“The best book ever written about country music.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“A first-rate book . . . that reads as smoothly and sparklingly as a bluegrass breakdown.”
—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

“All these years later, the Prologue [‘Friday Night at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge’] reads as though it happened last night.”
—Country Music magazine

“A rich, raw slice of American life.”
—Los Angeles Times

“It’s the first ‘real’ book written about our music. The people, the songs, the places, all come to life in these pages.”
—Bill Anderson, singer, songwriter, and Grand Ole Opry star

“To say Hemphill is writing about country music is like saying Hemingway wrote about boxers and fisherman. What Hemphill writes about is America, and he has done it here with the incisive feel and the fine sure language and that very special knack of keeping his subject alive in print that so many of us strive for but so few of us achieve. A damned fine reading experience.”
—Joe McGinnis, Life magazine

“Anyone ever exposed to country music—which means nearly everyone—will go for the book the way Uncle Joe goes for bacon and grits.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A marvelously honest look at music that deals with what people—real, live truck-driving, factory-working, beer-drinking people—feel about life.”
—Louisville Times

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