Publisher Markets Cd With Novel
A lot of us have known for a long time that country music - the best of it, anyway - is a soundtrack for everyday American life. But it’s gratifying to know that people in nonmusical genres now are recognizing the same thing.
Crown Publishers - in what it believably claims to be a bookpublishing first - is cross-marketing a bargain 19-song CD of predominantly country music with a serious novel (i.e., one praised on the cover by such names as Pat Conroy and Erica Jong). Titled “Where Love Goes,” it isn’t even about country music.
The book’s author, New Hampshire resident Joyce Maynard, picked out the songs herself to help people enjoy the experience of reading her novel more fully. “To me, music has always been the most emotionally evocative art form,” Maynard explains. “I always play music when I work; (the songs are) chosen to evoke the mood of the story I’m telling. And because I had created a soundtrack of songs about love and heartbreak for myself when I was writing this story, I wanted readers to have a chance to hear a similar soundtrack as they read it,” she explains.
“They’re songs that pull at your heartstrings without being sentimental, which is what I try to accomplish in my storytelling, too.”
This compilation is no tossed-off-from-the-top-of-her-head venture. Despite the fact that the CD is a nonprofit endeavor costing $6.98 (purportedly to cover Maynard’s postage and handling) and will not be sold at the retail level, the package includes a song specially recorded for it. Renowned Texas singersongwriter Townes Van Zandt, singing his classic “If I Needed You,” is backed up on the track by no less than Steve Earle and Jonell Mosser.
Judging from that, it seems obvious that novelist Maynard is an “alternative country” listener of discriminating taste. A perusal of the list of artists and titles on her 19-song package confirms it.
Other artists include Emmylou Harris, Vern Gosdin, Gail Davies, Kieran Kane, Nanci Griffith, Kevin Welch, Cheryl Wheeler, Jim Lauderdale and recent comers Kim Richey and John Bunzow.
The CD can be ordered by calling (800) 501-9919 from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. weekdays. The 352-page novel is available in bookstores for $23.
McEntire’s new album all covers
Reba McEntire’s next album, “Starting Over” - which is scheduled to hit the streets Oct. 3 during this, the 20th year of her recording career - is a collection of covers of songs she says have influenced her life.
“These songs and artists were my inspiration,” McEntire says. “They pushed me to always strive to improve with each new record release, hopefully bringing a new level of entertainment to my audience. It has been a lot of fun getting reacquainted with these songs.”
The titles are “Talking in Your Sleep,” “Please Come to Boston,” “On My Own,” “I Won’t Mention It Again,” “You’re No Good,” “Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands,” “Five Hundred Miles Away from Home,” “Starting Over Again,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”
72 songs on Strait box set
Whereas McEntire’s new album is sort of a greatest-other-people’s-hits package, George Strait’s is an appropriately mammoth, four-CD boxed-set collection of his own classics.
“Strait Out of the Box” contains 72 tracks, all chosen by Strait himself.