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gsal's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Violence
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
The title and cover alone gets five stars! It's taken from the name of a hard-core gospel album from the Louvin Brothers and this autobiography by Charlie Louvin goes into detail about his hardscrabble upbringing, the booze crazy antics of brother Ira and details of the country music industry. Mostly it's about Ira and his family. There's only so many stories about Ira before they all read the same--the brothers got a lot of whoopings as kids, Ira liked booze, Ira misbehaved while drunk on booze, Ira hated for his mandolin to go out of tune [woe to the poor instrument if that happened as it would die the death of an on-stage stomping to bits by Ira], Ira had bad taste in ladies. This was as much a book about Ira as it was about Charlie himself. I wish there had been more tales about country music industry or other performers, but this is a down-home version of Louvin's life, full of all the appropriate slang and turns of phrase that give it a Southern charm.
duckoffimreading's review against another edition
4.0
Truth be told, I had never heard of the Louvin Brothers before picking up this book. They were an old school, early 50s-60s country duet with a dream of making it to the Opry (which they did). This autobiography, told from Charlie Louvin's point of view - and Charlie sounds like a stand up guy: didn't drink, didn't womanize, kept his unruly, alcoholic brother Ira in line as much as he could, always thinking of the next strategic move for their musical careers. It reads very quickly and reads the way Charlie probably speaks with lots of hillbilly gems like "24 karat asshole" and "14 karat idiots." Charlie and Ira inspired the likes of Johnny Cash and even Elvis Presley. Without ruining the story, you can imagine why the book is penned by Charlie and not Ira also. This book was finished 2 months before 83 year old Charlie passed away, after an amazing career in music. If you like music and biographies, this is an interesting one to pick up. And yes, it took me ENTIRELY too long to read it because I get distracted easily by shiny objects, but I finally dug this out from the bottom of the stack on my nightstand and finished it in 2 days.
chadleyparis's review against another edition
3.0
this book is just people beating the shit out of each other
woodlandglitter's review against another edition
5.0
Brutal and amazing stories about an abusive childhood and, eventually, success, although Louvin's brother Ira died far too young with far too many demons. This is a seriously great read.
sethsam's review against another edition
4.0
Super fun read. Country music stars of the 1950's were complete maniacs.
melanie_reads's review against another edition
3.0
Guilty pleasure alert!
I read this book because:
A. After hearing about it on one of my current favorite podcasts, Cocaine & Rhinestones
B. The title, y'all, the title!!
I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about the pre-internet days, when your favorite music was not so readily available and Charlie Louvin delivers in that regard ... driving from gig to gig, broke & singing their hearts out. And that cover, that's not Photoshop my friends. That's an actual photo shoot with a real-life devil made out of plywood and tires set on fire in the rain. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
However, what I cannot abide is the treatment of women in this story. In Charlie Louvin's defense he seems to truly care for his wife and remained married to her throughout the years. But his brother Ira was a drunken wife beater and it seemed that nobody cared - "it's just the way things were." UGH.
A fair reminder how easily love and hate can co-exist; there's just so much gray in this world.
I read this book because:
A. After hearing about it on one of my current favorite podcasts, Cocaine & Rhinestones
B. The title, y'all, the title!!
I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about the pre-internet days, when your favorite music was not so readily available and Charlie Louvin delivers in that regard ... driving from gig to gig, broke & singing their hearts out. And that cover, that's not Photoshop my friends. That's an actual photo shoot with a real-life devil made out of plywood and tires set on fire in the rain. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
However, what I cannot abide is the treatment of women in this story. In Charlie Louvin's defense he seems to truly care for his wife and remained married to her throughout the years. But his brother Ira was a drunken wife beater and it seemed that nobody cared - "it's just the way things were." UGH.
A fair reminder how easily love and hate can co-exist; there's just so much gray in this world.
abihobgood's review against another edition
3.0
This reads like a conversation with Charlie Louvin himself. By the end, I wanted to hug him. He and Ira lives truly crazy lives and carved their own way into country music history just on willpower and determination.