A GUITAR AND A PEN > Stories by Country Music’s Greatest Songwriters edited by Robert Hicks

Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s automatic that somebody who can write a song-hit or otherwise, story song or otherwise-can write engaging fiction or an article, any more than litterateurs or ink-stained, deadline wretches can automatically write a song. That this entertaining, often surprising collection of short stories and memoir pieces by some of the bigger names in today’s country songwriting works so well, so often is a tribute to these particular writers and editors-not to an act of nature.Label: CENTER STREET/HACHETTE BOOKS
[RATING: 3.5]

Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s automatic that somebody who can write a song-hit or otherwise, story song or otherwise-can write engaging fiction or an article, any more than litterateurs or ink-stained, deadline wretches can automatically write a song. That this entertaining, often surprising collection of short stories and memoir pieces by some of the bigger names in today’s country songwriting works so well, so often is a tribute to these particular writers and editors-not to an act of nature. The most memorable stories come from all corners of the country music map-from such mainstream hit writers as Bob DiPiero, Bobby Braddock and Gary Nicholson, alternative lights as Robbie Fulks and Kevin Welch, and folks you pretty much knew were literary all along: Marshall Chapman, Kris Kristofferson, Bob McDill and Tom T. Hall. There are moments in these 25 stories where you can catch the writers trying too hard to be “rollicking, colorful regionalists” and one piece-a fictional account of a Bill Monroe White House visit-turns out to have been written by the editor but somehow was misattributed to journalist and ace cook Hazel Smith. Overall, though, there’s an assortment of experiences captured, characters delineated and moments made real which will get to you. You can’t hum along with these stories, but for the most part, the stories hum.