Dr. Barnabas T. Bynum's New School Musical Revue and Travelling Minstrel Show

Dana Jennings, a New York Times editor, has written a brilliant memoir filtered through the prism of country music called Sing Me Back Home. If you read only one book about country music, let it be this one. If you are a fan of superb writing, this book's for you. If you like your beer cold, your dance floor hot, your women hotter - this book's for you. If you like traditional country music (not the neo-traditional bullshit that passes for country music), then this book is especially for you. Jennings evokes the ghosts of Porter Wagoner, Webb Pierce, Flatt and Scruggs, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and many more lost legends of country music to help us understand his family history. And don't be surprised if Jennings highly disfunctional family resembles yours. This yankee from New Hampshire goes out of his way to let us know that he shares more with a plowboy from Tennessee than you might think. But don't worry brother, you're preachin' to the choir. The classic country music of 1950-1970 did indeed cut a wide swath.