Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 1 April 2026
NEWS
When the Country Music Hall of Fame opened its live stream to reveal the 2026 inductees on March 20, I was sitting at my computer. Following welcomes by CMA CEO Sarah Trahern and CMHOF CEO Kyle Young, Marty Stuart came to the microphone to announce the songwriter inductee. When Marty said “he” (which knocked out all female songwriters) was born in Mississippi in 1955, I guessed Paul Overstreet. Completing his introduction, Marty introduced Paul, who came onstage for his speech. He said he came to Nashville “by myself at a time in my life that I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life.” He added, “You don’t get here alone.” Marty moved onto the veteran artist category, which recognizes those who came to prominence before 1980. When he said they were born in Virginia in 1925 and 1927, the Stanley Brothers popped into my mind—Ralph and it took me a minute to come up with Carter. Their kids accepted their award, Carter’s daughter, Ralph’s daughter, and Ralph Stanley II, who has fronted the Clinch Mountain Boys since his dad’s death. Last was the modern era artist, who must have achieved prominence at least 20 years ago. As soon as Marty said he was born in 1967, and his wife was from Starr, Mississippi, I knew it would be Tim McGraw. That was confirmed when Marty said the artist had discovered a birth certificate at age eleven that showed he was the son of a famous baseball player. Tim said in his speech that he came to Nashville the night Keith Whitley died. He’d gone to a bar near the Hall of Fame, where he met several songwriters and they jammed all night. Someone called early in the morning to say Keith Whitley had passed away.
Country and bluegrass musician Ronnie Bowman, 64, died March 22 at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, following a motorcycle accident in Ashland City, Tennessee. the previous day. Born in 1961 in Mount Airy, North Carolina, he started playing in a family band at age 3, according to his website. He gained national recognition as a member of the Lonesome River Band in the 1990s and became a defining force in bluegrass; he also recorded number of solo records. A respected songwriter, he co-wrote hits recorded by Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Chris Stapleton, and others.
Sponsored by the Nashville-based nonprofit Music City Christian Fellowship, Sunday Mornin’ Country will once again wrap up the CMA Music Fest. It takes place Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m. on the Grand Ole Opry House stage and is the longest-running Country/Gospel event during the music festival. The family-friendly lineup includes Charlie McCoy, Cowboy Joe & The Babcocks, Cutter & Cash and The Kentucky Grass, Dianne Sherrill, Jimmy Fortune, John Berry, John McEuen, Mandy Barnett, and more. Charlie McCoy says in a press release, “I have been playing the Sunday Morning Country show since the Hee Haw days when Joe Babcock recruited me. I must say that I love the show and look forward to it every year.”
“We can announce now that I’m one of the investors and one of the owners of LEGACY MOTOR CLUB,” says Darius Rucker, 59. He joins Jimmie Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club as a co-owner. Armando Christian Pérez, 45, better known as the rapper Pitbull, had been the only active musician to work with a NASCAR team as an owner, until he left in 2025. “You might think these two worldwide superstars are the only musicians who found themselves involved in NASCAR and motorsports,” reports Essentially Sports. “But no, there is someone who did it before them on a much grander scale and in a way you wouldn’t expect him to. Back in the 1950s and ’60s, Marty Robbins was known for being one of the best country singers.” The article goes on to talk about Marty’s music career and how he became a NASCAR driver and owner of Robbins Racing. It mentions the 1972 Winston 500 where Marty admitted to removing the restrictor plates just to experience racing at the front of the pack. It credits Marty for “potentially saving the life of Richard Childress” in 1974 when he crashed his car into the wall to avoid hitting Childress. “Marty Robbins was the original singer turned NASCAR superstar,” the Essentially Sports article concludes. “He walked so that the likes of Pitbull and Darius Rucker could run today.”
At a recent sold-out event at the Opry House to support the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund, reports MusicRow, promoter Brian O’Connell was presented with the Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award. O’Connell serves as President of Country Music Touring and Festivals for Live Nation. Over his more than 30-year career, he has been honored with the CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award, is a ten-time winner of the Academy of Country Music’s Promoter of the Year award, a six-time winner of the Country Music Association’s Talent Buyer/Promoter of the Year award and currently serves on the CMA Board of Directors. The Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award was established over a decade ago to recognize the distinguished career of the veteran country radio host. Past honorees include Joe Galante (2015), Jim Ed Norman (2016), Lorianne Crook & Charlie Chase (2017), Clarence Spalding (2018), Lon Helton (2019), Bart Herbison & Erika Wollam Nichols (2023), Sarah Trahern (2024), and Scott Borchetta (2025).
Country Radio Broadcasters (CRB) recognized Clint Black with the 2026 CRB Career Achievement Award during Bob Kingsley’s Acoustic Alley at the recent Country Radio Seminar (CRS), reports MusicRow. Steve Wariner, the 2018 recipient, surprised Clint with the award during his performance. The CRB Career Achievement Award is presented to artists who have made significant contributions to country radio and country music through leadership, engagement, and creativity. Past honorees include Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, The Judds, and Merle Haggard.
When Tim McGraw got a phone call from his management team asking him to join a conference call about his upcoming tour, he braced for bad news. Tim tells Country Now that he and his wife, Faith Hill, were in New York City when the call came. “The only thing I could think of was, well, the tour sales aren’t going very well,” he says, “so they’re going to tell me I’m going to have to cancel some shows.” Then, CMA CEO Sarah Trahern joined the call, and Tim wondered why she would be on a call about his tour. “And then they told me what was going on and I had them stop and repeat,” he says. “I said, ‘I really don’t understand what you’re saying right now.’” Sarah said, “Tim, you’re going into the Hall of Fame.” Following the public announcement, Tim was looking at the Hall of Fame plaques of his musical heroes, he tells Country Now: “When I saw Merle Haggard there. I just had to stop and stare at it for a minute because he’s my all-time number one favorite, ever. And when I saw his plaque, I just couldn’t believe that I’m actually going to be in the same room with Merle Haggard forever.”
Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes, a collection of previously unheard Don Williams tracks, will be released May 29 via Craft Recordings, according to MusicRow. The tapes were found in the cellar of the Williams family’s rural Tennessee home and were brought to Garth Fundis, who co-produced Don’s records for four decades. The tapes cover the period 1979-1984, when Don’s hits included “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” “I Believe in You,” and “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good.” Don’s son, Tim Williams, served as Executive Producer on the project. Musicians included Joe Allen on bass, Kenny Malone on drums and congas, Charles Cochran on piano and organ, Lloyd Green on steel, and Jimmy Colvard, Dave Kirby, and Billy Sanford on guitar. “Don liked every one of these songs,” says Garth Fundis. “If a song didn’t make it to an album, it was because of how songs fit together to create an album. I think he’d be thrilled to know that people could hear him sing these new songs they didn’t know existed. I’m certain Don would be proud of this album.”
While the final Alan Jackson show (Last Call: One More for the Road — the Finale) will take place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on June 27, that doesn’t mean Alan is retiring from the music business. He is creating a new festival, Alan Jackson’s 5 O’clock Somewhere Fest, which debuts June 12-13 at the Palm Beaches, Florida. The name comes from Alan’s timeless hit with Jimmy Buffett in 2003. Ella Langley and Old Dominion will headline the musical acts, which include Clint Black, Shenandoah, John Anderson, Rodney Atkins, Dylan Scott, and several more. Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band will also perform.
Singer/songwriter Chip Taylor, 86, died in hospice care on March 23, reports MusicRow. A 2016 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was best known for writing the classic rock hit “Wild Thing” for the Troggs and “Angel of the Morning” for Juice Newton. He was the younger brother of actor Jon Voight and was born James Wesley Voight in Yonkers, New York, in 1940. He initially recorded songs under the name Wes Voight and then realized his true strength was in writing songs for others. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, Emmylou Harris, and Anne Murray are some of the country singers who recorded his songs. Chip founded his own label, Train Wreck Records, in 1997 and released two dozen solo projects.
The second annual event of Band As One Nashville Concert for the Cure: Trisha Yearwood & Friends was held March 22 at the Opry House and hosted by Susan G. Komen, the world’s leading breast cancer organization. MusicRow reports $850,000 was raised for the fight against breast cancer. “It is always an honor to join forces with Susan G. Komen for this incredible event and to lend my voice to a cause that means so much,” Trisha Yearwood said. She and Reba McEntire concluded the evening’s all-star concert by singing the Linda Ronstadt classic, “When Will I Be Loved.” Reba presented Trisha with the Komen Promise Award in recognition of her unwavering commitment to advancing the fight against breast cancer.
The U.S. Army has suspended the AH-64 Apache helicopter aircrews who flew near Kid Rock’s house over the weekend, reports NBC News. Kid Rock (Robert Ritchie) posted a video on X showing him standing by the pool in his backyard as a military helicopter hovered for several seconds and another flew close by. A spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said the helicopters flew from Fort Campbell to Nashville and it was “entirely coincidental” that Nashville’s “No Kings” protests took place the same weekend. Whiskey Riff opines, “It’d be hard to conclude that the Apache helicopters hovering by Kid Rock’s place – and the singer being out on his deck with a camera person behind him ready to go – was a coincidence. I’m assuming that’s why it didn’t take long for the Army to move forward with the suspension of the aircrew. But I do wonder… if Kid Rock wouldn’t have posted the video of him saluting the helicopters, this probably wouldn’t have made headlines, right?”
The Hollywood Reporter announces the death of Robert Hinkle, 95, on March 3 in hospice care in Austin, Texas, after suffering head, back and neck injuries in a fall in his driveway five days earlier. He was the personal manager a longtime friend of Marty Robbins. Born in 1930 in Brownfield, Texas, Bob knew from age ten that he wanted to be a movie cowboy. First, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1948 and helped deliver supplies in the Berlin Airlift. He then worked as a rodeo cowboy and a movie cowboy. While competing in 1950 as a calf-roper and bulldogger in Moses Lake, Washington, Hinkle met his future wife, Sandra, then the Queen of the Rodeo. They married in June 1952 and were together for 73 years until her death last July. In 1956, he auditioned for the movie Giant and was hired as a dialogue coach after the director asked him, “Do you think you could teach Rock Hudson to talk like you?” By the time he began managing Marty Robbins in 1968, he was well experienced in producing and acting. He produced the Marty Robbins movies Country Music (1972), Atoka (1982), and Guns of a Stranger (1973). The “In Their Own Words” segment of my next newsletter will provide quotes from my lengthy interview with Bob Hinkle in 2009.
LETTERS
Doug Lippert writes from Carmel, Indiana, “A million kudos to Dave Pomeroy and AFM Local 257’s efforts to do well by their musicians. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing and making sure all the supporting talent is not taken advantage of is a noble endeavor, for sure. And I was so pleased to learn that Chet and Owen supported the union, as well.”
Ron Hogan in Nashville says, “A tidbit of info. One of the owners of Tootsies doesn’t allow Steel Guitar there. With such history there, that makes it sad. I played across the street at Rippy’s and ran into a similar problem playing steel. The sound man also told me the owner hates Steel and not to listen to his bologna while playing there.”
Dominique ‘Imperial’ Anglares writes from France, “Thank you very much for that great Country Music Newsletter. Always welcome and much appreciated. Thank you very much to Richard Sokolosky for his memories about The Louisiana Hayride, Jerry Kennedy, Linda Brannon, Tillman Franks, and other musicians. Our friends Margaret Lewis Warwick and Alton Warwick have worked hard to preserve the Louisiana Hayride’s musical legacy but never were able to build anything close to a museum. I wish this dream could come true, but it probably never will. Anyway, part of the Louisiana Hayride’s legacy and memories will be preserved on my side of the ocean as long as I will be on that old earth. Remember the old song by Jimmy and Johnny, ‘If You Don’t Somebody Else Will’!“
Ron Wood suggests, “I read Richard Sokolosky’s notes about needing a place ‘to leave them,’ referring to musical instruments that were used by his dad and other musicians on The Louisiana Hayride. It occurred to me that it might be proper to suggest The National Music Museum at USD at Vermillion as a place for those instruments. Maybe you already mentioned that to Richard. It seems proper since ‘National’ is part of that museum’s title.”
