My husband and daughter are the country music fans in our family, not me. As Roger can tell you, I can be very vocal during lengthy road trips about listening to too much country music on the radio. Now, I will be honest, some country music is okay. But some of it is way to "twangy" for my taste; however, I enjoyed reading "Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain: Tales of Romance and Tragedy" by Robert K. Oermann. Because it is divided into chapters about various performers, the book is easy to browse. I was able to pick and chose what I wanted to read.

The opening chapter, "Johnny and June", is of course about Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. June and Johnny probably were destined for one another. Johnny’s daughter Rossane Cash called them soul mates. The first time they met backstage at the Opry Johnny told June he was going to marry her. They married in 1968 after June had helped Johnny withdraw from drugs—cold turkey. He suffered many relapses and visits in rehab over the next twenty years, but they stuck it out together They were country music royalty and died within months of each other in 2003.

My dad’s favorite singer was Eddie Arnold. He was one of country music’s first crossover artists. Eddie Arnold had a wonderfully pure baritone voice. My personal favorite songs by Eddie Arnold are "Cattle Call" and "Make the World Go Away". By the end of the 1960s, Eddie Arnold was country music’s biggest star. This all ended on August 1, 1971, when Eddie’s son Dickey was severely injured in a horrific car accident. Eddie put his career on hold to nurse his son back to an independent life. His career never regained the heights it had reached before the wreck. Like Johnny Cash, Arnold died in 2008 within months of his wife Sally.

March 5, 1963, was the day an airplane crash killed Patsy Cline and four others. It was an accident that could have been avoided. The pilot, Randy Hughes, was inexperienced and not instrument trained; furthermore, he was warned that the weather was too severe for him to fly. Today, the two other country artists who died in that plane crash, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas, are forever over-shadowed by the death of country legend Patsy Cline. She is the standard by which every other female country vocalist is judged. Patsy Cline had premonitions about her death, believing she would never live to see thirty. She even dictated her funeral wishes to June Carter, telling her "I’m gonna go out, and I’m gonna go out really fast."

"Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain: Tales of Romance and Tragedy" covers Opry performers from the past as well as current stars. The Stringbean murders, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and Amy Grant, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are just a few of the artists and stories which are highlighted. To all the many fans of country music, including my husband and daughter, this book is for you.

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