The Farewell Tour

Clifford (Everybody Rise) recounts the ascent of a Nashville music star in her entertaining latest. After receiving a diagnosis of permanent throat damage, Lillian Waters, a contemporary of Tammy, Loretta, and Dolly, embarks on a farewell tour in 1980. In flashbacks, Clifford traces Lillian’s rise from hardscrabble farmer’s daughter during the Depression to country music legend. As a young girl, Lillian sings with her sister, Hen, on the family farm. At 10, she strikes out on her own, going on to perform on local radio shows and with various small-time bands, meeting longtime collaborator Charlie Hagerty in 1940, and, by 1958, she’s hitched her star to future legend Buck Owens. The road to stardom is long and full of heartache, and, eventually, after an abusive marriage, an abortion, and exploitation by music executives, Lillian finds fame as a 40-year-old. Now, with Charlie once again in the band, Lillian hopes to put the ghosts of her past to bed. Lillian is a memorable, believable creation, but the author’s tendency to tell more than show throttles some of the narrative’s power. Still, as the tour gets underway, Clifford conveys Lillian’s joy in crystalizing an emotion into a song and connecting with a live audience. In the end, Clifford pulls off a moving tribute to the power of country music. (Mar.)