Country Music and Record Production in Nashville, 1955-1973

FAIN: FA-251362-17

Travis David Stimeling
West Virginia University Research Corporation (Morgantown, WV 26506-6201)

A book-length study of country music and record production in Nashville, Tennessee, 1955-1973.

Nashville Cats: Record Production in Nashville, 1955-1973 will be the first history of record production during country music’s so-called “Nashville Sound” era. This period of country music history produced some of the genre’s most celebrated recording artists, including Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and Floyd Cramer, and marked the establishment of a recording industry that has come to define Nashville in the national and international consciousness. Yet, despite country music’s overwhelming popularity during this period and the continued legacy of the studios that were built in Nashville during the 1950s and 1960s, little attention has been given to the ways in which recording engineers, session musicians, and record producers shaped the sounds of country music during the time. Drawing upon a rich array of previously unexplored primary sources, this book will be the first to take a global view of record production in Nashville during this key time.

Associated Products

Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City (Book)
Title: Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City
Author: Travis D. Stimeling
Abstract: The Nashville Cats bounced from studio to studio along the city's Music Row, delivering instrumental backing tracks for countless recordings throughout the mid-20th century. Music industry titans like Chet Atkins, Anita Kerr, and Charlie McCoy were among this group of extraordinarily versatile session musicians who defined the era of the "Nashville Sound," and helped establish the city of Nashville as the renowned hub of the record industry it is today. Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City is the first account of these talented musicians and the behind-the-scenes role they played to shape the sounds of country music. Many of the genre's most celebrated artists-Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Floyd Cramer, and others immortalized in the Country Music Hall of Fame ― and musicians from outside the genre's ranks, like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, heard the call of the Nashville Sound and followed it to the city's studios, recording song after song that resonated with the brilliance of the Cats. Author Travis D. Stimeling investigates how the Nashville system came to be, how musicians worked within it, and how the desires of an ever-growing and diversifying audience affected the practices of record production. Drawing on a rich array of recently uncovered primary sources and original oral histories,Âinterviews with key players, and close exploration of hit songs, Nashville Cats brings us back into the studios of this famous era, right alongside the remarkable musicians who made it happen.
Year: 2020
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780197502815
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Belmont Book Award
Date: 6/1/2021
Organization: International Country Music Conference

Certificate of Merit, Historical Research in Recorded Country or Roots Music
Date: 10/23/2021
Organization: Association for Recorded Sound Collections

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