A GOOD-NATURED RIOT

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)