While written in the manner of scholarly research – Martin now teaches at NYU Sydney – the book remains accessible and doesn't get bogged down under the weight of its ambitious subtitle, 'Country Music in Australia since the 1920s'. Martin covers the genre's progress across nearly a century, but as an incisive overview making specific enquiries rather than attempting a dense biographical history. Focusing mainly on marquee names such as Tex Morton and Slim Dusty allows Martin to show how their enormous success crystallised changing tastes. Nor is he a purist: he includes the likes of pop-friendly Keith Urban, novelty act Chad Morgan, and Nashville-based expatriates The LeGarde Twins.

Martin defies the usual interpretations of these acts, singling out Morton's sentimentality where others have neglected it. He is especially interested in the angles that artists choose to emphasise in their performance, publicity, and marketing. Arriving at the present day, and documenting the campaign to keep the Tamworth Country Music Festival free of pop and rock influence, Martin makes a level-headed argument for adapting rather than 'preserving' the genre.