COCAINE AND RHINESTONES

Coe turns his acclaimed podcast series into an entertaining history of the deep roots of American popular music and show business.

The ostensible subjects of this book, which is based on the second season of the podcast that shares its name, are indeed George Jones and Tammy Wynette, the briefly married occasional collaborators who dominated country music from the 1960s to the 1980s. Jones is still considered the “Greatest Country Singer Ever” by fans and fellow musicians, while Wynette is best remembered for her “anti-feminist” anthem “Stand by Your Man.” The pair shared formative relationships with one of Nashville’s great producers, Billy Sherrill, who, in addition to nurturing their sound on vinyl, helped construct their public personas via a carefully curated catalog of songs hinting at an abiding love between them. In fact, Jones and Wynette were each uniquely troubled human beings who, at the height of their respective careers, struggled with addiction, mental illness, bad relationships, and bizarre behavior bordering on criminality. Coe’s podcast became a hit for taking an unusually meandering, even scholarly approach to its subject matter, which this book replicates. The narrative takes sudden, surprising deep dives into tangentially related areas—e.g., a history of pinball machines and jukeboxes, the recipe for moonshine, bullfighting’s metamorphosis from quasi-religious festival to proletarian sport and fashion inspiration, and much more—leaving readers to sort out the relevance. “It’s not necessary to cover such wide-ranging territory through abrupt twists and turns,” writes Coe, “while largely leaving the reader to connect the dots for themselves….But that is what I’ve chosen to do because it’s a lot more fun. There’s a difference between handing someone a twenty dollar bill and handing them a treasure map.” White’s illustrations are an added treat.

A gifted storyteller with vast cultural knowledge, Coe has given readers not just a map, but a true treasure.