IN THE SPOTLIGHT – RONNIE MCDOWELL When Ronnie McDowell called me last week for our phone interview (thanks to Debbie Grisham for setting it up), we began the conversation by talking about our Navy days. We both graduated from high school in 1968. I headed off to college and he enlisted in the Navy to […]
CONCERT REVIEW—DIAMOND RIO Diamond Rio came to Sioux Falls to wrap up its 2024 tour, performing its last show of the year at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance on December 21. Promptly at 7:30, following a loudspeaker announcement that welcomed “Diamond Rio,” six band members came onstage as each of their names appeared on the […]
This week we especially honor the memories of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Marty died December 8, 1982, at age 57. Faron died December 10, 1996, at age 64. Both gone too soon. Both never forgotten. NEWS The Tennessee State Capitol has honored Brenda Lee, 79, by declaring her famous 1958 “Rockin’ Around the Christmas […]
NEWS The Nashville Public Library Foundation has announced a $4.5 million investment from Dolly Parton through her Dollywood Foundation, home of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The contribution will kickstart a new program called Begin Bright, an initiative to ensure reading literacy for kindergarten-age children in Music City, reports the Tennessean. “I really believe this partnership […]
CONCERT REVIEW—LAINEY WILSON The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year played to a sold-out 12,000-seat Denny Sanford Premier Center when she brought her “Country’s Cool Again Tour” to Sioux Falls this past Saturday night. Lainey Wilson, 32, has had a meteoric rise to stardom but is no overnight success. In 2011 she moved to Nashville […]
NEWS The newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame were inducted October 20 in an invitation-only Medallion Ceremony, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater. John Anderson, James Burton, and the late Toby Keith, elected by an anonymous panel of voters chosen by the Country Music Association (CMA), […]
NEWS Where to begin to summarize news reports of the Garth Brooks sexual assault scandal? CNN first broke the story by reporting that Garth’s former hair and makeup artist (“Jane Roe”) had filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court in Los Angeles County, accusing Garth of raping and sexually assaulting her in 2019. In […]
BOOK REVIEW – AMONG THE ASHES by DON REID Can you picture Don Reid of the Statler Brothers “sitting in a dark room alone, in front of a computer screen for hours and days at a time, creating people and making up stories”? That’s how he describes writing his latest novel, Among the Ashes. In […]
By Don Reid Can you picture Don Reid of the Statler Brothers “sitting in a dark room alone, in front of a computer screen for hours and days at a time, creating people and making up stories”? That’s how he describes writing his latest novel, Among the Ashes. In the Acknowledgments section of the book, […]
NEWS Tommy Cash (1940-2024): The little brother of Johnny Cash, Tommy Cash, 84, died September 13. The Johnny Cash Museum confirmed his death without giving a cause of death. Tommy was born in Dyess, Arkansas, in 1940. He served in the U.S. Army, where he worked as a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Network. […]