West Virginia University Press has published Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy, written by Charlie McCoy with Travis Stimeling.
From Ann Margret to Bob Dylan and George Jones to Simon & Garfunkel, Nashville harmonica virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy has contributed to some of the most successful recordings of country, pop, and rock music of the last six decades. As the leader of the Hee Haw “Million-Dollar Band,” McCoy spent more than two decades appearing on the television screens of country music fans around the United States. And, as a solo artist, he has entertained audiences across North America, Europe, and Japan and has earned numerous honors as a result.
Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy offers rare firsthand insights into life in the recording studio, on the road, and on the small screen as Nashville became a leading center of popular music production in the 1960s and as a young McCoy, a West Virginia native, established himself as one of the most sought-after session musicians in the country.
No Depression magazine writes "We've been waiting for McCoy to tell us his story and can be grateful that he has now done so in such compelling and entertaining fashion." Rich Kienzle, author of The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones, calls the book “one of the first serious, substantive books by a major participant in the Nashville recording scene. McCoy’s recollections and insights offer a new and fascinating perspective on the development and expansion of the country music industry.”
The Country Music Hall of Fame will hold a launch party for this book Sunday (May 28). Charlie McCoy will discuss this memoir on “The Eddie Stubbs Show” Wednesday (May 24) and on Bill Cody’s “Coffee, Country & Cody” Friday (May 26).
Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy is the inaugural title in WVU Press’s Sounding Appalachia series. The series is edited by Travis D. Stimeling, assistant professor of music history at West Virginia University, where he also directs the WVU Bluegrass and Old-Time Bands. His previous books include Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music and The Country Music Reader.
Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy
240pp / 20 images / PB 978-1-943665-71-6: $24.99 / ePub 978-1-943665-72-3: $24.99
For more information visit: http://wvupressonline.com/node/666.