NEWS Little Jimmy Dickens 1920-2015 Little Jimmy Dickens died January 2, 2015, of cardiac arrest, after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day. His last Opry performance was December 20, a day after his 94th birthday. Born in Bolt, West Virginia, he was the eldest of 13 children. He is survived by his wife, Mona Dickens, […]
FEATURED ARTIST – DIANA TRASK Diana Trask came to us originally from Melbourne, Australia, and she now lives in Georgia. She was 19 when hired in 1959 to tour Australia with the Frank Sinatra show. Two years later, she moved to the USA to be a regular on the NBC-TV series Sing Along With Mitch. […]
As the biographer of Faron Young and Marty Robbins, I bring you these newsletters to connect classic country music fans around the world. Feel free to forward this email to your friends, and tell them to send me an email if they want to be added to the list. I welcome your comments and ideas. […]
NEWS Two formerly famous homes are for sale in Madison, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb. During the town’s heyday, according to the Tennessean, “seemingly everyone there knew someone performing on the Grand Ole Opry, and they lived in the neighborhood west of Gallatin Road in ranch homes on large, mostly unfenced lots.” The 12-acre expanse at […]
NEWS Kenny Rogers has scheduled a “Farewell Down Under Tour” for January and February in Australia and New Zealand. He has toured there as a member of the First Edition, with Dolly Parton, with Reba McEntire, and on several solo tours. He says this will be his last. The tour begins in Sydney, followed by […]
FEATURED ARTIST – REDD VOLKAERT Merle Haggard’s former lead guitar player, Redd Volkaert, is enjoying life in Austin, Texas. “I’m busy all the time–or trying to be, anyway,” he told me when I called him the other night. He has two steady gigs at the Continental Club, with his own 4-piece band on Saturday and […]
NEWS More than 2,000 items from the estate of Waylon Jennings were auctioned off last week. Waylon’s widow, Jessie Coulter, donated the proceeds to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Charities. The highest-priced item was Buddy Holly’s 1958 Ariel Cyclone motorcycle. It sold for $457,500. Next was the $70,000 paid for a desk Johnny Cash had given […]
FEATURED ARTIST – JEANNIE SEELY “My calendar for October and November is totally insane,” Jeannie Seely said when I called to see what’s happening in her life. “I tried to slow down this year, but so many opportunities came in.” She’s reached the point in her career to be able to choose what she wants […]
NEWS George Hamilton IV, age 77, died the afternoon of September 17. He had been in critical condition at St Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville since suffering a heart attack four days earlier. George was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on July 19, 1937. He moved to Nashville in 1959 and became a member of […]
CONCERT REVIEW – MARK CHESNUTT We sang happy birthday to Mark Chesnutt (age 51) Saturday night during his show at the University of Sioux Falls. He sang his hits for ninety minutes and joked with his two guitarists and the audience. Although I was disappointed he didn’t have his band, the tradeoff was the personal […]