The cover for this book immediately caught my eye when I was book browsing. The paranormal aspects of the book relating to country music intrigued me. This is a delightful little read of folklore and haunting tales related to country music and country music stars.

Fun book full of neat stories. A must for fans of country music
For lovers of that style of music and its lost stars, or anyone intrigued by the paranormal, this book will certainly make great appeal.

After living in the South most of my life, there were so many places in this book that made me want to go home and check them out. I really enjoyed this book!

I warmed to Matthew L. Swayne as a writer very quickly. Given the topic of the book, it would be easy to veer towards one of two extremes, being overly melodramatic or being too tongue in cheek. Swayne walked a steady line between the two and there was a gentle humour to his writing.

The book is made up of two sections, the first on ghosts of country musicians, and the second on haunted places. Had I been reviewing the book based on the first section I would have rated it more highly – it was far more substantive and relevant to the subject than the second. A lot of the material in the second section was repeated from the first, or only tenuously related. There was also, by the end, an excessive amount of conjecture.

Unfortunately, I did not feel that Swayne really had enough material for a full book and he missed some opportunities to create a greater reader investment by providing history and backstories for the places and characters he writes about – on quite a few occasions as I was reading I switched to Wikipedia for further information. I was also not convinced, contrary to his claims on the epilogue, that he had conducted any original research, there seems a remarkable reliance on internet sources and no mention of primary material. It’s a shame because had he interviewed a few people and had the stories been partly told in their words it would have been a much more engaging and less repetitive read. Similarly, visiting some of the places he describes in the book would have made the world of difference in being able to conjure atmosphere and make the writing more compelling.

Overall a pleasant enough lightweight read, but with very little take home information.

Just finished it and I loved it, love reading about the lives of the singers as well as the places they hunt,the one thing I did was that I read this at night before going to bed,oh well.its still a perfect read.With that said I would love to say thinks to Netgalley for giving me a chance at reading this book in a change for my honest opinion.

I am a huge country music fan. I love ghost stories also. So when I saw a book that brought these two together, I knew that would be the book for me. I was not disappointed. True ghost stories have always held my interest because many times one can learn the history behind the people or the events. Matthew Swayne tells the story of many of the late greats of country music such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and Patsy Cline. The stories were well researched and well spun out in this book. I found myself intrigued enough to keep turning the pages well into the night. There were even some goosebumps involved. If you like country music and enjoy a good ghost story then please read this book. I received a copy through Netgalley. I chose to write my review based on my interest and enjoyment of this book.