Richard Wootton—former teacher in South London, free-lance writer, and music enthusiast—now resides in London, England. He traveled across the United States during the middle 1970s and the early 1980s looking for and commenting on clubs that play live music. Wootten spent five years learning the nuances of atmosphere, character, and tone that distinguish one musical nightspot from another.

He also visited record stores, radio stations, recording studios, record producers, and musicians. What he found was presented in Honky Tonkin' —A Travel Guide to American Music (1977). Wooten has also written books on John Lennon and Elvis Presley, but he has focused more on country music than rock and roll Wootton no longer writes books because he has devoted his career in recent years to the publicity business.

Andrew Lycett claims that after the publication of Honky Tonkin', "several firms, among...