Knoxville's WNOX

Knoxville's WNOX PDF

Author: Ed Hooper

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738566535

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WNOX was the eighth radio station to sign on the air in North America and the first in Tennessee. No station has left a bigger footprint on American popular music or the radio industry as WNOX. Its AM signal could be heard as far south as Daytona Beach and as far north as New York City in the day of uncluttered airwaves. It helped write the book on radio broadcasts and productions with programs like the Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round and the Tennessee Barn Dance. Its legendary programs helped pioneer an entire genre of American popular music and served as a launching pad for country music's greatest stars and some of the nation's best broadcasters. The call letters remain an iconic landmark of Knoxville and East Tennessee.

Downtown Knoxville

Downtown Knoxville PDF

Author: Paul James and Jack Neely

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1467107727

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Founded on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in 1791, Knoxville was a frontier town as well as the birthplace and first capital of Tennessee. From the postcolonial years through the Civil War and on to Knoxville's emergence as an industrial, dynamic, and thoroughly American city, downtown was where everything happened--the setting of the city's most memorable stories and legends. Spanning First and Second Creeks and connecting the river to the railroad, downtown is where Knoxvillians have built their most defining churches, opera houses, movie theaters, and hotels. Here, traditions, holidays, and the endings of wars have been celebrated; suffrage leaders exhorted politicians to pass a national amendment; conservationists planned a national park; idealistic engineers and architects of a New Deal program reimagined a multistate valley; and musicians convened to record and broadcast new forms of folk music that would be called "country." Downtown is where bizarre gunfights drew national attention and a notorious outlaw escaped from jail and rode the sheriff's horse to freedom across the Gay Street Bridge.

Tennessee: A Bicentennial History

Tennessee: A Bicentennial History PDF

Author: Wilma Dykeman

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1975-12-17

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 039324380X

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Tennessee, the long, thin state stretching from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Mississippi River, is as richly varied in history as in terrain. And from Davy Crockett, "Old Hickory" Andrew Jackson, and presidential candidate Estes Kefauver's coonskin cap, it has derived the colorful image of a frontier state. Tennessee has been a land of many kinds of frontiers--from the day in 1540 when Spaniards in armor, fevered for gold and glory, struggled along the river banks near present-day Memphis, to the latest developments in radiation research at today's complicated laboratories in Oak Ridge.

Exploring Roots Music

Exploring Roots Music PDF

Author: Nolan Porterfield

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780810848931

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From its beginnings in the early 1920s, commercial country music--as performed on stage, on records, radio, and in movies--became an increasingly pervasive and lively part of American life, yet some forty years passed before it was given serious attention by writers, historians, scholars, and students of national culture. The first publication founded for promoting the systematic research and recognition of country music was the John Edwards Memorial Foundation (JEMF) Quarterly at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1965. Over time, the JEMF Quarterly brought to light the lives and careers of dozens of pioneer musicians, including Alfred G. Karnes, the Carter Family, Riley Puckett, and Buell Kazee, along with details of early commercial radio operations, the sources of many traditional songs, and the reproduction of historical documents. In addition, the early work of many contributors who later became known as major scholars in the field-Archie Green, Charles Wolfe, Norm Cohen, Simon J. Bonner, and Loyal Jones among others-appeared on the pages of the JEMF Quarterly during its 19 years in publication. Exploring Roots Music reprints twenty-seven representative articles published in the JEMF Quarterly over the years, until it ceased publication in 1985. It also includes many illustrations and an introduction that seeks to place the journal in historical perspective and illuminate its central importance to the study of American culture.

