THE YOUNG SHERIFF & HIS COUNTRY DEPUTIES 50 YEARS AGO In 1960, Faron Young’s Country Deputies band consisted of lead guitarist Odell Martin, steel player Ben Keith, drummer Roger Miller, and new frontman Darrell McCall on electric bass. When Faron had decided to add drums a year earlier, Roger Miller needed a job and agreed […]
“DON’T WORRY” BY MARTY ROBBINS Fifty years ago this week, Marty Robbins recorded “Don’t Worry” and inadvertently created a new sound–the fuzz tone. The song idea popped into Marty’s head when he was sitting at a stoplight on Thompson Lane one night, and he wrote the song by the time he reached his house in […]
THE COWBOY IN THE CONTINENTAL SUIT “The Cowboy in the Continental Suit” hit the charts in June 1964 and climbed to number three. Marty Robbins had worn a European-cut continental suit during a movie premier, and a newspaper called him “the cowboy in the continental suit.” Marty thought that was a neat title for a […]
“LIVE FAST, LOVE HARD, DIE YOUNG” — 55 YEARS OLD Faron Young achieved his first number one Billboard hit this week in 1955. It was a busy year. He had become the Young Sheriff with his Country Deputies in May, he was getting ready to go to Hollywood to make his first movie, Hidden Guns, […]
MANUSCRIPT UPDATE I emailed the completed manuscript of Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins last week and received this response from the editor: “I’ve read your Marty Robbins manuscript with pleasure and am sending it out to two readers for formal assessment. I anticipate having their comments back by midsummer. Thanks for your […]
OFFICE OF MARTY ROBBINS In 1968 Marty Robbins considered tearing down the two-and-a-half-story house that served as his office at 713 18th Avenue South in Nashville. He hired an architect to prepare preliminary sketches for a three-story office building but eventually chose to build a one-story addition at the rear of the old house. Lucy […]
NASHVILLEThere are no words to express what is happening in Nashville right now. Here’s a photo from the Internet showing the flooding inside the Opry House. The stage is under water. The Grand Ole Opry museum next door must also be under water–the one place we could go to visualize Marty Robbins sitting at his […]
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 […]