Writer inspired by country music
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Crossville resident and author H. Greeley “Rusty” Thornhill has done just that with “For the Love of Country,” an epic novel set against the backdrop of traditional country music.
Thornhill got his first taste of country music growing up in Northern Louisiana. Every Saturday night, his father would tune the family’s radio so it would pick up the Grand Ole Opry. By age 13 he was teaching himself to play guitar and by age 16 he was writing songs and playing gigs in nightclubs around Houston, Tex.
After a stint in the Air Force, he and his new family moved to Nashville we he worked as an offset pressman at night and wrote songs and “pushed against the walls of the music industry” during the day. In the early 1970s, he built and operated a recording studio, all while continuing to write and record songs. By the end of the decade he had become disenchanted with the music business and retreated to Cumberland County to develop technology companies.
At one time, he thought himself to be out of the music business for good, making “For the Love of Country” all the more surprising when he started it in 1999. Three years of intense, yet enjoyable, work later, the novel was complete.
“I believe when the reader finishes this book he will have a real idea about what country music is all about and perhaps an appreciation of it,” Thornhill said.
“For the Love of Country” follows two lifelong friends, Orville Taylor and Ben Wallace, as they make their way from humble beginnings to fighting alongside each other in Korea to becoming superstars in the traditional country music scene. Their careers mirror the rise, fall and resurgence of the genre. Thornhill characterized his book as “a true historical novel in the tradition of James Michener.”
“It’s not just a who’s who of country music,” he said. “Certainly my fictional characters interact with the real pioneers, but what I wanted to show was the essence of the musical genre and I think, by and large, I did accomplish that.”
Thornhill’s work has already received critical praise, including that of local radio personality Thomas Vaughn.
“Rusty Thornhill has managed to blend experience, expertise and research into a gripping good read. In doing so he has made a valuable contribution to the literature of country music in the last half of the twentieth century. His book richly deserves a wide reading audience,” Vaughn wrote.
“For the Love of Country” can be purchased in many area bookstores as well as at www.americanabook.com. Also available on the Website is a CD containing 13 songs penned by Thornhill whose lyrics are included in the book.