Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers

by Charlie Louvin, Benjamin Whitmer

Overview

Get ready for one of America’s great untold stories: the true saga of the Louvin Brothers, a mid-century Southern gothic Cain and Abel and one of the greatest country duos of all time. The Los Angeles Times called them “the most influential harmony team in the history of country music,” but Emmylou Harris may have hit closer to the heart of the matter, saying “there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.” For readers of Johnny Cash’s irresistible autobiography and Merle Haggard’s My House of Memories, no country music library will be complete without this raw and powerful story of the duo that everyone from Dolly Parton to Gram Parsons described as their favorites: the Louvin Brothers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062069047
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/02/2013
Pages:	297
Sales rank:	409,349
Product dimensions:	5.18(w) x 7.32(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Born in Henagar, Alabama, Charlie Louvin recorded from 1947 to 1962 with his brother, Ira, as the Louvin Brothers. In 1955, they became members of the Grand Ole Opry and churned out thirteen hits on the Billboard country chart, including "When I Stop Dreaming," "Cash on the Barrelhead," and "Knoxville Girl." Charlie's solo career began in 1964 with the top five hit "I Don't Love You Anymore," and he followed it with twenty-nine Billboard-charting singles and four Grammy nominations.

Benjamin Whitmer is the author of the novel Pike and a lifelong country music fan. He lives and writes in Denver.

Born in Henagar, Alabama, Charlie Louvin recorded from 1947 to 1962 with his brother, Ira, as the Louvin Brothers. In 1955, they became members of the Grand Ole Opry and churned out thirteen hits on the Billboard country chart, including "When I Stop Dreaming," "Cash on the Barrelhead," and "Knoxville Girl." Charlie's solo career began in 1964 with the top five hit "I Don't Love You Anymore," and he followed it with twenty-nine Billboard-charting singles and four Grammy nominations.

Benjamin Whitmer is the author of the novel Pike and a lifelong country music fan. He lives and writes in Denver.

Read an Excerpt

Satan is Real

The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers

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By Charlie Louvin

Igniter

Copyright © 2012 Charlie Louvin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780062069030

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Chapter One

MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
My older brother Ira and I were finishing a stretch of shows,
the last in Georgia, and we decided to stop by Mama and
Papa's place on Sand Mountain for a quick visit. Of course,
we'd barely got on the road before Ira reached under his seat
and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, and he drank the whole
damn thing on the drive. When I pulled up to the house,
I stepped out on my side, and Ira just kind of poured himself
out on his.
Mama was out in the front yard, and you could tell how
excited she was to see us. She came running up to try to hug
Ira, but he put his arm out to hold her off. He was wobbling
on his feet, barely able to stand upright.
She knew what was going on. Mamas know everything.
"Aw, honey," she said, "Why do you have to do this to yourself?"
She wouldn't even take Communion in a church unless
they had grape juice instead of wine. She didn't use alcohol
and she didn't understand anybody who did.
She should have known better than to say that, though.
Nothing pissed Ira off like when somebody tried to put a
little guilt on him. "Aw, leave me alone," he said. "I ain't
hurting nobody."
"You're hurting yourself," she said. "That's who you're
hurting."
"Yeah, well, I don't remember asking you," he said, and
tried to light a cigarette. He was so drunk he couldn't even
get his lighter to make a flame. "Goddamn it," he said.
"That whiskey don't do you no good," she said. "It don't
do nobody no good."
Finally, he got his lighter to work, and he poked his mouth
at the fire to light the cigarette, but he missed.
"Your father's in Knoxville," she continued. "I sure am
glad he's not here right now to see you like this."
Ira threw the still unlit cigarette on the ground. "Will you
shut up, bitch?"
I can guarantee you the fucking fight was on then. I beat
the shit out of him right there in the front yard. He was lucky
it was just words, too. If he'd have touched her, I'd still be in
prison. Shit, if Papa was there, he might have killed him anyway,
but I just kicked his ass all over the place. Then I stuffed
him in the car, and we drove away.
"I know you ain't asleep," I said to him once we got on the
highway. He was curled up on his side of the car, holding his
busted face. "I'm only gonna tell you this once. If you talk to
her like that again, I'll beat the shit out of you again. I'll do
it every time. You can lump it or try to change it, but that's
the way it is."
"Oh, hell, I didn't mean nothing by it," he slurred. "That
was just that old whiskey talking."
"That ain't no excuse," I said. "Nobody forced you to drink
that stuff. And you'd better not ever do it again."
Then I stopped talking and just drove, fuming. And
I thought about that day, nineteen years ago, when I saw Roy
Acuff driving past the farm in his big air-cooled Franklin. I
thought it must be just about the best thing on earth to ride
in a car like that. Now I was driving down that same road, a
Grand Ole Opry star in an automobile almost as nice, and it
felt like I was suffocating. Like I was being buried alive in it.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Satan is Real by Charlie Louvin Copyright © 2012 by Charlie Louvin. Excerpted by permission of Igniter. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

Dolly Parton

“The Louvin Brothers were my favorite when I was young and growing up in the business.”

Alec Solomita

“Masterful [and] graceful.”

Chris Talbott

“I think I’ve already found my favorite book of 2012.”

Lucinda Williams

“Charlie…was a true punk, in the best sense of the word.”

Randy Lewis

“Grand themes of life, death, religion, salvation, damnation, human choices and, sometimes, joy.”

Ian Crouch

“The mix of light and darkness that filled their music was mirrored in their lives.”

Emmylou Harris

“There was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.”

Terry Teachout

“One of the most important and illuminating memoirs ever written by a country singer.”

Phil Everly

“They influenced everybody.”

Vince Gill

“You can’t find anybody, I don’t think, that was not inspired by them.”

Gram Parsons

“The Burritos’ favorite artists.”

Editorial Reviews

True to his subtitle, Charlie tells Ira's story, as well as his own, devoting 47 chapters to their shared lives and careers, and just three more to the years that followed Ira's death. He is profane, piquant and brutally honest in ways that are sure to offend the country music establishment but might have delighted Ira, who was no less of a demon than the ones the Louvins—who cut their teeth as a gospel duo, and never really left the church behind—so often sang about.
—The New York Times Book Review

Alex Abramovich

Kris Kristofferston, who was employed as a janitor when he met Charlie Louvin, writes in his foreword, “The legendary Louvin Brothers’ hauntingly beautiful Appalachian blood-brothers harmony is truly one of the treasures of American music.” Now Charlie Louvin, who died January 26, 2011, at age 83, has written an engaging and entertaining look back at his gospel and country music career with his brother, Ira. The two grew up picking cotton and coon hunting in Alabama, and music became their escape route from rural chores to radio fame. They were in their teens when they began singing on Chattanooga radio, a showcase that led to paying gigs. They moved on to making music in Memphis, and by 1955, when they finally got to the Grand Ole Opry, their record sales soared. Ira’s heavy drinking and temper tantrums prompted Charlie to go solo; tragedy struck when Ira was killed in a 1965 auto accident. Packed with plenty of pictures, backstage gossip, and colorful anecdotes about the Louvins’ encounters with the great and near great, this memoir has a raw honesty, genuine grit, common sense and smokin’ down-home flavor that Louvin fans will relish. The fire-and-brimstone cover art and the book’s title are both taken from the duo’s 1959 gospel album, Satan Is Real. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

You can’t find anybody, I don’t think, that was not inspired by them.

Vince Gill

One of the pre-eminent brother acts in country music and an inspiration to several generations of rock musicians.

New York Times

Probably the greatest traditional country duo in history.

Grove Dictionary of American Music

The most influential harmony team in the history of country music.

Los Angeles Times

Satan Is Real has the best-designed book cover of 2012 .

Paper Magazine

The anecdotes alone offer significance to any person interested in the anthropology of Americana music. Magnanimous without feigning and brusque without malice, Charlie Louvin’s clear-eyed commentary is straightforward and unapologetic.

Oxford American

A real classic of Americana.

Booklist

Simple and plain-spoken, yet powerful and resonant.

Daily Journal

One of the most important and illuminating memoirs ever written by a country singer.

Terry Teachout

I think I’ve already found my favorite book of 2012.

Chris Talbott

Masterful [and] graceful.

Alec Solomita

The mix of light and darkness that filled their music was mirrored in their lives.

Ian Crouch

Grand themes of life, death, religion, salvation, damnation, human choices and, sometimes, joy.

Randy Lewis

There was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.

Emmylou Harris

Charlie…was a true punk, in the best sense of the word.

Lucinda Williams

They influenced everybody.

Phil Everly

The Burritos’ favorite artists.

Gram Parsons

The Louvin Brothers were my favorite when I was young and growing up in the business.

Dolly Parton

The Louvin Brothers were the preeminent country harmony duo of the post-World War II era. With a repertoire of classic folk songs such as "Mary of the Moors" and originals like "When I Stop Dreaming," they realized their dream of becoming Grand Ole Opry mainstays and influences on generations of musicians. This book, titled after one of their most celebrated albums, tells their story from the viewpoint of the recently deceased Charlie Louvin, the younger brother who survived to carry their legacy into the 21st century. Ira, the more ambitious and mercurial brother, is portrayed as magnificently self-destructive via alcoholism, multiple ill-advised marriages, and fits of temper that would manifest in frequent onstage smashings of his out-of-tune mandolin. In the most effective passages in this volume, Charlie describes his rural Alabama childhood with an abusive father and a mother who teaches the boys their core repertoire. VERDICT An important part of American roots music history, told in an authentic voice. Recommended for any serious popular music collection.—John Frank, Los Angeles P.L.

Library Journal

The tempestuous history of country music's Louvin Brothers, recalled by the younger musical sibling. Ira and Charlie Louvin were the last of the great harmony duos; in the '50s they launched a string of songs up the country charts and starred on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. Here, Charlie (1927–2011) recounts the twosome's rise from hardscrabble beginnings in Alabama's cotton country to national fame. Basically self-taught, the brothers were reared on church singing before they launched an uphill professional career in the '40s. Louvin maps the pair's arduous journey through small-town radio gigs and endless regional touring, with flavorful, often profanely sketched observations about the hardships of making it on the road as a rising country act. Major music publisher Fred Rose took the Louvins under his wing, but after a pair of failed record deals, the brothers were ready to pack it in when they were signed to Capitol Records in the early '50s. Starting in gospel, they reached the top with secular hits like "When I Start Dreaming" and classic albums like Tragic Songs of Life. The second half of the book focuses on reckless elder brother Ira, a pugnacious, womanizing alcoholic whose violence led his third wife to shoot him six times (he survived). In the face of Ira's escalating madness, Charlie finally broke up the act in the early '60s, and Ira was killed in a 1965 road accident. Charlie never manages to put his finger on what drove his brother to such heights of destructive behavior, but he still paints a chilling portrait of a brilliant musician intent on self-annihilation. Along the way, he offers entertaining cameo renderings of such stars as Elvis Presley, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, George Jones and Kris Kristofferson. The self-effacing Louvin dispenses with his solo work and latter-day career revival in a couple of brief chapters. Deep analysis is not his strong suit, but his amusing, prickly voice animates the book. An engaging look at a now-distant piece of country-music history.

Kirkus Reviews