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 […]
CONCERT REVIEW – MARTY STUART Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives came to the District in Sioux Falls on March 12. And were they fabulous! They took the stage at 7:00, opening with an instrumental, and entertained us nonstop for 90 minutes. They played a variety of instruments, changing them seamlessly with never a disruption.
NEWS Veronica Loretta “Roni” Stoneman, 85, member of the famous Stoneman Family and banjo player and comedian on Hee Haw, died February 22. No cause of death or funeral information was announced. Born in 1938, Roni was the 12th of Hattie and Ernest “Pop” Stoneman’s 13 children. After Pop Stoneman’s death in 1968, his children […]
NEWS The former Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Nashville’s Lower Broadway will become a bar and live music venue, reports Nashville Scene. To recap: David McCormick bought the record shop business and three-story building from ET’s family in 1992 for $128,000. He sold it for $4.75 million in 2020 to JesseLee Jones of the Brazilbilly […]
NEWS Toby Keith (1961-2024) Toby Keith, 62, died the evening of February 5, peacefully and surrounded by family. He had been battling stomach cancer for almost two years. He was born in Clinton, Oklahoma on July 8, 1961. MusicRow reports he got his first guitar when he was eight, and he formed the Easy Money […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – WILSON FAIRCHILD When Langdon Reid called me a week ago for our scheduled interview, his first question was, did we have any snow. I said we had a foot of snow, and the temperature was below zero. He told me they’d had an unexpected snowstorm in Staunton, Virginia, the previous night, […]
NEWS Vintage Guitar Magazine reports that rockabilly guitar great Larry Collins, 79, died January 5 at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, California. He was 10 and his sister Lorrie was 12 when they joined the cast of Los Angeles television’s Town Hall Party as the Collins Kids in 1954. The Collins family had […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – TONY JACKSON One of the performers at A Heroes & Friends Tribute to Randy Travis – 1 Night, 1 Place, 1 Time in Huntsville, Alabama, was Tony Jackson. He agreed when I asked to spotlight him in my newsletter, and I called him several weeks ago for a conversation. His latest […]