George-Warren, Holly

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George-Warren, Holly

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

CAREER:

Rolling Stone Press, New York, NY, editor, 1993-2001; State University of New York, New Paltz, New York, adjunct professor of journalism, 2006—. Producer of music and film CDs; archivist and curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation; consultant to and lecturer for museums, including the Autry Museum of the American West, the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum; consultant for documentary films.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Deems Taylor Award, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1996, for editing The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, and 2002, for excellence in liner notes written for anthology Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels; Grammy Award nomination for best historical recording, 2001, for coproducing the CD box set R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Century of Women in Music.

WRITINGS:

(Coauthor) Musicians in Tune: 75 Contemporary Musicians Discuss the Creative Process, Fireside (New York, NY), 1991.

(With J. Robin Powell) The Working Woman's Guide to Managing Stress, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1994.

(With Michelle Freedman) How the West Was Worn, introduction by James H. Nottage, foreword by Marty Stuart, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll (for children), illustrated by Laura Levine, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.

Cowboy: How Hollywood Invented the Wild West: Featuring the Real West, Campfire Melodies, Matinee Idols, Four Legged Friends, Cowgirls & Lone Guns, Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, NY), 2002.

Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country & Western Music (for children), illustrated by Laura Levine, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Richard Hell) PUNK 365, Abrams Books, 2007.

Author of liner notes for music released by Warner Bros., Sony, Capitol, Universal, Rhino, and BMG record companies. Contributor to books, including The Encyclopedia of Country Music, The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Classic Country, The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concert-Going Experience, 2007, Rock, She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Rap, Pop and Jazz, 2007, and Country on Compact Disk: The Essential Guide to the Music. Contributor to periodicals, including Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Harp, New York Times, Village Voice, Time Out, Relix, Oxford American, MOJO, Cowboys and Indians, Men's Journal, Texas Music, Paper, Tracks, Paste, No Depression, and American Cowboy.

EDITOR

(With Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke) The Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely New Reviews: Every Essential Album, Every Essential Artist, 3rd edition, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke) The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music, 3rd edition, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Patricia Romanowski) The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, revised and updated edition, Fireside (New York, NY), 1995, 3rd revised edition, 2001.

(With the staff of Us magazine) Crazysexycool, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

(With the staff of Us magazine) Winona Ryder, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

(With Ashley Kahn and Shawn Dahl) Rolling Stone: The Seventies, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Rolling Stone: The Complete Covers, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1998.

The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and American Culture, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Robert Santelli and Jim Brown) American Roots Music, foreword by Bonnie Raitt, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Mari-Lynn Evans, Robert Santelli, and Tom Robertson) The Appalachians: America's First and Last Frontier, Random House (New York, NY), 2004.

Farm Aid: A Song for America, music essays by Dave Hoekstra, introduction by Eric Schlosser, photographs by Paul Natkina and Ebet Roberts, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 2005.

Stairway to Heaven: The Final Resting Places of Rock Legends, Wenner Books/Hyperion (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

A former editor for Rolling Stone magazine, Holly George-Warren is an expert on rock music who has also branched out into Country/Western music and culture. She has edited and coedited numerous books about music, such as The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, and is the author of books about music and film for both adults and children. In How the West Was Worn, written with clothing designer Michelle Freedman, she has even provided a history of how Western clothing evolved from early pioneer times to modern designer wear.

Cowboy: How Hollywood Invented the Wild West: Featuring the Real West, Campfire Melodies, Matinee Idols, Four Legged Friends, Cowgirls & Lone Guns covers the history of Western films from such early movies as the 1903 version of The Great Train Robbery, through the days of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, the heyday decades of the 1950s and 1960s, and through the genre's gradual decline. Gordon Flagg, writing in Booklist, asserted that the author covers the bases in "functional if not insightful fashion." In the Library Journal, Stephen Reese declared the book to be "a loving, well-illustrated tribute to the Western."

George-Warren is the author of two companion books for children about music history: Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll and Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country & Western Music. In the former, the author includes short biographies on significant rock stars of the 1950s, such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley. She also includes a couple of female performers: LaVern Baker and Wanda Jackson, though some critics noted that these singers do not have the same name recognition as the men who are profiled, and they offer a slim representation of all the women rock entertainers of the period. A Publishers Weekly critic felt that the book "doesn't have much soul," while Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper wrote that it is "fun to look at and informative but may not easily find an audience." On the other hand, Ginny Gustin concluded in a School Library Journal review that Shake, Rattle & Roll is a "wonderfully entertaining browsing book."

Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels chronicles the evolution of Country and Western music from its folk song roots of the nineteenth century to the days of such stars as Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, George Jones, and Tammy Wynette. As with the previous book, this work is a survey aimed at young readers and features brief profiles and colorful illustrations by Laura Levine. Reviewers reported that George-Warren pays most attention to the musical accomplishments of these entertainers and less to their occasionally controversial lifestyle choices. The "engaging text packs a lot of information into a small space," commented a Kirkus Reviews critic. "Fans of any age will enjoy this paean to roots music," concluded Robin Smith in a Horn Book assessment.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antioch Review, summer, 1996, Katherine Gantz, review of The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, p. 362.

Booklist, July, 1999, Ray Olson, review of The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and American Culture, p. 1917; March 1, 2001, Ilene Cooper, review of Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll, p. 1273; September 1, 2002, Gordon Flagg, review of Cowboy: How Hollywood Invented the Wild West: Featuring the Real West, Campfire Melodies, Matinee Idols, Four Legged Friends, Cowgirls & Lone Guns, p. 38; September 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Farm Aid: A Celebration of the American Family Farm, p. 4; June 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country & Western Music, p. 98.

Entertainment Weekly, December 4, 1992, Ty Burr, review of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, p. 60.

General Music Today, winter, 2005, Richard Ammon, "From the Bookshelf," review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 25; spring, 2005, Richard Ammon, "From the Bookshelf," review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 22.

Horn Book, May-June, 2006, Robin Smith, review of Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels, p. 341.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2006, review of Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels, p. 517.

Library Journal, July, 1999, William Gargan, review of The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats, p. 90; October 1, 2001, David M. Turkalo, review of The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, p. 90; December, 2001, Barry X. Miller, review of How the West Was Worn, p. 115; November 1, 2002, Stephen Rees, review of Cowboy, p. 92.

New York Times Book Review, September 16, 2001, review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 26; April 6, 2007, Jeanine Basinger, review of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry.

Print, July-August, 1998, Jon Langford, review of Rolling Stone: The Complete Covers, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, June 28, 1999, review of The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats, p. 68; March 5, 2001, review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 79; October 1, 2001, review of American Roots Music, p. 45; March 8, 2004, review of The Appalachians: America's First and Last Frontier, p. 62; June 5, 2006, review of Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels, p. 63.

School Library Journal, May, 2001, Ginny Gustin, review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 164; December, 2004, Ginny Gustin, review of Shake, Rattle & Roll, p. 60; June, 2006, Mary Elam, review of Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels, p. 136.