Beyond his work as a musician (Mekons, Waco Brothers, and solo), Jon Langford has attracted ever-growing attention as a visual artist in recent years. NASHVILLE RADIO is the first collection of his art. It reproduces 215 paintings and etchings, as well as many song lyrics and autobiographical writings. The book also comes with an exclusive CD of Langford performing 18 of the printed songs. Langford's "song-paintings" fuse publicity-shot portraiture with imagery derived from folk art, Dutch still life, classic Western wear, and the cold, cold war--all instilled with his trademark sardonic wit. He applies this completely distinctive style to the depiction of such American musical icons as Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash, but also to more ghostly, marginal figures--blindfolded cowboys, astronauts, and dancers--who are jerked around by the forces of success and exploitation, fame and neglect. Underlying all his work is a deep love of musical lore, twinned with fierce opposition to the death-dealing tendencies in the culture of his adopted homeland, from the killing off of authentic popular music by homogenized, mass-marketed drivel to the embrace of capital punishment as a response to social ills. Langford's work offers an alternative perspective, recalling "a time when great visionaries and pioneers thrived at the heart of the mainstream--and the lid wasn't on so tight."