Speech at Sertoma Club by Diane Diekman, July 23, 2024 Good afternoon. Thank you, Ray [Brooks], for inviting me here today, and thanks to all of you for being interested in the Battleship South Dakota Memorial. I would like to introduce Karen Dunham, one of my fellow board members, who is with me today. She […]
NEWS Congratulations to Jeannie Seely, who was featured last week in PEOPLE, shortly after celebrating her 84th birthday. She has released a new single, a Dottie West song called “Suffertime.” Jeannie says, “I’m not retired; I just quit working. They’re two different things. I only do what I enjoy. If it sounds like too much […]
CONCERT REVIEW—NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND After nearly 60 years, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is on its farewell tour. Playing its “last traditionally scheduled gigs,” the band isn’t saying goodbye forever, only to multi-city runs and long bus rides. All the Good Times: The Farewell Tour lasts from March through July. It stopped at the […]
NEWS George Wayne Hobbs, 72, of New Carlisle, Ohio, died June 10, 2024, surrounded by loved ones at home, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Born in 1951 in Virginia, he moved with his family to New Carlisle and later graduated from Tecumseh High School. His obituary says his two passions in his early years […]
CONCERT REVIEW—TIM MCGRAW The Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls recently hosted concerts by Chris Stapleton and Tim McGraw, two weeks apart. Both singers filled the 12,000-seat event center.
NEWS On Monday, May 20, the New York Times reported that Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion (built in 1939) in Memphis, Tennessee, was scheduled to be auctioned off at the Shelby County courthouse on Thursday. A notice from the Shelby County Courthouse stated that Graceland and its surrounding property would be sold for cash to the […]
NEWS Randy Travis has a song on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for the first time since 2009, when he and Carrie Underwood reached No. 2 with “I Told You So.” The AI-generated recording of “Where That Came From” debuted at No. 45 on May 10, one week after the song’s release, with over 3.3 million […]
Happy birthday to Randy Travis on Saturday. CD REVIEW– JOHN MCEUEN’S THE NEWSMAN: A MAN OF RECORD One of the musicians who founded the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1966 was John McEuen. Other than a 15-year hiatus for a solo career, he stayed with fellow founding members Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden until the […]
NEWS During her Saturday night Opry segment on April 6, Jeannie Seely introduced Cutter & Cash and The Kentucky Grass as her special guests. The young West Kentucky bluegrass ensemble performed their new Seely-produced single, a bluegrass version of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Their second song was “I’m Working […]
NEWS George Strait’s manager of 45 years, Erv Woolsey, 80, died March 20 in Clearwater, Florida, due to complications from surgery. MusicRow reports he “passed peacefully under the care of physicians.” Eugene Ervine “Erv” Woolsey was born in Houston on February 15, 1944, and spent his entire professional life in the music business. After graduating […]