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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
NEWS TG Sheppard reported on Facebook that last week’s “Stars Behind The Stars” benefit for the Dallas Police raised over $148,000. He posted this photo of himself and Randy Travis:
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 […]
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 […]