By Michael Jarrett Producing Country: The Inside Story of the Great Recordings examines how the process of recording country music has changed since Ralph Peer began capturing performances on acetate in 1927. “Musicians make music. Producers make recordings,” explains author Michael Jarrett, an English professor at Penn State University. He interviewed 51 record producers for […]
FEATURED ARTIST – TOMMY CASH Tommy Cash is celebrating fifty years as a recording and touring artist. His first single, released in January 1965, was “If the World Don’t End, I Guess I’ll Live.” He worked over 225 dates a year with his band, the Tomcats, for 25 years, much of it traveling in the […]
NEWS Little Jimmy Dickens 1920-2015 Little Jimmy Dickens died January 2, 2015, of cardiac arrest, after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day. His last Opry performance was December 20, a day after his 94th birthday. Born in Bolt, West Virginia, he was the eldest of 13 children. He is survived by his wife, Mona Dickens, […]
FEATURED ARTIST – DIANA TRASK Diana Trask came to us originally from Melbourne, Australia, and she now lives in Georgia. She was 19 when hired in 1959 to tour Australia with the Frank Sinatra show. Two years later, she moved to the USA to be a regular on the NBC-TV series Sing Along With Mitch. […]
As the biographer of Faron Young and Marty Robbins, I bring you these newsletters to connect classic country music fans around the world. Feel free to forward this email to your friends, and tell them to send me an email if they want to be added to the list. I welcome your comments and ideas. […]
NEWS Two formerly famous homes are for sale in Madison, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb. During the town’s heyday, according to the Tennessean, “seemingly everyone there knew someone performing on the Grand Ole Opry, and they lived in the neighborhood west of Gallatin Road in ranch homes on large, mostly unfenced lots.” The 12-acre expanse at […]
By Tamara Saviano When I saw the title of Tamara Saviano’s memoir, The Most Beautiful Girl, I immediately thought of the Charlie Rich song from my young Navy days: “Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world? And if you did, was she crying, crying?” And it is the song […]
By Tanya Tucker with Patsi Bale Cox Tanya Tucker, with the assistance of celebrity biographer Patsi Bale Cox, wrote her autobiography in 1997, at age 39. Nickel Dreams: My Life tells the story of this feisty gal with a powerful voice and a personality to match. She had her first hit at age 13, and […]
NEWS Kenny Rogers has scheduled a “Farewell Down Under Tour” for January and February in Australia and New Zealand. He has toured there as a member of the First Edition, with Dolly Parton, with Reba McEntire, and on several solo tours. He says this will be his last. The tour begins in Sydney, followed by […]
FEATURED ARTIST – REDD VOLKAERT Merle Haggard’s former lead guitar player, Redd Volkaert, is enjoying life in Austin, Texas. “I’m busy all the time–or trying to be, anyway,” he told me when I called him the other night. He has two steady gigs at the Continental Club, with his own 4-piece band on Saturday and […]