Cocaine and Rhinestones

April 1, 2024

Coe (host, writer, and producer of the buzzy podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones) writes about the careers, music, and marriage of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The book is illustrated by Emmy-winning artist and producer Wayne White. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 8, 2024
Debut author Coe draws on his eponymous podcast for a digressive and bloated account of the rise and fall of one of country music’s most legendary couples. George Jones found early success in Nashville with such hits as 1958’s “White Lightnin’,” while Tammy Wynette got her start in Memphis honky-tonks before moving to Nashville in the 1960s and teaming up with producer Billy Sherill for songs like “Apartment #9” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” When Wynette signed with Jones’s booking agency in 1967, the two began touring together and became romantically involved, giving Jones’s fans hope that the “King of Broken Hearts”—so-called for his 1965 album of the same name—might find a “fairy-tale ending.” But after the couple married in 1969, Jones’s addiction to drugs and alcohol and volatile psychological states caused their relationship to splinter. The years that followed their 1975 divorce saw both of their careers decline. Coe aims to put Wynette and Jones’s story in the context of larger shifts within country music, such as the development of a pop-inflected “Nashville Sound,” but tangents on moonshine, bullfighting, and other far-flung topics fail to enrich the narrative. Readers will be frustrated.

Starred review from July 15, 2024
Coe turns his acclaimed podcast series into an entertaining history of the deep roots of American popular music and show business. The ostensible subjects of this book, which is based on the second season of the podcast that shares its name, are indeed George Jones and Tammy Wynette, the briefly married occasional collaborators who dominated country music from the 1960s to the 1980s. Jones is still considered the "Greatest Country Singer Ever" by fans and fellow musicians, while Wynette is best remembered for her "anti-feminist" anthem "Stand by Your Man." The pair shared formative relationships with one of Nashville's great producers, Billy Sherrill, who, in addition to nurturing their sound on vinyl, helped construct their public personas via a carefully curated catalog of songs hinting at an abiding love between them. In fact, Jones and Wynette were each uniquely troubled human beings who, at the height of their respective careers, struggled with addiction, mental illness, bad relationships, and bizarre behavior bordering on criminality. Coe's podcast became a hit for taking an unusually meandering, even scholarly approach to its subject matter, which this book replicates. The narrative takes sudden, surprising deep dives into tangentially related areas--e.g., a history of pinball machines and jukeboxes, the recipe for moonshine, bullfighting's metamorphosis from quasi-religious festival to proletarian sport and fashion inspiration, and much more--leaving readers to sort out the relevance. "It's not necessary to cover such wide-ranging territory through abrupt twists and turns," writes Coe, "while largely leaving the reader to connect the dots for themselves....But that is what I've chosen to do because it's a lot more fun. There's a difference between handing someone a twenty dollar bill and handing them a treasure map." White's illustrations are an added treat. A gifted storyteller with vast cultural knowledge, Coe has given readers not just a map, but a true treasure.

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August 1, 2024

Coe is the creator of the country music history podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones, and this book often reads like his show, filled with musings. It's less a dual biography of George Jones and Tammy Wynette than it is a subjective discourse on country music. Incongruous chapters discuss the genre in terms of moonshine, bullfighting, soap operas, pinball, with medieval jousting and head-scratching stretches thrown in. However, when the narrative finally focuses on Jones and Wynette (after more than 100 pages), the book takes off (also thanks to White's illustrations), offering a revealing account of Wynette's life and giving Jones the recognition he reportedly thought he deserved. The book shows how Jones experienced extreme stage fright and a substance-use disorder, sometimes resulting in concerts where he was unable to perform; meanwhile, Wynette grew up believing that Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. When they married, they were dubbed the King and Queen of Country Music, but sadly, it was no fairy tale. VERDICT This volume includes fascinating stories about Wynette and Jones, but fans might wish for more of those and fewer digressions in the first part of the book. For comprehensive country music collections.--Rosellen "Rosy" Brewer

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.