Best Country & Folk Composer Biographies

Most of all, though, the years were filled with music being made. But you’ll also find a few recordings that we’ve never shared, some of my favorites.

Having recently turned 80, Nelson is ready to shine a light on all aspects of his life, including his drive to write music, the women in his life, his collaborations, and his biggest lows and highs--from his bankruptcy to the founding of Farm Aid. Readers of It's a Long Story will finally get the sense that Nelson is sitting before them spilling everything he can remember.... "Brims with affectionate reminiscences of Nelson's childhood and semi-wayward youth, his turbulent marriages and career zigzags. "Nelson offers a warm, friendly, and a deeply reflective glimpse behind the making of most of his albums as well as behind-the-scenes looks at some of his best-known hits.... Reading Nelson's narrative is like sitting on the front porch chatting with an old friend. "The closing chapters are reflective and heartfelt--part musical and part personal--and they nicely bookend Nelson's admirable attempt to recount his 'long story.

The love story of Joey and Rory. By inviting so many into the final months of Joey’s life as she battled cancer, Joey and Rory Feek captured hearts around the world with how they handled the diagnosis; the inspiring, simple way they chose to live; and how they loved each other every step of the way. In this vulnerable book, he takes us for the first time into his own challenging life story and what it was like growing up in rural America with little money and even less family stability. In This Life I Live , Rory Feek helps us not only to connect more fully to his and Joey’s story but also to our own journeys. As an artist, Rory is half of the Grammy-nominated county music duo Joey + Rory.

Waylon Jennings relates the story of his life as a country music star. With the help of writer and rock guitarist Kaye, an older, calmer, drug-free Jennings now relates his life story, from his childhood in a dirt-floored house in West Texas, through his busted marriages and hard-partying days, to his current existence as happily married man (to country star Jessi Colter) and member of the Highwaymen, the country music supergroup made up of Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. A country music star tells of his poor childhood and rise to stardom.

By renovating homes in Waco, Texas, and changing lives in such a winsome and engaging way, Chip and Joanna have become more than just the stars of Fixer Upper , they have become America’s new best friends. Even back then Chip was a serial entrepreneur who, among other things, ran a lawn care company, sold fireworks, and flipped houses. Four children and countless renovations later, Joanna garners the attention of a television producer who notices her work on a blog one day. The time Chip ran to the grocery store and forgot to take their new, sleeping baby Joanna’s agonizing decision to close her dream business to focus on raising their children When Chip buys a houseboat, sight-unseen, and it turns out to be a leaky wreck Joanna’s breakthrough moment of discovering the secret to creating a beautiful home Harrowing stories of the financial ups and downs as an entrepreneurial couple Memories and photos from Chip and Jo’s wedding The significance of the word magnolia and why it permeates everything they do The way the couple pays the popularity of Fixer Upper forward, sharing the success with others, and bolstering the city of Waco along the way. Chip Gaines and his wife, Joanna Gaines, are co-founders and co-owners of Magnolia Homes, Magnolia Market and Magnolia Realty in Waco, Texas. Hand in hand is exactly how Chip prefers to work, which makes Fixer Upper even more fun to watch, and he enjoys seeing his and Joanna’s passions merge to complement and serve one another.

Now, in Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark , writer, producer, and music industry insider Tamara Saviano chronicles the story of this legendary artist from her unique vantage point as his former publicist and producer of the Grammy-nominated album This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark . "Take the dean of the Texas school of songwriting; mix in his wife, Susanna, an ethereal painter and an accomplished songwriter herself; add in their tragic friendship with Townes van Zandt, a tortured genius; and tell it all through the eyes of their friend, Tamara Saviano, one of the most gifted of Nashville chroniclers. With that, you have this book, a haunting account of the fiercely independent Guy Clark, and the ‘70s songwriting scene that swirled around him, hoping to find its own way to the other side of the sky." ( The Wall Street Journal 2016-11-29). “Saviano has patiently compiled a must-have edition to the library of any actual or amateur musicologist, and a compelling story of love, friendship, tragedy and cultural magic for the rest of us.”—Lone Star Book Reviews. ( Lone Star Book Reviews 2017-01-25). “Saviano captures the full story of an extraordinary life and talent, told with both an unwavering honesty and loving admiration”—Austin Chronicle. ( Pacific Rim Review of Books ) Producer of Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster , which won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, TAMARA SAVIANO is a publicist and producer living in Nashville.

Go Big or Go Home narrates Scotty's journey from a kid imitating Elvis on the school bus to 30 million across America tuning in to see him win Season 10 of "American Idol”. By age 21, the talented singer/songwriter has sold nearly 2.5 million albums and received both Platinum and Gold album certifications, debuted three consecutive albums at No.

With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. All the same, this is salutary reading as a means of culling believers' weaker arguments: that faith offers comfort (false comfort is none at all), or has provided a historical hedge against fascism (it mostly hasn't), or that "Eastern" religions are better (nope). Sam Harris' The End of Faith (2005) and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (2006) have questioned the existence of any spiritual being and met with enormous success. Replace religious faith with inquiry, open-mindedness, and the pursuit of ideas, he exhorts. Religious faith, he asserts, is both result and cause of dangerous sexual repression. Believers will be disturbed and may even charge him with blasphemy (he questions not only the virgin birth but the very existence of Jesus), and he may not change many minds, but he offers the open-minded plenty to think about.

By renovating homes in Waco, Texas, and changing lives in such a winsome and engaging way, Chip and Joanna have become more than just the stars of Fixer Upper , they have become America’s new best friends. Even back then Chip was a serial entrepreneur who, among other things, ran a lawn care company, sold fireworks, and flipped houses. Four children and countless renovations later, Joanna garners the attention of a television producer who notices her work on a blog one day. The time Chip ran to the grocery store and forgot to take their new, sleeping baby Joanna’s agonizing decision to close her dream business to focus on raising their children When Chip buys a houseboat, sight-unseen, and it turns out to be a leaky wreck Joanna’s breakthrough moment of discovering the secret to creating a beautiful home Harrowing stories of the financial ups and downs as an entrepreneurial couple Memories and photos from Chip and Jo’s wedding The significance of the word magnolia and why it permeates everything they do The way the couple pays the popularity of Fixer Upper forward, sharing the success with others, and bolstering the city of Waco along the way. Chip Gaines and his wife, Joanna Gaines, are co-founders and co-owners of Magnolia Homes, Magnolia Market, and Magnolia Realty in Waco, Texas.

Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy―and who doesn't want a bit more of that? Praise for Jenny Lawson: