Growing Up Country: What Makes Country Life Country

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Charlie Daniels, a famous country singer, guitarist and fiddler, grew up in the southern state of North Carolina. Daniels has been performing and writing hit songs for artists such as Elvis Presley since the 1950s. In 1979, Daniels won a Grammy award for his smash hit, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Daniels – who now resides in Tennessee – remains very active in country music and southern rock today. His passion for the south, however, can be found in more than just his music lyrics. In his new book, he and more than 50 other well-known country music stars and other southern figures – including Dolly Parton, Sara Evans, Barbara Mandrell, Jimmy Carter and Clint Black – remind readers why being brought up country is really somethin’ special.

Eddie Montgomery of the country music duo Montgomery Gentry describes growing up country as “…a lot of love when you need it, great cooking in the kitchen, and always being real.” With stories and accounts of family, hard work, music, faith and the importance of home, Montgomery and each of the other contributors to this book share why he or she loves being from the country.

Carrie Underwood, the Grammy-winning country singer, says she pities those who grew up in “the city,” because “they are the ones who have missed out on the best parts of life.” Former President Jimmy Carter says the only place he has wanted to live since leaving the White House was where his family settled more than 170 years ago, in Plains, Ga. – with a population of 634.

Country music great John Conlee quips that if only the country’s politicians would spend some time in the country and away from the city, “they’d have a better picture of what America really is all about.”

Guitarist Gary Rossington of the legendary Lynyrd Syknyrd southern rock band claims that all of his friends in the south, regardless of what they do for a living, are proud of who they are. And why shouldn’t they be? Those that live in the South are “American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God.”

For more by Charlie Daniels, look for “Ain’t No Rag: Freedom, Family, and the Flag.”

—Catherine Estep

“Growing Up Country: What Makes Country Life Country,” Charlie Daniels. 201 p. hardcover. $19.95. Flying Dolphin Press, 2007. 212-362-5125.