The Encyclopedia of Country Music

The Encyclopedia of Country Music PDF

Author:

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 640

ISBN-13: 0199920834

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Immediately upon publication in 1998, the Encyclopedia of Country Music became a much-loved reference source, prized for the wealth of information it contained on that most American of musical genres. Countless fans have used it as the source for answers to questions about everything from country's first commercially successful recording, to the genre's pioneering music videos, to what conjunto music is. This thoroughly revised new edition includes more than 1,200 A-Z entries covering nine decades of history and artistry, from the Carter Family recordings of the 1920s to the reign of Taylor Swift in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Compiled by a team of experts at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the encyclopedia has been brought completely up-to-date, with new entries on the artists who have profoundly influenced country music in recent years, such as the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The new edition also explores the latest and most critical trends within the industry, shedding light on such topics as the digital revolution, the shifting politics of country music, and the impact of American Idol (reflected in the stardom of Carrie Underwood). Other essays cover the literature of country music, the importance of Nashville as a music center, and the colorful outfits that have long been a staple of the genre. The volume features hundreds of images, including a photo essay of album covers; a foreword by country music superstar Vince Gill (the winner of twenty Grammy Awards); and twelve fascinating appendices, ranging from lists of awards to the best-selling country albums of all time. Winner of the Best Reference Award from the Popular Culture Association "Any serious country music fan will treasure this authoritative book." --The Seattle Times "A long-awaited, major accomplishment, which educators, historians and students, broadcasters and music writers, artists and fans alike, will welcome and enjoy." --The Nashville Musician "Should prove a valuable resource to those who work in the country music business. But it's also an entertaining read for the music's true fans." --Houston Chronicle "This big, handsome volume spans the history of country music, listing not only artists and groups but also important individuals and institutions." --San Francisco Examiner "Promises to be the definitive historical and biographical work on the past eight decades of country music. Well written and heavily illustratedan unparalleled work, worth its price and highly recommended." --Library Journal

Country Music Humorists and Comedians

Country Music Humorists and Comedians PDF

Author: Loyal Jones

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2008-10-08

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0252033698

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This volume is an encyclopedia of country music performers who have used comedy as a central component of their presentation. Loyal Jones offers a conversational and informative biographical sketch of each performer, often including a sample of the musician's humor, a recording history, and amusing anecdotal tidbits. In an entertaining style, Jones covers performers throughout the twentieth century, from such early stars of vaudeville and radio barn dances as the Skillet Lickers and the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, to regulars on Hee Haw and the Grand Old Opry, continuing to current comedians such as the Austin Lounge Lizards, Ray Stevens, and Jeff Foxworthy.

Classic Country

Classic Country PDF

Author: Charles K. Wolfe

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-05-03

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1135957339

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Now for the first time, country music authority Charles K. Wolfe gathers together his profiles of 50 legends of country music, including Bill Monroe, Lefty Frizzell, and Kitty Wells.

An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee

An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee PDF

Author: Jim Stokely

Publisher:

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13:

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A compilation of 255 brief articles on East Tennessee people, places, institutions, events, and other subjects, from James Agee to Alvin York, including country music, Ford Loudoun, and the Scopes trial.

Rural Life and Culture in the Upper Cumberland

Rural Life and Culture in the Upper Cumberland PDF

Author: Michael Birdwell

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2004-12-24

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13: 9780813123097

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Seventeen original essays by prominent scholars uncover fascinating stories and personalities from the Upper Cumberland region of Kentucky and Tennessee, often regarded as isolated and out of pace with the rest of the country, but seen here as having a far richer history and culture than previously thought.

Country Music

Country Music PDF

Author: Dayton Duncan

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 0525520546

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The rich and colorful story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the twentieth century--based on the upcoming eight-part film series to air on PBS in September 2019 This gorgeously illustrated and hugely entertaining history begins where country music itself emerged: the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s, the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation--a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today. But above all, Country Music is the story of the musicians. Here is Hank Williams's tragic honky tonk life, Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood, and Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere. Here too are interviews with the genre's biggest stars, including the likes of Merle Haggard to Garth Brooks to Rosanne Cash. Rife with rare photographs and endlessly fascinating anecdotes, the stories in this sweeping yet intimate history will captivate longtime country fans and introduce new listeners to an extraordinary body of music that lies at the very center of the American experience.