NEWS Mel Tillis, 83, underwent emergency colon surgery at Nashville’s Centennial Medical Center on January 8. The Tennessean reported on January 15 that reports indicating Mel was in frail health were overstated. After several weeks of recovery, he plans to be back in action. The surgery prevented him from joining the scheduled Country Music Cruise […]
FEATURED ARTIST – RED STEAGALL When I called Red Steagall at his Fort Worth, Texas, office the other day, he told me he’d first visited Sioux Falls at age twelve. Although he grew up in a “little bitty town in Texas,” he spent the five most important summers of his life on his uncle’s farm […]
NEWS A five-time national country music disc jockey of the year is retiring. Billy Parker, 78, made his radio debut in 1959 and has been on KVOO Radio in Tulsa continuously since 1971. The last taping of Billy Parker’s Country Junction took place on December 22. The playlist for his farewell show, which aired twice […]
FEATURED ARTIST – JOHNNY WESTERN “For the first time in 64 years, I have no schedule–and I’m loving it.” That’s what Johnny Western told me when I called him last week at his home in Mesa, Arizona. The little boy who lived in a CCC camp in the Minnesota north woods and dreamed of being […]
REMEMBERING FARON AND MARTY It’s been 19 years since Faron Young left this life on December 10, 1996, and 33 years since a heart attack took Marty Robbins on December 8, 1982. We remember them both fondly and never tire of listening to their music.
NEWS Tommy Overstreet (1937-2015) Tommy Overstreet, 78, died November 2 at home in Hillsboro, Oregon, of complications related to emphysema. His wife, Diane, said he suffered from heart and lung disease. Born in Oklahoma City and raised in Texas, he moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. His biggest hits were “Ann […]
FEATURED ARTIST – JAN HOWARD “If it sounds like fun, I’ll do it. If it doesn’t, I won’t.” That is the philosophy of Jan Howard, 83, who lives contentedly in her Nashville condo. “I’m thankful for every morning I wake up,” she told me when I called her the other day. “I’ve lost so many […]
NEWS Billy Joe Royal, 73, died in his sleep at his home in North Carolina on October 6. He had been planning to tour with Ronnie McDowell in November. He was born April 3, 1942, in Valdosta, Georgia. His debut single, “Down in the Boondocks,” was a pop hit in 1965. During the mid-1980s, he […]
FEATURED ARTIST – ED BRUCE “I’ve written a few hits,” Ed Bruce told me when I called him this past weekend. “That’s what I came to town to do–be a dedicated 24-hour-a-day musician/ songwriter.” His website lists some of those well-known songs, beginning with Charlie Louvin’s “See the Big Man Cry.” Ed was 23 at […]
This week we especially remember Marty Robbins, who would have been ninety years old this Saturday. He was born on a Saturday evening—9:55 on September 26, 1925, in the desert near Phoenix, Arizona. He only lived 57 years, but what memories he gave us. NEWS “I said all along I wasn’t going to tour […]