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Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 23 November 2016

NEWS  Holly Dunn (1957-2016) Holly Dunn, 59, died November 14 in a hospice facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, surrounded by family and friends. She’d sent me this email on April 6th: “I have some unfortunate news to report, and I do so only because I believe in the power of prayer and hope to stir […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 9 November 2016

FEATURED ARTISTS – JACK BLANCHARD & MISTY MORGAN “Things are kind of quiet with us right now,” Jack Blanchard told me last week over the phone. “We’re not doing any traveling.” Jack and his wife, Misty Morgan, are best known for their 1970 hit, “Tennessee Birdwalk.” They aren’t touring right now because they haven’t found […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 26 October 2016

NEWS  Bobby Vee (1943-2016) Robert Velline, 73, known as Bobby Vee, died October 24 of advanced Alzheimer’s disease, the Associated Press reports. Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he was 15 when a plane crash in Iowa killed Buddy Holly, and a call went out for local acts to do the scheduled show at the Moorhead […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 12 October 2016

NEWS  Al Dean (1931-2016) Al Dean, 85, leader of Al Dean & the All Stars, passed away in hospice care in San Antonio, Texas, on October 3. “Al had been battling cancer,” Heart of Texas Records president Tracy Pitcox announced. Al formed his first band in 1952 and played dances all over Texas. He is […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter – 28 September 2016

REMEMBERING MARTY ROBBINS ON HIS 91ST BIRTHDAY Martin David Robinson was born September 26, 1925, in a shack on the desert at the edge of Glendale, Arizona. When he died of a heart attack in 1982, he was a 57-year-old country music star known as Marty Robbins. Now, on what would have been his 91st […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter – 14 September 2016

NEWS Hoot Hester (1951-2016) Hubert Dwane “Hoot” Hester, a founding member of The Time Jumpers band and fiddle player with the Grand Ole Opry staff band, died of cancer on August 30. Born on a small Kentucky farm, he spent 43 of his 65 years making music in Nashville. In addition to being a session […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter – 31 August 2016

NEWS Country Music Nation reports, “Only one day after her 59th birthday, we have some heartbreaking news to report about Holly Dunn. The country music icon has been diagnosed with cancer.” The article then quotes from a June 19 interview with Hallels and adds, “News about it didn’t really start circulating until August 22. Country […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter – 17 August 2016

FEATURED ARTIST – SHERWIN LINTON Sherwin Linton is running for President of the United States. His slogan is “You Do Have a Choice” and his platform is “Stop Child Abuse.” He ran once before, in 1980, during the Reagan-Carter faceoff. Although not on the ballot, he received more than thirty write-in votes in his home […]

Diane’s Country Music Newsletter — 20 July 2016

FEATURED ARTIST – FREDDIE HART “One of the greatest things that ever happened to me” was time in the Marine Corps, Freddie Hart told me when I called him several weeks ago. He was 14 when his parents signed the papers for him to enlist in 1942. He’d already spent a year in the Civilian […]