Heart of the Country: A Novel of Southern Music

Take a ride down the twisting, bumpy road to country music stardom as you follow three hard driving performers bent on making their mark in Nashville. Heart of the Country will carry you from postwar Appalachia, when the music flowed pure from dancehalls and front-porch jam sessions, to the rhinestone-studded era of big arenas, television ratings, and the "West Coast sound. "Bland Simpson has drawn on his own experiences in country music for his portrayals of Bonnie Montreal, a backwoods singer with plenty of "honey" and "kick" in her voice; Johnny Rex Packard, a volatile rockabilly piano stomper; and Preston Hewitt, a cynical Ivy-Leaguer-turned-urban-folkie. As the three follow their separate destinies across the South and toward the chaotic final night of the Grand Ole Opry in the Ryman Auditorium, they cross paths again and again at such venues as the Moneywasters' Social Club in East Tennessee and a traveling gospel tent revival.Such real-life figures as Hank Williams and Martin Luther King make cameo appearances, along with a colorful supporting cast of producers, agents, stars, sidemen, and roadies. All are bound by the energy and demands of life on the road and in music halls, grand and small.