Tammy Wynette

December 14, 2009
There’s no mistaking McDonough’s take on Tammy Wynette’s artistry: of her first single, “Apartment No. 9,” he writes, “I don’t know if there has ever been a more perfect debut.” But his adulation is not uncritical—he concedes that the first country musician to go platinum also released plenty of clunkers; more importantly, he gives voice to both Wynette’s closest friends and the families of those like her first husband, Euple Byrd, who were cast aside in the formation of her legend. McDonough (Shakey
) brings a passionate flair to his language, describing Wynette and her third husband (and frequent collaborator) George Jones as a pair of “walking haunted houses,” but occasionally slips into sentimental excess, particularly in imaginary letters to his subject. “Did anyone ever just let you be Wynette?” ends a typical missive. Long detours covering the lives of Jones and Nashville producer Billy Sherrill provide valuable context, but the emphasis is squarely on Wynette and her personal tragedies, including a long slide into drug addiction and a mysterious death some still suspect may have been foul play. Combining pop musicology and tabloid gossip, McDonough has crafted a fitting tribute to a country music icon. Black-and-white photo insert not seen by PW
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December 1, 2009
The gory details of the country vocalist's life.

McDonough (Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film, 2005, etc.), who wrote the bestselling Neil Young biography Shakey (2002), takes on the big-voiced, troubled thrush who logged 20 No. 1 country hits between 1967 and 1976. Born Virginia Wynette Pugh (1942–1998) and raised humbly in rural Red Bay, Ala., she was a headstrong, willful girl who broke out of the honky-tonks and regional radio to notch her first big singles, including the controversial, politically divisive anthem"Stand By Your Man," under the tutelage of Nashville producer Billy Sherrill. (Music City's studio milieu and Sherrill's key role in it are chronicled in a richly detailed early chapter.) Wynette lived through five harrowing marriages, tormented relationships with four children, a multitude of health problems, two debilitating decades of addiction to painkillers and a bizarre, unsolved (and possibly trumped-up) kidnapping. McDonough is clearly smitten with his talented subject—he rhapsodizes over her recordings and pens several cringe-inducing"Dear Tammy" letters—but Wynette remains something of a cipher; one never senses that much existed below the surface besides an abiding neediness. Two of her husbands emerge as the book's most compelling figures. George Jones, the alcoholic, unpredictable singer who was Wynette's musical role model and third spouse, is depicted as a deeply flawed yet loving professional and romantic partner. Producer-songwriter George Richey, her fifth husband and Wynette's manager for 20 years, is painted as a greedy, controlling hillbilly Machiavelli who hastened Wynette's premature demise in 1998 through a combination of overwork and (illegal) overmedication. McDonough interviewed all but a few of the principals in the story—including the normally reticent Jones—and he gets some wonderful material from peers like Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. However, readers may remain uncertain about what animated Wynette's powerfully performed music.

Wynette's tortured history is forcefully told, but her essence remains a mystery.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 15, 2010
McDonough, author of the best-selling "Shakey: Neil Young's Biography", writes as a fan of Tammy Wynette (194298) but also details the highs and lows of her tragic life. Although primarily a biography, the book includes discussions of Wynette's recordings and live performances. McDonough interviewed figures associated with Wynette, including her third husband, George Jones, and consulted numerous interviews, articles, and other books about Wynette. He presents the many conflicting views he found, which might leave the reader wondering about the real story; however, Wynette's life was one of contradictions. McDonough places her among jazz singer Billie Holiday and opera diva Maria Callas as 20th-century female singers who put their private grief into their musical performances, and he draws stark contrasts between Wynette and her contemporaries Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. VERDICT Some readers might wish for more information on the music, as McDonough focuses on the extreme pain and heartache in Wynette's life. Still, this engaging and potentially controversial study of one of the most significant singers in the history of country music is essential for fans of Wynette and the genre.James E. Perone, Mount Union Coll., Alliance, OH

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
Tammy Wynette, along with Loretta Lynn, represented the female face of country music in the last decades before top-40 country became midtempo rock with fringe and steel guitars. Her megahits D-I-V-O-R-C-E and Stand by Your Man became modern womens anthems, decried by feminists (hardly part of the 1960s70s country audience) as messages of female subservience that Wynettes performances transformed into songs of women mustering strength to face the massive shortcomings of their men (compare Lorettas Rated X and Fist City). She became so popular that for a while her singles became then-rare country interlopers on the pop charts. Her on-again, off-again romance with one-time husband and all-around bad boy George Jones made the pair page-one tabloid fodder, the C and W Brangelina of the day. McDonoughs first full-scale supplement to the autobiography Stand by Your Man (1979) and daughter Jackie Daleys Tammy Wynette (2000) is a crucial acquisition for pop-music and American studies collections and absolutely essential for country-music collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)