Boogie Woogie Country Man

Tom T. Hall, Country Music’s ‘Storyteller,’ Is Dead at 85

 

Tom T. Hall, a country singer and songwriter known for wry, socially conscious hit songs like “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” died on Friday at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by a director at the Williamson Memorial Funeral Home in Franklin.

Known to his fans and fellow musicians as “the Storyteller,” Mr. Hall was among a small circle of Nashville songwriters, including Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller and others, who imbued country lyrics with newfound depth and insight in the 1960s and ’70s. As his nickname suggests, he was a skilled narrator, although he told his stories less through the unfurling of linear plots than through the presentation of one-sided conversations or interior monologues that invited listeners into the lives of his often conflicted protagonists.

...Thomas Hall — he added the middle initial T to his name when he embarked on his career as a performer — was born on May 25, 1936, near Olive Hill, Ky. His father, Virgil, worked in a brick manufacturing plant and was also a preacher. His mother, Della, died when he was an adolescent. When he was 15, Mr. Hall dropped out of school to work in a garment factory to help support the family after his father was injured in a hunting accident.

One of eight children, he began playing guitar and writing songs and poetry as a young boy. Floyd Carter, a local musician and raconteur, was an early influence, as well as the man Mr. Hall later memorialized in song as the colorful Clayton Delaney...MORE

Photos: George Strait slashes price on Dominion hilltop castle

The "King of Country" has slashed the price of his San Antonio castle once more. George Strait's lavish estate, perched on a hilltop in the Dominion, was re-listed Sunday for $7.5 million. The new cost is 15 percent lower than the property's 2019 asking price, which was itself a decrease from the $10 million price tag in 2018. The 7,925 square-foot mansion at 10 Davenport Lane was built in 1997 by Arizona artist and architect Bill Tull. To build the home, Tull — known for his adobe style and stained glass — relocated to San Antonio for two years along with his crew. Tamara Strait, a realtor with Phyllis Browning Company and the country star's daughter-in-law, has the listing. She posted a video of the property that features sweeping drone shots and a walk-thru of the interior. The front door opens to reveal two hand-sculpted fireplaces, the first of 14 scattered throughout the home. Elsewhere, there are stained glass windows, saguaro cactus rib shutters, and a copper bar top. Strait's home has three bedrooms, six full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. A detached casita adds another bedroom and bathroom. Out back, there's an infinity pool and hot tub with a path to a private tennis court. The property offers unobstructed views of downtown San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.

 Go here for more photos and a visual tour.

 

Charley Pride, first major Black star in country music, dies at 86 of covid-19

In the early 1960s, a young minor league baseball pitcher and aspiring country singer named Charley Pride had settled into a discouraging routine. His days were spent toiling in Helena, Mont., at a smelter operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., and he spent his free time playing for its semipro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites. He stood out as an African American working in a musical genre that seldom welcomed black voices. But he developed a small but enthusiastic fan base singing in Montana honky tonks, which in 1962 led to his invitation to perform before a show headlined by country singers Red Sovine and Red Foley. After Mr. Pride sang “Heartaches By the Numbers” and “Lovesick Blues,” Sovine, a veteran performer, was struck by Mr. Pride’s magnetism and the enthusiastic response he evoked from the White audience. He suggested that Mr. Pride take his chances in Nashville. It took him nearly two years to get a contract. Record executives loved his demo tapes but got cold feet after viewing his picture. In one audition, he was told, “Now sing in your regular voice.” A talent scout even suggested that Mr. Pride sell himself as a novelty by dressing in Colonial garb and adopting the stage name of George Washington Carver III. Finally, country guitarist Chet Atkins, who was also an RCA Records executive, saw promise in the singer. Radio stations received his first singles, credited to Country Charley Pride, without publicity photos — a cautious move by Atkins. Disc jockeys latched onto the records, and country fans listened. “It was RCA’s decision not to play up or down the color thing, but to just let the voice go, put the record out and let the people decide,” Mr. Pride later told The Washington Post. Mr. Pride, who grew up in the Mississippi cotton fields and became the first major African American singing star in country music, died Dec. 12 at 86 in Dallas. The cause was complications from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to a statement from the Nashville public relations firm 2911 Media...MORE

Story Behind the Ace in the Hole Band, Legendary Backing Band Behind George Strait

Country music legends like Bob Wills and Buck Owens had backing bands (The Texas Playboys and the Buckaroos). George Strait has his Ace in the Hole Band.

