CR027/PH13 - Billy Sherrill's Nashville Sound

CR027/PH13 - Billy Sherrill's Nashville Sound

Author: Tyler Mahan Coe December 7, 2021 Duration: 2:47:19

What if the first serious opinions that millions of rock music fans formed about country music were based on a few massive errors which then got passed down to future generations? How long do you think it would take for society to build a fundamentally flawed history of an entire genre on top of such a foundation? Fifty years? Well, that's exactly what happened.

Billy Sherrill's name means nothing to many country music fans. Some recognize it from the album credits of a few of their favorite country artists. Others manage to cast him as an enemy of the genre. But anyone who hears the name Billy Sherrill and thinks anything less than "he's one of the most important producers in the history of Nashville, who made some of the greatest and most influential records of all time in any genre" has not been given enough information about the man or the music. That changes today.


There's a story behind every song, and often it's wilder than anything you could make up. Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music digs into those stories, pulling back the sequined curtain on the genre's most fascinating and frequently misunderstood characters. Created and narrated by Tyler Mahan Coe, this podcast operates like a deep-cut research project brought to life, where myth and verified history collide. You'll hear about the schemes, the scandals, the brilliant artistry, and the sheer chaos that shaped the sound of American music. Each episode is built on a foundation of meticulous investigation, challenging the well-worn anecdotes you think you know. The result feels less like a lecture and more like you're being let in on a series of incredible secrets, told with a clear-eyed and compelling voice. This isn't a surface-level celebration; it's a raw, chronological excavation of the business, the personal demons, and the cultural shifts that left a permanent mark. For anyone curious about where the music really came from, this series connects the dots between the honky-tonk floor and the penthouse suite, revealing how country music's legacy was forged in equal parts genius and desperation. Settle in and let the stories unfold.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 35

Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music
Podcast Episodes
CR004 - Bobbie Gentry: Exit Stage Left [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:44:40
In 1967, Bobbie Gentry's recording of a song she wrote, called "Ode to Billie Joe," directly influenced the future of every major musical genre in America. In the early '80s, she disappeared. What happened in the decade…
CR003 - The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:18
Spade Cooley came to California in the early 1930s, as poor as everyone else who did the exact same thing at the exact same time. Only, Spade became a millionaire. And all he needed to accomplish that was a fiddle, a smi…
CR002 - The Pill: Why Was Loretta Lynn Banned? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:31
This episode of Cocaine & Rhinestones briefly examines the history of contraceptive laws in America (Trigger Warning: abortion is discussed) before moving on to uncover the staggering inequality of morality applied to wo…
CR001 - Ernest Tubb: The Texas Defense [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:57
Everyone loves Ernest Tubb. So when he straps on a gun belt one night to head across town and snuff out a character named Jim Denny, well, you might guess that ol' Jim had it coming. Maybe he didn't, maybe he did. For yo…