The history of country music in Australia is in many ways the history of the specialisation of a genre,' writes Toby Martin, explaining how the style evolved from copying the American singing-cowboy model of the 1930s to incorporating Australian bush ballads and staking a 'unique claim to national authenticity'.

Notions of authenticity are among the many lines of conventional wisdom that Martin picks apart in Yodelling Boundary Riders, the latest in the Australasian Music Research series from Lyrebird Press. Martin questions the rugged back-story of several country stars, and why such 'realness' is so valued.