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/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Popular southern writer Smith's episodic and lusty new novel deciphers the genetic code for country music as it courses through the Bailey family tree from its Grassy Branch, Virginia, roots. The story begins back in the early 1800s when women had children early and often and men were mostly silent, if not particularly strong. Fiddling and singing were the main forms of entertainment, but religious types thought they were hearing the devil's laughter and, given the extremes of these music makers' lives, they may have had a point. A different character narrates each chapter, and all are wonderfully earthy, melodic, and enchanting. As their stories leapfrog from generation to generation, the changes that time brought to the tenor of country music and country living are subtly incorporated into the plot. The action accelerates from simple front-porch singing to Nashville's high-pressure recording studios and all the glitz and corniness of the Grand Ole Opry. The Bailey clan find themselves in archetypal country-music situations as Smith treats us to tangled tales of sin and retribution, passion and madness, true love and true suffering. Folks end up in prison, garish mansions, cheap motels, and sleazy bars; they cheat, lie, and drink; die in car crashes or fires; spoil or neglect their numerous children; and experience spiritual awakenings, always pouring their feelings into song. From down-home sweetness and light to tabloid tackiness, this is an irresistible celebration of that ol' rollercoaster ride of life. (Reviewed May 15, 1992)0399137459Donna Seaman

Kirkus
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A thoroughly entertaining eighth novel from Smith (Fair and Tender Ladies, 1988, etc.) traces the roots of an extended, country-western ``singing'' family from 1830's hollow to contemporary Nashville. The story opens with plans for a country Christmas family reunion at the Opreyland Hotel. Katie Cocker, superstar of country music, is gathering together her famous relatives--from Tampa Rainette, nearly 100 years old and one of the original Grassy Branch Girls, to Rose Annie, whose hit song ``Subdivision Wife'' is based on her own life, leaving her adoring husband for her no-good, rockabilly, childhood sweetheart. (Now she's serving time for his murder.) In the story behind the story, this ``singing'' family- -Baileys, most of them--gets its start in Cold Spring Holler in 1833 when music-loving Kate Malone marries Moses Bailey, a self- styled preacher who thinks the fiddle is the devil's plaything. From that union comes Zeke Bailey, a generous-hearted simpleton, lover of hard work, church meeting, and fiddle-music, who inherits the land on which the Grassy Branch, a twisty little creek, flows. Zeke's offspring, R.C. (actually Zeke's wife's illegitimate son) and Durwood, carry on the musical tradition, each marrying talented women who start the Grassy Branch Girls. The next generation, which includes Rosie, Johnny and Katie, experiment briefly with the Grassy Branch Quartet, a gospel group, before their lives take them away from the hollow on separate (musical) paths. In letting each of her characters tell his story in his own voice, Smith creates a vividly labyrinthine world of family ties in which music is always a part. Clearly she is paying homage to a place and people who have contributed so much to the American music scene. And in so doing she traces the roots and variations of country music, from primitive Baptist hymns and fiddle-playing, to gospel, rockabilly, and contemporary country western. A real treat- -and an education.

Library Journal
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In this loving tribute to country music and its artists, Smith ( Me and My Baby View the Eclipse , LJ 2/15/90; Fair and Tender Ladies , LJ 9/15/88) traces the history of this uniquely American tradition through several generations of the Bailey family of Grassy Springs, Virginia. Starting in 1833 with the marriage of Moses Bailey, a preacher's son who thinks fiddle music is the voice of the Devil laughing, to Kate Malone, who comes from a fiddle-playing family, the Baileys are torn between their love of God and their love of music. Plain Baptist hymns and haunting Appalachian ballads shape the lives of the early generations. Grandsons R.C. and Durwood marry Lucie and Tampa, who, as the Grassy Branch Girls, take part in the early ``hillbilly recordings'' of the 1920s. Rose Annie and Blackjack Johnny Raines are the ``King and Queen of Country Music'' in the Rockabilly 1950s until Rose Annie shoots Johnny after he's cheated on her once too often. Cousin Katie Crocker abandons the bland Nashville sound of the 1960s when she cuts a traditional record with her family at the Opryland Hotel. Warm, amusing, moving, this novel represents Smith at her best. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/92.-- Wilda Williams, ``Library Journal'' (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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Smith's ( Fair and Tender Ladies ) novels always glow with the empathy she feels for her spirited Southern characters. Her latest, a rollicking hillbilly saga, traces the family of country music star Katie Cocker. In 1830s Grassy Branch, Tenn., the first Kate, member of a family known for their virtuosity on the fiddle, marries religion-obsessed Moses Bailey. Fiddle music, described by the fire-and-brimstone set as ``the voice of the Devil laughing,'' becomes her undoing, but her musical ability passes on. Smith spins a down-home tale of weddings and adulteries, many offspring--legitimate and otherwise--and thunderous ``signs from God'' in every generation. Each chapter is the equivalent of a country song, combining the tragic, the hokey, the joyous and the ironically inevitable. Among the vivid characters are Nonnie Bailey, who leaves her husband and children to run off with a quack medicine charlatan; the Grassy Branch Girls, who record legendary folk songs with the Victor Talking Machine Company; and Blackjack Johnny Raines, a pill-popping rockabilly cat. The book's zesty humor abates slightly as it catches up with Katie's own sad story of how she lost love but found religion. Still, Smith's strong, believable characters, their gossipy, matter-of-fact voices and their affection for their rustic mountain home makes this a rich, inviting multigenerational tale. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal
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Music is the lifeblood of the Bailey family. Even when lay preacher Moses Bailey declared the fiddle to be an instrument of the devil, his wife found a way to fiddle for her children and to call the music from within. So begins a 150-year odyssey of this Southern family, from barn dances to Grand Ole Opry, from poverty to high living. The use of eight different narrators, each reading a separate chapter, enhances this compelling story and makes for smoother transitions and more interesting listening. Each chapter is both self-contained and part of the whole. The Southern-voiced readers drawl with fire and resignation, with hope and despair, producing a moving tribute to the author's intentions. Recommended for all fiction collections.ÄJodi Israel, Norwood, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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In Smith's rollicking hillbilly saga about the family of a country music star, strong characters, their matter-of-fact voices and their affection for their rustic mountain home make for a rich multigenerational tale. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved