Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music

By Tyler Mahan Coe

History

What's Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music about?

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LAST EPISODE

CR030/PH16 - Another Lonely...

01.18.2022

Oh, you thought Jones had a hard time dealing with George Richey? Imagine being married to the guy. Today we say one of the saddest and most infuriating goodbyes we'll ever have to say, the one we say to Tammy ...

Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music episodes:

01.18.2022 CR030/PH16 - Another Lonely Song: The Tammy Wynette & George Richey Story Oh, you thought Jones had a hard time dealing with George Richey? Imagine being married to the guy. Today we say one of the saddest and most infuriating goodbyes we'll ever have to say, the one we say to Tammy ...
01.04.2022 CR029/PH15 - Hell Stays Open All Night Long: George Jones, Phase III Oh, you're back to hear more things that will chill you to the bone? Then we can talk about what George Jones' life was like in the period leading up to and through the biggest hit of his career. If ...
12.21.2021 CR028/PH14 - Divorce/Death: He Stopped Loving Her Today, The Grand Tour & A Good Year for the Roses It's a known fact that "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the best and saddest country song of all time. But... is it?
12.07.2021 CR027/PH13 - Billy Sherrill's Nashville Sound What if the first serious opinions that millions of rock music fans formed about country music were based on a few massive errors which then got passed down to future generations? How long do you think it would take for ...
11.23.2021 CR026/PH12 - Loved It Away: Tammy Wynette, On Her Own Following her breakup with George Jones, many people had many questions for Tammy Wynette. Well, they had questions for George, too, but he was a little harder to get in touch with, trying to drink himself onto a separate plane ...
11.09.2021 CR025/PH11 - Being Together: The George Jones & Tammy Wynette Story Though they were married to each other for little more than five years, the legacies of George Jones and Tammy Wynette are forever inseparable. This is partly due to their unprecedented success with creating music "based on the true story" ...
10.26.2021 CR024/PH10 - Stand by Your Man: The Anti-Feminist Manifesto Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" is one of the most well-known recordings in the English language. It was also a plastic explosive detonated at a sea change moment in United States politics and culture. Look around. We're still picking ...
08.10.2021 CR023/PH09 - Loneliness Surrounds: Virginia Wynette Pugh Country music is full of rags-to-riches stories, like the one about how Virginia Wynette Pugh became Tammy Wynette. In a way, it's true. Even after becoming the most successful woman country singer at that point in history, the life she ...
07.27.2021 CR022/PH08 - Dallas Frazier: Can't Get There From Here Some of the best songs you've ever heard were written by Dallas Frazier. Don't recognize the name? Don't worry. You'll remember it forever after this episode, especially those of you who love Charley Pride, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Connie Smith, ...
07.13.2021 CR021/PH07 - Pappy Daily, Gene Pitney and How George Jones Came to Be on Musicor This whole story began with a pinball machine and jukebox mogul in Texas jumping over to the independent record business of the 1950s. When he hitched his wagon to a Singing Marine who became the Greatest Country Singer Ever, it ...
06.29.2021 CR020/PH06 - All to Pieces: George Jones, Phase II In the early 1960s, George Jones had a huge hit record featuring such a phenomenal vocal performance it instantly turned him into a living legend. He didn't handle it well.
06.15.2021 CR019/PH05 - Wandering Soul: George Jones, Starday Recording Artist There are some personalities who would embrace being called The Greatest Country Singer Ever or, at least, settle into the role once it became clear the brand was eternal. George Jones did not have one of those personalities. The fame ...
06.01.2021 CR018/PH04 - White Lightning In North Carolina, way back in the hills, there's a centuries-old tradition of cooking illegal liquor. Whether you feel that's right or wrong, good or bad, may be determined by any number of factors but the objective truth is moonshine ...
05.18.2021 CR017/PH03 - The Nashville A Team Now that we've established Owen Bradley as the single most important producer in the history of Nashville, let's take it further and acknowledge he's one of the most important figures in the history of all recorded music, even if for ...
05.04.2021 CR016/PH02 – Owen Bradley's Nashville Sound What if the first serious books about country music contained a few massive errors which were then repeated by nearly everyone who's since used those books as a source? How long do you think it would take for society to ...
04.20.2021 CR015/PH01 - Starday Records: The Anti-Nashville Sound The story of a little independent record label in Texas becoming "a force" in the Nashville country music industry brings an outsider's perspective to the anatomy of a machine. Going from backwoods honky tonks and roadhouse jukeboxes to stretch limos ...
04.07.2021 Season 2 Announcement Cocaine & Rhinestones Season 2 begins on April 20th.
02.06.2018 BONUS: Cocaine & Rhinestones Season 1 Q&A You might think, "How could anyone finish a season of a podcast like Cocaine & Rhinestones and have questions? That guy saturates every episode with details like he's getting paid by the fact." There's always more to know. Like, how ...
01.23.2018 CR014 - Ralph Mooney: The Sound of Country Music The legendary pedal steel guitarist, Ralph Mooney, deserves the reputation he earned on his instrument. However, he deserves a lot more than that. This episode of the podcast backtracks to Bakersfield for a deeper examination of its "sound," a closer ...
01.16.2018 CR013 - Rusty & Doug Kershaw: The Cajun Way Rusty & Doug come from a long tradition of surviving against the odds, against a world that would just as soon see you dead as see you succeed. Starting from nothing but a houseboat in Louisiana, they fought their way ...
01.09.2018 CR012 - Wynonna Some people think we have all these "authenticity tests" in country music. We don't. But, even if we did, Wynonna would pass them. From somehow surviving a childhood full of several types of abuse to a years-long reign over country ...
01.02.2018 CR011 - Don Rich & Buck Owens, Part 2: Together Again Words often fail to express the connection that can exist between two people. In the friendship of Don Rich and Buck Owens, our notions of reality itself may prove inadequate. With spacetime as our stage, we trip backwards for more ...
12.26.2017 CR010 - Buck Owens & Don Rich, Part 1: Open Up Your Heart Whatever else is true about Buck Owens (and some of it certainly is), he brought real country music to the world in a time when we desperately needed someone to do that. Sticking to that real deal honky tonk sound ...
12.19.2017 CR009 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 3: Tom T. Hall Behind any story worth telling, you'll always find another story. Maybe if we can get behind some of Tom T. Hall's best stories, we'll find the story about who he is and how he's able to do what he can ...
12.12.2017 CR008 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 2: Jeannie C. Riley Jeannie C. Riley's debut single sold over a million copies within ten days of being released but she never wanted to record the song. In the late '60s, Jeannie C. Riley became country music's most blatant sex symbol to date ...
12.05.2017 CR007 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 1: Shelby S. Singleton You think all it takes to make a hit record is to find a good song and get a good performance of it? That's cute. Have a seat and let an old-school record man show you how it's done. This ...
11.28.2017 CR006 - The Louvin Brothers: Running Wild The way Charlie and Ira Louvin could sing together is downright otherworldly. There's even a special term we had to invent for family (it's always/only family) who can sing this way: blood harmony. This episode delves in to exactly what ...
11.21.2017 CR005 - Breaking Down Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee" The song was just what so many Americans needed at the time, in 1969. Conservatives needed someone to stand up and defend small town, traditional values. Politicians needed someone to justify America's continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. Oklahomans needed ...
11.14.2017 CR004 - Bobbie Gentry: Exit Stage Left In 1967, Bobbie Gentry's recording of a song she wrote, called "Ode to Billie Joe," directly influenced the future of every major musical genre in America. In the early '80s, she disappeared. What happened in the decade between? Why did ...
11.07.2017 CR003 - The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley Spade Cooley came to California in the early 1930s, as poor as everyone else who did the exact same thing at the exact same time. Only, Spade became a millionaire. And all he needed to accomplish that was a fiddle, ...
10.31.2017 CR002 - The Pill: Why Was Loretta Lynn Banned? This episode of Cocaine & Rhinestones briefly examines the history of contraceptive laws in America (Trigger Warning: abortion is discussed) before moving on to uncover the staggering inequality of morality applied to women in country music versus that applied to ...
10.24.2017 CR001 - Ernest Tubb: The Texas Defense Everyone loves Ernest Tubb. So when he straps on a gun belt one night to head across town and snuff out a character named Jim Denny, well, you might guess that ol' Jim had it coming. Maybe he didn't, maybe ...

Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music

What's Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music episodes:

CR030/PH16 - Another Lonely Song: The Tammy Wynette & George Richey Story

CR029/PH15 - Hell Stays Open All Night Long: George Jones, Phase III

CR028/PH14 - Divorce/Death: He Stopped Loving Her Today, The Grand Tour & A Good Year for the Roses

CR027/PH13 - Billy Sherrill's Nashville Sound

CR026/PH12 - Loved It Away: Tammy Wynette, On Her Own

CR025/PH11 - Being Together: The George Jones & Tammy Wynette Story

CR024/PH10 - Stand by Your Man: The Anti-Feminist Manifesto

CR023/PH09 - Loneliness Surrounds: Virginia Wynette Pugh

CR022/PH08 - Dallas Frazier: Can't Get There From Here

CR021/PH07 - Pappy Daily, Gene Pitney and How George Jones Came to Be on Musicor

CR020/PH06 - All to Pieces: George Jones, Phase II

CR019/PH05 - Wandering Soul: George Jones, Starday Recording Artist

CR018/PH04 - White Lightning

CR017/PH03 - The Nashville A Team

CR016/PH02 – Owen Bradley's Nashville Sound

CR015/PH01 - Starday Records: The Anti-Nashville Sound

Season 2 Announcement

BONUS: Cocaine & Rhinestones Season 1 Q&A

CR014 - Ralph Mooney: The Sound of Country Music

CR013 - Rusty & Doug Kershaw: The Cajun Way

CR012 - Wynonna

CR011 - Don Rich & Buck Owens, Part 2: Together Again

CR010 - Buck Owens & Don Rich, Part 1: Open Up Your Heart

CR009 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 3: Tom T. Hall

CR008 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 2: Jeannie C. Riley

CR007 - Harper Valley PTA, Part 1: Shelby S. Singleton

CR006 - The Louvin Brothers: Running Wild

CR005 - Breaking Down Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee"

CR004 - Bobbie Gentry: Exit Stage Left

CR003 - The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley

CR002 - The Pill: Why Was Loretta Lynn Banned?

CR001 - Ernest Tubb: The Texas Defense