NEWS Ralph Stanley (1927-2016) On June 23, Ralph Stanley, 89, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Coebun, Virginia. He had been suffering from skin cancer. Born and raised in southwest Virginia, Ralph and his brother Carter formed a group called the Stanley Brothers and their Clinch Mountain Boys. Carter died of liver […]
NEWS Chips Moman (1937-2016) Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman, 79, died June 13 in his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia. He co-wrote “Luckenbach, Texas” and “The Wurlitzer Prize” (Waylon Jennings), “Hey Won’t You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (B.J. Thomas), and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (Barbara Mandrell). He produced recordings for the Highwaymen, […]
CORN PALACE CONCERT REVIEW Jeannie Seely, Johnny Lee, and Mickey Gilley performed in concert two weeks ago at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. It was most enjoyable to hear all that familiar classic country music. Jeannie opened the show with an energetic “My Window Faces the South” and followed with “Leaving and Saying […]
Below is the speech I gave on May 30, 2016, at American Legion Post 131 in Valley Springs, South Dakota. Welcome to today’s ceremony and thank you for being here. This is one of those few years when Memorial Day falls on both the traditional date of May 30th and the last Monday in May. […]
SPECIAL PROMOTION – E-BOOK SALE The University of Illinois Press is running a special promotion that includes a sale on the e-book versions of Twentieth Century Drifter and Live Fast, Love Hard. NEWS Johnny Seay (1940-2016) Johnny Seay, 75, was killed Saturday afternoon, May 14, in a crop-dusting plane crash near West, Texas. His crop […]
FEATURED ARTIST – BILL MACK “I’ll never, ever want to retire,” Bill Mack told me when I called him the other day. He was sitting in the studio he’d built in his Fort Worth, Texas, home in 2001 when he joined XM Satellite Radio. He’d spent three decades as the Midnight Cowboy on WBAP Radio […]
NEWS Merle Haggard (1937-2016) Merle Haggard died at his Palo Cedro ranch in California on his 79th birthday, April 6. His youngest son, Ben Haggard, 23, posted on Facebook at 1:07 pm: “A week ago dad told us he was gonna pass on his birthday, and he wasn’t wrong. An hour ago he took his […]
NEWS The newest member of the Country Music Hall of Fame is RANDY TRAVIS. The Country Music Association hosted a press conference March 29 to present the 2016 inductees for the Country Music Hall of Fame. Brenda Lee introduced the three inductees–Fred Foster in the non-performer division, Charlie Daniels in the veterans’ era artist category, […]
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 […]
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 […]