Introduction: Gathering, reflecting, and rethinking -- "Sing me back home": growing up in the South and writing the history of music -- Neither Anglo-Saxon nor Celtic: Music of the Southern Plain folk -- Blacks and Whites and the music of the Old South -- William S. Hays: the Bard of Kentucky -- Stranger passing through your town: Jimmie Rodgers and the Rambler tradition -- Blue Sky Boys: the sunny side of life -- Albert E. Brumley: folk composer -- Church Wagon Gang: God's gentle people -- Honky-Tonk: the music of the Southern working class -- Johnny Gimble: the music came up from his soul -- Texas myth /Texas Music -- Romance that will not die: Appalachian music and American popular culture -- Elvis, country music, and the South -- Rural South moves North: Country music since World War II -- Country Music and the Academy -- Memories of Austin and Threadgill's.
