Book Review: True To The Roots

True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed – Monte Dutton

Monte Dutton authors True To The Roots, a book that claims to be Americana revealed. The back cover reads “Americana music isn’t just a musical form – it’s a state of mind. Monte Dutton charts this state of mind with a series of interviews and intimate portraits from the heart of alternative country, often known to its adherents as OKOM: Our Kind Of Music.”

Dutton never tries to define what Americana music is in the book, but he does track down musicians he feels are a part of the Americana movement and interviews them. Each chapter is dedicated to a different musician, figure, or scene in the Americana movement. Dutton probes to find out what makes these figures and musicians tick and their opinions about current mainstream country. But, each chapter doesn’t read so much like an interview as it does a short story which grabs your attention and makes the reading smooth. I breezed through the book in three short nights.

The encounters take place between 2003 and 2005 in varying places around the US with the majority of them falling inside of the borders of Texas. He profiles a few of the more well known Americana artists (Pat Green, Stoney Larue, Robert Earl Keen, Brad Paisley, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jack Ingram), some that are on their way to being well known (Django Walker, Mike McClure, James McMurtry, Slaid Cleaves), and more than a few that I have never heard of (Thad Cockrell, Those Guys, Jesse Lee Jones, Kenny Roby, Tom Russell, Robbie Fulk, Brian Burns).

Dutton admits toward the end that his lack of female artists is one shortcoming in the book and muses that perhaps a sequel containing all female artists shall follow. The author lures the artists into answering questions about mainstream country which leads to significantly more Nashville/mainstream country bashing than The 9513 and sometimes gives you the sense that some of the artists are a little bitter. Dutton goes on to give his opinion about the contrasting music scenes of Texas and Nashville:

Here’s why the music in Texas is superior, at least from one perspective, to what is available in Nashville, Tennessee. Texas music is all about performing; in Nashville it’s about recording. In Texas the auditoriums, dance halls, and honky-tonks provide sustenance to hundreds of singers and bands. In Nashville session musicians labor skillfully but in seclusion for years until the lucky ones finally sign that elusive record contract. Then the record company sends a singer or a band out o the road, and no one knows what to do there.

Aside from paragraphs like the above, Dutton rarely delves too deep in providing any information on why he chose the specific artists that he did and why they’re important. Instead he lets the artists do most of the talking. In this way the readers gets to know a little more about the artist and his beliefs than what they might gather from seeing him perform live.

As I stated before it’s an easy read that really grabs your attention and provides a little more insight to some of the artists listed above. It’s also a good starting point to discover artists you might not have heard of before. I still believe that there is some good music coming out of Nashville, so if you can get over the bashing I think it’d be an enjoyable read.