NEWS Bluegrass Today reports Shoji Tabuchi, 79, died of pancreatic cancer on August 11. Born in 1944 in Ishikawa, Japan, he began playing the violin at age seven. As a college sophomore, he attended a Roy Acuff concert in Osaka, Japan. After meeting Roy backstage, he was inspired to pursue country and bluegrass music. In […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – PATTY LOVELESS For the first time ever, I have been able to personally congratulate a brand new member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. It happened when Patty Loveless called me for an interview that her manager, Mike Robertson, had set up at my request. It was the first thing […]
NEWS Country Music Hall of Fame member Jerry Bradley, 83, died peacefully on July 17 in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. He was the son of Owen Bradley, who mostly originated the Nashville Sound, and nephew of A-Team guitarist Harold Bradley, both also in the Hall of Fame, as well as husband of the late Connie Bradley, […]
NEWS Congratulations to Bill Anderson for being a Grand Ole Opry member for 62 years, longer than any other performer in history. He broke the record of Herman Crook, who joined with his string band, The Crook Brothers, in 1926 and stayed on the Opry for 61 years, 11 months, and 17 days, until his […]
CONCERT REVIEW — ALABAMA My plans to attend the Alabama concert Saturday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls took an unexpected turn at the last minute. I’d contacted Alabama’s merch manager, Terry Tyson, to ask if he was on the tour, and he responded with a backstage pass and a spot […]
By David C. Morton The Country Music Foundation Press recently partnered with The University of Illinois Press to reissue its out-of-print 1991 biography, DeFord Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music. The author, David C. Morton, first met Bailey when he went to the “Harmonica Wizard’s” apartment for an interview in 1973. They became […]
CONCERT REVIEW I planned to see Brooks & Dunn when they came to the Sanford Premiere Center in Sioux Falls, but I didn’t expect to have such great seats or a meet & greet with Scotty McCreery. Thanks to Scott Stem of Triple 8 Management for making that happen. The meet & greet was well-organized, […]
BIOGRAPHY CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK CITY I’ve been waiting since 2020 to travel to New York City for the Biographers International Organization conference. I’m a plank owner of BIO, which grew out of the Washington Biography Group in D.C. I attended those meetings while I lived in Maryland and was writing Live Fast, Love Hard […]
By Taylor Hagood Stringbean was the stage name of David Akeman, a star of the Grand Ole Opry and the television show Hee Haw. Wearing a long nightshirt and pair of pants belted together below his thighs, the embodiment of a human string bean, he worked his way into the hearts of fans around the […]
NEWS The latest class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been announced. It includes Willie Nelson, 90, along with Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Kate Bush, George Michael, The Spinners, and Rage Against the Machine. The induction ceremony will be held in November at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. CMT News reports […]