The band has been with Strait since their early days at Southwest Texas State University, now known as Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas. Its origins lie in the band that was known as Stoney Ridge.

Coincidentally, Strait became the band’s lead singer after members of Stoney Ridge were looking for one.

How George Strait Became The Lead Singer

The story goes that the band put out fliers seeking a lead singer. Strait, who was an agriculture science major at Southwest Texas State, saw a flier and made a phone call.

Band members listened to Strait, liked what they heard, and added him to the roster in the mid-1970s.

Strait eventually went on to have his solo career in the 1980s. The band, though, continued to play behind Strait and does so to this day.

Members of the band include Mike Daily on steel guitar, Terry Hale on bass, Ron Huckaby on keyboards, Rick McRae on lead guitar, Benny McArthur on guitar and fiddle, Gene Elders on fiddle, Wes Hightower and Marty Slayton on backing vocals, Joe Manuel on acoustic guitar, John Michael Whitby on keyboards, and Lonnie Wilson on drums.

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Jerry Jeff Walker, Texas troubadour who wrote ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ dies at 78

Jerry Jeff Walker was singing in New Orleans coffeehouses and on street corners in 1965, when he was thrown in jail for public intoxication. It wasn’t the first time he had been drunk, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, but as he sobered up, he heard his cellmate tell him a story that would change his life. He was an old man with years of sorrow behind him, a homeless street performer who had once been a dancer “at minstrel shows and county fairs throughout the South.” Like Mr. Walker, he didn’t go by his real name. He said he was called “Bojangles,” after Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a renowned vaudeville and film dancer who died in 1949. Mr. Walker used the encounter as the basis for his song “Mr. Bojangles” Mr. Walker recorded the song in 1968, but it did not become a hit. By the early 1970s, with four albums and 10 years of struggle, he was ready to give up on the music business. He was leaving New York and was on his way to Florida for a fresh start. “A friend of mine was driving and I was asleep in the back seat,” he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1994. “Somewhere in South Carolina, he woke me up and asked me didn’t I write that song ‘Mr. Bojangles.’ I said yeah, and he said, ‘I tell you what. For the last couple of hours it’s been on this station, and this one, and this one.’ He hit the button, and there it was again.” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded a version of “Mr. Bojangles” that reached No. 9 on the Billboard pop chart in 1971. It soon became recognized as a standard and was recorded by artists as varied as Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Dolly Parton, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston and George Burns. Mr. Walker, who went on to become a formative figure in what is known as “Texas outlaw” music and more generally Americana music, died Oct. 23 at a hospital in Austin. He was 78. He had complications from throat cancer and other ailments, said his wife, Susan Walker. For years, Mr. Walker had a reputation as a hard-living, rough-edged performer who drank heavily, used drugs and partied all night. He was also known for his generosity, helping to launch the career of Jimmy Buffett and performing the songs of other writers. Mr. Walker called himself a “Gypsy Songman” — the title of both an early song and his 1999 autobiography. One of his first albums, “Driftin’ Way of Life,” was something of a musical self-portrait, as he wandered from Greenwich Village, where he was part of the same folk music crowd as Dylan and Joan Baez, to New Orleans to Key West, Fla. He rode a motorcycle across Canada, then was on his way to California when he stopped in Austin in 1971 — and stayed for good...MORE

Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels dies at 83

Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame who sang "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," recorded with Bob Dylan and was a vocal supporter of U.S. veterans, died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

Daniels' death was confirmed by his publicist, Don Murry Grubbs. He is survived by his wife, Hazel, and son, Charlie Daniels Jr.

By the time the Charlie Daniels Band topped the charts with “Devil” in 1979, the instrumentalist, singer and songwriter had long established a remarkable, multifaceted career in Nashville. As a session musician, he played on three of Bob Dylan’s albums — including the revolutionary “Nashville Skyline” — as well as recordings for Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen.  

He was a fixture of the touring circuit for the next 40 years, became a tireless advocate for servicemen and women, and entered the information age as one of country music's most outspoken conservative voices.

Born Oct. 28, 1936, in Wilmington, North Carolina, Charles Edward Daniels grew up inspired by church music and local bluegrass bands. He listened to Nashville’s WSM and WLAC, which streamed country and R&B music from Music City all the way through Daniels’ radio speaker in North Carolina.

Daniels merged those sounds in the mid-1950s to create rock band The Jaguars, which most notably recorded instrumental single “Jaguar,” in Fort Worth, Texas, for national distribution via Epic Records. In Texas, he’d connect with producer Bob Johnston, who — years later — Daniels would credit with helping him find his way as a songwriter and sought-after session player in Nashville. 

In 1964, Daniels and Johnston co-wrote “It Hurts Me,” a single cut by Elvis Presley that proved the first victory in decades of songwriting success to come. 

“(Elvis) recorded it, and it was by far … the biggest thing that had ever happened to me in my life,” Daniels once said. 

Three years passed before Daniels and his distinct country-rock influence would pull into Music City. Living in Newport, Kentucky, with his wife, Hazel, and 2-year-old son, Charlie Daniels Jr., the seasoned stage player headed South with ideas of substituting beer joint stages for session work in Nashville. 

And Daniels rolled into Nashville — literally, as he told The Tennessean in 2014 — beginning a five-decade stay in Middle Tennessee.

"I came to Nashville in 1967, with the clutch out of my car and a ($20) dollar bill," Daniels told The Tennessean in 2014. "I didn't fit the Nashville type very well. I'd come out of 12 years of playing bang-slang, balls-to-the-wall music in clubs, and I played too loud and too bluesy. 

...The life of a session sideman wouldn't stick, though. He'd cut a self-titled debut album in 1970, forming the Charlie Daniels Band — or CDB, as it was known for decades at concert theaters, state fairs and race tracks  — in 1971. 

A bearded embodiment of fast-fiddlin' Southern life, Daniels cut a handful of solo efforts in the early 1970s, none more notable than "“Fire on the Mountain” — the Platinum-selling release that spilled into mainstream country success. Daniels would proceed to sell more than 13.5 million records, per the RIAA, logging nine Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum releases. 

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Earl Scruggs mural painted in downtown Shelby, NC

Shelby, NC, the birthplace of Earl Scruggs and the home of the Earl Scruggs Center, has set aside funding for murals of both Scruggs and country legend Don Gibson, also a hometown boy. Destination Cleveland County and Uptown Shelby Association announced the project today, along with news of the completion of the Scruggs portrait, which emblazons the pedestrian alley side of Newgrass Brewing Company, just one block from the Earl Scruggs Center. Patrons of the brewery will sit at outdoor dining tables alongside the mural, which is taken from one of the most iconic photos taken of Earl as a young man when he first joined the Blue Grass Boys. Eagle-eyed banjo aficionados will note that he is playing a style 11 banjo, before he acquired the Hearts & Flowers Granada so commonly associated with him during his time with Flatt & Scruggs. Work on the Gibson mural is set to begin soon. It will be located on the building that houses Miss Molly’s Boutique, which was the one-time residence of Don’s wife, Mrs. Bobbi Gibson. Scott Nurkin of The Mural Shop in Chapel Hill, NC, is the painter for both projects, as a part of the North Carolina Musician Murals Project. He says that it gives him great pride to be able to remember them in this way...MORE

Jan Howard, Opry member and country star, dies at 91

Country singer and songwriter Jan Howard — a beloved member of the Grand Ole Opry for nearly 50 years — died Saturday at age 91. A press release issued by the Opry says Howard "passed away peacefully" in Gallatin, Tennessee. Howard officially joined the Opry in 1971, and was the oldest living member of the country music institution. In a statement, Opry Vice President and Executive Producer Dan Rogers called Howard "A force of nature in country music, at the Opry, and in life." Howard's music career began in the late '50s, singing demo recordings for songs written by her then-husband, songwriting great Harlan Howard. That included the original demo for Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces." In 1960, she had a hit of her own: "The One You Slip Around With." Her biggest solo success came with 1966's "Evil On Your Mind," and the follow-up "Bad Seed." She'd reach the top of the charts through her collaborations with Bill Anderson in the late '60s and early '70s, including "For Loving You," a No. 1 hit in 1967. Howard was also an accomplished songwriter, penning hits for Kitty Wells and Connie Smith. But her most powerful composition was also a highly personal one: 1968's “My Son," which was written for her own son, killed in action in Vietnam that same year...MORE

