The museum also reissues “Singing in the Saddle” by Douglas B. Green

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nov. 14, 2024 – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum has published a new book, “In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985,” by Geoffrey Himes.

The book examines a musical movement of outsiders who, in time, became influential insiders. Weaving together biography and musical analysis, author Himes explores how a group of artists, musicians and producers helped change the sounds and stories of country music, melding traditional stylings with fresh innovations and perspectives. Through many interviews and in-depth research, the book attempts to define this previously unnamed movement, delving into the lives and seminal works of Harris, Cash, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Gram Parsons, Ricky Skaggs, Clarence White, Townes Van Zandt and others. The book is being simultaneously issued in hardcover and paperback.

Himes has won numerous awards for writing about music in the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, New York Times, No Depression, Downbeat, Paste and many other publications since 1975. His book on Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A.,” was published in 2005. He has written liner notes for albums by Rosanne Cash, Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart and more.

Singing in the Saddle

Additionally, the museum has reissued Douglas B. Green’s “Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy.” The book explores the story of the singing cowboy, from the early days of vaudeville and radio, through the heyday of movie westerns before World War II, to the current revival. Green analyzes the studio system that made Gene Autry and Roy Rogers famous and documents the role that country music and regional television stations played in carrying on the singing cowboy tradition after the war. Green’s story reveals how the imagery of the singing cowboy has become such a potent force that even now country musicians don cowboy hats to symbolically take part in the legend. Originally co-published by the museum in 2002, the previously out-of-print title features newly designed artwork and a new preface by the author, looking back on the book’s genesis and impact. The book is being issued in paperback.

Green is a music historian and performer who is also known by his stage name, “Ranger Doug – The Idol of American Youth.” Green founded Riders in the Sky, the premier Western group of the modern era.

Both titles now available

Both books are published by the museum’s longstanding publishing arm, CMF Press. The books are now available on the museum’s website and in its retail store. The titles will be widely available in bookstores and online outlets beginning Dec. 10 through a distribution partnership with the University of Illinois Press.

About the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMF Press
Since the 1980s, CMF Press — the book publishing arm of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum — has published some of the most significant titles about the art, business and culture of country music. Topics have ranged from biographies and memoirs of famous singers and songwriters to in-depth examinations of the history of women in country music, the development of independent record labels in Nashville from 1945 to 1955 and the pioneering work of early record producers in roots music. Among the best-selling works previously issued by CMF Press are singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman’s interviews with fellow recording artists and songwriters “They Came to Nashville,”, Charles K. Wolfe’s “A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry” and David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren’s “Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles.” More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and its educational mission is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org.