MAN OF THE DECADE – Forty Years Ago Three months after his triple-bypass heart surgery, Marty Robbins attended the fifth annual Academy of Country and Western Music awards banquet, held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on April 13, 1970. There he received the ACM’s first “Man of the Decade” trophy, for the decade […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and the publication goal for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is 2012. Thanks to Gary Presley for reviewing the manuscript; I’m now cutting words […]
FIRST RECORDING SESSIONS FOR FARON YOUNG AND MARTY ROBBINS Faron Young’s first Capitol recording session took place at the Castle Studio in Nashville’s Tulane Hotel on March 1, 1952. Faron hadn’t yet moved from Shreveport to Nashville. Sidemen included Floyd Cramer on piano and Jimmy Day on steel guitar, with Ken Nelson as producer. “Have […]
FARON YOUNG’S BIRTHPLACE Faron was born in a little two-bedroom rental house on Hoadley Street in Shreveport, Louisiana, on February 25, 1932. The family soon moved around the corner to Seymour Street. Here’s a photo of the corner of Seymour and Hoadley today. The pole is in the location where Faron’s house stood. Well, I […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and the publication goal for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is 2012. Today I completed the first draft of Marty’s biography–30 chapters. I’ll take […]
MARTY ROBBINS, WEBB PIERCE, AND CARL SMITH IN BUFFALO GUN Marty narrates this 1956 movie, beginning with, “That there’s Webb Pierce, and that’s Carl Smith, and that’s me, Marty Robbins. Sure can’t figure out why but we’re all in–” and the Jordanaires start singing “Buffalo Gun.” At the end of the song, narrator Marty says, […]
MARTY ROBBINS AND RICHARD CHILDRESSI sometimes describe biography writing as fitting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. For me, it’s pure excitement whenever a piece snaps into place. I experienced the feeling recently when working on the chapter about Marty’s 1974 NASCAR races. I had just described his career-high fifth place finish at Michigan and […]
THE CHRISTMAS ALBUMS OF FARON YOUNG AND MARTY ROBBINS Faron Young recorded an album of Christmas songs in 1979 for television sales. I couldn’t find a photo of the cover of A Christmas Card From Faron, perhaps because it was recorded for a private label and is rare. The album was reissued twice, as Silver […]
This week marks the anniversary of when we lost Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Marty died of a heart attack on December 8, 1982, at age 57, and Faron died of a self-inflicted bullet wound on December 10, 1996, at age 64. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University […]
“EL PASO” IS FIFTY YEARS OLD For the past two months I’ve been working on Marty Robbins chapters that talk about “El Paso” and the gunfighter ballads. Then one day I was shocked to realize this was FIFTY years go. I’m always a decade behind, and I’d thought it was forty years. Ranger Doug Green […]