Review: Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers

Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers by Charlie Louvin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This really wasn’t what I was expecting. I found it exceeded my somewhat high expectations, in a couple of ways. First, I’ve read a number of books by and about older rock and country stars recently. I expected this to be about the same – a well edited story that felt more like a ghost writer overworked the subject instead of letting the subject’s personality come out. In “Satan is Real”, named after a popular Louvin Brothers recording pictured on the cover, you get the feeling that you are reading predominately Charlie Louvin, with perhaps some minor clean up by an editor. This had an edgier personality to the writing as opposed to the laidback voice of many “autobiography” subjects. Another aspect of the book was the series of dichotomies. This is about a famous duet, mostly known for gospel recordings. Yet the book talks of knock down fights between the brothers and others, excessive drinking, woman chasing, pill popping, tantrums, and the like, more like what you’d expect from typical country or hard rock stars than gospel singers. Louvin even unexpectedly throws in a few choice cuss words, often near the end of his short chapters as if he wanted to save the invective until the end of his thoughts, as punctuation. There’s one short brother and one tall, one wild and one sober. They start picking cotton and end up one of the most successful duets in gospel and country music. One brother dies young, while the other writes the story of their lives. It is a surprisingly interesting story that would make a good movie or HBO-type series, and I’m surprised this hasn’t been done yet. The writing tends to be simple, and the author doesn’t go into any depth about his own life after his brother’s death, so there are bits that feel missing, but overall I found this a very good story. I had never listened to songs by the Louvin Brothers prior to reading this book, but I am a fan of what I’ve heard since.

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