Hillbilly Hollywood: The Origins Of Country & Western Style / Country Music: The Rough Guide / The True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones

Some books are too beautiful to read, and even if one never actually opened Debby Bull’s Hillbilly Hollywood: The Origins Of Country & Western Style (Rizzoli), its gorgeous, rhinestone-and-die-cut cover will brighten any well-appointed coffee table. Filled with a history of country music fashion, focusing on Nudie, his heirs and imitators, Hillbilly Hollywood is filled with splendid photos and well-assembled snippets of oral history. Only the oddly modern interior typography strikes a wrong note.

ND contributing editor Kurt Wolff’s first book, Country Music: The Rough Guide has recently been published. The Rough Guide folks specialize in travel manuals for the less-affluent, and have subsequently spawned a series of genre-specific music guides. Country Music separates 75-odd years of history into 14 chapters, ending with a glance at the alternative country (whatever that is) world.

Finally, Stanley Booth’s brilliant and painful The True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones has been returned to print. It remains the single best book ever written about a rock ‘n’ roll band. And, of course, a glimpse of Gram Parsons, if one wishes.