While Nashville has long been considered the epicentre of country music, Southwest Shuffle documents the important influence of country music styles of the region stretching from Texas to California.

In this book you will read about
- Spade Cooley, the western swing fiddler and bandleader whose career was cut short by his imprisonment for murdering his wife in 1961.
- Hank Thompson, a Texan whose durable meld of ballroom music and western swing anticipated George Strait.
- Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West, legendary pickers whose incendiary instrumental records earned them the nickname "The Flaming Guitars" .
- Tennesee Ernie Ford, who went from a local Los Angeles TV star to a household word in the 1950s.
- Willie Nelson, who struggled for years in the Nashville wilderness, convinced that someday his Texas-style eclecticism would prevail.

RICH KIENZLE's vibrant writing, based on original interviews and archival digging, reflects his long-time love for these musical styles. Southwest Shuffle will enthral everyone from the new-country to alt-country fan to the hardcore traditionalist.

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