Book: In the Country of Country (Dawidoff, 1998)

In the Country of Country

Dawidoff, N. (1998). In the Country of Country. New York: Vintage Books.
ISBN 037570082X 9780375700828

Review
Nicholas Dawidoff has put in the academic hard yards to become a quality writer. His list of works include books involving deep research on American sports: Baseball and Football.
In the Country of Country is Dawidoff's attempt to give cultural credence to a genre of music - Country - that is apportioned to other predominately American popular music genres: Blues or Jazz; yet Country music seems to lack.
Except: there's Bill Malone's Country Music USA, that was first released in 1968. Dawidoff's book is not as academic in its written style as Malone's book is (I read the 1984 edition); but it is very well researched, as an extensive notes section at the end of the book attests.
However, Dawidoff's book comes across as populist to me, for one particular reason: he has chosen subjects about whom quite a lot has been written; but he deliberately chooses to ignore the contribution of one modern artist - Garth Brooks - as not worthy of inclusion due to Brook's success as a live performer and recorded artist.
I have to declare an interest here: I met and worked with Brooks around 1993 when I was a radio producer. He was charming, courteous, cooperative, interested and interesting to talk to behind the scenes. I have had to put up with some egos and ratbags while working in radio; as a guest Brooks didn't fall into either of those categories and would be welcome back anytime.
Dawidoff doesn't really explain why he chose to include certain artists and ignore others; though his storytelling style makes for an excellent read about those artists and genres he does cover. In the interests of proper journalism, he should have at least interviewed Brooks even if the final piece was limited to just a paragraph or two.

Other reading of related texts
Reference List / In-Text Citation Styles in APA 6th
Please Note: I do not strictly follow APA style in these citations as I would like various technology and media to be able to access these pages.


Malone, B. C., & Laird, T. E. W. (2018). Country Music USA. Austin, Tx : University of Texas Press

Dawidoff, N. (1998). In the Country of Country. New York: Vintage Books.

20220628
www.worldcat.org


Unless otherwise noted all books listed were in my personal library at the time of the first blog posting about the book.
Some titles were borrowed or referenced from RMIT University libraries (City, Carlton, Brunswick Campuses) during the period 2006-2016; or from Hobsons Bay City Council library. or Bayside (Brighton) Council library, or Prahran Mechanics Institute (& ARHS) library.

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Ref. .
https://www.worldcat.org/title/in-the-country-of-country/oclc/1059558141?referer=br&ht=edition 13 edn: https://www.worldcat.org/title/in-the-country-of-country/oclc/1111941373/editions?editionsView=true&referer=br appears to be at least 3 editions: 1997 (1998); 2005; 2020… Ampersand Code: &
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