Woman Walk The Line

Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates. Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly’s Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn’s girl-power anthem “The Pill”; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt’s unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it. Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America’s most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.

When Johnny Cash died in September 2003, the world mourned the loss of the greatest country music star of all time. I Walked the Line is the life story of Vivian Cash, Johnny's first wife and the mother of his four daughters. It is a tale of long-kept secrets, lies revealed, betrayal and, at last, the truth. Johnny and Vivian were married for nearly fourteen years. These years spanned Johnny's military service in Germany, his earliest musical inclinations, their struggling newlywed years, Johnny's first record deal with Sun Records (alongside Elvis Presley), his astounding rise to stardom, and his well-known battles with pills and the law. Vivian decided that, near the end of her life and with backing from Johnny, she should tell the whole story, even the parts at odds with the iconic Cash family image such as Johnny's drug problems; Vivian's confrontation with June Carter about her affair with Johnny and, most sensationally, the Cash family secret of June's lifelong addiction to drugs and the events leading up to her death. Also revealed are unpublished love letters between the couple, family photographs and artefacts. I Walked the Line is a powerful memoir of joy and happiness, injustice and triumph and is an essential read for all Cash fans.

Naya’s family is all about heritage: their art, their traditions, their secret ability to see time. They expect her to follow in their footsteps, creating art and keeping their powers concealed. But she wants to be a doctor—and you can’t do that if you’re hiding all the time! When a chance to go to medical science camp comes up, her family disapproves, but Grandmother challenges her to a contest: if she can weave her soul wrap before the camp begins, she can go; if she fails, she has to say good-bye to her science dreams for good. With all of the knowledge of time at her fingertips, Naya is sure she can win. But someone is rigging events to learn her family’s secrets—and it turns out that what she doesn’t know could jeopardize everyone she loves.

Winner of the 2014 National Outdoor Book Awards for History/Biography Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it." Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction. Author Ben Montgomery was given unprecedented access to Gatewood's own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence, and interviewed surviving family members and those she met along her hike, all to answer the question so many asked: Why did she do it? The story of Grandma Gatewood will inspire readers of all ages by illustrating the full power of human spirit and determination. Even those who know of Gatewood don't know the full story—a story of triumph from pain, rebellion from brutality, hope from suffering.

A prime source of one of country music's greatest, this closely-documented history follows the musical career of Waylon Jennings—from his early days as a member of Buddy Holly's group, The Crickets, through his sometimes combative relationship with the Nashville musical establishment and his emergence as a viable force in the country music scene, to his current status as a superstar. Popular music scholars and students as well as country music fans will find this a valuable source of information, not only on Jennings, but on the country music industry. In his foreword to this volume, Johnny Cash describes his friend as an American original. A prime source for one of country music's greatest, this closely-documented history follows the musical career of Waylon Jennings—from his early days as a member of Buddy Holly's group, The Crickets, through his sometimes combative relationship with the Nashville musical establishment and his emergence as a viable force in the country music scene, to his current status as a superstar. Popular music scholars and students as well as country music fans will find this a valuable source of information, not only on Jennings, but on the country music industry. In his foreword to this volume, Johnny Cash describes his friend as an American original. In addition to his relationship with the Holly organization (he gave up his seat on the plane that would crash shortly after take-off from Mason City, Iowa, in February 1959 killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson, The Big Bopper), the Sessions section shows Waylon's association with Willie Nelson, his partnership with Nelson, Cash, and Kris Kristofferson in forming the Highwaymen group, and his success in the rejuvenated country music world. Uncompromised, he continues to produce his own brand of Waylon Music. The Discography numbers 360 pages, including extensive Releases and Billboard Chart sections, making this a comprehensive reference work. Johnny Cash and Johnny Western both contributed forewords for their great friend and colleague.

"I found that the landscape had a deep effect on my mood: cliffs towering above, a narrow strip of earth to follow, the vast ocean opening up before me. I felt changed." After completing a 3,000-kilometre hike of coastal Nova Scotia and making a number of dramatic changes in her life, Emily Taylor Smith is compelled to undertake another Maritime journey on foot, this time following the coastline of New Brunswick and the Gaspé all the way to Quebec City. She plans a solitary trip, searching for life lessons along the way and carrying everything she needs with her on her back. Emily severely underestimates the Fundy Footpath, struggles to communicate in French, nearly throws in the towel at the tip of Kouchibouguac Park, and survives a sleepless night in a collapsed tent on the windy Gaspé shore. What she doesn't count on is the support which appears daily in the form of roadside messages, random gifts of ice cream, generous postmistresses and flag collectors, and help that comes from within. The challenging regimen of 45 kilometres a day for two months is transcended by a growing spiritual bond with the landscape that keeps her moving forward.

A continuation of the 40-year recording career of one of the most popular country music performers of our time, this second volume (the first published by Greenwood in 1985) follows Johnny Cash's recording activity from 1984 through 1993. New to this volume are the Billboard Chart Listings, which follow the popularity of any one Cash release, and the combined Sessions Index for 1954 through 1993. An Appendix details several pre-1984 sessions not contained in the first volume. The index serves as a quick cross-reference of song titles, musicians, composers, producers, and studio locations. This volume is designed so that each section will complement and act as a cross-reference to the others. For example, the Sessions section will give session date, location, list of musicians, producers, composers, song titles, and first release information, as it pertains to singles, albums, and CDs. Then follows a Releases section, which gives a wider view as to the number of releases and contents. This listing will include domestic as well as foreign issues. The Billboard Chart Listings chapter is a tool for following the popularity of a single and/or album (CD) on both the Pop and Country charts week by week. Appendix B is an alphabetical listing of all singles and albums (CD) that have appeared on the Billboard charts from 1954 through 1993, making it easy to locate a certain entry in the listings section. The Sessions Index includes sessions from the 1985 volume as well as those pre-1984 sessions from Appendix A. The two volumes serve as a 40-year history for music historians, students of country music, and fans of Johnny Cash.