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George Jones’ Album Sales Soar; Yearwood, Little Big Town Nominated for Daytime Emmys; Initial Wide Open Bluegrass Lineup Announced
Last night, people began lining up for George Jones’ funeral. The service will air on CMT, GAC, WSM, Opry.com, RFD-TV and Sirius XM at 11 a.m. Eastern. The ACM Awards posted a Jones tribute on YouTube. Nick Ryerson writes about “The Salvation of George Jones” in his new God and Country column. Eddie Stubbs paid tribute [...]
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Mel Tillis Plans Book Release; Gregg Lohman, Kellie Pickler’s Drummer, Injured in Car Crash; Album Releases
Mel Tillis has a book in the works for release later this year. Gregg Lohman, Kellie Pickler’s drummer, was hospitalized with serious injuries following a car accident in Kentucky on Saturday. T Bone Burnett shares his musical influences with Vulture. Hank Williams III has two records in the works. The New Yorker published a piece [...]
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Friday Five: Cola
Nectar of the Gods. That’s what a friend of mine and I call the sweet goodness that is known as Coca-Cola. It hits the spot for millions of patrons a day in more than 200 different countries. That’s not too bad for something that was intended as a patent medicine when it was invented by [...]
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Roots Watch: Meeting Kenny Rogers
Back when I was researching and writing my book Meeting Jimmie Rodgers, at least one friend misheard what I was doing and thought I was dedicating years of work to Kenny Rogers. There were a lot of polite, puzzled “Is that so’s” and ‘How ’bout that’s.” These two artists strike so many people as so very different that they [...]
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Mel Tillis Receives National Medal of Arts; Muddy Roots Festival Lineup Additions; New Album Releases
Mel Tillis was at the White House yesterday, receiving a National Medal of Arts. CMT.com has the story about how Whitney Houston came to record Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” This project, a documentary about Peter Rowan, looks pretty interesting. Jake Kelly of American Songwriter paid a visit to the Deering Banjo factory [...]
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Don DeVito Passes Away; Jennifer Nettles Weds; Lonesome River Band Plans 30-Year Retrospective
Jennifer Nettles got married last Saturday to boyfriend Justin Miller. Producer and Columbia Records A&R rep Don DeVito passed away on Friday at the age of 72. He was instrumental in the careers of Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and more. Songwriter Virginia Mae Stauffer passed away earlier this month. Did a group called The Speek [...]
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Friday Five: Country Singer Shilling Food Products
Whether it’s George Jones hawking his own brand of country sausage, Martha White’s longtime sponsorship of bluegrass acts, or Darius Rucker singing about the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch, country singers and food endorsements go together like biscuits and gravy. Here are a few old school commercials that I hope you get a kick out of, [...]
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25 Songs About Saturday Night
A lifetime spent listening to music has taught me a lot about Saturday night. It is, for example, all right for fighting or going to the movies, not to mention a good night to simultaneously keep dancing to the rock and roll and work on one’s spelling, and those are just the pop songs. Nobody [...]
Current Discussion
- Jeremy Dylan: There are many choice Dylan covers out there, but my picks of the bunch would be The Byrds take on ...
- Doug Gilliland: Can't say for sure if these artists are currently unsigned, but I would love to hear new material from Kathy ...
- Rick: Opry Alert! I'm guessing(?) tonight marks the end of the spring season of the Thursday Night Classic Country Opry shows ...
- bob: Thanks for the info on the PBS Carole King concert. It will be good to see Trisha Yearwood sing again.
- Jon: Nope.
- Luckyoldsun: Sounds good. Is she--or her husband--related to Dallas? (I'll assume not to Joe.)
- Luckyoldsun: R-- Sounds like you're expanding your palate. "60′s style California hippie vibe" sounds like something you'd have banned from your playlist.
- Rick: I like the production, the excellent guitar picking, and Rebecca has a nice voice with individuality, but the song structure ...
- Rick: That Buddy Emmons tribute album sounds kinda interesting. I just might have to give it a listen when it's available. Congratulations ...
- Jon: Jack Bernhardt is the bomb.
