Here’s my periodic newsletter about “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story,” published last year by the University of Illinois Press, as well as progress on writing “Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins.” GRAND OLE OPRY AND MIDNITE JAMBOREE While in Nashville I attended the Saturday night Opry. (Thanks to Opry museum […]
The 25th annual International Country Music Conference at Belmont University in Nashville provided an enjoyable three days of information and socializing. I learned how Irene Williams spent her whole live preserving the name of her brother, Hank, and then suffered the shame of getting herself busted for running drugs. And the history of Crowley, Louisiana, […]
This is my periodic newsletter about “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story,” published last year by the University of Illinois Press, as well as progress on “Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins.” I’ve written four chapters and will continue after research trips to Nashville and Phoenix. INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY MUSIC CONFERENCE I’m […]
The law of attraction states that you attract what you think about. I learned this when I read “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books, 2006). Byrne asks, “Have you ever started to think about something you were not happy about, and the more you thought about it the worse it seemed? That’s because as […]
So many letters came in this past week that I’m sending another newsletter on “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story” and “Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins.” LETTERS Chris Young, Faron’s grandson, has a request for my readers. His email address is cy******@*tk.edu and he says, “I am Robyn’s son and […]
Marty Robbins didn’t talk his World War II combat experience in the South Pacific. He seemed to put it behind him during his life as a country music entertainer, Nashville businessman, and NASCAR driver. Because he died in 1982 at age 57, Marty didn’t live long enough to willingly discuss that period of his life. […]
This is my periodic newsletter on “Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story,” published last year by the University of Illinois Press, and on progress toward writing “Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins.” I’m up to the second chapter.
Since age 28 or so, I had wanted to be a mother. I enjoyed my independence as an officer in the U.S. Navy and was not particularly interested in getting married, but I checked into adoption possibilities whenever I moved to a new state. Each time, I was told that only couples could get their […]
SOUTHERN KENTUCKY BOOK FEST I’ll be participating in the 10th annual Southern Kentucky Book Fest on Saturday, 19 April, at the Sloan Convention Center in Bowling Green. I’m on the panel titled “Tradition, Legends, Troubadours: Music of the American South,” and will be reading an excerpt from Faron’s biography. There will also be autograph sessions […]
Faron Young died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996, while I was stationed with the U.S. Navy in Japan. One of my favorite singers, he was also an acquaintance. After his death, he seemed to be almost forgotten, and I started thinking about writing his biography. I wanted to write books as a retirement […]