A highly readable and detailed account of the early years of America’s premiere country and western radio show, The Grand Ole Opry. It’s hard to imagine that a book about the Opry could appeal to a broad audience, because, frankly, how many people have even heard of early Opry stars Uncle Jimmy Thompson, Uncle Dave Macon, or emcee George Hays? However, what makes Wolfe’s book so compelling is that it shows the intersection of the birth of the Opry with so many other important, and often overlooked, cultural moments. First, the Opry comes at the dawn of radio, and Wolfe spells out some of the more interesting features of the pioneering stations. WSM, the Opry’s original station, was actually capable of broadcasting nearly coast-to-coast due to the clarity of the airwaves in those days. And its decision to present a program of what was then called “old time music” was extremely controversial. The city of Nashville, the Opry’s home, prided itself on its high-brow aura, making it the soi-disant “Paris of the South.” Old time music seemed lowbrow, yet its popularity pushed the format forward. It is largely due to the Opry’s location there that today Nashville is known as the home of country music. Wolfe also covers, of course, the issue of race, since the Opry was, in its early days, one of the few venues that featured both black and white musicians. That black musicians fell out of country music is an aspect of the transition from old time to country, and one that Wolfe handles sensitively. On the whole, a surprisingly interesting book that covers not only its putative subject, the first great country music radio show, but also the constellation of musical and cultural issues that swirled around the birth of a new music and a new South. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8265-1331-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Vanderbilt Univ. Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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