IN THE SPOTLIGHT – TONY BOOTH
Tony Booth initially planned to be a school teacher. He was majoring in education at the University of New Mexico when a friend invited him to join a band. Realizing music was his calling, he dropped out of school. “I started playing when I was 18 or 19 years old,” he told me during our recent phone conversation. “We played six nights a week, we had Sunday off, and I couldn’t wait for Monday, so I could get back and play on the bass.” Read the rest of this entry »

Today we remember Faron Young and Marty Robbins on the anniversaries of their deaths. Marty died December 8, 1982, at age 57. Faron died December 10, 1996, at age 64. Both gone too soon. Both never forgotten.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – NORMA JEAN
About the time I started watching The Porter Wagoner Show in the 1960s, Pretty Miss Norma Jean left the show and was replaced by Dolly Parton. Over the years, I enjoyed her music, songs such as “Let’s Go all the Way,” “I’m a Walking Advertisement (For the Blues),” and “I Wouldn’t Buy a Used Car From Him.” Read the rest of this entry »

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – JUSTIN TREVINO
Justin Trevino doesn’t remember his first public performance. He was three years old, sitting in a grocery cart while his mother did her shopping, when he belted out, “First time I shot her, I shot her in the side, hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died.” A shocked woman asked his embarrassed mother, “Ma’am, doesn’t he know any nursery rhymes?” Read the rest of this entry »

CONCERT REVIEW – MO PITNEY
Coteau Entertainment commemorated Veterans Day and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I with a Mo Pitney concert at the Sisseton Performing Arts Center. The event began with a color guard and Wade Johnson singing the Pledge of Allegiance. The 45-minute opening set by Just Between Friends consisted of country hits by singers who were military veterans.

Mo Pitney, after spending the morning hunting pheasants with his brother, Blake, and their dogs, took the stage and sat on a stool with his acoustic guitar. Read the rest of this entry »

NEWS
Freddie Hart (1926-2018)
Freddie Hart, 91, died October 27 in Burbank, California. Frederick Segrest, born in 1926 in Alabama, learned to play the guitar at age five. He quit school when he was 12 and lied his way into the Marine Corps at 15, where he served during World War II. After the war, he pursued a music career and taught self-defense classes at the Los Angeles Police Academy. He wrote and recorded the smash hit, “Easy Lovin’,” which won Song of the Year in 1971 at both ACM and CMA awards shows. Read the rest of this entry »

CONCERT REVIEW – LORRIE MORGAN
All seats in the Sisseton Performing Arts Center were filled this past Sunday evening for the Lorrie Morgan concert. A row of folding chairs handled the overflow. The nine-member Just Between Friends band opened the show with its usual great performance. Read the rest of this entry »

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – JANET ROBBINS
Janet Robbins (Robinson) is the daughter of Marty Robbins. When I contacted her to get an update for my newsletter, I was surprised to learn she’s living in England. She and her Alaskan Malamute-Husky, Max, arrived there on the Queen Mary on August 4, 2017. “If you’re going to move to another country,” she says, “going across the Atlantic on a ship is the way to do it.” Read the rest of this entry »

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – MARGIE SINGLETON
I couldn’t find Margie Singleton when I was writing Faron Young’s biography, but I’ve found her now–thanks to discovering Margie Singleton Walton on Facebook. During our recent phone chat, she brought me up to date on her life and her new music.

Back in the 1960s, 12 of her singles charted on Billboard. Her biggest was “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” a #5 duet with Faron in 1964. Read the rest of this entry »

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – JIMMY FORTUNE
“I’m at a really good place right now,” Jimmy Fortune said when he called me for our scheduled interview. “I feel like God’s not finished with me yet. I’m singing as good as I ever did, and I’m writing quite a bit.” He has had to build a new career since becoming a solo act after the Statler Brothers retired in 2002. Read the rest of this entry »

IN THE SPOTLIGHT – MO PITNEY
Morgan Daniel “Mo” Pitney is 25 years old and a native of Rockford, Illinois. He released his first single, “Country,” in 2014. He co-wrote the song with Bill Anderson and Bobby Tomberlin. His first album, Behind This Guitar, was issued in 2016.

On the day he called me, he was doing a series of interviews before heading out for a late-night bus trip to Kentucky. His family travels with him to show dates. Mo and his wife, Emily, have been married two-and-a-half years. Their daughter, Evelyne Nadine, was born in January 2017. Read the rest of this entry »