IN THE SPOTLIGHT – MO PITNEY When Mo Pitney returned my call last Monday night, he said, “I just left the studio. We put the final vocal on our record. So we’re a little closer to having it put out.” He remembered seeing me at his Sisseton, South Dakota, concert in November. And he appeared […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – MOE BANDY When I called Moe Bandy to ask if he had time for a conversation, he was in the middle of a family Christmas party at his home in Branson, Missouri. Still, he took a few minutes to talk to me. He had just returned from Las Vegas, where he’d […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – JOE STAMPLEY It’s been almost four years since I featured Joe Stampley in this newsletter. shortly after his heart bypass surgery (http://dianediekman.com/dianes-country-music-newsletter-10-february-2016). When I called him for an update, he told me he feels good. “The thing that hurt me more than anything,” he said, “four months after my bypass surgery, […]
CONCERT REVIEW – KRIS KRISTOFFERSON When I stepped up to the ticket window at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, and asked for one ticket to see Kris Kristofferson and the Strangers, the lady said, “We have one free ticket. Would you like that, or would you rather buy one?” The free ticket was in […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – DAVID BALL The first time I saw David Ball in concert was when he opened for Alan Jackson in the mid-1990s at the US Air Arena in Maryland, east of Washington DC. I lived in Virginia and had to drive halfway around the beltway, into unfamiliar territory, to get to his […]
CONCERT REVIEW – DOUG STONE My sister, Kayo Paver, went with me recently to Sisseton, South Dakota, to see Doug Stone at the Sisseton Performing Arts Center. We talked to him briefly before the show. I told him my favorite song of his is “Fourteen Minutes Old.” He and his wife, Jade, had just driven […]
MUSIC FESTIVAL IN FREMONT Bob Everhart invited me to come to Fremont, Nebraska, to talk about and sell my books at the 44th National Old Time Country & Bluegrass Festival. Bob and his wife, Sheila, who operate the nonprofit National Traditional Country Music Association, moved their festival from its previous location in LeMars, Iowa. The […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – KENNY SEARS “I’m kind of in a new phase of enjoying my old age,” Kenny Sears told me during our telephone conversation last week. “I’m learning to do a pretty good job of it. I’ve learned to lay on the couch some.” Kenny, who was inducted into The National Fiddler Hall […]
This week we remember Marty Robbins, who would have celebrated his 94th birthday tomorrow. RANDY TRAVIS RESEARCH TRIP My big news is that I signed a contract with the University of Illinois Press to write my third biography. The subject is Randy Travis. To begin the research, I headed east with my sister, Lorraine “Kayo” […]
NEWS The 53rd CMA Awards show will be held November 13. For the first time since the Musician of the Year category was added in 1988, there is a female nominee. Fiddle player Jenee Fleenor, a member of Blake Shelton’s band, was nominated along with guitarist Mac McAnally (who has won 10 of the last […]