Frances Preston Passes Away; CMA Music Festival Sets Attendance Record; New York Banjo Summit Touring This Fall
- Frances Preston, “the most influential music executive of her generation,” passed away yesterday at the age of 83. The Country Music Hall of Famer began her noteworthy career in the 1950s as a mail messenger at BMI, a job which included answering Hank Williams’ fan mail.
- Fabulous Superlative Harry Stinson shared his behind-the-scenes photos from the fourth season of The Marty Stuart Show.
- Ed Ward did an NPR feature on swamp pop pioneer Bobby Charles, who wrote songs like “See You Later, Alligator” and “Walking to New Orleans.”
- Touring this fall: the New York Banjo Summit, which includes Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg, Richie Stearns, and Pete Wernick. Noam Pikelny and Mac Benford will also appear on select dates.
- Pretty Little Liars actress Lucy Hale is recording a country album later this year for a 2013 release.
- The CMA Music Festival set an attendance record, with over 71,000 fans joining in the festivities, a figure over nine percent higher than last year’s numbers.
- Check out the trailer for Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” video.
- Leftover Salmon will be the house band on After the Catch, the post-show special that follows Deadliest Catch.
- Chuck Dauphin catches up with Bobby Bare, who’s recording a new album for Plowboy Records. The album will include “actual Bare originals, along with songs written by Tom Waits, Alejandro Escovedo, Bob Dylan and Leadbelly.”
- Here’s a Q & A with Rodney Crowell and Mary Karr in M Music & Musicians Magazine.
- Rascal Flatts played a set for Yahoo’s RAM Country.
- Fast-forward to the 40-minute mark to watch Jerry Douglas and Del McCoury on last night’s episode of Letterman. Elizabeth Cook will be on tonight’s show.
- Bobby Osborne talks about “Rocky Top” in the next installment of the On the Air video series.
- Sara Evans will sing the national anthem before tonight’s Thunder-Heat game.
- Saving Country Music is loving Eric Strickland & The B Sides’ new album, Honky Tonk Till I Die.
Tagged In This Article
Alejandro Escovedo // Bela Fleck // Bill Keith // Bob Dylan // Bobby Bare // Bobby Charles // Bobby Osborne // Carrie Underwood // Del McCoury // Elizabeth Cook // Eric Strickland // Eric Weissberg // Frances Preston // Hank Williams // Harry Stinson // Jerry Douglas // Lead Belly // Leftover Salmon // Lucy Hale // Mac Benford // Marty Stuart // Mary Karr // Noam Pikelny // Pete Wernick // Rascal Flatts // Richie Stearns // Rodney Crowell // Sara Evans // Tom Waits // Tony Trischka
Current Discussion
- Paul W Dennis: I guess my favorite would be George Hamilton IV's version of "Forever Young" and The Byrd's cover of Mr. Tambourine ...
- Jack Williams: Speaking of Chris Smither, he did a nice version of Visions of Johanna. Other favorites: Neville Brothers - The Ballad of Hollis ...
- Leeann Ward: I think benefit concerts and telethons are great and needed, but I'm also impressed by Underwood's generous donation.
- Arlene: Ummm? "For impact, nothing surpasses The Byrd's cover of "Mr. Tamborine Man?"" How about Peter, Paul and Mary singing "Blowin' ...
- Jon: Interesting that folks are falling all over themselves to talk up Toby Keith's prospective benefit for Oklahoma tornado victims, while ...
- Luckyoldsun: For Dylan covers with impact, nothing surpasses the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man." As far as obscure ones, I happened to like ...
- Leeann Ward: Happy to see the Randy Travis and Sara Jarosz covers, but another fave is Rodney Crowell/Emmylou Harris, "Shelter from the ...
- Luckyoldsun: "Among duos, 'Cruise' surpasses Carl Butler & Pearl's 11 weeks at No. 1 with "Don't Let Me "Cross Over" in ...
- Bruce: Good to read a Chestnut update. I liked Conan's comments about Swift's song. Kudo's for Toby's plans for Oklahoma. The ...
- Andrew: Ronnie Dunn has been saying on his Facebook page that he and Toby Keith are working on putting together a ...
7 Comments
RSS for comments on this post
June 14, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Anyone else find it strange that Disney closes their country music labels (in Lyric Street and Carolwood Records) and then decides they want to be in that genre again with Lucy Hale?
June 14, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Looks like they closed Nashville Lyric Street and created Hollywood Lyric Street. Less Aaron Tippin and Trent Tomlinson. More Lucy Hale.
Strange?–It’s kind of what I’d expect Disney to do.
June 14, 2012 at 3:37 pm
In the Lucy Hale article it states “Hale is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and cites Shania Twain and Faith Hill as important influences.” Wow, that really piques my interest…ZZZzzzzz
Well its encouraging to know there are only 71,000 die hard fans out there dedicated to the mediocrity of AirHead Country Music!
In the series debut of the revived “Dallas” TV series last night a band was playing “Tulsa Time” on the patio at the South Fork Ranch at Christopher’s wedding bash. Its so nice to hear real country music on a network TV series, even if it is a cable only network.
The Harry Stinson link says its down for maintenance. Crikey!
June 14, 2012 at 9:23 pm
Frances Preston was unbeliveably important to the developement of both Nashville and Country Music. When Kevin at COUNTRY UNIVERSE compiled his excellent list of the 100 Greatest Women of Country Music, he didn’t include any music executives among his list. I did and had Frances Preston in my personal top ten
My list per my posting of June 22, 2008 :
1 Jo Meador-Vaughan
2 Loretta Lynn
3 Maybelle & Sara Carter
4 Patsy Cline
5 Frances Preston
6 Emmylou Harris
7 Kitty Wells
8 Dolly Parton
9 Reba McEntire
10 Shania Twain
June 15, 2012 at 4:27 am
Mr Dennis have a Tammy Wynette problem?
June 15, 2012 at 7:19 am
Not at all – on my list Tammy came in at #11 and Jean Shepard at #12, and my all-time personal favorite Connie Smith at #13
If you delete the two execs on my list, then Tammy is at #9 and Jean at #10
June 15, 2012 at 9:19 am
Just kidding anyway, Paul..Lists with so many candidates are hard–although, there are so many lists out there, you’d never know!
Leave a Comment