FAREWELL TO RAY EMMETT Ray Emmett died in Nashville on June 2, 2013, at the age of 75. He had been ill for quite awhile. Ray fronted Faron Young’s Country Deputies band and played electric bass from 1973-1980 and from 1988 until the end. He also sang harmony on Faron’s records. Ray hosted one of […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. It’s been a year since the University of Illinois Press published Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins and reissued Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story in soft cover. Belmont Book Award Presentation
Marty Robbins 57 years ago On May 19, 1956, Marty hosted the Prince Albert portion of the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. He’d been a guest numerous times in the past five years on this prestigious half-hour NBC radio show. When time came to recite the Prince Albert jingle, “Nature in her own […]
Faron and Marty 54 years ago On April 7, 1959, Faron Young returned from a Hawaiian tour. His band, the Country Deputies, traveled there with him, as did his wife, Hilda. Other entertainers were Webb Pierce and Roy Drusky. Also on April 7, 1959, Marty Robbins, in an 8-hour session in Nashville, recorded all twelve tracks […]
February 1932 Faron Young was born in a two-bedroom rental house in Shreveport, Louisiana, on February 25, 1932. At that time, out in Arizona, Martin David Robinson and his twin sister were first graders at Sunnyside School in Cactus, 12 miles north of Phoenix. Their family had moved the previous summer into an abandoned two-room […]
We lost them in December December 8 marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Marty Robbins, and December 10 was the 16th anniversary of the death of Faron Young. I observed the dates by wrapping myself in their music–which never grows old.
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. The University of Illinois Press published Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins and reissued Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story in soft cover earlier this year. Has anyone downloaded either biography as an e-book? If so, I’d like to hear about it. Music in […]
E-BOOK UPDATE Twentieth Century Drifter and Live Fast, Love Hard are now both available on Amazon Kindle. Yeah!! They are supposed to be on Barnes & Noble Nook also. Someone please let me know if you find them there.
FARON YOUNG TWENTY YEARS AGO On August 7, 1992, Faron Young recorded Live in Branson, MO, USA at Gilley’s Theatre. Faron said, “This is the first live album I’ve ever made.” He usually gave onstage songs a new personality instead of wanting them to sound like the record. Listening to the CD brings me back […]
MARTY ROBBINS FORTY YEARS AGO In late July 1972, Marty filmed his singing western, The Drifter, at Apacheland near Phoenix, Arizona. The movie’s name was changed to Guns of a Stranger at the request of Clint Eastwood’s company, so as not to conflict with Eastwood’s latest movie, High Plains Drifter. This agreement must have disappointed […]