Great Review of Frank and David's Carter Family Book from Byron Marshall

AS CLASSIC AND CLASSY AS COUNTRY MUSIC ITSELF.  AND IT MAKES YOU CRY.

This book takes the format of the "Graphic Novel" and makes it sing. It's a wonderful portrait of the famous Carter Family, capturing the feeling of the rural South they came from and the imaginative, sorrowful mood that helped define the early years of commercial country music. And the sense of humor also.

The excellent artwork evokes the newspaper comics of the time. At some point an annotated edition would be fun!

The storytelling is equally top notch, building the story from chapter to chapter, bringing us close to the people and the songs. The storytelling is flexible, using short chapters that provide vignettes of the Carter Family career, the history of early radio, and American culture and history during those years.

I think this is one of the best books of the year, one of the best books I've read in years - graphic novel or any other kind. It uses the power of the image as flexibly as a good movie.

If you have any affection for or interest in the roots of country music you'll want to read this book, and read it over. Plus the book contains a generous amount of background material - and a CD! The edition looks great. Abrams is to be congratulated.

It seems it took a number of years to bring this to print. Yet there is no faltering. This is a powerful and sustained book.

You can get the dad-blamed thing here...