Diane: What a great idea, Ron. I hadn’t thought of that museum. The only name that came to my mind was Marty Stuart. Here’s the website for the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Ken Johnson says, “Great one-hour documentary from PBS that first aired last fall about Cincinnati-based King Records. Started in the 1940s, their roster included country, R&B and early rock & roll artists. For a time, King was one of the top record labels in the USA and run by one of the most unlikely record industry moguls of all time. The first half mostly features their country acts and includes some rare archival footage including clips from the Midwestern Hayride. One excellent performance is by Bonnie Lou. Mostly forgotten today, her first big hit was her 1953 recording of ‘Seven Lonely Days.’ That song was later recorded by Patsy Cline in 1961 as an album track and was a top 20 single for Jean Shepard in 1969. The entire film is available to view on YouTube. If you haven’t seen it yet, I think you will enjoy this often-overlooked chapter of country music history.”
Mike Johnson writes, “Nice issue and ‘Nashville’ piece. Sadly, I no longer have reason to go there since all of my friends have passed on; Jim & Gina Maxwell, owners, Globe Recording Studio; Jack & Ida Lawrence, owners, Lawrence Record Shop; Norma Boyle, owner, Dusty Road; John & Lois Shepherd, King & Queen of Lower Broadway; Robert Moore, founder, Robert’s Western Wear; Jim Stanton, owner Rich-R-Tone Records; and Louise Odum, manager, Western Clothing Outlet (she kept me well-dressed) to mention a close few, with Terry Smith (‘Far Side Banks of Jordan’) whose 21 January 2024 death marked the last of my longtime friends there. However, I’m able to revisit them through lots of good memories, photographs, and videos I took over the past four decades. Received this link a few days ago to the memorial service of Buzz Goertzen on June 1, 2025: . I first met Buzz in 1999 at Bob Everhart’s festival in Avoca, Iowa. An excellent yodeler for sure, he was a warm hearted, friendly person and fun to be around.”
Eric Calhoun says, “There was a guy I used to listen to, named Lee Arnold. The show was called On a Country Road, from the Mutual Broadcasting System. When MBS folded, the show went kaput. Any details? Eric, whose birthday is March 21, and wonders if I share birthday with any country artists.”
Diane: Lee Arnold was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 2002, and I’ll be writing about him shortly. Stay tuned.
Bobby Fischer reminisces, “At Figlio’s Bar on Music Row with Harlan Howard, Johnny MacRae, and Chet Atkins at a table, I had a good line: ‘Life’s too short no matter how long it lasts.’ Johnny and me wrote it with Richard Ross. A pal of mine at Figlio’s was the husband of Conway Twitty’s maid. I would give him a new song; she would show Conway. Got two Conway cuts like that, this one and ‘Not enough love to go around.’ Wish it worked that way today.”
Diane: That’s a great song, Bobby, and definitely the truth. I saw on YouTube that “Life’s Too Short (No Matter How Long It Lasts)” was released 1/1/1991. I thought, oh, 25 years ago. Then it struck me, and I had to double calculate to accept that it was 35 years ago.
Michael Green writes, “Thanks again for a great newsletter. I was so sorry to read about Stacy Harris’s death. I read her website regularly and she dug up some interesting information. By the time your next newsletter comes out, they will have announced Hall of Fame inductees. And if they ignore Dallas Frazier again in the songwriting category, they will show that they just don’t get it!”
Diane Jordan says, “I just read your newsletter, and I was so happy that you included my comments about Stacy Harris. Your newsletter reaches a huge number of people in the country music community, so I’m at peace tonight, knowing that Stacy is being remembered. I’m betting that Stacy somehow knows and is smiling!”
