Music: Crooked River City : The Musical Life of Nashville s William Pursell (Hardcover)

A biography of one of Nashville s most influential and unique musicians A pianist arranger and composer William Pursell is a mainstay of the Nashville music scene. He has played jazz in Nashville s Printer s Alley with Chet Atkins and Harold Bradley recorded with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline performed with the Nashville Symphony and composed and arranged popular and classical music. Pursell s career winding like a crooked river between classical and popular genres encompasses a striking diversity of musical experiences. A series of key choices sent him down different paths whether it was reenrolling with the Air Force for a second tour of duty leaving the prestigious Eastman School of Music to tour with an R&B band or refusing to sign with the Beatles agent Sid Bernstein. The story of his life as a working musician is unlike any other--he is not a country musician nor a popular musician nor a classical musician but instead an artist who refused to be limited by traditional categories. Crooked River City is driven by a series of recollections and personal anecdotes Terry Wait Klefstad assembled over a three-year period of interviews with Pursell. His story is one not only of talent but of dedication and hard work and of the ins and outs of a working musician in America. This biography fills a crucial gap in Nashville music history for both scholars and music fans.