralph Emery with Patsi Bale Cox ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 2000

Showing the personalities behind the music, Emery reveals the commitment, talent, and history that have helped sustain...

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An entertaining decade-by-decade look at the evolution of country music, as revealed in the anecdotes, memories, and insights of the renowned radio DJ and television host Emery.

Many of the most famous artists and movers and shakers, past and present, are covered here, including Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Fred Rose, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill. The author’s skill as a storyteller is evident even when he has to rely on other people’s accounts (in order, for example, to create a compelling look at the last days of Hank Williams). He is well qualified to place the artists’ significance to the music: readers are reminded, for example, of how Eddy Arnold was so popular that he was able to break from the tight hold of the Grand Ole Opry and proved to be as groundbreaking as the more mythically heralded Hank Williams. Emery’s personal relationships within Nashville give him a trove of appealing stories: Dolly Parton is shown to have “a brain beneath the wigs, a heart beneath the boobs,” the wedding day of Johnny Cash and June Carter becomes an amusing tale as related by their Best Man, and the experiences of Marty Robbins, Mel Tillis, Charley Pride, Ronnie Milsap, and Barbara Mandrell, become personal and inspirational. Emery’s many stories become one collective experience, in a sense, since the artists’ lives often intertwine as they become friends with, and influences to, each other.

Showing the personalities behind the music, Emery reveals the commitment, talent, and history that have helped sustain country music in his appealing account. (16 pp. b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2000

ISBN: 0-688-17758-1

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE VIEW FROM NASHVILLE
by Ralph Emery with Patsi Bale Cox

- BOOK REVIEW
MORE MEMORIES
by Ralph Emery with Tom Carter

- BOOK REVIEW
MEMORIES
by Ralph Emery with Tom Carter

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.