Beyond his work as a musician, Jon Langford has attracted attention as a visual artist in recent years. Nashville Radio is the first collection of his art. It reproduces 215 paintings, as well as song lyrics and autobiographical writings. The book includes a CD of Langford performing 18 of the printed songs. Langford's "song-paintings" fuse portraiture with imagery derived from folk art, Dutch still life, classic Western wear, and the cold, cold war--all instilled with his trademark sardonic wit. He applies this distinctive style to the depiction of American musical icons like Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash, but also to more ghostly, marginal figures--blindfolded cowboys, astronauts, and dancers--who are jerked around by success and exploitation, fame and neglect. Underlying his work is a deep love of musical lore, twinned with fierce opposition to the death-dealing tendencies in the culture of his adopted homeland, from the killing off of authentic popular music by mass-marketed drivel to the embrace of capital punishment as a response to social ills. Langford's work offers an alternative perspective, recalling "a time when great visionaries and pioneers thrived at the heart of the mainstream--and the lid wasn't on so tight."

Built by a 16-year-old high school student named Jack DeWitt, the first radio station in Nashville went on the air in 1922. Three years later, DeWitt helped start WSM, arguably one of the nation's greatest radio stations, and in 1950, he and WSM put Nashville's first television station on the air. Over the years, Nashville has had its share of local radio personalities, such as Noel Ball, Coyote McCloud, and Gerry House, as well as television personalities like Jud Collins, Bill Jay, and Larry Munson. Nationally recognized stars such as Dinah Shore, Oprah Winfrey, Pat Sajak, and Pat Boone started their careers in Nashville as well. Here are the stories and images of the people heard on transistor radios and the programs--including Five O'Clock Hop, Ruffin' Reddy, and The Mickey Mouse Club--watched by children while they did their homework.

Started by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company in 1925, WSM became one of the most influential and exceptional radio stations in the history of broadcasting and country music. WSM gave Nashville the moniker “Music City USA” as well as a rich tradition of music, news, and broad-based entertainment. With the rise of country music broadcasting and recording between the 1920s and ‘50s, WSM, Nashville, and country music became inseparable, stemming from WSM’s launch of the Grand Ole Opry, popular daily shows like Noontime Neighbors, and early morning artist-driven shows such as Hank Williams on Mother’s Best Flour. Sparked by public outcry following a proposal to pull country music and the Opry from WSM-AM in 2002, Craig Havighurst scoured new and existing sources to document the station’s profound effect on the character and self-image of Nashville. Introducing the reader to colorful artists and businessmen from the station’s history, including Owen Bradley, Minnie Pearl, Jim Denny, Edwin Craig, and Dinah Shore, the volume invites the reader to reflect on the status of Nashville, radio, and country music in American culture.

E.D. Thompson chronicles the many changes that Nashville has gone through during the past 50 years. He writes a weekly column on Nashville Nostalgia and also does a weekly radio broadcast.

Nashville is filled with stars and lovers and writers and dreamers. Nashville is also teeming with lunatics and grifters and dip wads and moochers. Gerry House fits easily into at least half of those categories. Someone would probably have to be brain-damaged or really damn talented to try to entertain professional entertainers over a decades-long radio show in Music City, USA. Fortunately, House is little of both. Host of the nationally syndicated, top-rated morning show, “Gerry House & The Foundation" for more than 25 years, he has won virtually every broadcasting award there is including a place in the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Gerry also spent that time deep inside the songwriting and recording world in Nashville. In Country Music Broke My Brain, Gerry tells his stories from the other side of the microphone. He reveals never-aired, never-before published conversations with country music's biggest names—Johnny Cash, Brad Paisley, and Reba McEntire to name a few—and leaves you with his own crazy antics that will either have you laughing or shaking your head in disbelief. With exclusive celebrity stories, humorous trivia and anecdotes, and broadcasting wisdom, this book is a treat for country music fans or for anyone who wants a good laugh.

This collection uncovers the fascinating past of Tennessee’s legendary Music City from true tall tales to larger than life characters and much more. Perched on the banks of the Cumberland River, Nashville is best known for its role in the civil rights movement, world-class education and, of course, country music. In this unique collection of columns written for The Tennessean, journalist and longtime Tennessee native George Zepp illuminates a less familiar side of the city’s history. Here, readers will learn the secrets of Timothy Demonbreun, one of the city's first residents, who lived with his family in a cliff-top cave; Cortelia Clark, the blind bluesman who continued to perform on street corners after winning a Grammy award; and Nashville's own Cinderella story, which involved legendary radio personality Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist protegee. Based on questions from readers across the nation, these little-known tales abound with Music City mystery and charm.

Ralph Emery has always had the best seat in the house for watching country music grow from its rural American roots into a multinational billion -- dollar business. As country music's foremost radio and television host, Ralph has the inside track on a world many have written about but few actually understand. Included in The View from Nashville: The fight over Conway Twitty's estate: the real story. The night Loretta Lynn threatened to "whup" a British music critic all across England for calling Conway Twitty "fat and fortyish." One of Colonel Tom Parker's rare interviews, including his best advice for music managers. How Brooks & Dunn kick-started the country dance craze. The story behind the Roy Orbison/Mick Jagger feud.Loretta's secret admirer: Buck Owens confesses. The day Vince Gill faced armed robbers on the golf course! Travis Tritt's Immutable Law of Honky Tonk -- or, How to Bust Up a Barroom Brawl. Ray Charles's country roots When Burt Reynolds begged Tammy Wynette to take Hillary Clinton's telephone call. Johnny Horton's message from beyond the grave. Ralph Emery has always had the best seat in the house for watching country music grow from its rural American roots into a multinational billion -- dollar business. As country music's foremost radio and television host, Ralph has the inside track on a world many have written about but few actually understand.