Kenny Rogers dies at 81

Kenny Rogers, a prolific singer who played a major role in expanding the audience for country music in the 1970s and ’80s, died on Friday at his home in Sandy Springs, Ga. He was 81. Mr. Rogers had been in hospice care and died of natural causes, said his publicist, Keith Hagan. Singing in a husky voice that exuded sincerity and warmth, Mr. Rogers sold well over 100 million records in a career that spanned seven decades. He had 21 No. 1 country hits, including two — “Lady,” written and produced by Lionel Richie, and “Islands in the Stream,” composed by the Bee Gees and performed with Dolly Parton — that reached No. 1 on the pop chart as well. By the time he retired from performing for health reasons in 2018, Mr. Rogers had placed more than 50 singles in the country Top 40, of which 20 also appeared in the pop Top 40. Long before the ascendancy of Garth Brooks and Shania Twain in the 1990s, he was among the first country artists to sell out arenas. Mr. Rogers’s popularity stemmed partly from his genial persona and rugged good looks, but also from his ability to inhabit his material, which, he often said, was of two main types: love songs like “You Decorated My Life” and narrative ballads like “The Gambler” and “Lucille.” “All the songs I record fall into one of two categories, as a rule,” he said in a 2012 interview with NPR. “One is ballads that say what every man would like to say and every woman would like to hear. The other is story songs that have social significance. “‘Reuben James’ was about a black man who raised a white child,” he continued, referring to a 1969 song that was a Top 40 hit for his group Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. “‘Coward of the County’ was about a rape. ‘Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town’ was about a guy who came home from war.” “Ruby” in particular revealed Mr. Rogers’s command as an interpreter of narrative ballads. Written by Mel Tillis, the song is about a veteran, left impotent and bound to a wheelchair by the Vietnam War, who must endure the agony of watching his wife leave the house every night to meet other men. “And if I could move, I’d get my gun and put her in the ground,” Mr. Rogers broods as the record ends...MORE

Academy of Country Music Postpones Awards Show over Coronavirus

The show won’t go on for the Academy of Country Music, after all. The academy said Sunday that it was postponing its annual awards show, which was to be held April 5 at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas and televised on CBS, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The plan now is to hold the show in September, at a date and venue to be determined. The academy “went to great lengths to find a safe solution for the show to go on,” said Damon Whiteside, academy CEO. The decision to postpone came after “constant conversations” with everyone involved, he said. It’s the latest in a wave of events that were due to draw big audiences to fall by the wayside, given health advice for people to keep their social distance to avoid transmission...MORE

George Strait Hits 10 Million Ticket Milestone

George Strait has minted yet another career milestone that puts him in an elite class of musical performers, not just in country music, but anywhere in the world. Though he officially retired from full-time touring after his Cowboy Rides Away Tour which concluded with a mammoth concert on June 7, 2014 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, he’s continued to play one-off stadium shows across the United States, and small runs as part of a continuing Las Vegas residency at the city’s T-Mobile arena. As part of two recent shows in Las Vegas on January 31st and February 1st, George Strait grossed $4.2 million and sold 31,556 tickets according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. This puts Strait in the top spot yet again for the touring chart, and marks the 21st time he’s topped the chart in his career, dating back to his first time on July 7, 1990 for a concert at The Summit in Houston, Texas where tickets were a mere $21.00. Today, the cheapest ticket for a Strait show is $50 for the nosebleeds, with prices often soaring much higher than that on the secondary market. George Strait’s recent shows in Vegas also mark another big achievement as he’s now officially sold over 10 million tickets to events since first reporting touring revenue officially. 10,031,222 tickets have been purchased to see Strait in concert, earning him Diamond status as a touring performer, and making him only the 16th artists in history to earn that achievement. The only other country artist to attain the status of over 10 million tickets sold is Kenny Chesney, who still holds a sizable lead on Strait with over 15 million tickets purchased...MORE

