I enjoyed the book; it was entertaining, insightful, scholarly, and included a few insightful surprises! However, I was most disappointed to note the biographical omission of Mr. Simmie Knox; he is too talented and humble a person to be overlooked in such a fashion. So, for the sake of posterity, the book should be recalled and corrected as soon as possible. Surely, we wouldn't want it said this is the way we regard an African American Presidential Artist! Correction please.

Great book. Very useful for new collectors.

What a beautiful explanation of art that has been ignored for so many years. Not only is the book well illustrated, it is informative. Not having much understanding of art at all, I have now begun to understand the artist, the art and the expression of information that is creative and informative of people and events. This is a book not only for the scholar and informed art collector but for those of us who enjoy beauty. We can now understand creativity in a new way.

Horace Logan was the emcee and program director for the famed "Louisiana Hayride," a nationally broadcast weekly radio show that for the better part of the 1950s was the main competitor of the "Grand Ole Opry." Known as "the cradle of the stars," the Hayride had a reputation for developing hot new talent, and has long been an object of fascination for me since it was here that Webb Pierce got his start. As the main creative director of the Hayride, Logan's path intersected those of many top-flight hick musicians, including Webb, Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Jim Reeves and a slew of others whose careers took off when they became regulars on the show. This book concentrates the bulk of its effort towards two oft-mythologized stars whose lives are amply documented elsewhere - Hank Williams and Elvis Presley -- and while it's cool to get insights from a person who helped start both their careers, in a sense the book feels like a missed opportunity, since Logan must have had plenty more to say about the "early" days when country music made the transition from rinky-dink local operations into a major industry with a nationwide scope. He broke into the business at the tail end of a period when all the action was on local radio stations, and helped usher in the era when things became increasingly professionalized and big-league. While the book is very readable, it's unfortunate that Logan and his ghost-writer, Bill Sloan, didn't see fit to explore "the old days" a little bit more, and bring out more of the flavor of what the hick music business was like back when. It's understandable that they would emphasize the bankable big boys like Elvis and Hank, but considering how much has already been written about them, the "witness to history" approach doesn't add as much to the historical lore as more under-the-radar observations might have. In short, it would've been cool if the story had been more about Logan himself, and the world he saw, and not simply about the stars that lived in it. Still, Hayride enthusiasts should definitely check this one out!

I grew up in east Texas, and listening to country music during the late 40's and 50's ,along with rock and roll.We would listen to the radio and the Louisiana Hayride was one of several saturday night music programs that we listened to. this book "Elvis Hank and Me" was a plesant suprise, I found the book to be easy and informative reading. 'Hoss' Logan,gives you a warm and personal glimse into the everyday lives of some of the biggest stars to ever come along. Thanks 'Hoss'. If you start this book , you'll finish it.

Being a country music disc jockey for almost a half-century as well as a song-writer and columnist, I found Horace Logan's "Elvis, Hank and Me" a genuine "refresher", a work of true art that not only informs but captures the attention of the reader by revealing the raw facts pertaining to the entertainment industry and the rough and rowdy trails many of the super-stars blazed in order to make the marquees of big-time show business. Horace mentions in this book the fact we toiled together for awhile at a radio station in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. He always had a most-interesting story to tell on the air. Now, many of those true, interesting and oft-times sad tales have been put into print for true enjoyment. -Bill Mack (Grammy winning songwriter of LeAnn Rimes', "BLUE"; Radio's "Midnight Cowboy", heard nightly on the "Bill Mack Trucking Network", and host on "Country Crossroads", syndicated nationally each week on radio & television.)

I was there. I heard the people around Shreveport talk about the Hayride. Elvis was no big asset to the show. There are to many errors in the book for anyone to take it as truth. If he is going to take credit for anything he should also take credit for causing the show to loose it's place in Country Music.

Mr. Logan says Faron Young had a series of relatively brief marriages. Actually, Faron Young had only one marriage and it ended in divorce after 32 years. If Horace Logan is so wrong there, how can I believe anything else he says?

This volume was originally published under the title, "Elvis, Hank, and Me: Making Musical History on the Louisiana Hayride," and it's a tremendously more accurate title than the abbreviated "Louisiana Hayride Years." Although Logan was the guiding light of the show, serving as its creator and producer during its first ten years, his book focuses more on Elvis and Hank, than on the Hayride itself.

His insights into these two megastars, each at the very beginning of their climb to fame, are interesting, to be sure, but there was so much more to be covered. In addition to the two icons, numerous other country acts began or expanded their stardom on the Hayride, and though Logan provides some interesting anecdotes about Johnny and Jack, Kitty Wells, Faron Young, Slim Whitman, Webb Pierce, Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash and George Jones, he never really delves into the Hayride itself.

His dishing on the Grand Ole Opry, while probably close to the bone, is a poor substitute for a deeper discussion of how the Hayride itself worked. There's some interesting analysis of why the Hayride kept giving up its stars to Nashville, but having been written so long after-the-fact, the of-the-moment accounts focus more on the stars than the show. One never really gets a feel for the Hayride's own arc of fame, nor the nuts-and-bolts of how the show (both stage and radio) operated.

That said, and even with the factual errors noted elsewhere, this is a worthwhile first-hand account of a seminal program that fostered one of the great transitional periods in country music's history.