Darius Rucker Invited to Join Opry; Taylor Swift Donates $10,000 to School for the Deaf; Ron Block Previews New Song
- Yesterday, Darius Rucker was invited by Brad Paisley to join the Grand Ole Opry. Rucker will be inducted on October 16.
- Remember that internet contest where people voted for the Horace Mann School for the Deaf to win a Taylor Swift concert? The school was removed from the contest because “of the way it got its votes.” However, “Swift decided to give the school a personal donation of $10,000, which was matched by the two sponsor companies as well as Cover Girl and American Greetings. VH1’s Save the Music program has also decided to give Horace Mann another $10,000 in instruments for students. Not only that, Swift says that every student at Horace Mann will get a ticket to her next local show.”
- Speaking of Swift, here’s the title track to her upcoming album, Red.
- Here’s a great video of new MacArthur Fellow Chris Thile talking about his music and his plans.
- Tonight’s Levon Helm tribute/benefit concert has a killer lineup, with John Prine, Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Mavis Staples, Dierks Bentley, and several more scheduled to perform.
- Mike Auldridge and Flaco Jimenez, winners of two of this year’s NEA National Heritage Fellowships, will perform at tomorrow evening’s National Heritage Fellowship concert, which will be streamed on the NEA website.
- Preview a rough mix of “Colors,” a song from Ron Block’s upcoming solo album.
- Here’s the new video for Bettye LaVette’s cover of “Everything is Broken.”
- Out October 23: Donna Ulisse’s Christmas album, All the Way to Bethlehem. (via press release)
- Jerrod Niemann dropped by CBS This Morning to talk about his new album.
- Chris Parton of CMT Edge interviewed singer-songwriter Rayland Baxter.
- Peter Gerstenzang of the Village Voice wrote about the documentary My Father and the Man in Black: In this riveting, excoriating documentary director Jonathan Holiff re-creates the relationship between [Johnny] Cash and manager Saul Holiff, Jonathan’s driven, distant dad, who committed suicide in 2005. This agonizing story, which mixes various film stocks, recorded phone calls between Cash and Saul, and some filmed re-creations, gets all the nasty Cash stuff right. The drugs, the divorces, even—gulp—hints of anti-Semitism. But despite its official story, the doc is really about Jonathan’s tortured relationship with his frosty dad. And how, in death, father and son achieved a reconciliation they couldn’t find while both were living.
- Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Ben Jaffe was interviewed by Chris Mateer for the Uprooted Music Revue.
- Farce the Music is digging The Pollies’ new record, Where the Lies Begin.
- Paul W. Dennis’ newest Country Heritage column is about Dave Dudley.
- Taste of Country posted an interview with Kenny Rogers in which he talks about his new autobiography and a duet he’s recording with George Jones.
- Chris Young’s November show at the Ryman, which kicks off his first headlining tour, is sold-out.
Tagged In This Article
Ben Jaffe // Bettye LaVette // Brad Paisley // Chris Thile // Chris Young // Darius Rucker // Dave Dudley // Dierks Bentley // Donna Ulisse // Flaco Jimenez // Jerrod Niemann // John Hiatt // John Prine // Johnny Cash // Kenny Rogers // Levon Helm // Lucinda Williams // Mavis Staples // Mike Auldridge // Preservation Hall Jazz Band // Rayland Baxter // Ron Block // Taylor Swift // The Pollies
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October 3, 2012 at 12:42 pm
A school for the deaf is the ideal venue for a Taylor Swift concert.
October 3, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Music City Roots is still on hiatus this week! Dang! The good news is the short fall season run of the Thursday Night “Classic Country” Opry begins tomorrow night! YeeHaw!
Speaking of the Opry, how about inviting someone truly worthy of membership like Elizabeth Cook to join rather than frickin’ Hootie! Triggerman was right in that the Opry does need new ownership/leadership! If it keeps this up the Opry will soon become as irrelevant to “real country” music as the Top 40 crapola played on AirHead Country Radio these days. Sheesh.
Wow, a country artist with the first name of Rayland! When I was watching the FX cable channel series “Justified” I always kind of figured they made that name up. Hmmm.
Levon Helm didn’t have that great of singing voice, so I think it is appropriate that a tribute concert in his honor would feature so many other vocally challenged artists! hey, what’s Mavis Staples doing in that mix? Crikey! (lol)
October 3, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Kenny Rogers doing a duet with George Jones?
Hey, why not—but it could’ve really been something if they’d done it in 1982 or even ’92, rather than 2012!
Who here can name the song where George Jones name-checks Kenny Rogers (among several others)?
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