Why Hank Williams Won’t Be Reinstated in the Grand Ole Opry

Joseph Hudak

Ever since earning six encores at his Grand Ole Opry debut in 1949, Hank Williams has been synonymous with the country music institution. But Williams, who died at 29 in 1953, is not technically a member. In fact, he was unceremoniously fired from the Opry in 1952 after missing a scheduled appearance, a casualty of his heavy drinking. In 2003, Williams’ grandson Hank Williams III started a campaign to have his grandfather reinstated into the Grand Ole Opry. An online petition garnered more than 65,000 signatures, but Williams remains a former member — a designation that likely won’t change anytime soon. “Hank Williams will always be a treasured past member of the Grand Ole Opry,” says Dan Rogers, vice president and executive producer of the Grand Ole Opry. “The Grand Ole Opry is made of living, breathing artists who can contribute to the show, and to whom the Opry can give back.” Rogers talked at length about Williams and his place in Grand Ole Opry history during an interview for Rolling Stone’s new At Work series. Rogers believes that if Williams had lived, he would have probably returned to the Opry. The decision to fire the “Lovesick Blues” singer was originally meant as a wake-up call and not intended to be permanent. Tragically, Williams died on January 1st, 1953, while on his way to a concert in West Virginia. Williams’ relatives have also appeared on the Opry House stage, from his son Hank Williams Jr. to his grandson Sam Williams, who made his Opry debut in 2019. Rogers says he was struck by the gravity of the Williams dynasty when he encountered Sam one evening at the Opry’s past home, the Ryman Auditorium. “I walked into his dressing room and he was sitting under a photo of his grandfather,” Rogers says. “It was just surreal in terms of all the history that had happened in that building, on our show, and just how quickly time passes.”...MORE

Country music is ‘dead’: Icon Loretta Lynn trashes modern hits

Loretta Lynn voiced her displeasure with current country music during a recent podcast, and she didn’t hold back. The 87-year-old country music pioneer told Martina McBride that she thinks country music is “dead.”  “I think it’s a shame,” she said on the ‘Vocal Point with Martina McBride’ podcast, according to WhiskeyRiff.com. “I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die, and I’m here to start feeding it.” She later told McBride, who is also a country singer most famous for her work in the 1990s and 2000s, that it’s “a sad situation because we should never let country music die.” She continued: “I’m getting mad about it. I am. Because it’s ridiculous,” as reported by PEOPLE Magazine. She continued: “I’m getting mad about it. I am. Because it’s ridiculous,” as reported by PEOPLE Magazine. The full podcast with Lynn is available at luminarypodcasts.com. It’s not the first time Lynn sounded off on the country music genre. In 2010 she wrote in the introduction to her biography about the blurred lines between country and pop. “Some of these country singers aren’t really country ... I think some of them should be singing pop music and leave country alone,” she wrote, according to TheBoot.com...MORE

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article239834973.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article239834973.html#storylink=cpy

George Strait's Net Worth: Being the King of Country Pays Really, Really Well

George Harvey Strait is one of the highest-grossing country artists of all time. Originally from Poteet, Texas, Strait played in a rock and roll band in high school. He'd later take those skills and turn it into an incredibly successful career in country music. A career that led to 13 multi-platinum studio albums and 33 platinum country albums certified by the RIAA. He stands behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley with the most gold and platinum albums in music history. Strait's debut album, released on MCA Records, was a huge success. His first single, "Unwound," hit No. 6 on the Billboard country chart. Part of what was so appealing about the country singer was that he was interested in keeping things country and not following the "pop country" trend. His second album, Strait From the Heart, earned Strait his first No. 1 hit, "Fool Hearted Memory." Throughout the '80s, he recorded 17 number-one hit singles on the country charts. He also won Male Vocalist of the Year at the CMA Awards twice Strait was named CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 2013 and ACM Entertainer of the Year in 1990 and 2014. He was even named Academy of Country Music Awards Artist of the Decade in the 2000s. The award was presented by the previous winner, Garth Brooks. So, just how successful is George Strait? According to Celebrity Net Worth, Strait is worth a staggering $300 million. But boy, did he work for it. Throughout his nearly 40-year career, the country star has 44  No. 1 hits on the Hot Country Songs Billboard chart, sold over 68 million records in the United States, and earned a Grammy Award for his album Troubadour. The man is an American legend...MORE

Country Icon George Strait and Wife Norma Married for 48 Years ‘Still Like Each Other. A Lot!’

