News Roundup for July 13, 2011
- Please welcome Barry Mazor as Engine 145′s Senior Columnist. His column will run twice monthly.
- On Saturday, Bill Anderson will celebrate his 50th Anniversary as an Opry member.
- It’s Johnny Cash Weekend from Thursday to Saturday for minor league ballclub the Reno Aces. The team will be wearing black jerseys and the first 2500 fans at Thursday’s game get a Johnny Cash t-shirt.
- There’s a family lawsuit regarding royalties from “I’ll Fly Away.” The song “generated about $1.4 million in royalties between 2004 and the third quarter of 2009, according to court documents.”
- Bluegrass needs more comedy, says Ted Lehmann.
- Dolly Parton added a handful of fall dates to her tour schedule. Occasional Hope looks back on Parton’s classic album Jolene over at My Kind of Country.
- Josh Baron of Relix chats with Emmylou Harris.
- Wayne Mills and TG Sheppard are remaking Sheppard’s 1981 hit “I Loved ‘Em Everyone” which will be featured on Mills’ upcoming album Long Hard Road.
- Rascal Flatts’ “I Won’t Let Go” has been certified digital gold.
- Blue Highway’s Sounds of Home is due out on Rounder Records on August 23. The album arrives a decade after Still Climbing Mountains, the band’s first all-original collection.
- Junior Sisk took to Facebook to discuss some recent personnel changes in his band Ramblers Choice: “My long time singing partner Tim Massey has decided to leave the band. He is getting married and is pursuing new endeavors…Though I am sorry to see Timmy go I am excited about the new changes in the band. We have moved Jason “Sweet Tater” Tomlin over to the bass and hired Chris Davis on mandolin. I think you will be pleased with the new configuration.” Sisk will be releasing The Heart of a Song in September.
- Tim McGraw broke his foot.
- Baron of TwangNation had a blast at a Gillian Welch/David Rawlings show.
- Who’s ready for a LeAnn Rimes fitness video?
- The Foundation for Bluegrass Music will be funding grants and/or scholarships this year in memory of Hazel Dickens and Carlton Haney: “A one-time fund of $10,000 has been earmarked with the following guidelines for applicants: up to $5,000 in memory of Dickens to fund public projects and/or education scholarships that foster “artistic” development involving deserving young people, and up to $5,000 in memory of Haney to fund public projects and/or education scholarships that foster bluegrass music “business” development involving deserving young people.” The deadline to apply is August 15.
- Miranda Lambert’s Behind the Music episode premieres tonight at 10pm Eastern.
- Grand Ole Opry historian Byron Fay has an interesting story titled “Cause for Concern? The Aging of the Opry’s Cast:” “12% of the Opry’s members are over the age of 80; 40% are over the age of 70 and 52% of its members are over the age of 60. Just under 10% of the Opry’s members are under the age of 40.”
- Jimmy Wayne’s mission to help raise awareness for kids lost in the foster care system continues as he begins recreating last year’s walk across America for a new documentary called Meet Me Halfway.
- Tracy Lawrence has a brand new single that’s out to radio called “The Singer.” Check out the EPK here.
- Time Life has announced the release of Hank Williams: The Legend Begins on September 13 with newly discovered and meticulously restored recordings of the American music legend. The album “contains the earliest recordings of a 15-year-old Williams and four songs from a home recording in 1940. The other two CDs are from Williams’ first syndicated radio show in 1949, Health And Happiness, that have been restored.”
- Reggae’s gone country.
- Ken Morton, Jr. posted a few music videos over at That Nashville Sound, including Dana and Lauren Shankman‘s (formerly of Malibu Storm) cover of Tupac’s “California Love.”
- It’s that time again: Awkward Gary LeVox Photo of the Week at Farce the Music.
Tagged In This Article
Bill Anderson // Carlton Haney // Dana and Lauren // David Rawlings // Dolly Parton // Emmylou Harris // Gillian Welch // Hank Williams // Hazel Dickens // Jimmy Wayne // Johnny Cash // Junior Sisk and Ramblers Choice // Rascal Flatts // Sierra Hull // Time McGraw // Tracy Lawrence // Two Cow Garage
Current Discussion
- Joan Harrison: Hi, My husband and I really enjoy watching your show each week. You had a recipe on for pork ...
- Jon: "@Both Kinds Of Music – Your point is?" It is a little opaque, isn't it?
- BRUCE: @Both Kinds Of Music - Your point is? BTW, I love Rucker's "Wagon Wheel" version. Gotta love Strait. I wished Swift would ...
- Luckyoldsun: Jonny Boy, Are you really as angry about this as you come off?--This has to be an act. I have no problem ...
- Barry Mazor: I'm not personally offended in the least, luckyducky, I also find discussing things with you an utter waste of time ...
- Jon: "Any reasonably educated or sophisticated adult knows" that a televised awards show (or most any other televised music variety show) ...
- Jon: "I think that a lot of the people who do watch award shows, though, watch them because they can’t (for ...
- Luckyoldsun: Rick If Taylor Swift is scoring her 60th No. 1 record at age 61 or whatever, I'll... (Oh, I forgot--I'll be ...
- Rick: Opry Alert! Tonight's Opry features Easton Corbin, Lee Greenwood, Craig Morgan, Mandy Barnett, Diamond Rio (who needs pitch correction these ...
- Both Kinds of Music: "I think we wrote close to 60 or 70 songs" and then put Wagon Wheel on there just to show ...
7 Comments
RSS for comments on this post
July 13, 2011 at 11:39 am
A LeAnn Rimes fitness video? How did I not see that coming?
Loved Sierra Hull’s Adele cover.
Looking foward to more great columns from Barry!
July 13, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Wouldn’t LeAnn Rimes need to be healthy in order to do a fitness video? Stick-thin, to me, does not equate health — rather the opposite. I would like for Eddie to start feeding her cheeseburgers.
Love seeing so many familiar faces here. :)
July 13, 2011 at 3:52 pm
That “California Love” video has been out for like about a month.
Sounds Of Home is actually Blue Highway’s third all-original album; the press release (and hence this news item) makes it sound like the second, but that ain’t right. It’s clear in the liner notes, though ;-).
July 13, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Hey Juli, when is Jim Malec going to drop by so he and Jon can really get into it just like the good ole days at The 9513? Jon, its nice to see you haven’t stopped picking nits at every chance you get!
Country kind of went reggae back on Ryan Shupe’s first album with the song “Rain Falls Down”, which is quite good by the way.
I guess I now understand why Dana and Lauren just go by their first names! Shankman? Crikey! Hopefully they will make a bigger splash as a duo than Malibu Storm, which didn’t even leave a puddle…
Sierra Hull would probably do a good job covering almost any type of song. That gal is the “real deal” and quite a talent. Although she does need more humor in her bluegrass music apart from “Best Buy” anyway.
July 14, 2011 at 10:22 am
@Jon,
And it premiered @roughstock to great numbers. Dana & Lauren have a loyal group of fans/followers.
July 14, 2011 at 12:09 pm
…there’s more “things that make life easier”- videos/dvds by country stars in the pipeline:
sara evans – divorce done smoothly
jason aldean – one piercing is never enough
reba – tweeting for senior birds
john rich – taking punches in style
willie nelson – the perfect grass in your yard
brad paisley – mud in the pampers
jessica simpson – the non-country lifestyle
susie brown – singin’ in bloody tight jeans
colt ford – forget about the melody
blake shelton – coping with her success
July 14, 2011 at 2:46 pm
@Matt I like them – heck, I liked Malibu Storm – but I thought that video, even more than the cover itself, was kind of problematic.
Leave a Comment