Nearly 1,300 complete and up-to-the-minute alphabetical entries put eight decades of country music at readers fingertips, from the earliest '2Os recordings of the Cartel Family and Jimmie Rodgers to the '90s chart-topping albums of LeAnn Rimes and Garth Brooks. A distinguished field of 137 contributors provides an eminently readable and reliable guide to the singers, songwriters, record companies, and industry movers and shakers who have made country music the increasingly popular -- and profitable -- juggernaut it is today. There are entries for influential radio and television programs, and for key country landmarks from Nashville's Music Row to Bakersfield's Blackboard nightclub. Ten longer essays probe the historical, cultural religious, artistic, and financial forces shaping country music. Hundreds of photographs, some never before published, accompany the text, including 150 color photographs of rare singles and album covers from the CMF Library's record collection.