Arnaud Michel: Nashville

Stewart Tabori and Chang

$69

Review: Gilbert Wong*

When New York-based photographer Arnaud first stepped into a Nashville bar he was unimpressed. It was seedy, almost empty, and up on a tiny stage was a forlorn singer playing the guitar.

The Frenchman's imagination had collided with gritty reality and the crash had left a few daydreams shattered. The streets of Nashville aren't paved with rhinestones and making it big in country music is as hard and fraught with pitfalls as any genre of music.

But as he sat there, it struck Arnaud that Nashville was symbolic of the American Dream. The sorry performer singing to a lonely handful of an audience believed that one day he might make it.

This handsome book documents both the dreamers and those who have made their dream real. The images are fraught with a wistful eagerness on the part of the wannabes, while a section on the legends reveals that the years have not always treated them well.

Chet Atkins, the legendary guitarist who played on Heartbreak Hotel, becomes the senior citizen he is; Earl Scruggs, bluegrass maestro, sits in front of his dining table in Tammy Wynette's former mansion, First Lady Acres; and one can't help but wonder what happened to Peter Frampton's hair.

True country royalty resides in the image of Naomi Judd, who, with daughters Wynona and Ashley, transcended the lyrical saccharine of so many female singers before. She lives in retirement now, but the music lives on.

* Gilbert Wong is the Herald books editor.