BOOK REVIEW
Writing about Lee Shannon’s induction into the Disc Jockey Hall of Fame reminded me to pull out his memoir, My 38 Years Between The Country Music Turntables, which he’d sent me when he published it in 2017. Reading the book made me realize I was once a Lee Shannon listener. WQIK in Jacksonville, Florida, was my radio station from 1982-85, and he was there twice in that period. The number of stations he worked at during his 38 years wore me out reading about them; I couldn’t imagine moving that many times. Lowen Slagle grew up in Nebraska and started in the radio business after a U.S. Navy tour on USS Colahan (DD 658) in the early 1950s. One of his first hard-learned lessons, he says, was this: “Do not leave a good paying job until you have a better one.” At about his fifth radio station, he acquired a new name when his WQUA boss in Moline, Illinois, did not want to give free advertising to the Schlegel drug stores. That’s when Lowen Slagle became Lee Shannon. He retired from radio after a mini stroke in 1996. This story will bring back memories to individuals familiar with the stations where Lee worked during those 38 years.
COUNTRY MUSIC DISC JOCKEY HALL OF FAME – 1998 (no inductions in 1997)
Bob Kingsley is one of the best known nationally syndicated Country radio personalities. In his honor, The Bob Kingsley Living Legend Award has been presented since 2015 during Country Radio Seminar. Bob was born in 1939 in San Francisco, California. He served in the United States Air Force as an announcer on Armed Forces Radio. Later, he worked his way up from overnight disc jockey to Program Director of KLAC, Los Angeles. In 1974, he became producer of American Country Countdown, hosted by Don Bowman, and replaced him as host four years later. In 2005, he left that show to begin his nationally syndicated Bob Kingsley’s Country Top 40, which he hosted until October 2019. He died of bladder cancer later that month, at age 80, in Weatherford, Texas.
Arkansas native Frank Page, born in 1925, started in radio by working on the air in Little Rock while in high school. He served in World War Two and was on the air at Armed Forces Radio in Berlin at the end of the war. In 1947, he started at KWKH Shreveport, Louisiana, and stayed there for more than fifty years. He became an announcer for the Louisiana Hayride program in 1949. He also did late night rhythm and blues shows as Brother Gatemouth. Frank’s book Elvis – The Hayride Years 54-56 was published in 2004. I interviewed him in 2002 for Faron Young’s biography. While hospitalized at WK Pierremont Health Center in Shreveport in 2013, he suffered a severe respiratory infection and died at age 87.
Paul Simpkins, born in 1923, is known for his thirty-two years at WBAM in Montgomery, Alabama. Beginning his radio career at age fifteen in McComb, Mississippi, he worked at several Mississippi radio stations before being hired in 1952 by WBAM, with the help of Jim Reeves and T. Tommy Cutrer. His Housewives Hit Parade show aired from 10:00-11:45 a.m. in 1957. In the 1970s, when WBAM was a top 40 station, Simpkins was the morning man at The Big. In 1989, he died at age 66 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Marty Sullivan, born Marion Ralph Sullivan Jr. in 1935 in Peoria, Illinois, started in radio in his hometown in 1950 and worked at several radio and TV stations around the country before landing at KWKH in Shreveport, where he was named the Country Music Association’s Medium Market Disc Jockey of the Year in 1977. He then moved to KNEW in San Francisco for sixteen years. In 1992, he returned to KWKH AM/FM as Operations Manager. In 1997, he became Program Director of KPOD in Crescent City, California. He died at age 63 in 1998.
Lee Shannon, born Lowen Lee Slagle in Nebraska in 1934, spent thirty-eight years in radio, as described in his 2017 memoir, My 38 Years Between the Country Music Turntables. But first, he did a tour in the U.S. Navy as a crew member on USS Colahan (DD 658). Shannon began his radio career in Nebraska in 1958. Over the years, he worked at KFDI Wichita, Kansas, WKBN Youngstown, Ohio, KSON San Diego, KWKH Shreveport, WQIK Jacksonville, Florida, and others before wrapping up his radio career at WOKF Folkston, Georgia, in 1996. He was the first person to win Country Music Association Disc Jockey of the Year more than once (1980 and 1984). I met him when he invited me to attend his USS Colahan reunion in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 2018. He was a frequent contributor to my newsletter, and I last heard from him in April 2021. Five months later, his daughter, Debbie, emailed me to say, “It is with great sadness that I notify you regarding my dad, Mr. Lee Shannon. On Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, he passed away at his home in Port Charlotte [Florida] with his wife and daughter by his side. He cherished your friendship and always looked forward to your newsletter.” He was 87 years old.