CMT News

Publishers have announced the impending release of two more books of potential interest to country music fans. In October, Harbor House will publish Rich Everitt's Falling Stars: Air Crashes That Filled Rock and Roll Heaven. The subtitle is misleading since the book also covers the deaths of country performers Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, Jim Reeves and Reba McEntire's band, as well as those of crossover artists Ricky Nelson and John Denver. Everitt tells little new about the artists' musical careers but does, in each case, focus on the human and mechanical causes of each crash as cited in official reports. Other air tragedies Everitt chronicles include those involving Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays, Jim Croce, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Aaliyah, Keith Green, Bill Graham, Walter Hyatt and Lynyrd Skynyrd members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines. ... The Fireside division of Simon and Schuster will release Tanya Tucker's inspirational tome, 100 Ways to Beat the Blues, in March 2005. According to advance publicity, the book will feature blues-beating tips from "70 celebrities and 30 'regular folk.'" Among the former are Garth Brooks, Kinky Friedman, Roseanne, Weird Al Yankovic, Loretta Lynn and George Jones.