Michael Ray Taylor and Chapter16.org, Special to the News Sentinel 10:03 a.m. ET May 14, 2017

Peter Cooper(Photo: Submitted)

In fact, he showed up in 2000, less than two decades ago, after beginning his writing career in Spartanburg, S.C. At age 22, he filled in for an English professor who had been assigned to review a Guy Clark show. So off I went to write about whether or not Guy Clark already a legendary songwriter in his fifties, known for remarkable emotional specificity and clarity of language was any good, Cooper recalls in his new book, "Johnnys Cash & Charleys Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music." Hey, free ticket.

Halfway through the show, an overcome fan shouted, not once but three times, I wish Guy Clark was my daddy. In writing his review, Cooper decided to lead with that fan: I was writing about connection, longing, regret, and pain, he writes. I was doing so with a chuckle line, but it was a chuckle line that got to something deeper.

Cooper has followed that strategy ever since, with pretty much anyone who is anyone in country music. Stories of his meeting with Johnny Cash, visits with Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn, and writing the message on George Joness gravestone in 2013 make "Johnnys Cash & Charleys Pride" resonate with humor and depth. The writing is often so funny it could be catalogued simply as humor, but Coopers delivery is reminiscent of Mark Twains: at just the moment youre laughing so hard you spill a little beer on the bar, he slips in a phrase or word that freezes you in place.

In that first piece on Guy Clark, Cooper described an artist who could stand on a stage, sing a song called Desperadoes Waiting on a Train, and make grown men weep over the tyranny of lineage. Through countless articles since then, Cooper has become for country what Lester Bangs was for rock: not only a critic but also a storyteller of events both witnessed and experienced. He is on the scene for the rest of us, serving as touchstone for what is real and what is nonsense.

Heres Cooper on Taylor Swift bringing him home-baked cookies as he interviewed her early in her rise to stardom: Taylor Swift had become a resounding commercial force simply by doing what no one else had done, which was, simply, being Taylor Swift. To sit down face-to-face with a 19-year-old Swift was to comprehend that she was someone of uncommon intellect, palpable presence, and perfectly risen cookies.

The book contains more than tales of recent superstars: Cooper also personalizes the history of country music by finding its echoes in contemporary music. The Carter scratch a guitar method first recorded in Bristol, Tenn., in 1927 he says, is the basis for the way most acoustic guitarists today approach the instrument, whether or not theyve ever heard of Mother Maybelle Carter. He explains how a tonsillectomy early in Ernest Tubbs career ruined his ability to do a Jimmie Rodgers yodel but gave Tubb a gravelly voice which, when combined with electrically amplified instruments, produced what later generations think of as country music.

Johnny's Cash & Charley's Pride(Photo: Submitted)

"Johnnys Cash & Charleys Pride" includes the rules for songwriters created by Cowboy Jack Clement (who wrote the lyrics from which the books title is taken): Remember, boys, were in the fun business. If were not having fun, were not doing our jobs.

While such gems appear on practically every page, the book is not entirely about music. Some of Coopers most quotable lessons pertain to other kinds of writing. Let me tell you what I learned in journalism school, he begins a chapter on storytelling. Nothing. Didnt go. Didnt take a class. But Im told part of what is taught, and Ive heard editors mention this, is that we must be objective. Objectivity did not take with Peter Cooper. Objectivity is dispassionate, he writes, but we are in the passion business. Then he delivers wisdom for any writer seeking to leave a mark:

If you write exactly what you feel, you have written an exclusive.

If you write something objective, you have most likely written a measured mediocrity.

Peter Cooper writes on the same level as a good country song. He makes you feel that you have not only seen the legends he writes about relaxing backstage, but had drinks and cookies with them, too, and laughed at life with them, and cried and cried and cried.

For more local book coverage, please visit http://chapter16.org/, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

Read or Share this story: http://knoxne.ws/2redxGr

Read more from the original source:

Funny Business: Peter Cooper writes of country music secrets, legends, laughs - Knoxville News Sentinel