Despite the trends that transformed country music over the second half of the twentieth century, George Jones continued to thrill audiences with his traditional "honky-tonk" voice, which remained a steady force in the industry from the 1950s onward. Initially, Jones was an improbable star, offering a twangy voice reminiscent of earlier hillbilly music at a time when rock and roll was making inroads into country music, but with his emergence as a star in the late 1950s, he went on to become a country music icon—indeed, contemporary star Garth Brooks once commented that "anybody who has ever wanted to sing country music wants to sound like George Jones." Between 1951 and 1971, Jones placed at least one song on the country top ten charts each year, and has won every major industry award in existence, including Single of the Year, Artist of the Year, and...