Best country music books according to redditors

We found 17 Reddit comments discussing the best country music books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Country Music:

u/KarenTheCockpitPilot · 52 pointsr/popheads

I shamelessly read "Taylor Swift: The rise of the Nashville teen" at a library once, tho I wasn't really a fan before hand. But after just reading about her childhood (before the age of 16ish) with her doing theater, struggle during school days, getting into the industry, made me think very differently of her in a good way and many of my preconceptions of her vanished. I think she was very smart with her opportunities (despite her privileges), she's obviously very talented, and i can understand her competitiveness better.

I think of her as more human now, though still a little bit SNEKkkK.

She has a very interesting story that'd be great for a doc!!

u/swinging_pendulum · 10 pointsr/Gifts

First of all, congrats on your fiancee's recovery!


Second, I think you're right in that the cost/benefit factor of memorabilia might be lost on a 12 year old. One idea may be to buy her an inexpensive beginner's acoustic guitar and a book of Taylor Swift guitar tabs like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Swift-Easy-Guitar-Notes/dp/1423481623

If you're musically inclined at all, you could spend some time teaching her basic chords, which would give you some bonding time.

u/Memph5 · 6 pointsr/TaylorSwift

I bought this one online. The author seems to have combed through all the interviews and articles about her, plus managed to get interviews from class-mates and people in the music industry that knew her from her early days.

Only thing is there's a lot of role model "good girl" talk that I find gets annoying, and there's a few minor details I think might be a little off. It's very comprehensive though.

https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Swift-rise-Nashville-teen/dp/1780383541

This interview summarizes a lot of what I'm going to cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCCGVIHvvTk&list=FLqtHO7M1V_IvggClpp8fSdA&index=2&t=0s

These articles go into a decent amount of detail

https://ew.com/article/2008/02/05/taylor-swifts-road-fame/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/the-very-pink-very-perfect-life-of-taylor-swift-107451/

http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/taylor-swift-big-machine-records/

u/shoppedpixels · 4 pointsr/vinyl

No! Your post was the first one I saw this morning, damn. I was really hoping to get to his festival in the next few years.

If anyone's a reader, his autobiography is pretty cool:

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Constant-Sorrow-Life-Times/dp/1592405843/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1466771431&sr=8-3&keywords=ralph+stanley

Even his latest albums s/t and shine on are great if someone's looking for an introduction...

u/banjoman74 · 3 pointsr/banjo

In my opinion, it's better to spend your money on music rather than books.

There are some banjo books that are important. I used to own these. I really should build my library back up. Currently I only have the "Hot Licks," "Banjo Styles by Bela Fleck" and "Masters of the Five String" as I've leant out the other ones and never got them back.

Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo has already been mentioned. I would recommend trying to find an older version, simply because I'm a nerd.

Masters of the Five String Banjo. A very cool, very informative piece on bluegrass banjo players, their set-up, and some tablature. Obviously dated, but an incredibly insightful book.

Melodic Banjo: by Tony Trishka. Again, I like the older cover

Hot Licks for Bluegrass Banjo, another book by Tony Trishka, is pretty good.

Banjo Picking Styles: Bela Fleck is also a pretty interesting book. And not just for the 80s shirt that Bela is wearing on the front.

If you're looking for specific bluegrass songbooks.

Bluegrass Songbook, by Pete Wernick. Seriously, this is a great book.

Bluegrass Fakebook. This covers most of the standards.

And though you didn't ask, here are some other books that may be of interest to bluegrass/banjo nerds:

Bluegrass: A History Neil Rosenberg's very thorough history of Bluegrass music

Spann's Guide to Gibson 1902-1941. If you're interested in prewar Gibson banjo, this is an incredible resource.

Gibson Mastertone: Flathead Five-string Banjos of the 1930s and 40s. For the prewar nuts.

Can't You Hear Me Calling: The Life of Bill Monroe Father of Bluegrass Music. An interested read.

