'The Farewell Tour': Meet the author of this must-read country music novel at Nashville event

How does a teenager raised in 1990s Seattle (you know, ground zero for the grunge movement) become fascinated with country music?

Like most stories tied to Nashville's celebrated export, it started with a few good songs.

"I was [spending] a summer in Arkansas doing trail maintenance," said Stephanie Clifford, a best-selling author and journalist who in her new novel, "The Farewell Tour," tackles the trials of a fictional singer at the height of 20th century country music. She continued, "We got one station in the trail maintenance van, and it was country. Suddenly, being immersed in it, I was like, 'Oh ... I've been completely wrong about country.'"

That summer, she discovered a cohort of truth-telling women on those radio waves — Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless and Rosanne Cash, among others. When she returned to Washington, country music still wasn't cool. But it nonetheless stuck with her.

Decades later, her book "The Farewell Tour" introduces readers to Lillian Waters, a once-popular singer-songwriter embarking on her final run of shows a half-decade after the industry left her behind. Set in 1980 but bouncing between past and present timelines, the book follows a series of black-and-blue emotional bruises left in the years before Waters found — and lost — country music stardom.

Throughout the pages, Waters comes to terms with childhood trauma and her adulthood decisions impacted by what she endured during years defined by the Great Depression and World War II. Like a great country tune, "The Farewell Tour" takes readers on a journey of tough-to-swallow reflection, much-needed self-discovery and plot-twisting closure.

"With a lot of these stories about artists, whether it's Nashville or anywhere, there's a typical arc, and I didn't want to do that," Clifford said. "I wanted it to feel realistic."

Clifford celebrates the release Tuesday at Parnassus Books with an in-store conversation moderated by Old Crow Medicine Show bandleader Ketch Secor.

Read on for highlights from an interview with Clifford about "The Farewell Tour."

On embracing country music for a novel

How did Clifford come to writing about a fictional country singer? It started with finding "a period when it was tough for a woman to make her way in the world," she said.

"I knew I wanted her to come out of the west. When I started this book, I was reading a lot of classics of the American west, like Steinbeck and Owen Wister ... I found that women were never front-and-center in those stories."

She continued, "I wanted to put a western woman front-and-center and really blaze a path in the world, but I couldn't figure out what her job would be."

Eventually, She landed on a small-but-influential 1950s and '60s country scene that flourished in Tacoma, Washington, the one-time home of Buck Owens and Don Rich. North of Tacoma, in small-town Custer, Washington, an unknown Loretta Lynn began singing in bars at the encouragement of her husband, a local farm hand.

"I knew at that point Lillian would have this chip on her shoulder about the west vs. the east," Clifford said. "She's contending with this idea of Nashville and [she'll] to go to Nashville to face her fears and envies and make some real concessions in order to succeed. I was like, 'That's a great story.'"

On juggling fiction with history

Some fictional singer-makes-it-big stories only service history with drive-by mentions — but not "The Farewell Tour." When time-traveling as far as as the 1920s, the book chronicles accurate influences of early country music (like jazz and Ma Rainey's "Bo-Weavil Blues," a musical centerpiece of the novel). As the story progresses, Clifford digs deeper than occasional Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton name-drops to tell her story.

At one point, Waters' trusted collaborator leaves her to tour with Whisperin' Bill Anderson. At other moments, she envies Connie Smith on the Grand Ole Opry stage, while her career takes unexpected turns during WWII and when President John F. Kennedy dies. And during her time in Tacoma, she reckons with a racial divide rooted in the genre's origins.

Clifford studied regional hits, record studio technology and live performances in hopes of telling a true recreation of the mid-20th century, she said.

"I wanted to underline what people in Nashville know so well but people outside it don't; that there are all these influences on country music — such as blues, such as Ma Rainey," Clifford said. "As Lillian teaches herself music, she is learning country, she learning fingerpicking. She's listening to barn dance radio. But she's also listening to Charlie Christian, to Spade Cooley."

On writing songs

It wouldn't be a book about Nashville without a little songwriting. Clifford didn't set out to write tunes for her story, but ended up weaving a few lines together that made it in print.

"I realized as I was trying to describe Lil's process for writing songs, I was like 'There's no way to do this without writing music and lyrics," she said. "Suddenly, I was like, 'I guess I am now writing songs.' It was actually really freeing."

Clifford's in-store event kicks off Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.; register for a place and Find more information on "The Farewell Tour" book event at parnassusbooks.net.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 'The Farewell Tour': Must-read fiction for fans of real country stories