America's Best Loved Country Songs: An Encyclopedia of More than 3,000 Classics through the 1980s

Horstman's America's Best Loved Country Songs elaborates and extends the scope of her seminal study of country music, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy (Horstman, 1975). In both books, Horstman attempts to rescue country music from critical neglect by offering a unique synthesis of scholarly rigour and rich personal experience and insight sponsored by the author's career as a successful country music songwriter, journalist, and radio personality. Hotrstman's professional credentials illuminate the differences between these works. The earlier book, for example, organizes hundreds of classic country song lyrics into thematic chapters examining historical and social aspects of each...