Fame and marriage are two things that don’t seem to last long for many people in the entertainment industry. But modern country music icon George Strait has been the exception to the rule, remaining “The King of Country” since the 80s even as he spent 48 years with his wife, Norma Strait. Love came early for George and Norma, who were high school sweethearts in South Texas. “Norma was the first girl I ever loved,” Strait told CBS Local. “We knew each other forever, growing up in a small town.” The couple were married in Mexico in 1971, before George enlisted in the U.S. Army, and have been together ever since, through thick and thin. “We do almost everything together,” Strait told People. “We love each other and we still like each other. A lot!” The Straits have certainly had their share of successes but have also faced significant challenges. George made it through the final years of the Vietnam War, being posted in Hawaii, where he started playing music for the troops in a band called “Rambling Country.” After being honorably discharged in 1975, he and Norma went back to their native Texas and settled in San Marcos, where George got his degree from what was then Southwest Texas State University. Music soon became his primary professional passion, but he was always a devoted family man. The couple’s first child, Jenifer, was born in 1972 in Hawaii. Sadly, in June 1986, they lost their beloved daughter to a car accident in Texas. A teenage friend of hers who was driving lost control of the vehicle and crashed. Even today, George and Norma prefer not to talk to the press about this traumatic experience, but this loving father did say to People: “We were blessed to have been able to spend 13 years with our beautiful daughter Jenifer.”...MORE

Ken Burns' 'Country Music' Delivers Strong Ratings for PBS

The eight-part series averaged more viewers than any Burns project for the public broadcaster since 'The Roosevelts' five years ago. The latest Ken Burns opus for PBS brought strong viewership for the public broadcaster. The eight-part Country Music drew the biggest audience for a Burns project since The Roosevelts: An Intimate History in 2014. Across all platforms, the series averaged 6.8 million viewers per episode, beating the average for the last four Burns films. "We couldn't be happier with the audience we reached with Country Music," said Burns. "We were fortunate to travel across the country to towns large and small to discuss this film and this history, and in each, we were met with new stories about the power of music. The PBS stations in just about every market helped us engage a public that rightly sees this music as their heritage." The 6.8 million average is just ahead of the 6.7 million who watched The Vietnam War in 2017, Burns' last multi-part documentary for PBS. It also outdrew 2016's two-part Jackie Robinson and one-off documentaries Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War (2016) and The Mayo Clinic: Faith - Hope - Science (2018). Country Music has generated some 4 million video streams to date across all PBS digital platforms...MORE

Ken Burns’s ‘Country Music’ shines a spotlight on an unsung Washingtonian

In mid-September, "Country Music," the latest PBS documentary by Ken Burns, brought the sounds of steel guitars and Hank Williams and "Coal Miner's Daughter" into homes across America. Whether you rate Burns one of our premiere historians or a purveyor of formulaic melodrama, it's easy to be won over by his 16-hour chronicle of country music's arc from gritty backwoods origins to today's Music City glitter. It restores some dignity to an oft-disparaged genre — especially when it shines a light on neglected figures like Ernest "Pop" Stoneman. A native of southwest Virginia and longtime Washingtonian, Stoneman was one of country’s pioneers and survivors. His 1926 hit, “The Sinking of the Titanic,” recorded in New York, was one of the first big sellers in the emerging hillbilly music market. He made hundreds of cylinder and 78-rpm records, often accompanied by his wife, Hattie, on fiddle and vocals; she was one of the first female country musicians on record. But Burns’s film doesn’t mention Hattie, and Stoneman’s quick cameo is mostly a device to introduce country’s first bona fide superstars: Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family — A.P., Sara and Mother Maybelle. Stoneman’s now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t appearance, however brief, is long overdue: It was Stoneman, the top hillbilly artist for the Victor record company, who persuaded his bosses to come South to record the local talent on their native ground. Victor set up a makeshift studio in a Bristol, Tenn., hotel, where, in 1927, Rodgers and the Carters recorded huge sellers that launched the modern country music industry. Pop lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929, then faded from the scene — but only for a time. His seminal work in the ’20s turned out to be just a prelude to a remarkable second career in Washington, where he settled his family. He and his talented brood — he and Hattie had nearly two dozen children — were fixtures of Washington’s postwar country music boom. They won talent show contests and packed local honky-tonks. They performed on radio and TV, including “The Jimmy Dean Show,” introduced thusly: “There’s 23 of ’em, but we’ve got five!”...

