front cover of Creating Country Music
Creating Country Music
Fabricating Authenticity
Richard A. Peterson
University of Chicago Press, 1997
In Creating Country Music, Richard Peterson traces the development of country music and its institutionalization from Fiddlin' John Carson's pioneering recordings in Atlanta in 1923 to the posthumous success of Hank Williams. Peterson captures the free-wheeling entrepreneurial spirit of the era, detailing the activities of the key promoters who sculpted the emerging country music scene. More than just a history of the music and its performers, this book is the first to explore what it means to be authentic within popular culture.

"[Peterson] restores to the music a sense of fun and diversity and possibility that more naive fans (and performers) miss. Like Buck Owens, Peterson knows there is no greater adventure or challenge than to 'act naturally.'"—Ken Emerson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A triumphal history and theory of the country music industry between 1920 and 1953."—Robert Crowley, International Journal of Comparative Sociology

"One of the most important books ever written about a popular music form."—Timothy White, Billboard Magazine
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front cover of So Lonesome
So Lonesome
Hank Williams and the Creation of Country Music
Richard A. Peterson
University of Chicago Press, 1997
Hank Williams (1923–53) was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as the most important country music artist of all time, creator of an unforgettable sound and persona that helped to define the genre from its infancy and beyond. Though unable to read or notate music to any substantive degree, Williams recorded 11 number one hits between 1948 and 1953, which carried him to music’s mainstream and left an enduring legacy. In So Lonesome, Richard A. Peterson captures the free-wheeling entrepreneurial spirit of an era gone by, when the Grand Ole Opry put Nashville’s star on the map, while detailing how Williams came to fame and helped launch country music both during his life and after his death. More than just a history of the music and one of its most celebrated performers, So Lonesome explores what it means to live an authentic life within the confines of marketing popular culture.

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