George Jones, in 1956, in Nashville.Photograph from Michael Ochs Archives / Getty âNearly everybody is confused by their first interaction with a pinball machine,â Tyler Mahan Coe says, with his familiar declarative zeal, at the beginning of the long-awaited second season of his country-music-history podcast, âCocaine & Rhinestones.â We hear the gameâs bells, chimes, and thunks as Coe delves into pinball discourse (in old movies, âpinball is a signifier of people with ambiguous morals who will break the law if the reward is having a good timeâ), historical details (in 1942, Fiorello LaGuardia âarmed the N.Y.P.D. with sledgehammers and a mandate to smash pinball machines on sightâ), and country music (Lonnie Irvingâs mournful âPinball Machineâ). We donât know why heâs talking about pinball, and we donât care: itâs glorious listening. After ten minutes of this, and after announcing that the game is âresponsible for some of the greatest country music ever made,â Coe plays the âCocaine & Rhinestonesâ intro. Thereâs a strange little euphoria in this moment: we understand that this season will be a dazzling adventure, and that the mysteries of its narrative path will only enhance it.