Publisher Synopsis: "Malone's book provides a veritable treasure trove of information regarding the musicians, musical styles, and distribution networks (primarily the radio and phonograph recordings) of country music. . . Malone presents his readers with discrete insights into the particular musical acts that gave rise to and perpetuated the country music tradition in all of its internal contradictions, negotiations, and accommodations." * PopMatters * "[Country Music USA] was, and remains, a staggering work of scholarship that became a cornerstone of American music history- anyone writing seriously about country must reckon with it." * Longreads * "Country Music USA has been an authoritative and detailed history lesson and reference manual for country music, paralleled in quality and scope by few other works. It's country music's biography, starting with country's very beginnings in primitive folk, and ranging all the way to the present day." * Saving Country Music * "An important book. . . the first to tell the genre's complete story, beginning with its folk, religious and early commercial origins - the ballads of the British Isles, the tent revivals, the 19th-century minstrel shows and the 1927 recording session in Bristol, Tennessee, that saw both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family make their first recordings." * Texas Observer *
-Bill C. Malone vokste opp på en gård i nord Texas på 1930-tallet med lyden av gospel og hillbillymusikk i hjemmet, en musikk han elsket, men få hadde trodd han skulle få en akademisk karriere og skrive den definitive boken om countrymusikk, Country Music, U.S.A. (University of Texas Press, 1968). Nå har boken kommet i ny revidert utgave, og har du bare tenkt å lese en bok om denne musikkformen, er det denne klassikeren du bør skaffe deg. Country Music, U.S.A. tar deg med på en dannelsesreise fra countrymusikkens røtter og frem til dagens stjerner som Miranda Lambert. Fra sanger om et hardt liv og hjerteskjærende livsskjebner i Appalachene, til westrern swing på dansegulvet i Texas, Californias røffe honky tonks i Bakersfield og til Nashvilles Grand Ole Opry. Larry McMurtry sa dette om Malone: «If anyone knows more about the subject then Malone does, God help them.»
