By Wayne Warner Backstage Nashville: The Undisclosed Story of a Major Label Recording Artist is Wayne Warner’s memoir of his life as a musician in the country music world. Warner talks about touring the country and headlining shows where he followed Lonestar and “Amazed,” Josh Turner and “Long Black Train,” and Billy Ray Cyrus of […]
NEWS BookAuthority’s “81 Best Country Music Books of All Time” lists the 2019 Randy Travis memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen as its number one choice. Number four is 2016’s Whisperin’ Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music. Imagine my surprise to find this title at number fourteen: Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty […]
NEWS A second member of my favorite singing group, the Statler Brothers, is gone. Harold Reid, 80, died at home in Staunton, Virginia, on April 24, following a long battle with kidney failure. In 1964, the Statler Brothers (Harold, brother Don Reid, Lew DeWitt, and Phil Balsley) drove to Roanoke to see Johnny Cash in […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – BILL ANDERSON When I checked in with Bill Anderson last week, he told me, “I’ve got a three-point thing I’ve been trying to do: Stay in, stay safe, and stay sane. I’m doing pretty good on the first two; I don’t know how I’m doing on the last one.” Bill is […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – TERRY SMITH The best $100 Terry Smith ever spent was for a 12-cassette course by Peter C. Knickles, called Doing Music and Nothing Else. He purchased it about the time he retired from teaching in 1996. The course “covered the music business from A to Z,” Terry told me during our […]
NEWS Kenny Rogers (1938-2020) On March 20, Kenny Rogers, 81, died peacefully at home while in hospice care. He was surrounded by his family, Variety reports. Due to the national COVID-19 emergency, the family will hold a small private service now and a public memorial at a later date.
By Heather Cox Richardson In her new book, How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America, Heather Cox Richardson says oligarchy and democracy are two incompatible ideologies woven into the fabric of this nation. While readers may disagree with her premise, and many will, it […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – JEANNIE SEELY “I’m so proud of this area of Nashville, that people are all pulling together to help each other,” Jeannie Seely told me when I called her last week. “The tornado has left such destruction here, and such heartache.” She knows of what she speaks. She lost all her possessions […]
This week we think back 88 years, to February 25, 1932, the day a little boy was born in a two-bedroom rental home in Shreveport, Louisiana. Five-year-old Dorothy Young stood in the front yard and yelled at those passing by, “We got a new baby brother!” Faron Young remains in our hearts and in our […]
NEWS The last original member of the Kingston Trio has died. Bob Shane of Phoenix, Arizona, died of complications from pneumonia on January 26, a few days before his 86th birthday. He, Dave Guard, and Nick Reynolds formed the Kingston Trio in the 1950s and won a Grammy for Country & Western Performance for “Tom […]