Hollywood singing cowboys, Bakersfield honky-tonks, rodeos, and hillbilly radio shows, California has been fertile ground for country music since the 1920s, nurturing a multitude of talents from Gene Autry to Glen Campbell, rose Maddox to Barbara Mandrell, Buck Owens to Merle Haggard. In this affectionate homage to California's place in country music's history, Gerald Haslam surveys the Golden State's contribution to what is today the most popular music in America. At the heart of the music he finds and illuminates the lives of the working-class men and women who migrated to California during the Dust Bowl, exploring their Hoovervilles and other locales from which they had been turned out, shut down, or otherwise told to move on.

"Lively and well-informed." — Chicago Sun-Times

"Workin' Man Blues is possibly the most brilliantly astute and thorough examination ever written about country music in California and the impact it has had in our lives and on our culture. I'm extremely flattered to be even mentioned in such august company."—Dwight Yoakam, singer/songwriter

Gerald W. Haslam has published eight collections of short stories, including That Constant Coyote and Condor Dreams. His recent publications include Grace Period, Haslam's Valley, Manuel and the Madman and Straight White Male. A recipient of the Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award, Haslam is Professor Emeritus of English at Sonoma State University.

392pp, with b&w photographs throughout Trade Paper: ISBN: 1-59714-017, $21.95 Individual copies of Workin' Man Blues are now available at Heyday Books and at AMAZON.COM.

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