Looking Back to See

About

The Browns—Maxine, Bonnie, and Jim Ed—are a trio of siblings that had tremendous success in the 1950s and 60s. Following in the tradition of the best of such books, such as Loretta’s Lynn’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, this memoir, told in Maxine’s own plucky, spirited style, delves deeply into the Browns’ remarkable past, beginning with a Depression-era childhood in rural south Arkansas. From it emerged a duo, Maxine and Jim Ed, and in 1954 they had a Top Ten hit with “Looking Back to See.” Sister Bonnie later joined them, and strengthened by shared experience they sang their way on to Little Rock’s Barnyard Frolic in 1952, and were soon regulars on the well-known Louisiana Hayride. They would eventually help a young Elvis Presley get started on the show and toured with him as their opening act, and it wasn’t long before he became a close friend of the family. Other hits followed, including “I Take the Chance” and “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing.”

Early mismanagement (which Maxine describes quite graphically in her own gutsy style) couldn’t prevent the Browns’ careers from soaring. The group began a long relationship with RCA, and with Chet Atkins, and later joined the Grand Ole Opry cast. In 1959 their rendition of Edith Piaf’s song, “The Three Bells” not only went to the top of the country charts but spent weeks at number one on the pop charts, and led to appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand.

A vocal group without peer, The Browns were central artists in the changing sound of country and American popular music at mid-century. They were part of major changes in the entertainment business and American culture, participated in the folk music movement in the ‘60’s, and saw the steady birth of rock ‘n’ roll up close as they worked with Presley and others. Illustrated with many never-before-published photographs, Looking Back to See is a remarkable story told here for the first time.

The Browns were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Author

Maxine Brown’s website
http://themaxinebrown.com/

Praise

“Looking Back to See is a good book. It touches my heart to hear her story and to think back to my boyhood. Her story is real.”

—Eddy Arnold, legendary music star

“Fascinating. . . . She’s warm, honest, gossipy, and outrageously funny. . . . Maxine wasn’t just present at the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, she was one of its midwives.”

—Edward Morris, former country music editor of Billboard

“An irreplaceable narrative by a participant in the golden age of country and ‘hillbilly’ music who witnessed and made its history.”

—Charles McGovern, former curator of twentieth century popular culture at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

“The Browns became leading exponents of what was then developing as the ‘Nashville Sound.’ That sound was making musical history and increasing the popularity of country music worldwide. Maxine was right in the middle of it.”

—Ralph Emery, former host of TNN’s Country Homecoming