What do you think?
Louisiana Hayride Years: Making Musical History in Country's Golden Age
The host of the country music radio program "Louisiana Hayride" reminisces about the performances and careers of country music greats
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1998
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 14, 2022
The genre of country music was not much of an appeal to me in my younger days, but as I became older I began to appreciate the artistry and talent of the great country musicians that got their start on the Louisiana Hayride. Unfortunately, not too many today know about the contribution the Louisiana Hayride made to the popularity of country and western music. I was not sure what to expect before reading this book, but it pulled me in from the start. The writing made you feel like you were there at the beginning when the great stars like Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Elvis, and of course, Hank Williams embarked on their journey to greatness.
October 31, 2020
I enjoyed reading this memoir written by my biological father. It gave a glimpse of who he was as a man. The book is about the Louisiana Hayride and the making of music history. Yet, for me it was about my father.
May 9, 2024
Evidence of the sloppiness of the editing of this book is the reference in an introductory note by Johnny Cash that he loves this book, which he calls, "Elvis, Hank, and Me." But the copy I have has the title as "Louisiana Hayride." At some point, the title was change, but the intro wasn't. I have no idea which title was first, though I suspect it's the catchier one with the reference to Elvis.
Anyway, the book is the light memoir of Horace Logan, who was the program manager for the 10 years of the heyday of the live Saturday night show and radio broadcast from Shreveport, LA, that first brought a dozen major country stars to regional and national attention. These include, yes, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams, but also Johnny Cash, Slim Whitman, Kitty Wells, and so on. Most of them put in stints of three months to a year and then were snapped up by the Grand Ol Opry in Nashville, where bigger stardom awaited.
I've seen an Opry show, and it's ok. It's corny, and there's way too much effort to ask the audience to applaud the performers, laugh at the jokes, etc. The only way I can describe it is to say that it sounds better in the telling -- such as in this book -- than it is as an experience. Maybe that was different in the 1950s when Hayride was at its height, but Logan's description of a fast-paced show with maybe a dozen performers over three hours, interspersed with corn-pone humor sounds a lot like the 75 minutes or so I saw in Nashville. And once was enough. If you're seeing performers you really like doing a genre you really like, I guess it's a different thing.
Logan is sort of bitter about losing stars to Nashville, and he issues more than a few complaints against his bosses for their short-sightedness and tight-fistedness in not setting up a whole recording, promoting infrastructure in Shreveport in order to give those stars an option to stay and build their careers. But he also makes it clear that his decade at the helm was due to their benign neglect -- they weren't music people -- and his need to compete with the Opry by always searching for and nurturing new talent. His nurturing, by the way, seemed pretty minimal, except for being a nice guy. He writes repeatedly that he told performers, Go out and be yourself, and he wouldn't tell them what to play or how to play it. On the one hand, that's obviously commendable. On the other hand, he had a stage-level view of scores of performers every week for years (and passed on who knows how many hundreds more), and you'd think he would share a few insights with young musicians, even those with extraordinary talent.
Anyway, reading the boy is pleasurable because it's a light tone and mostly about successes. There's more about the crowd reaction to each new "find" than there is about what make their music or their act special. There's a bit about the various folks, but it's nothing you haven't read in other places --- the sad genius of Hank Williams, the ability of Elvis to mix-and-match from different musical streams, Slim Whitman's unique yodel, etc. There's some talk of the sex-and-drugs of the era, with perhaps the only surprise how apparently eager women of the 1950s were to sleep with famous men, despite the obvious risks. In fact, at one point Logan marvels that parents had the reputation in the '50s of keeping a close eye on their girls, especially in the South, and yet he'd see 200 or 300 outside Elvis's motel each night, hoping to be invited inside (and, supposedly, many were).
In sum, this book is the insider's view of a seminal period in music, a time when country was at its peak as a traditional genre and also became part of the base from which popular music was changed forever into rock. Horace Logan had a front seat because he gave Elvis his platform, and it's fun to hear his side of the story.
