Instead of a traditional autobiography Tony Brown has decided to document his career in music through photographs. People important to him and his career posed in a large chair, offer anecdotes about working with Tony and he explains why he included them in the book. He has been in the music industry for a long time and the book includes many famous musicians. I did enjoy looking and reading this book but since this book is mostly photographs there is not a lot of in depth text. There are way too many similar photographs of Tony himself and I would have liked to read more text. Enjoy this coffee table autobiography.

Elvis, Strait, to Jesus was a pretty cool book. It is about Tony Brown who is an iconic producer who has worked with well, just about everyone in Nashville. It is more of a photo book than anything else and he has a lot of the people he worked with sit in a French Renaissance chair - which is not something I had seen before but was really cool and I'm sure a lot of fun for him to put together and reminisce. Lots and lots of stories about the music biz inside and lots and lots of pictures too. If you're into music, Nashville, Tony Brown, country, Elvis, Reba, Bernie Taupin, etc... you'll want to check out this book.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated. This book was released May 1, 2018 from Center Street.

Tony Brown AKA the King Of Nashville has brought a book theat is filled with photos of many of the great names of Music. He shows us many photos from her personal collection of some of the greats like Elvis, Jimmy Buffet, and more. You learn about his rise in the music business and his accidental founder of Americana music. The photos in this book are amazing and most have never been seen before. Each photo has a small caption explaining who is in the photo, how they met or other tidbits of the star pictured. This is a very short read but very interesting.



I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com and chose to leave this review.

In ‘Elvis, Strait to Jesus’ Tony talks about his musical upbringing and features 40 people who have impacted his life. He describes his life journey as serendipitous, and the way he has laid out his story shows how one thing led to another but everything, always, revolved around his love for music. I really enjoyed learning about Brown’s playing days as a youth in his family’s The Brown Family Singers, and then as a young man tickling the ivories with J.D. Sumner and his Stamps Quartet, Elvis’s TCB Band, Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, and Rodney Crowell’s The Cherry Bombs. Tony eventually moved on from playing to producing, and enjoyed tremendous success in the 80’s and 90’s with artists like George Strait, Reba McEntyre, and Jimmy Buffet, all of whom take a seat in the book’s ‘chair’ to reminisce about their relationship with Tony.

As they say in the South, Tony’s momma ‘done raised him right’. Here is a man who has seen it all and then some but any salacious tales he knows don’t appear in this book. Instead, what comes through in the stunning black and white photos and the words of his friends is his genuine love for each of them and the music they made, along with wonder at the path his life has taken. Tony Brown’s journey is a testament to honing your skills, doing what you love, and always always always following the twists and turns of your own life soundtrack.

This is certainly a fast read since it's mostly pictures of the author with his famous friends. There are some interesting tidbits about the music industry but a lot of 'filler' (more pictures of Tony) too.