Central Kansas Library System

In 1959, Maxine, Bonnie and Jim Ed Brown were enjoying enormous show business success, rivaled only by their longtime friend Elvis Presley. But the Browns' celebrity couldn't survive a changing world, and the bonds of family began to fray along with their fame.

Growing up poor in Mountain Pine, Arkansas, with a young, addicted mom, Bobby Estell fell in love with country music. Abandoned by his father at the age of five, Bobby saw the radio as his way out--a dream that came true in college when he went on air at the Henderson State University campus station broadcasting as Bobby Bones, while simultaneously starting The Bobby Bones Show at 105.9 KLAZ. Bobby's passions were pop, country music, and comedy, and...

Outlaw by acclaimed author Michael Streissguth follows the stories of three legends as they redefined country music: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. Streissguth delves into the country music scene in the late '60s and early '70s, when these rebels found themselves in Music City writing songs and vying for record deals. Channeling the unrest of the times, all three Country Music Hall of Famers resisted the music industry's unwritten...

When his family becomes a successful country music group and makes him a featured singer, eleven-year-old James has to deal with big changes in all aspects of his life, even his name.

Smarsh challenged a typically male vision of the rural working class with her first book, Heartland, starring the bold, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come by It Natural, originally published in a four-part series for The Journal of Roots Music, No Depression, Smarsh explores the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women -- including those averse to the term "feminism" -- as exemplified by Dolly Parton's life and art....

"Her Country is veteran Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss's story of how in the past two decades, country's women fought back against systems designed to keep them down, armed with their art and never willing to just shut up and sing: how women like Kacey Musgraves, Mickey Guyton, Maren Morris, The Chicks, Miranda Lambert, Rissi Palmer, Brandy Clark, LeAnn Rimes, Brandi Carlile, Margo Price and many more have reinvented the rules to find their...

A Texas Ranger is justice. Until he sidesteps the law. Texas Ranger Rory Yates is not keen for hero status, unavoidable once his girlfriend, country singer Willow Dawes, writes a hit song about his bravery. Rory escapes his newfound fame when he's sent to the remote West Texas town of Rio Lobo, a municipality with two stoplights, and now, according to the Chief of Police, one too many Texas Rangers. Rio Lobo Detective Ariana Delgado is one who requested...

"Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust shares the 'important and inspiring' (Miranda Lambert) never-before-told complete story of the remarkable relationship between country music icons Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Loretta Lynn and the late Patsy Cline are legends--country icons and sisters of the heart. For the first time ever Loretta tells their story: a celebration of their music and their relationship up until Patsy's tragic and untimely death. Full of...

The Country Bears' #1 fan is young Beary Barrington. Beary has a hard time fitting in with his all-too human family and its proving im-paws-ible. When he runs away to find Country Bear Hall and his legendary hereos, he discovers that the hall that made the Bears famous is near foreclosure. Now Beary goes all over to get the Bears in the Band back together for an all-out reunion concert to save County Bear Hall.

Ken Burns chronicles the history of a uniquely American art form, rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of the nation. From its roots in ballads, hymns, and the blues to its mainstream popularity, viewers will follow the evolution of country music over the course of the twentieth century as it eventually emerged to become America's music. Features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more...