This colorful debut picks and twangs its way though the world of late 60's country music, jumping from studio to bar to mob hangout as its songwrite hero learns that "the music business is no place for sissies or bleeding hearts." JOhn Ryan Stone has been an army officer and an English teacher. At 32, he's divorced, depressed, working as a janitor in Nashville in 1966 when he meets acquaintance, Don Hendrickson, in a parking lot. Don's the Nashville V.P. of entertainment conglomerate Trayhorn International; his young ally,Jamie Greshem is the son of Trayhorn's president. When Don and Jamie watch John Ryan play his own songs, they know they've heard country music history being made. Jamie brings JOhn Ryan to New York where he signs with Trayhorn and meets a brace of Trayhorn personnel, whose intrigues drive the rest of the plot. Sinister, powerful promoter Phillip Barnessa plans to use John Ryan's career to help the Tedesco crime family take over Trayhorn. Beautiful Trayhorn exec Kate Belden becomes the singer's new manager and soon they fall in love. After a tour and some dangerous double-crosses, Bernie, Jamie's father, Jamie, Don and Kate work out a plan to save JOhn Ryan and his heart-wrenching (and valuable) songs from the mob. Fans of country and of early rock and roll and soul will enjoy musical references, explanations and in-jokes about such giants as Roy Orbison, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Phillips, Roger MIller and others. The story exemplifies how the music of Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newberry and the like changed the face of country music and made it more palitable to a Non-country crowd.
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