Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Nick Patoski
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Book Reviews of Willie Nelson: An Epic Life
Book Review: Willie Nelson: an Epic Life
Summary: 5 Stars
Joe Nick Patoski has exhaustively researched the Man, and the book reflects his efforts. It's an entertaining read. Well worth the money.Book Review: An unvarnished portrait
Summary: 4 Stars
Willie Nelson's craggy profile on this book's cover looks like it was carved out of granite. He appears like a man who has lived a rough life, one who has not taken particularly good care of himself. An Epic Life explores the reasons why Willie's face looks like that, and does a pretty good job explaining things.
Author Joe Nick Patoski gives you all the down-and-dirty details of the fighting, drinking, womanizing, alleged tax cheating and drugs, as well as all the stories behind Willie's timeless songs. Patoski conducted hundreds of interviews with Nelson and his family and friends over 35 years of research, and it shows. He's crafted a true insider's view of an icon that's also a comprehensive biography, an interesting read filled with many personal glimpses, with the bonus of some fascinating profiles of other folks both known and unknown.
A section of glossy pages in the middle has 26 black and white photos. They range in time from 1929 to 2007, from a vintage shot of Nelson's parents to a portrait of Willie and his sister Bobbie Lee from last year.
Here's the chapter list:
1. Somewhere in America, 2007
2. Abbott, 1938
3. East of Western Grove on Pindall Ridge, 1925
4. Abbott, 1933
5. Waco, 1952
6. San Antonio, 1954
7. Fort Worth, 1955
8. Vancouver, Washington, 1956
9. Fort Worth Again, 1958
10. Houston, 1959
11. Nashville, 1960
12. Los Angeles, 1961
13. Ridgetop, Tennessee, 1964
14. Tennessee to Texas, 1965
15. Coast-to-Coast, Border-to-Border, 1967
16. Lost Valley, 1971
17. Austin, 1972
18. Orange to El Paso, Dalhart to Brownsville, 1973
19. Garland to Hollywood, 1975
20. The Hill, 1979
21. The World, 1986
22. The Valley, 1991
23. The New World, 1993
24. Paradise, 2004
25. Home, 2006
Book Review: A Comprehensive Biography
Summary: 4 Stars
A meticulously researched and comprehensive biography of Willie Nelson. Great detail on his recording career and the country western music scene. My only complaint: the writing style is, at times, cumbersome...too many compound sentences that impede the flow of the story telling. Otherwise, this book is everything you ever wanted to know about Willie Nelson.Book Review: Wonderful Willie
Summary: 4 Stars
Joe Patoski's book on Willie Nelson is full of information not only on willie, but many other interesting places and people.Book Review: Leaves out nothing
Summary: 3 Stars
Overwritten by at least a third. No gig, no woman, no bar, no tall tale goes untold in this music bio. I found myself skimming many pages because the detail is so extraneous. You'll get the outline of Willie's life here, and the book is good on the lesser-known early years before "Stardust" made Willie big business. But it's just more than you'll want to know unless you are an absolute fanatic. The author did a much better, far more concise job on the Stevie Ray Vaughan story. Read this if you want to know about Willie's years as a drifter, dj, song plugger and big time booze, pill and women hound. Or you could just stare at Willie's weathered face because the same stories are all written right there.
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