Get Hot or Go Home: Trisha Yearwood, the Making of a Nashville Star

This book is the product of seven months spent in the studio and on the road with Trisha Yearwood, in addition to an impressive amount of research into country music marketing. Gubernick ( Squandered Fortune ) portrays Yearwood as a warm and remarkably talented individual who also symbolizes the movement of the Nashville Sound from cottage industry into the mainstream of American music. (There are more than 2200 country-format radio stations today, compared with 81 in 1961.) With the enormous financial potential--and concomitant risk--riding on the success of one individual, Gubernick contends, it is no surprise that costumes, song selection, choice of studio and tour musicians and other aspects of Yearwood's packaging are carefully planned and controlled. Yearwood is shown as an active participant in these decisions. This study of Yearwood as a work-in-progress will appeal to fans and to the marketing community. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)