I love collecting coffee-table books, though I never realized it before working at iTaggit, and a couple of my great pieces include My Love Affair With Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor and Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth 110. As I was writing this month's book newsletter, I stumbled across a particular coffee-table gem that I must add to my wish list. Jim McGuire has been photographing musicians over the past thirty years and his photos have graced the covers of more than 400 albums and CDs. Most of the big recording stars insist on using McGuire including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Doc Watson, Dolly Parton, Carole King, Townes Van Zant, John Hartford, Emmylou Harris and Reba McIntyre, to name a few. His book, Nashville Portraits: Legends of Country Music, features the photos in beautiful duo-tones on heavy stock paper, and each contain a quote from one of the Nashville musicians discussing the beauty of McGuire’s work. This book appeals to anyone who appreciates American artistry, whether or not they love country music memorabilia. An appealing aspect of this book to me was the opportunity to gather the autographs of those featured artists who are still among us within the book, making a special collector's edition out of it.
If you are a lover of art or just enjoy strolling through a gallery on a lazy Sunday, sixty of his acclaimed portraits are slated for a two-year-long traveling museum exhibit that opened in Nashville this past Fall. It is sponsored by the Morris Museum of Art, located on the Riverwalk in downtown Augusta. Be sure to check for tour dates, and hopefully this fantastic exhibit will be coming near you. If you do happen to visit McGuire's portraits, feel free to blog your feedback on what you saw.