Fortunately, author Colin Escott fills in the blanks rather than supplying only a list.  Using many documents and personal interviews, Escott provides a fantastic overview of the history and importance of the Grand Ole Opry.
Nashville was not always synonymous with Country Music, especially in the early 1920�s when Edwin Craig started WSM as a way to advertise for its owner National Life and Accident Insurance Company (taking its call letters from the company�s slogan: �We Shield Millions�).  Craig�s original programming idea was to create a station which would be the equivalent to the NPR network we have today, playing classical music and providing cultural programs.
But then he hired George D. Hay, the Solemn Ol� Judge (and, I�m proud to say, fellow Hoosier), away from his job at a Chicago station to come to the fledgling station as its first Program Director.  While at Chicago�s WLS, Hay had seen success with a Barn Dance program which proved popular with displaced Southerners looking for a way to connect to home.
The Solemn Ol� Judge decided that if the idea would work in Chicago, then it would surely work in the Athens of the South, Nashville.  And we know the rest�
Escott, author of perhaps the cream of the Hank Williams biography crop, fills in the story from that initial hiring to this year in the Opry through thorough research to bring quotes from the actual players in the establishment of the Opry.
Using those quotes, Escott himself pops up only to serve as a narrator to the story, much like watching a well constructed documentary.  Reading the exact quotes lends something special to the story by giving you the point of view of the artists and staff members who were there.
The book also includes many great pictures from the history of the Opry giving a look at the artists in the different settings of the Opry (did you know the current Opry House is the fourth home of the Opry?).  One great picture in 1956 shows the whole cast backstage and includes Ernest Tubb, Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Minnie Pearl, The Louvin Brothers and Johnny Cash among the group.

Let me give you the bad news first; the book doesn�t really �reveal� that much about the roots of Americana music.  But that might have been a misconception on my part that this book was more of a look at the roots of the music and the players who brought it forward.  Instead, it is a series of small interviews and profiles strung together by Dutton�s loose narrative.  The upside of that is that the interviews are good and often insightful. 

Duttons� writing is conversational and makes for easy reading while capturing the spirit of the artists he is interviewing; His choice of artists to represent Americana center mainly around Texas musicians of which he is a fan and include Robert Earl Keen, Django Walker, James McMurtry, Slaid Cleaves and Cross Canadian Ragweed.
Reading the book I had two problems with it.  The first is that it seems that several times Dutton rails against Mainstream Country without properly making a case against it other than it is �soulless,� which he still doesn�t define.  Early in the book he brings up Brad Paisley as an example of what he is talking about calling him �incredibly talented, incredibly nice, but, to me, incredibly boring.�  Several chapters later he chases Paisley down for an interview, finally nailing down an email exchange with him.  He allows that Paisley is the real deal but fails to follow up on many of the points Paisley puts forth in the interview such as the fact that many times nostalgia clouds our vision as we look back on some of the music of the past.  Perhaps such a discussion was beyond the scope of the book.
The other problem that cropped up to me was figuring out who the intended audience for this book was.  Dutton does a great job of picking artists to profile, running from some better known to unknowns, but he fails in many cases to give sufficient reason to the casual listener as to why they should care about these artists other than that they don�t belong to the �Nashville machine.�
To his credit, Dutton doesn�t try to narrowly define Americana and in only one instance broaches the subject with Slaid Cleaves, who gives one of the most thought provoking, and ultimately prophetic, answers in the book.
If you are a new fan to this thing called Americana, this book might serves as a decent primer to a few artists you may or may not know.  But don�t expect this book to sway any Mainstream Country fans into jumping wholesale into the genre.