Holly George-Warren
Holly George-Warren is an award-winning writer, editor, book packager, producer, and music consultant. She is the author of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry (Oxford University Press, 2007), The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years (HarperCollins, 2009), Cowboy! How Hollywood Invented the Wild West (Readers Digest/Ivy Press, 2002), Punk 365 (Abrams, 2007), Grateful Dead 365 (Abrams, 2008); and the children's books Honky-Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country & Western Music (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Founders of Rock & Roll (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), and The Cowgirl Way (Houghton Mifflin, July 2010). She has cowritten several books including The Road to Woodstock (with Michael Lang, Ecco/Harper Collins 2009), How the West Was Worn (Abrams, 2001), The Working Woman's Guide to Managing Stress (Prentice-Hall, 1994), and Musicians in Tune: 75 Contemporary Musicians Discuss the Creative Process (Fireside, 1992). Her biographies of Alex Chilton and Janis Joplin were published in 2014 and 2019 respectively.
Holly has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook, More, Entertainment Weekly, MOJO, Harp, Ihe Journal of Country Music, The Oxford American, Paper, Time Out, Tracks, Paste, Relix, Cowboys & Indians, Texas Music, Men's Journal, Country Music, Cowboys and Indians, American Cowboy, and No Depression. She has served as editor and/or packager of numerous books. She is the editor of The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats (Hyperion, 1999), Farm Aid: A Song For America (Rodale, 2005); and Stairway to Heaven: The Final Resting Places of Rock Legends (Wenner Books/Hyperion, 2005).
As Editor of Rolling Stone Press from 1993-2001, she oversaw the production of more than forty books, including the New York Times bestseller, Garcia (Little Brown), and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor award winner Images of Rock & Roll (Little Brown). In 2003, she served as music editor to the first-ever Zagat's survey of the top 1000 albums of all time. She has edited and packaged the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame annual induction book every year since 1995.
George-Warren received a Grammy nomination (for Best Historical Recording) in 2001 for coproducing Rhino's five-CD box set, R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Century of Women in Music. She also coproduced the three-CD set The Rolling Stone Women in Rock Collection (Razor & Tie), a series of CDs with the Lifetime network, and a Wanda Jackson tribute album. In addition, she has served as an archivist/curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and The GRAMMY Museum. She teaches Arts Journalism at the State University of New York in New Paltz, NY and has lectured at Cornell, Penn, MTSU and CUNY, among other universities.
20 articles
List of articles in the library
Bobbie Gentry: Mystery Girl: The Forgotten Artistry of Bobbie Gentry
Retrospective by Holly George-Warren, 'Listen Again' (Duke University Press), 2007
SHE'S BEEN called the J.D. Salinger of rock & roll. Mississippi-born singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Bobbie Gentry is every bit as mysterious as the steamy, Delta-flavored story-song she ...
James Hand: The Ballad of James Hand
Profile and Interview by Holly George-Warren, Texas Music, Fall 2009
"When I turned 13 I had a honky-tonk bandAnd now I guess I still doThere's a lot I've seen that I don't understandBut I'll tell ...
Profile and Interview by Holly George-Warren, Harp, January 2005
TONY JOE White is having his picture taken. By the looks of things, the Ray-Ban-wearing sixty-something-year-old is an A-list movie star, rather than a singer/songwriter/guitarist ...
Gram Parsons: The Long Way Around: Gram Parsons
Retrospective and Interview by Holly George-Warren, No Depression, July 1999
I keep my love for variations, even tho I've some sort of "rep" for starting what (I think) has turned out t'be pretty much of ...
Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, The Sex Pistols: Flies on Shit: Alex Chilton Goes Back to Memphis
Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, Viking Books, March 2014
The former Big Star man sees the Sex Pistols in Memphis and limbers up for the shambolic Like Flies On Sherbert. An exclusive excerpt from ...
Paul Westerberg: 14 Songs (Sire/Reprise) ***
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 8 July 1993
"DO YOU remember me long ago/I used to wear my heart on my sleeve," Paul Westerberg sings on 'First Glimmer', the second of 14 Songs, ...
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Option, May 1996
"I was feeling sensations in no dictionary He was less than a breath of shimmer and smoke The life in his fingers unwound ...
Report by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997
LEE'S LIQUOR lounge, in Minneapolis, is jumping. The beer signs, cattle skulls and assorted stuffed fish and small game adorning the wood-paneled walls are vibrating, ...
Wanda Jackson: She's About a Mover
Retrospective and Interview by Holly George-Warren, No Depression, 31 October 2003
WANDA JACKSON is in trouble with the law. It was only a matter of time until the gal who's always done things her own way, ...
Wilco: A.M. (Reprise/Sire) ***½
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995
GRAM PARSONS had a vision back in the '60s. With his International Submarine Band, Flying Burrito Brothers and later as a solo artist, he blazed ...
Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra: Juggy Gayles: Leader of the Old School
Profile and Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1994
JUGGY GAYLES hyped records the old-fashioned way-with style ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Southern Gallery: Tom Petty
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Oxford American, 15 July 2000
I GUESS YOU can say it was my theme song: its jangling, melodic guitar riff perfect for pogoing, and the urgent vocals laced with a ...
Antenna: Hideout (Mammoth) ***½
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1993
"PLUMB THE depths, descend the steps and maybe you can have it for your own." The lyrics to 'Shine', the opening track on Hideout, Antenna's ...
The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 14 September 2000
Sleater-Kinney aid return of '80s post-punk rockers. ...
Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 13 November 1997
IN 1978, CHRISSIE Hynde, an Akron, Ohio, native living in London, formed the Pretenders. The hand's 1980 debut, The Pretenders, featuring guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist ...
Richard Buckner: Devotion + Doubt
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1997
ON THE STARK and spacious Devotion + Doubt, Richard Buckner's aching vocals stand weather-beaten but unbowed, like a lone saguaro on the Mojave. And just ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Big Brother's Chick Singer
Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, 'Janis: Her Life and Music' (Simon & Schuster), 2019
Playing is the "mostest" fun there is – feeling things and really getting into it. That's what it's all about. – Janis Joplin ...
Marty Stuart: This One's Gonna Hurt You (MCA)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1992
"I'M COUNTRY to the bone," Marty Stuart growls in 'Me and Hank and Jumpin' Jack Flash', an update of the hokey hillbilly-heaven theme and the ...
16 Horsepower: Divine Inspiration
Interview by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996
SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER conjure up that old-time religion ...
Victoria Williams: Musings Of A Creekdipper (Atlantic)
Review by Holly George-Warren, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1998
LOUISIANA-BORN songwriter Victoria Williams may share an audience with the alt-country likes of Wilco and the Jayhawks, but she remains a true outsider artist with ...
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