Bruce Feiler: Dreaming Out Loud: Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd, Wade Hayes, And The Changing Face Of Country Music

By now, Nashville's romanticized image as a land of golden opportunity, like Hollywood's, has been so eroded that to call Music City, U.S.A., a bastion of greed and exploitation is a colossal cliché. Country music was, is, and always will be a business. But what makes contemporary country music so interesting is exactly how big a business it has become. Bruce Feiler's new book Dreaming Out Loud explores Nashville's new face as big-money central. There's Garth Brooks, the superstar with 60 million sales who still signs hundreds of autographs for his fans every evening; Wynonna Judd, the tabloid-dodging diva whose domineering mother has caused her irreparable psychological damage; and Wade Hayes, the naive upstart who will do whatever it takes to someday sell as many records as Brooks. For this book, Feiler gained access to all three popular musicians, allowing for a behind-the-scenes glimpse at their fears and ambitions. But behind-the-scenes music stuff is usually the same regardless of the subject; what really makes Dreaming Out Loud so great—aside from Feiler's evocative writing—is the author's ability to convey a sense of the country-music community as a whole, a tight and informal support network of fans, suits, and performers who must all cooperate and coordinate for the machine to run properly. Feiler's portrayal of Nashville isn't wholly accurate; obviously, not all country music is mass-produced and multi-platinum, and Feiler could have looked a little deeper, beyond his obvious subjects. But Dreaming Out Loud is an illuminating, entertaining, and educational tale of country's rise to commercial prominence and continued success.