What I Know 'Bout What I Know: The Musical Life of An Itinerant Banjo Player. This is an autobiography of Butch Robins. It's... interesting.

u/freakscene · 2 pointsr/IAmA

I second the reading idea! Ask your history or science teachers for suggestions of accessible books. I'm going to list some that I found interesting or want to read, and add more as I think of them.

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Title explains it all. It is very beginner friendly, and has some very entertaining stories. Bryson is very heavy on the history and it's rather long but you should definitely make every effort to finish it.

Lies my teacher told me

The greatest stories never told (This is a whole series, there are books on Presidents, science, and war as well).

There's a series by Edward Rutherfurd that tells history stories that are loosely based on fact. There are books on London and ancient England, Ireland, Russia, and one on New York

I read this book a while ago and loved it- Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk It's about a monk who was imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese.

The Grapes of Wrath.

Les Misérables. I linked to the unabridged one on purpose. It's SO WORTH IT. One of my favorite books of all time, and there's a lot of French history in it. It's also the first book that made me bawl at the end.

You'll also want the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Federalist Papers.

I'm not sure what you have covered in history, but you'll definitely want to find stuff on all the major wars, slavery, the Bubonic Plague, the French Revolution, & ancient Greek and Roman history.

As for science, find these two if you have any interest in how the brain works (and they're pretty approachable).
Phantoms in the brain
The man who mistook his wife for a hat

Alex and Me The story of a scientist and the incredibly intelligent parrot she studied.

For a background in evolution, you could go with The ancestor's tale

A biography of Marie Curie

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a quick and easy read, and very heavy on the adventure. You'll also want to read his other book The Hot Zone about Ebola. Absolutely fascinating, I couldn't put this one down.

The Devil's Teeth About sharks and the scientists who study them. What's not to like?

u/jr_trugrass · 2 pointsr/Bluegrass

After reading Ralph's autobiography, it was really interesting to hear about how much the Stanley Brothers looked up to Bill Monroe, and how much they tried to emulate him. Even to the point that they released a recording of Molly and Tenbrooks prior to Bill Monroe. They learned the tune by going to Bill's show and copying down the lyrics. Apparently that really pissed Monroe off.

If you are a fan of Bluegrass I can't recommend his book enough.....impossible not to read it with Ralph's voice in your head. Since reading it, I've nerded out and collected every recording of Stanley Brothers and CMB I can find.

u/CaseyCampbell · 2 pointsr/Bluegrass

I second LightWolfCavalry's list and recommend the Real Bluegrass Book (a Bluegrass fakebook with over 300 instrumentals and vocal standards).

u/mike_d85 · 1 pointr/todayilearned

I'm going to plug Willie's auto-biography here.

I listened to the audio book and that was great as well. It's not Willie reading, but the guy sounds like he grew up in the same area of Texas.

u/MiklaMDW · 1 pointr/InfertilityBabies

I love these! I also love Frog Trouble by Sandra Boynton. People love her but the CD with this is great. I got it for my niece a few years back and at 4.5 she's still singing along and requesting it. I buy it for pretty much every baby I know.

https://www.amazon.com/Frog-Trouble-Eleven-Pretty-Serious/dp/0761171762/

u/mansunminded · 1 pointr/OutlawCountry

hahah it is a slow sub but it is a great book. Also if you didn't know the new George Jones bio came out recently as well and it is very good.

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Tour-Music-George-Jones/dp/0062309919/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469493648&sr=1-1&keywords=george+jones

u/DPR4444 · 1 pointr/todayilearned
u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/bookexchange

I found this if your really want the book

u/187TROOPER · 0 pointsr/history

Another good start would be to look into the series of books by Rick Beyer.
The Greatest Stories Never Told I own all these and cannot wait for more!

Very interesting books that most everyone can relate to in one way or another and he does a good job at keeping it simple for beginners.