Tyler Mahan Coe is the host, writer, and producer of the podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music. Within a year of debut the program’s first season rose from country fan favorite to international phenomenon, becoming the #1 music podcast on Apple’s charts in the US and UK simultaneously. The show remains an independent, one-man operation. A former touring guitarist, Tyler lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Wayne White is an artist, art director, illustrator, and puppeteer. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne has used his memories of the South to create inspired works for film, television, and the fine art world. He has worked as an illustrator for The New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice, and in 1986 became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, where his work won three Emmys. He also worked in the music video industry, winning Billboard and MTV Music Video Awards as an art director for seminal music videos including The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” and Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time.” His life and career are the subjects of the book Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve and the documentary Beauty Is Embarrassing. Wayne is married to cartoonist and writer Mimi Pond. They live in Los Angeles.
“A gifted storyteller with vast cultural knowledge, Coe has given readers not just a map, but a true treasure.” * <I>Kirkus Reviews</I> * “[Tyler] is both a storyteller and a tenacious reporter, and he cuts through myth and hype in order to find truth and beauty and danger and other things that are at the heart of this music. He doesn’t glad-hand or favor trade. He’s after the real deal and won’t stop until he lands on it, until he conveys it to all of us in ways that haven’t been approached in the past. His show’s enormous success is proof that country music’s characters and history have relevance today.” -- Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum