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Reviving Opryland’s Black Star

The biographer had no idea that his work would not only revive the reputation of DeFord Bailey but contribute to his belated election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Marilyn K. Morton via Wikimedia Commons
DeFord Bailey and his harmonica, 1970s. Marilyn K. Morton via Wikimedia Commons
CARL ROLLYSON
CARL ROLLYSON

‘DeFord Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music’
By David C. Morton
Foreword by Dom Flemons
University of Illinois Press, 224 pages

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CARL ROLLYSON
CARL ROLLYSON

Mr. Rollyson is the author of The Life of William Faulkner and The Last Days of Sylvia Plath. He has published fourteen biographies and has written about biography for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington, Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Criterion, and other publications.

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