FEATURED ARTIST – BECKY HOBBS
I’ve been a fan of Becky Hobbs since hearing her songs on the radio while I lived in Oklahoma City in the late ’70s. We’re the same age, and I identified with her music. I’ve played All Keyed Up many, many times since the album came out in 1988. I finally got to meet Beckaroo at her show in Sioux Falls several years ago. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame last year.

When I called her at home in Nashville to catch up on what she’s doing, she told me ninety percent of her time is devoted to her musical, NANYEHI — The Story of Nancy Ward. “I’m a Cherokee Nation citizen,” Becky says, and Nanyehi [non-yay-hee] was her 5th-great grandmother. Nanyehi, who lived from 1738-1822, was first a Cherokee war woman and then a famous peacemaker known as Nancy Ward. (more…)

NEWS

Sonny James 1928-2016
Sonny James, 87, died February 22 in hospice in Nashville, Tennessee. James Hugh “Sonny Boy” Loden, born May 1, 1928, in Hackleburg, Alabama, received his first mandolin at age three. His father made it from a molasses bucket. He also learned to play guitar and fiddle, and became a teenaged fiddle champion. As a member of the Alabama National Guard, Sonny went to Korea with his unit in September 1950. After returning from the Korean War, he moved to Nashville in search of a music career. Chet Atkins, whom he’d met as a child when the Loden family was playing road gigs, introduced him to Ken Nelson. The Capitol Records producer suggested the easier-to-remember stage name of Sonny James. (more…)