Cybergrass Bluegrass Music News: True Adventurers with the King of Bluegrass

BMNN wrote: on Sep. 04, 2009:
True Adventurers with the King of Bluegrass - Jimmy Martin

Nashville, TN -- Ten years ago, when fiction writer and music critic Tom Piazza's True Adventures with the King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin first came out, Piazza joked that the book should have been published with extra blank pages in the back so that the reader could include his or her own Jimmy Martin experience, since everyone who was a Jimmy Martin fan had one that was just as entertaining as the story in this book. A classic of Country Music journalism, the book is now out in paperback format.

If you knew Jimmy Martin, you know there's a hint of truth to that. Still, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Piazza writing what has become the definitive piece on Jimmy Martin, one that has set the standard for lively, engaging writing about country musicians.

Readers with a fondness for outlaws of the Southern, Bible-thumping variety will prefer True Adventures with the King of Bluegrass."
--Publishers Weekly

On assignment from the Oxford American magazine, Piazza drove from his home in New Orleans to Nashville to interview Martin. Martin's mercurial personality drew Piazza into a series of escalating encounters (with mean dogs, broken-down cars, and near electrocution), culminating in a harrowing and unforgettable expedition, with Martin, to the Grand Ole Opry—which had invited many lesser (in Jimmy's view) bluegrass lights, but never him.

"Pulls the reader in so close to the action that one can practically smell the odor of whisky on Martin's breath."
--New York Times Book Review

Vanderbilt University Press and the Country Music Foundation Press are proud to announce that this classic, poignant portrait of one of the legends of American music is now available in paperback.

ABOUT JIMMY MARTIN:
Jimmy Martin (August 10, 1927 – May 14, 2005) was just twenty-two years old when Bill Monroe asked him to join the Blue Grass Boys. That invitation was the start of a career that spanned half a century and culminated with Martin's induction into the International Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Honor. Always an enigmatic figure, Martin was as famous for his temper as he was for his talent.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tom Piazza is the author of City of Refuge, the Faulkner Society Award–winning novel My Cold War, the James Michener Award–winning short-story collection Blues and Trouble, and the 2006 Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award–winning book Why New Orleans Matters. He lives in New Orleans and can be reached at www.tompiazza.com.

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