New Releases by Paul Hemphill

While on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, journalist and novelist Paul Hemphill wrote of that pivotal moment in the late sixties when traditional defenders of the hillbilly roots of country music were confronted by the new influences and business realities of pop music. The demimonde of the traditional Nashville venues (Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Robert’s Western World, and the Ryman Auditorium) and first-wave artists (Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Lefty Frizzell) are shown coming into first contact, if not conflict, with a new wave of pop-influenced and business savvy country performers (Jeannie C. “Harper Valley PTA” Riley, Johnny Ryles, and Glen Campbell) and rock performers (Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, the Byrds, and the Grateful Dead) as they took the form well beyond Music City. Originally published in 1970, The Nashville Sound shows the resulting identity crisis as a fascinating, even poignant, moment in country music and entertainment history.

In this lively and fascinating book, noted writer and Auburn alum Paul Hemphill tells the story of the progress of Auburn from that first game coached by Auburn legend George Petrie through the team’s growth and development into the national force it is today. Hemphill records the many highs and occasional lows, and the heartbreak and jubilation each caused, noting the standouts great and small on the way. A Tiger Walk through History contains 172 photographs, many of them rare and surprising. The text and photos capture the many great players and coaches in the Auburn football experience: Auburn’s first bowl appearance in 1936; coaching eras of innovative football genius John Heisman, after whom the Heisman trophy is named; “Iron Mike” Donahue; Ralph “Shug” Jordan, who brought Auburn its first national championship in 1957; Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, and present coach Tommy Tuberville; Auburn’s two Heisman trophy winners Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson; and victories over rivals Alabama and Georgia. The 2007-2008 season is highlighted, including the sixth straight win over Alabama and a bowl victory over Clemson. As the game has grown, Auburn and its team have grown with it, and Auburn now ranks as a perennial power both in its conference and in the nation. Vince Dooley states in his foreword that “beyond the famous coaches and players and their heroics on behalf of the Orange and Blue, A Tiger Walk through History is also about time-honored traditions—rallying cries like ‘Sullivan-to-Beasley’ and ‘Punt Bama Punt’ and ‘Rolling Toomer’s Corner’—that echo in resounding fashion from the pages of Paul Hemphill’s remarkable book.” No fan, whether casual or devoted, can afford to miss this riveting account of the Plainsmen’s journey from the very beginning to today, which is the record of a great university as well as the story of the development of a great football team.

Hank Williams, the quintessential country music singer and songwriter, lived a life as lonesome, desolate, and filled with sorrow as his timeless songs. From Williams''s dirt- poor beginnings as a sickly child to his emergence as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, Lovesick Blues is the definitive biography of the man and his music.

Hiram Williams, a frail boy born to an angry mother and an absentee father, reinvented himself as Hank WIlliams and fell in love with booze by age 14. Learning music on his own, with help from a black street performer knows as Tee-Tot, Hank''s only joy was his music. It touched millions and has lasted generations. His whirlwind career ended just as it began--Hank died drunk and alone at the age of 29.

These stories, often bittersweet, emotional, and mythic are a veteran journalist''s collection of sportswriting on the blue-collar South.

Twenty years after Billy Ray Hunsinger signed with the Green Bay Packers and thought he was destined for greatness, Billy finds himself is a down-on-his-luck radio host who regrets letting opportunity slip through his fingers.

Jacob Smith, a prominent black lawyer and political and civil rights leader in New York in the segregated 1950s, was assassinated when his son, Jock, was eight years old. If this memoir told only of a child''s loving remembrance of his father (and a desire to follow in his footsteps, thus Climbing Jacob''s Ladder), it would be a success. But Jock Smith grew up to become a lawyer himself, a college professor, one of the first African American assistant attorneys general in Alabama, and then a highly successful plaintiff''s lawyer, sports agent, sports memorabilia collector, and inspirational speaker. Now a national partner to superlawyer Johnnie Cochran, Smith operates in a fascinating world of power, wealth, fame, and faith. Climbing Jacob''s Ladder tells it all. Jock Smith is a great storyteller, and co-author Paul Hemphill is a great writer. Their collaboration brings us an insider''s view of the legal system, big-time sports collecting, contemporary black life, evangelism, and civil rights.

A son of the South investigates the torching of a rural black church by five teenagers and discovers that 50 years of civil rights and social progress haven''t touched "To Kill a Mockingbird" country.

Readers will take a journey through the world of stock car racing--to the corporate offices, to the races, and to the garages where mechanics fine tune 700-horsepower engines.

Birmingham''s history of racial violence and bigotry is the centerpiece of this intense and affecting memoir about family, society, and politics in a city still haunted by its notorious past.

A novel that lovingly evokes the dusty wonder of life on the road the the irrepressible characters who consider the highway their home.

The author recounts his journey with his nineteen-year-old son on a six-month hike along the Appalachian Trail and recalls how the two came to know each other at a critical point in their lives

Follows the fortunes of three generations of Clays, a North Carolina mountain family, as they move from Sixkiller Gap, to the Grand Ole Opry''s center stage, to Nashville, to Harvard, and back to their valley.

Speaks of coming of age at mid-life; of chasing down fading rainbows; of reckonings and renewal, and, always, of hope.