Description: Country music maintains a special, decades-long relationship to American military life, but these ties didn't just happen. This readable history reveals how country music's Nashville-based business leaders on Music Row created partnerships with the Pentagon to sell their audiences on military service while selling the music to servicemembers.
Brief description: Joseph M. Thompson is assistant professor of history at Mississippi State University.
Review Quotes: "Essential reading . . . Thompson's exploration of the longstanding ties between the US military and country music doesn't just help you rethink country music, but the ways in which America uses popular music to its own ends. Thompson's immaculately researched book upends expectations while diving deep into the previously unreported ties . . . between the army and Music Row."--Rolling Stone, Best Music Books of 2024