NEWS Legendary lap steel player Billy Robinson, 90, died October 15. According to Saving Country Music, he was the youngest ever Opry staff musician, when he was hired in 1949 at the age of 18. He backed Hank Williams on the Opry when Hank received multiple encores for “Lovesick Blues.” His session work included George […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – TRACY LAWRENCE “I was ate up with it.” That’s how Tracy Lawrence, 53, describes his youthful quest to sing traditional county music while growing up in Arkansas. When he called me last week for our scheduled interview, he told me he learned how to sing and play guitar by listening to […]
NEWS The last surviving member of The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as “the most colorful hillbilly band in America,” has died, reports the Mail Tribune in Ashland, Oregon. Don Maddox, 98, died September 12 in Ashland. His sharecropper family migrated from Alabama to Modesto, California, in 1933. His siblings—Cal, Fred, Rose, and Harry—began performing […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – DOUG STONE I’d been waiting for an opportunity to spotlight Doug Stone in my newsletter ever since his show in Sisseton almost two years ago. Our conversation finally happened when he called me on one of his days devoted to doing phone interviews.
PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT – AUDIOBOOK OF LIVE FAST, LOVE HARD: THE FARON YOUNG STORY Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story is now an audiobook!!! I am so excited to finally have Faron’s story available to the public for download and listening. My effusive thanks go to Frank Gerard for making it happen.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – WENDY NEWCOMER When Kayo and I went to Nashville several weeks ago, our first entertainment stop was at the Nashville Palace. Wendy Newcomer & the Good Ol’ Timers were making music on the stage. We were so impressed that I asked to spotlight Wendy in my newsletter. “I loved reading about […]
TRIP REPORT My sister, Lorraine “Kayo” Paver, and I returned Sunday night from our third Randy Travis research trip. We drove 3,082 miles in the eleven days we were on the road. On our first afternoon in Nashville, we headed to I-65 to go downtown, but I missed the interstate entrance because of a misplaced […]
NEWS The newest members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame are Amy Grant (“Baby Baby,” “Tennessee Christmas,” “That’s What Love Is For”), Rhett Akins (“That Ain’t My Truck,” “Honey Bee,” “It Goes Like This”), Toby Keith (“How Do You Like Me Now,” “I Love This Bar,” “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”), Buddy Cannon (“Give It Away,” “I’ve Come To Expect […]
NEWS We’ve lost another of Faron Young’s Country Deputies. Skip Jackson of Hendersonville, Tennessee, died June 26. Born Lloyd Aaron Jackson III, Skip played steel guitar with The Kendalls and then with Faron Young from 1970-75. He retired from the music business and became a photography professor at Nashville State Community College. Pam Jackson posted […]
NEWS The 32nd annual National Memorial Day Concert on PBS, which ran for 90 minutes and was cohosted by actors Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise, featured several country music performers. Mickey Guyton sang the National Anthem. Alan Jackson sang his “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” Vince Gill, on the stage of the […]