Workin' Man Blues: Country Music in California »

Gerald Haslam is the author of numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction. He wrote the text for The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland (California, 1992), which featured the photography of Stephen Johnson and Robert Dawson. A professor of English at California State University, Sonoma, until his retirement in 1997, he lives in Northern California. Alexandra Haslam Russell is managing editor of Gavin magazine. She and her father coedited the anthology, Where Coyotes Howl and Wind Blows Free: Growing Up in the West (1995). Richard Chon plays fiddle with the Sons of the San Joaquin and for many years was an entertainment writer for the Bakersfield Californian.

"Workin' Man Blues is possibly the most brilliantly astute and thorough examination ever written about country music in California and the impact it has had in our lives and on our culture. I'm extremely flattered to be even mentioned in such august company."—Dwight Yoakam, Singer, Songwriter

"With all the pathos of a Rose Maddox ballad and more edges than a Merle Haggard song, Haslam has spun together the stories of the artists who have made California part of country music and country music part of California."—James Gregory, author of American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California

"This book clears new ground in both the history of music and American ethnicity. As gorgeously detailed as any shirt worn by a Rhinestone Cowboy, there's no other book like it."—Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California

Library Journal

Haslam, a former English professor at California State University and author of several books on the West, creditably shows how California rates recognition in the annals of country music history. The John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly (now part of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Bill C. Malones revised edition of Country Music U.S.A. (1985) serve as the foundations for Haslams chronicle of country music in California from the 1920s to the 1990s. Steering clear of scholarly jargon, Haslam intersperses musical interludes throughout the text, showcasing particular musical events in 199495. Haslams ease of style is evident as he ties in text around the interludes. A bibliographic essay and selected bibliography provide additional details on the extent of his research and could be used as a selection tool for expanding a country music collection. This book will appeal to informed lay readers as well as specialists; recommended for collections on American music in academic and public libraries.Kathleen Sparkman, Baylor Univ., Waco, TX