Nearly 1,300 complete and up-to-the-minute alphabetical entries put eight decades of country music at readers' fingertips, from the earliest '20s recordings of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to the '90s chart-topping albums of LeAnn Rimes and Garth Brooks. A field of 137 contributors provides a readable and reliable guide to the singers, songwriters, record companies, and industry movers and shakers who have made country music the increasingly popular - and profitable - juggernaut it is today.