Satan Is Real
The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Get ready for one of America’s great untold stories: the true saga of the Louvin Brothers, a mid-century Southern gothic Cain and Abel and one of the greatest country duos of all time. The Los Angeles Times called them “the most influential harmony team in the history of country music,” but Emmylou Harris may have hit closer to the heart of the matter, saying “there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.” For readers of Johnny Cash’s irresistible autobiography and Merle Haggard’s My House of Memories, no country music library will be complete without this raw and powerful story of the duo that everyone from Dolly Parton to Gram Parsons described as their favorites: the Louvin Brothers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kris Kristofferston, who was employed as a janitor when he met Charlie Louvin, writes in his foreword, "The legendary Louvin Brothers' hauntingly beautiful Appalachian blood-brothers harmony is truly one of the treasures of American music." Now Charlie Louvin, who died January 26, 2011, at age 83, has written an engaging and entertaining look back at his gospel and country music career with his brother, Ira. The two grew up picking cotton and coon hunting in Alabama, and music became their escape route from rural chores to radio fame. They were in their teens when they began singing on Chattanooga radio, a showcase that led to paying gigs. They moved on to making music in Memphis, and by 1955, when they finally got to the Grand Ole Opry, their record sales soared. Ira's heavy drinking and temper tantrums prompted Charlie to go solo; tragedy struck when Ira was killed in a 1965 auto accident. Packed with plenty of pictures, backstage gossip, and colorful anecdotes about the Louvins' encounters with the great and near great, this memoir has a raw honesty, genuine grit, common sense and smokin' down-home flavor that Louvin fans will relish. The fire-and-brimstone cover art and the book's title are both taken from the duo's 1959 gospel album, Satan Is Real.