The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones – From Texas Honky Tonks to the Grand Ole Opry, the Biography of Whiskey and Demons - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Veteran country music critic, journalist, and historian Rich Kienzle is the author of Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky-Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz and Great Guitarists: The Most Influential Players in Blues, Country Music, Jazz and Rock. A contributing editor and columnist at Country Music magazine for nearly twenty-five years, he also edited their history publication The Journal. He was formerly a contributing editor at No Depression and Guitar World and is now a regular contributor to Vintage Guitar Magazine. His work has appeared in Fretboard Journal, Guitar Player, Request, The Journal of Country Music, and the Austin American-Statesman. The author of liner notes for almost four hundred reissue albums, Kienzle is among the few country journalists profiled in The Grove Dictionary of American Music. He received the International Country Music Conference’s Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism in 2012.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Critics, fans, and peers have all called George Jones the greatest country singer of all time. His story is woven out of the richest American fabric: He was born to a God-fearing mother and booze-loving father in East Texas, one of eight children who grew up in the kind of poverty written about in many a country song. Whether he was singing hymns with a husband-wife evangelical team at ten, gigging in Beaumont’s rowdy honky-tonks at nineteen, producing spectacular, bestselling duets with Tammy Wynette at forty, or receiving the Kennedy Center Honors at seventy-seven, music and music alone drove him.

His voice—raw, emotive, and passionate—made him a star and an influence on other singers. But as his star ascended, Jones wrestled with the demons that plague many artists—alcohol, divorce, drugs, debt, arrests, and violence. In this definitive biography, called by critics “unflinching” and “dazzling,” country music critic and historian Rich Kienzle paints a rich portrait of a modest man who overcame his darkest moments to create a lasting legacy.