Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music

Tyler Mahan Coe

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  • 56 seconds
    ANNOUNCEMENT: Book Adaptation of Season 2

    Season 2 has been adapted into a book from Simon & Schuster, available now

    19 February 2024, 5:06 pm
  • 1 hour 37 minutes
    CR032/PH18 - Glenn

    The end of one story is just the beginning of another.

    15 February 2022, 9:00 am
  • 2 hours 44 minutes
    CR031/PH17 - Choices: George Jones' Last Run

    At least this whole story has a happy ending, right? Of course, whether or not that's true depends a lot on your personal definitions of both "happy ending" and "whole story" but, either way, today we reach the final chapter of George Jones' life. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon.

    1 February 2022, 9:00 am
  • 2 hours 20 minutes
    CR030/PH16 - Another Lonely Song: The Tammy Wynette & George Richey Story

    Oh, you thought Jones had a hard time dealing with George Richey? Imagine being married to the guy. Today we say one of the saddest and most infuriating goodbyes we'll ever have to say, the one we say to Tammy Wynette.

    18 January 2022, 9:00 am
  • 1 hour 46 minutes
    CR029/PH15 - Hell Stays Open All Night Long: George Jones, Phase III

    Oh, you're back to hear more things that will chill you to the bone? Then we can talk about what George Jones' life was like in the period leading up to and through the biggest hit of his career. If you've ever wondered what it's like to be afraid of a demonic duck or try murdering your best friend to test the existence of God, well, these are questions only George Jones can answer but just asking them makes for one jaw-dropping and heartbreaking story.

    4 January 2022, 9:00 am
  • 2 hours 15 minutes
    CR028/PH14 - Divorce/Death: He Stopped Loving Her Today, The Grand Tour & A Good Year for the Roses

    It's a known fact that "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the best and saddest country song of all time. But... is it?

    21 December 2021, 9:00 am
  • 2 hours 47 minutes
    CR027/PH13 - Billy Sherrill's Nashville Sound

    What if the first serious opinions that millions of rock music fans formed about country music were based on a few massive errors which then got passed down to future generations? How long do you think it would take for society to build a fundamentally flawed history of an entire genre on top of such a foundation? Fifty years? Well, that's exactly what happened.

    Billy Sherrill's name means nothing to many country music fans. Some recognize it from the album credits of a few of their favorite country artists. Others manage to cast him as an enemy of the genre. But anyone who hears the name Billy Sherrill and thinks anything less than "he's one of the most important producers in the history of Nashville, who made some of the greatest and most influential records of all time in any genre" has not been given enough information about the man or the music. That changes today.

    7 December 2021, 9:00 am
  • 1 hour 35 minutes
    CR026/PH12 - Loved It Away: Tammy Wynette, On Her Own

    Following her breakup with George Jones, many people had many questions for Tammy Wynette. Well, they had questions for George, too, but he was a little harder to get in touch with, trying to drink himself onto a separate plane of reality from his conscious mind and all. So the questions went to Tammy. And she had answers. Then more answers. And more... And more.

    It's never been easy for ladies in country music. Here's how it became for The First Lady.

    23 November 2021, 9:00 am
  • 1 hour 51 minutes
    CR025/PH11 - Being Together: The George Jones & Tammy Wynette Story

    Though they were married to each other for little more than five years, the legacies of George Jones and Tammy Wynette are forever inseparable. This is partly due to their unprecedented success with creating music "based on the true story" of a romance between two artists, to such a degree that decades later there are still millions of fans who believe George and Tammy never stopped being in love with each other. If it's difficult to say where the line is between art and artist, public and private, fiction and fact, then it's only because there was a coordinated effort from perhaps a dozen people working to bury that line beneath a mountain of hit records and royalty checks.

    9 November 2021, 9:00 am
  • 1 hour 55 minutes
    CR024/PH10 - Stand by Your Man: The Anti-Feminist Manifesto

    Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" is one of the most well-known recordings in the English language. It was also a plastic explosive detonated at a sea change moment in United States politics and culture. Look around. We're still picking up the pieces.

    26 October 2021, 8:00 am
  • 1 hour 43 minutes
    CR023/PH09 - Loneliness Surrounds: Virginia Wynette Pugh

    Country music is full of rags-to-riches stories, like the one about how Virginia Wynette Pugh became Tammy Wynette. In a way, it's true. Even after becoming the most successful woman country singer at that point in history, the life she lived was hard and painful. But if you want to know what actually happened in that life then she's the last person you should ask.

    10 August 2021, 8:00 am
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