Anyway, the book is the light memoir of Horace Logan, who was the program manager for the 10 years of the heyday of the live Saturday night show and radio broadcast from Shreveport, LA, that first brought a dozen major country stars to regional and national attention. These include, yes, Elvis Presley and Hank Williams, but also Johnny Cash, Slim Whitman, Kitty Wells, and so on. Most of them put in stints of three months to a year and then were snapped up by the Grand Ol Opry in Nashville, where bigger stardom awaited.
I've seen an Opry show, and it's ok. It's corny, and there's way too much effort to ask the audience to applaud the performers, laugh at the jokes, etc. The only way I can describe it is to say that it sounds better in the telling -- such as in this book -- than it is as an experience. Maybe that was different in the 1950s when Hayride was at its height, but Logan's description of a fast-paced show with maybe a dozen performers over three hours, interspersed with corn-pone humor sounds a lot like the 75 minutes or so I saw in Nashville. And once was enough. If you're seeing performers you really like doing a genre you really like, I guess it's a different thing.
Logan is sort of bitter about losing stars to Nashville, and he issues more than a few complaints against his bosses for their short-sightedness and tight-fistedness in not setting up a whole recording, promoting infrastructure in Shreveport in order to give those stars an option to stay and build their careers. But he also makes it clear that his decade at the helm was due to their benign neglect -- they weren't music people -- and his need to compete with the Opry by always searching for and nurturing new talent. His nurturing, by the way, seemed pretty minimal, except for being a nice guy. He writes repeatedly that he told performers, Go out and be yourself, and he wouldn't tell them what to play or how to play it. On the one hand, that's obviously commendable. On the other hand, he had a stage-level view of scores of performers every week for years (and passed on who knows how many hundreds more), and you'd think he would share a few insights with young musicians, even those with extraordinary talent.
Anyway, reading the boy is pleasurable because it's a light tone and mostly about successes. There's more about the crowd reaction to each new "find" than there is about what make their music or their act special. There's a bit about the various folks, but it's nothing you haven't read in other places --- the sad genius of Hank Williams, the ability of Elvis to mix-and-match from different musical streams, Slim Whitman's unique yodel, etc. There's some talk of the sex-and-drugs of the era, with perhaps the only surprise how apparently eager women of the 1950s were to sleep with famous men, despite the obvious risks. In fact, at one point Logan marvels that parents had the reputation in the '50s of keeping a close eye on their girls, especially in the South, and yet he'd see 200 or 300 outside Elvis's motel each night, hoping to be invited inside (and, supposedly, many were).
In sum, this book is the insider's view of a seminal period in music, a time when country was at its peak as a traditional genre and also became part of the base from which popular music was changed forever into rock. Horace Logan had a front seat because he gave Elvis his platform, and it's fun to hear his side of the story.
December 2, 2023
Interesting read. Elvis asked him to be his manager, after he became a regular on Louisiana Hayride, Logan declined as he was concerned that he didn't have the connections to aid Elvis' meteoric rise.
If only...
So many of these stars, young and naive, came to early tragic ends. No one to advise or protect them from money hungry vultures or their own demons.
If only...
So many of these stars, young and naive, came to early tragic ends. No one to advise or protect them from money hungry vultures or their own demons.
March 23, 2017
A sweet and up close look at one of the (then) many barn dance type shows of which the Grand Ole Opry is the last man standing. In this almost 20-year old account, Horace Logan gives a first-hand look his creation, the Louisiana Hayride. Excellent time-capsule peek at the world from which Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Elvis, et al, stepped into the big time. Very enjoyable read.
January 14, 2018
Interesting book if you like country music history. I enjoyed it very much.
November 10, 2016
Probably the only person involved in the early years of so many stars - Hank Williams, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson - Horace Logan tells a great tale well. Very disappointing that Nashville to this day (proven by my Thanksgiving visit to CMHOF) does not do the Hayride justice.
April 23, 2013
Read this if you're a fan of Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, or Johnny Horton.
June 26, 2017
If you like Rockabilly, Country, RocknRoll, Hillbilly, Western Swing music, read this book. What a great story. Ordered several copies as presents for friends now.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews