Blood Country Awarded Silver Medal in Readers Favorite National Book Contest

Blood Country will be officially announced as the silver award recipient in the national Readers Favorite contest on October 15th in a widely distributed press release. I've already received word about the award, so I'm posting it earlier on Country Dirt. Here's the Readers Favorite review.

Blood Country:  A Nashville Sideman Mystery  Dan Jewell Fiction - Mystery - Sleuth Reviewed for ReadersFavorite.com Book Review The setting is Nashville, Tennessee, home to country music legends. Joe Rose dreams of being a guitar star. Until his dream comes true, he works as a private investigator. His ex-wife Patty begged him to help her friend Roxanne. She wanted to leave her husband, renown Vern Hamlin, but he didn’t want to let her go. Apparently Vern was impressed with Joe. After receiving a mysterious letter, Vern hires Joe to investigate the murder of his father, King Hamlin. The murder of the legendary country singer took place 20 years previously. Rose interviews several characters including, Monk, Hamlin’s ex-wife, the Professor, and stepmother.  The King left a large estate. Vern has a problem with both drugs and alcohol. His uncle does not want the murder investigated; he thinks it will upset Vern and increase his substance abuse. Jessica Apple is Vern’s assistant. While she thinks solving the murder will bring closure to Vern, she does not like Joe and wants him off the case. Blood Country is a brilliant mystery by author Dan Jewell. The complex plot is well paced with just the right amount of action. Jewell included enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages. There was more than a tad of humor in the plot. The characters are well-developed and multidimensional. Fans of suspense and mystery will not want to miss Blood Country by Dan Jewell. This is one of those special books that you'll read more than once.

Blood Country News

My mystery novel, Blood Country, has just been announced as a finalist in the Readers' Favorite Awards. The winners of this prestigious contest will be announced at a dinner in Las Vegas, September 1, 2011. They also gave my book a 5 star review; digital badges have been added to my sidebar reflecting this designation as well as the Readers' Favorite Finalist honor.

Also...

A PR Web press release offering background and review details of Blood Country was distributed to over 50,000 media outlets last weekend. Here are some links to the release: Dallas News. Private Investigator Details. All Voices. Nashville 10.

CMA Festival Counter Point

There's a whole bunch of people down I24 at the Bonnaroo festival sweating in the hot sun and listening to some great music. Here in Nashful we're in the middle of the big CMA Festival. The Tennessean said earlier that 65,000 fans were expected and now some observers are saying that the number could be bigger than that.

It's hot as hell here too and the streets are blocked off and traffic is backed up all over the place. But people are having a big old time eating and drinking and listening to country music. People have come to Nashful for this event from all over the world, but most are from the States and Canada. There's no question that the CMA Fest is a good thing for the city and for country music.

But in the midst of all this hype and the coiffed and homogenized stars and the electrified and synthesized instruments and the wired and facebooked crowd it's a good time to remember how this kind of music got started. The staring point would be this guy.

Most of the greats in country music have eventually covered Jimmy Rodgers songs or done tribute albums. Here's Merle Haggard's version of one of Jimmy's best known songs, "Waiting for a Train."

And finally here's the Killer doing another old Rodgers tune, "The One Rose That's Left in My Heart."

That last song is dedicated to all the old codgers who still have that "one rose" left in their hearts. I'm one of 'em. Are you?

There's a great blog called Country'sChatter that I check on a regular basis. It gets a lot of traffic so it was one of the first places I advertised Blood Country. I also sent "Country" a copy of the book in hopes that she might review it. Well, she did review it and, I'm pleased to say, liked it. After you read the review here, go check out her great blog for the latest info on country music and its stars.

CountryChatter's Book Review

3

Liked

Book Review: Blood Country, A Nashville 

Sideman Mystery 

by Dan Jewell

SHARETHIS | FILED BY: COUNTRY ON MAY 29, 2011 | 

NO COMMENTS
CATEGORIES: REVIEW

Since I started writing Country’s Chatter, more than 3-1/2 years ago, you have all seen
 me review concerts, and albums, and even the artists themselves, and a movie or two.
But something I have not yet done is review a book. Now, I’m going to.

The book is called Blood Country: A Nashville Sideman Mystery. The author is Dan
Jewell. It’s a fiction novel, obviously about a murder in Nashville – a 20 year old murder
that needs solved. Whenever I’m deciding on a book to read, I open the cover and read
the inside leaf, to find out a little about the story – this one has it on the back of the
book. And, I’m going to get you interested by letting you read the back of the book:

In Nashville, it’s conventional wisdom
that if you’re looking for work in the
music business, you’d better have a
steady day job. Guitarist Joe Rose
has a day job–he’s a private detective.
Rose is hired by strung out country
music superstar Vern Hamlin,owner 

of Great Axe Music, to look into his
father’s two decades old murder.
Hamlin has received an anonymous letter 

suggesting that the man convicted of the
crime, who was killed in an escape attempt,
was not the real murderer. Because of
Hamlin’s drug and alcohol problems,
his uncle Claude, CEO of Hamlin Enterprises,
doesn’t approve of his nephew’s plan
to reopen the old murder case; he thinks it 

will jeopardize Hamlin’s present sobriety and
interfere with his work at Great Axe. But Hamlin’s personal assistant, Jessica Apple, thinks
his father’s death is actually the cause of his substance abuse and that pursuing the
investigation will help him get closure. After Rose interviews a Desert Storm Vet with PTSD,
the man is found dead. Is it suicide or murder? Along the way, Rose 

encounters a rogue P.I., Hamlin’s sexy ex-wife (Country’s answer to Lady Gaga), 

a Professor who writes mystery novels, Hamlin’s promiscuous stepmother–now married
to the pastor of a Nashville megachurch, and a songwriter with a big gun. Rose’s
investigation takes him deep into blood country, a place not found on Music City tour maps.

The book is well-written, the story is good, and it definitely keeps you interested from the first
page to the last. While it is not one of those books you just can’t put down once you pick it up –
it is the kind of book you are anxious to get back to every opportunity you have to sit and read.
And, for me, it is one of those books I’ll be reading again.

The book is available on Amazon, so if you are shopping for Father’s day, or have any
readers on your Christmas gift list, you might want to jump over and order a few of these
books. Especially if your avid reader friends are also country music/Nashville fans.
They definitely won’t be disappointed.

Hope you are having a good Memorial Day Weekend. I’ll talk to you tomorrow!
Country

Corb Lund: Pullin' Dragons from the Ground

Canadian blogger Deb recently had a post about how little most Americans know about Canada.

Did you know that voter concerns about bloated government, etc. have spread to Canada too and that in their most recent election, the Conservatives, who already controlled the executive office with Stephen Harper, now control Parliament as well? That's good news, IMHO.

Do you know a Canadian singer other than Shania Twain? I knew about Ian Tyson,and I also know about Stu Phillips because he now lives fairly close to me, but beyond that, not much else.

How about Corb Lund? Heard of him? His group is called the Hurtin' Albertans. Here's Lund's song, "Roughest Neck Around." Take a listen and tell me what you think.

I love that line "pulling dragons from the ground." I like this guy singing a lot and I'll post a couple more of his songs from youtube in the next few days.

Country Music's Original Bad Boy

Today's post features the official trailer for "The Last Ride."

"The Last Ride" is the soon to be released movie about Hank Williams' (born HIRAM KING WILLIAMS) death. The movie stars Henry Thomas, Jesse James, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Kaley Cuoco.

Williams was born with spina bifida occulta, a painful spine condition which led to his use of alcohol and drugs as a means to cope with the pain. About Hank's drug use, Wiki says...

In 1952, Williams's consumption of alcohol, morphine and other painkillers to ease the pain resulting from his back condition caused problems in his personal and professional life. He divorced his wife and was fired by the Grand Ole Opry due to frequent drunkenness.On January 1, 1953, on the way to a concert, he had a doctor inject him with a combination of vitamin B12 and morphine, which, added to the alcohol and chloral hydrate that Williams had consumed earlier, caused him to have a fatal heart attack. He was only 29. 

Emmy Lou Drives a Hard Bargain

From Amazon: Emmylou Harris's Hard Bargain will be released April 26 on Nonesuch Records.... Hard Bargain, which comprises 11 new songs by Harris as well as two covers, was produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Patty Griffin). 

Also available as a deluxe edition of the album, which includes a DVD featuring six performances interspersed with interviews.

Townes Van Zandt

The weather's been good for the past few days, warm with sunshine breaking through the clouds from time to time. But the rainy, gloomy weather that preceded it got me thinking about Townes Van Zandt.

The blogger at Cuckoo Bird says Van Zandt "speaks to some of the darkest places of the human psyche." Trust me, Cuckoo Bird got that right. Before we listen to a few of his songs, here's a whole lotta wiki info on Mr. Van Zandt, who died in 1997.

John Townes Van Zandt^[1] (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997), best-known asTownes Van Zandt, was an American country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet. Many of his songs, including "If I Needed You," "To Live is to Fly," and "No Place to Fall" are considered standards of their genre.While alive, Van Zandt was labeled as a cult musician: though he had a small and devoted fanbase, he never had a successful album or single, and even had difficulty keeping his recordings in print.^[2][3] In 1983, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggardcovered his song "Pancho and Lefty," scoring a number one hit on the Billboard country music charts.^[2][4] Despite achievements like these, the bulk of his life was spent touring various dive bars,^[5] often living in cheap motel rooms, backwoods cabins, and on friends' couches.^[3] Van Zandt was notorious for his drug addictions,^[6] alcoholism,^[6] and his tendency to tell tall tales.^[7] When young, he was diagnosed with manic depression, and insulin shock therapy erased much of hislong-term memory.^[8][9][10]Van Zandt died on New Years Day 1997 from health problems stemming from years of substance abuse.^[6] The 2000s saw a resurgence of interest in Van Zandt.^[2]During the decade, two books, a documentary film, and a number of magazine articles about the singer were created.^[2] Van Zandt's music has been covered by such notable and varied musicians as Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan,^[11] Norah Jones,^[12] Steve Earle, Meat Puppets and Robert Plant's Band of Joy.

In a funk? Want to hear a truly bleak song? Try Van Zandt's "Nothin."

He could laugh too. Here he is performing his "Talking Thunderbird Blues" in 1993.

A very sad Van Zandt song, in a moving performance by Nancy Griffith: "Tecumseh Valley."

Blog Ad for Blood Country

I worked on this two weeks ago. It took me awhile to find a place on the Net where I could reduce the size of the pic to 125 x 125. I've just placed the ad on Country Music Tattletale (see the link in my right sidebar).

The Dirt Drifters

You've got your dirty jokes, dirty money, and dirty dancing. Then there's The Dirty Dozen, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and, of course, our own humble abode, Country Dirt blogspot.

Now there's another dirt in town. The Dirt Drifters are Warner Bros. Nashville recording artists. They've been on a radio tour around the country. I really like these guys. Love their name and the song "Something Better" is a great single. Along with the Nitty Gritty, these guys could become our house band here on the Dirt.

Aaron Lewis of Staind: Gone Country

Aaron Lewis of Staind has a new country album "Town Line." CMT says it's this weeks No. 1 country album. This track is called "Country Boy." And it ain't that song made famous by John Denver. In this official video, you'll see Aaron's friends Charlie Daniels, George Jones, and Chris Young. And yes, that's a Gadsen or "Don't Tread on Me" flag flying in the video. Good flag. I just put one of those up here at the Dirt over to your right. Okay, here's Aaron's "Country Boy."

Keep on Cookin' -- Carolyn Martin

Carolyn Martin, previously a vocalist with the legendary western swing group, the Time Jumpers, has a new solo album out, "Cooking with Carolyn." It's got some great western swing tracks. The sidemen on this just knock my socks off. What do you say we melt some butter in a pan...

Don't you want another piece of hot buttered cornbread? Here's Carolyn with the Time Jumpers back in 2007 at the Station Inn in Nashville, a great place to go for good live music in the Music City.

Finally, for dessert, this is an impromptu performance by Carolyn at the 2009 WMA. Yeah, I know. There's some distracting low level background noise, and it's a little rough around the edges. But just listen to these three ladies sing. Sometimes the unplanned, the spontaneous is better than the rehearsed.

Murder on Music Row

Most country music fans are familiar with the famous George Strait and Alan Jackson duet "Murder on Music Row," written by Larry Shell and Larry Cordle. The "murder" in the song was the symbolic killing of traditional country music by modern producers and artists who have murdered the genre by turning it into a pop medium.

In 1989, however, there was a real murder on Music Row. John Clore, music industry worker in the areas of marketing and publicity, at Clore Chronicles provides some information on this event as does Fox News Cold Case Files.


In March, twenty two years ago, Cashbox magazine researcher Kevin Hughes was killed outside a recording studio on Music Row in what some have called an execution style murder. His friend, aspiring country singer Sammy Sadler was also severely wounded in the same attack. Detectives slowly built a case against Richard D'Antonio, who also worked for Cashbox at the time, as the trigger man. The police suspected Tony D, as he was called, and Chuck Dixon, another Cashbox employee, of running a scam operation in which star struck wannabe singers paid them money for pushing their song up the Cashbox rankings. Hughes, who wanted to take a more scientific approach to the Cashbox rankings, either threatened to expose D'Antonio or at the very least resisted their attempts to involve him in the scheme.


The case was stalled for several years but eventually police were able to pressure a known associate of D'Antonio into giving them information about the gun and ammunition used in the attack. Finally, in 2003, Richard D’Antonio, living in Las Vegas at the time, was caught, tried, and convicted of first degree murder (for killing Hughes) and intent to commit second degree murder (the wounding of Sadler). Hughes had apparently refused to take bribes related to the ranking of country songs on his magazine's charts. 


And what happened to Sammy Sadler? An article by Mario Tarradell in the Dallas Morning News, November 14, 2009, provides the rest of the story. The article appears on Sammy's blog:

Mr. Sadler, meanwhile, struggled to regain footing. He was the guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. He toured for years after recovering from the shooting, which remained unsolved for more than a decade. When the strain affected him most, he worked with his father in a drywall construction business they still co-own.
Now single, he has no children and lives with his parents on a 58-acre farm in Bonham. He also released Heart Shaped Like Texas, on E1 Music, formerly Koch Entertainment.

Here's a great song from the Heart Shaped Like Texas album--"In America." It definitely sounds like a hit song to me, and in my opinion Sammy Sadler has paid enough dues to earn one. I wish him tremendous success with the song and the album. 

Blood Country: First Press Release, by Outskirts

Nashville’s Rhinestone Mask Exposed in Mystery, Blood Country, Published by Outskirts Press Goodlettsville, TN, February 20, 2011--(PR.com) Outskirts Press, Inc. has published Blood Country: A Nashville Sideman Mystery by Dan Jewell. The author's most recent book to date is a 5 x 8 paperback in the mystery and detective fiction category and is available worldwide on book retailer websites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The web page at www.outskirspress.com/BloodCountry was launched simultaneously with the book's publication. In Nashville, it’s conventional wisdom that if you’re a sideman looking for work in the music business, you’d better have a steady day job. Guitarist Joe Rose has a day job, and his business card reads: “Sideman Investigations, Put Someone on Your Side.” Rose is hired by strung out country music superstar Vern Hamlin to look into his father’s two decades old murder. Hamlin has received an anonymous letter suggesting that the man accused of the crime and who was killed in an escape attempt was not the real murderer. Because of Hamlin’s drug and alcohol problems, his uncle Claude, CEO of Hamlin Enterprises, doesn’t approve of his nephew’s plan to reopen the old murder case; he believes it will jeopardize Hamlin’s present sobriety and interfere with his career. But Hamlin’s personal assistant, Jessica Apple, thinks his father’s death is actually the cause of his substance abuse and that pursuing the investigation will help him get closure. After Rose questions a Desert Storm vet with PTSD, the man is found dead. Did he commit suicide or was he murdered? As the sideman searches for the truth, he encounters a violent rogue P.I., Hamlin’s sexy ex-wife, a strange Professor who writes mystery novels, Hamlin’s promiscuous stepmother—now married to the pastor of a Nashville megachurch, and a songwriter with a big gun. In Blood Country sideman Rose rips off the rhinestone mask of the Nashville Music scene to expose a family’s buried secrets. 353 pages in length, Blood Country: A Nashville Sideman Mystery is being aggressively promoted to appropriate markets with a focus on the mystery and detective fiction category. With U.S. wholesale distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and pervasive online availability through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere, Blood Country meets consumer demand through both retail and library markets with a suggested retail price of $17.95. Additionally, Blood Country can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of ten or more from the Outskirts Press Direct bookstore at www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore. ISBN: 9781432765835 Format: 5 x 8 paperback cream SRP: $17.95 For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/BloodCountry.

Contact Information

Outskirts Press Kelly Schuknecht 888.672.6657 media@outskirtspress.com www.outskirtspress.com

Ernest Tubb: The Nashville Shooting Incident

Judging him by today's country music stars, you might think Ernest Tubb was square and old fashioned. But, truth be told, Tubb (1914-1984) had a wild side and was one of the biggest stars of his time. Born in Crisp, TX, ET was inspired to be a singer by the great Jimmy Rodgers. (BTW, Crisp, which is a ghost town now, is a great name for a town to be from, dontcha think?)


Background. In 1941 (the year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), his 6th Decca release "Walking the Floor Over You" made him a country music star of the first magnitude. It put him in the same league as Roy Acuff. By today's standards he would have been keeping company with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw.


Musta been a good singer, right? Nope. Not really. ET even dissed his own voice. According to Wiki, Tubb "actually mocked his own singing. He told an interviewer that 95 percent of the men in bars would hear his music on the juke box and say to their girlfriends, 'I can sing better than him,' and Tubb added they would be right." 


Maybe with average looks and a below average voice, he was one of those stars the average Joe can be comfortable with, like contemporary film star Kevin Costner (at least in the beginning of his career). 


But Tubb's voice was very distinctive, and that was one key to his success. Another key was his penchant for surrounding himself with some of Nashville's best sidemen. The first sideman of note in his band was guitarist Jimmy Short; others were steel guitar masters Jerry Byrd and Tommy "Butterball" Paige.


Jazz musician Billy Byrd (no relation to Jerry) joined Tubbs' Troudadors in 1949. Here's a YouTube video of his most famous tune, "Walking the Floor over You." It was recorded sometime after Byrd joined Tubb's band. Listen as Ernest introduces Billy at the break with his famous "Awwwwww Billy Byrd now." And if you listen closely at the end of the break, you'll hear Billy's famous four note jazzy riff that became, as wiki says, "synonymous with Tubb's songs."

(Parenthetical side-man notes, from Wiki: "Actually a jazz [and classically trained] musician, Byrd--no relation to Jerry--remained with Tubb until 1959.)


One of ET's most famous post WWII songs was "A Rainbow at Midnight." Recorded in 1946, you can see why this song has been a favorite of military veterans since its release; it reached number 5 on the Juke Box Folk chart that year. (This one goes out to my brother Dave, a Vietnam vet, and any other blogger vets who might be tuned in here at the Dirt.)

Probably about now, you're probably saying that you've had enough background, you want to know the story on the shooting incident. Okay, hold your britches. I'm coming to it.


Ernest Tubb's Nashville Shootout. In his book Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubador, Ronnie Pugh says that the great country singer had serious difficulties with alcohol. When Tubb got drunk, he acted like a rock star. He wanted to smash something. He would get so drunk and rowdy that he'd kick the windows out of his limo. This was such a problem, that they hired a big husky country boy named Don Davis to wrestle Tubb down to the floorboard when he got drunk enough to start kicking at the glass. Davis, about 18 at the time, also played steel guitar.


Alcohol was also said to be a contributing factor to his divorce in the early '40s.


And it played a significant role in one of Tubb's most famous dustups, the heretofore mentioned Nashville Shootout.


In 1957 Tubb had some kind of feud with producer Jim Denny. The singer, drunk at the time of the incident, walked into the National Life building's corridor in downtown Nashville and fired a .357 magnum. It must have sounded like a bazooka in that corridor. He apparently went to the building with the intent to shoot Denny. Denny, a big time Nashville producer and the gatekeeper at the Grand Ole Opry, was NOT in the corridor at the time. Tubb, however, thought he saw Denny and took the shot.


Luckily, Tubb's aim wasn't too good, or maybe he was just too drunk to aim the gun properly. Here's Wiki's note on this: "Tubb shot at the wrong man but did not hit anyone. He was arrested and charged with public drunkeness." Drunk and firing a gun in a public place? Whoa. And what about this: you can find very little mention of it in newspapers and magazines of the time. Today, if we were talking about Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney taking a drunken potshot at somebody, the paparzzi and other bottom feeders would suck on this story for months.


I haven't been able to nail down the nature of Tubb's beef with Denny (if you know what they were feuding about, put your info in the comments, and I'll credit you and add it to the post). But several statements others made over the years about the producer suggest that Denny, a hall of fame member himself and as noted, a powerful record producer at the time, was the kind of guy who had made a few enemies in Nashville as well.


According to one source, "Denny was a hard-nosed businessman whose charismatic personality and devotion to his acts and songs earned him respect and devotion— sometimes tinged with fear— from artists, writers, and others with whom he did business ."

Here's a little background on Denny himself. He was the one who called Hank Williams, Sr. at home in 1952 to tell he was fired from the Opry.


Denny also booked Elvis Presley on the Opry in '54, and after his performance told the young man he wasn't going anywhere and he ought to "go back to truck driving."


To cite another example, Johnny Cash biographer Michael Streissguth reports that Cash had a very humiliating experience with Denny. It occurred soon after Cash's 1956 hit "I Walk the Line" reached #1 on Billboard; "I Walk the Line" stayed on the charts for 47 weeks. This song was on Cash's first album (and Sun's first LP too), "Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar."


Like all country music singers at the time, Cash wanted to get on the Opry. He was riding high on the success of "I Walk the Line," and so he set up a meeting with Denny, hoping to get a booking on the biggest country music radio show in the country to cement his country music superstar credentials. He said he'd dreamed about being on the Opry since he was a kid.


But his encounter with Denny wasn't the culmination of a dream; it was more like a nightmare. First, Denny kept Cash waiting for two hours. Can you imagine that?  Ten years later, Cash would have probably gone in and turned over Denny's desk and broke a lamp or two, and maybe Denny's nose. But those were different times and Cash was a newcomer and didn't want to do anything to jeopardize his career at that point. And Denny was recognized as a very powerful man in the industry.


Finally, Denny let the young Cash come into the sacred chamber of his office. Cash, when talking about this later, said that Denny didn't even tell him to sit down. But Cash eventually took the initiative and sat down, although not invited to do so. Denny was busy with his papers for a few minutes more, ignoring Cash, not even acknowledging his presence. Then he looked up and asked Cash why he thought he deserved to be on the Opry. Cash reminded him of the success of "I Walk the Line," and Denny said, "Be here Saturday night." He didn't ask Cash to come on the Opry, he told him.


That's the way it was. And that's the kind of man Denny was.


Exactly why Tubb tried to shoot him, I'm still not sure. But these other incidents just might hold a clue.

Murder and Sex in Nashville

I've just wrapped up 2 video trailers to hawk Blood Country; one is a shade over two minutes; the other is a hair past a minute. Pretty soon now, I'll be sticking these red hot vids on Facebook, Amazon, etc. Maybe they'll go viral. Or at least make somebody sick. Hope not.


Maybe I need to hire David Allan Coe to tell some tall tales about them. Take a look at the longer one first and tell me what you think.

And this is the little one, also on YouTube. Could be smaller/shorter is better on the net. Would you lay down some cash for this book after taking a look at one or both of these vids? 

Blood Country Reviews Are In: All 5 Stars!

The First Reviews are in:

Erinwald awards Blood Country 5 stars and says,

The country music scene in Nashville comes brilliantly to life with Dan Jewell's new novel, Blood Country, which will captivate mystery fans and country music lovers alike. Fast paced and cleverly plotted, Jewell draws the reader in by his introduction of memorable characters....

The reviewer at Readers'sFavorite also awards the novel 5 stars and says,

Blood Country is a brilliant mystery.... The complex plot is well paced with just the right amount of action. Jewell included enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning pages. There was more than a tad of humor in the plot. The characters are well-developed and multidimensional. Fans of suspense and mystery will not want to miss Blood Country by Dan Jewell. 

Lynnette Phillips  gives Blood Country 5 stars and says

Dan Jewell has written an entertaining detective mystery with an intricate plot and complex cast of characters....This gripping novel was just released January 31, 2011 and is bound to become one of those rare books you just can't seem to put down!

The new mystery Blood Country is now available for purchase in paperback at amazon.com, barnes and noble, books a million, or in Kindle format.

Read the complete reviews at Amazon.com


Synopsis of the novel:

In Nashville, it’s conventional wisdom that if you’re looking for work in the music business, you’d better have a steady day job. Guitarist Joe Rose’s business card reads: “Sideman Investigations, Put Someone on Your Side.”

Rose is hired by strung out Country Music superstar Vern Hamlin, owner of Great Axe Music and guitarist extraordinaire, to look into his father’s murder which occurred twenty years ago. Hamlin has received an anonymous letter suggesting that the man convicted of the crime, who was killed in an escape attempt, was not the real murderer.

After Rose interviews a Desert Storm Vet with PTSD, the man is found dead. Is it suicide or murder? As he looks for the killer, Rose encounters Hamlin’s sexy ex-wife (Country’s answer to Lady Gaga), a Professor who writes mystery novels, Hamlin’s promiscuous stepmother, and a songwriter with a big gun.

Rose's investigation rips off the rhinestone mask of the Nashville Music scene and exposes an influential family's secrets of sex and murder.

About the author:

Nashville native Dan Jewell knows only three chords on his old Silvertone dreadnought, but he and his wife Joyce once cut a demo of songs in the famous Woodland Studio, where artists from Robert Plant to Roy Acuff have recorded. He grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry, and is also a fan of film noir and mystery novels. Before he began writing, Jewell enjoyed a successful career as a college professor and dean. 

Buy the book: 


Click on one of the links under the buy the book heading to the left--Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Booksamillion, and Outskirts.