By Carrie Rodgers Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman, died in 1933 at age 35, following years of suffering from tuberculosis. In 1935, his wife, Carrie, kept her promise to write his biography. She privately published My Husband, Jimmie Rodgers, which was republished by Ernest Tubb in 1953 and the Country Music Foundation Press in 1975 […]
By Ruth Sheldon Hubbin’ It: The Life of Bob Wills was written by a fan, Ruth Sheldon, and privately published in 1938. It is one of four books recently republished in a cooperative effort by the Country Music Foundation Press and University of Illinois Press. The new title is Bob Wills: Hubbin’ It. Wills biographer […]
By Jewel Kilcher While I was working on Faron Young’s biography, sister Kayo and I visited steel player Ben Keith at his farm in 2000. He told us he’d just returned from California, where he’d produced his second album on Jewel. We’d heard of her, of course, but she was a pop singer, and I’ve […]
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 […]
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 […]
By the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum staff “What Was the First Country-Rock Record?” That is the title of one essay in Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock, the companion book to a multi-year exhibition currently at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. In […]
By Steve Fishell Buddy Emmons is known as the world’s foremost steel guitarist from the latter half of the twentieth century. His musical and technological innovations revolutionized the pedal steel guitar, a console-type instrument with knee levers and foot pedals to alter the pitch of the strings. Brought to Nashville by singer Little Jimmy Dickens […]
By Don Reid Don Reid describes his latest novel, Piano Days, as “just one big Statler Brothers song without the music.” And that’s how I felt while reading it. I’ve been a Statler Brothers fan since they started recording country music in the 1960s. Reid was the quartet’s lead singer and primary songwriter. In the […]
By Hank Snow, with Jack Ownbey and Bob Burris One of the famous singers from my youth who seems to be forgotten today is Hank Snow. I don’t hear his name mentioned or his songs played on classic country stations. He was Mom’s favorite singer. I can remember her singing “Let me go, let me […]
By Brenda Lee with Robert Oermann and Julie Clay When Brenda Lee published her autobiography in 2002, I purchased a copy to use as source material for my Faron Young biography. Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee was co-written with Robert Oermann and Julie Clay. Her first-person story is interspersed throughout […]