(Vanderbilt University Press)

www.VanderbiltUniversityPress.com

BY STEVE PICK

It doesn't sound like the most promising idea you've ever heard. Who wants to read a book of interviews about the first day people spent in a given city? What kind of car did you drive? What hotel did you stay in? Do you remember the first time you heard of this city? These kinds of questions seem likely to lead to the most pedestrian replies possible, right?

Well, it helps if the people being questioned are celebrities, most specifically some of the finest country-based singer-songwriters and musicians of our time. And it's even better if the interviewer has a long-term relationship with most of the subjects, so that the answers are always elaborated with details which might not be shared with a professional journalist. But the number one reason to read They Came to Nashville, a new book of such interviews, is that it is Marshall Chapman setting the context and asking the questions. Her songwriting, live performances complete with between-song patter, and of course, her previous memoir of a sort, 2004's Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, have proved over and over that she is charming and quirkily intelligent enough to invigorate any subject. If Marshall Chapman wanted to ask her friends about their favorite bathrooms, the book would probably turn out to be vastly entertaining.

Caveat: don't bother to read this book if you don't have some previous knowledge of at least a portion of the musicians being interviewed. It's not that you won't find yourself wanting to hear records by Rodney Crowell or Bobby Bare or John Hiatt. Chapman's brief introductions and the tone of the conversations is more than enough to pique interest in artists previously unknown. But you'll be frustrated when Crowell, for example, is left sleeping on a picnic table near Nashville's Parthenon, and you only get hints of how he went on to write and record so many incredible records in the next 35 years. (You do, however, get a couple of incredibly funny Johnny Cash stories in the bargain.)

That said, it's fascinating to hear the tales of Kris Kristofferson living in a hovel while trying to sell his songs - imagine a time when "Sunday Morning Coming Down" or "Me and Bobby McGee" were merely numbers heard in the occasional guitar circle. It's delightful to have the Emmylou Harris interview interrupted by one of her 20 or so dogs, or her mother who lives with her, and the tales of Harris' early days in Nashville are far less romantic than some. It's invigorating to hear how Beth Nielsen Chapman overcame so many problems to turn into one of the most successful songwriters of the ‘90s.  On the disappointing side, the interview with Mary Gauthier, a fabulous songwriter with a very intriguing backstory, suffers from the lack of a close connection between her and Chapman. And Miranda Lambert just hasn't lived long enough to really be able to engage her past, though the germ of an interesting story is in place.

And then there is the chapter on Willie Nelson. It's 45 pages, while most of the other interviews take up an average of 15. It's full of rich and hilarious details, triumph and a sort of tragedy, and could probably only be improved by having Chapman read it aloud. (If you've heard her speak, with that upper class South Carolina accent tinged with Nashville drawl, you'd want to hear her say anything you can think of, too.) Suffice it to say that Nelson answers all the same questions, but so much more about him is revealed when he's not talking at all. It's an absolute tour de force of a chapter, one of the most insightful pieces of writing about music you'll find, and it's also just Chapman telling what happens and what she sees and does.

It's sometimes too easy to assume our musical heroes are somehow superhuman, but every one of these interviews, and the chapter on Willie Nelson, reveal just how human and normal they really are. Sure, talent is something special, but Chapman realizes that great insights can be generated after remembering details about the car driven for the first time to the city where music dreams were accomplished.