The family toured college campuses and folk festivals, and eventually settled in Nashville. By 1967, they’d won the Country Music Association’s vocal group of the year award. Pop died in 1968 at age 75, just as country was going mainstream. For sisters Roni and Donna, the Ken Burns segment on Pop is welcome, if also thin gruel, especially with so much focus on the famous “First Family of Country Music,” the Carters. “It’s always Mother Maybelle! Mother Maybelle!” says Roni, scorching the phone line. “Well, what about our mother? Where in the cat-hair is Hattie? Mama had been recording with Daddy on Edison years before the Carters. Well, p--- on it!” Then, her voice still in fine fettle, she began to sing an old-time tear-jerker recorded by Pop in his heyday, “Somebody’s Waiting for Me”; the family had performed the song when they won a talent show at D.C.’s Constitution Hall in 1947. Now in their 80s, the sisters watched the PBS series in Nashville where they reside. Their favorite part is a close-up of a young Pop in a record-label publicity shot from his glory years in the ’20s. He wears a suit in a pensive pose, resting his head in his hand. Neither Donna nor Roni had seen it before. “It’s the greatest picture I’ve ever seen of Daddy,” says Donna. “He looks very serious and very handsome.”...MORE

The Grand Ole Opry is Finally Returning to Television

Back on April 24th, the Opry Entertainment Group announced they would be launching a “Lifestyle television channel” in early 2020 with the help of Atlanta-based Gray Television to focus on “Country music artists and the passions, hobbies and love of music they share with their fans.” With Gray Television’s presence in 93 separate media markets in the United States covering roughly 25% of U.S. households, and the Opry’s parent company Ryman Hospitality claiming they can reach a digital audience of 46.6 million people, the idea sounded promising from a business standpoint, but they didn’t really fill in a lot of information about exactly what country fans could expect. Would it include interesting country music programming similar to some of the programs RFD-TV currently serves, or would it be similar to CMT, running reruns of Smokey & The Bandit all day and bad reality TV competitions? On October 17th, the name of the new network was finally announced. Called “Circle,” it promises to offer entertainment news, documentaries and movies, licensed programming and archival content, as well as, “Entertainment experiences celebrating the country lifestyle [to] enrich the artist-fan connection that is the backbone of country music,” according to President of the Opry Entertainment Group, Scott Bailey. Again, this could mean just about anything. But the biggest piece of news to come out of the official announcement of the Circle Network is that it will finally mark the return of the Grand Ole Opry to television. Right now all they’re promising is a “…weekly broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry.” No word if it will be a live broadcast, taped, a compilation of Opry performances from a week of shows since the Grand Ole Opry regularly runs on multiple days during the week, or something else. Though audio of the Grand Ole Opry has always been broadcast by WSM-AM out of Nashville, and though the longest-running program on radio was syndicated across the country for decades (and now can be streamed online via WSM’s website), it’s been many years since the program that made country music famous could be seen on any screen...MORE

Country Music Artist Gretchen Wilson Booted from New Mexico Hotel

Country music singer-songwriter Gretchen Wilson landed herself in a little bit of hot water over the weekend. According to the KVIA news outlet, the star was asked to leave the Hotel Encanto in New Mexico where she was staying after playing the Las Cruces Country Music Festival on Saturday night. The police were called due to excessive noise complaints from the hotel staff. The singer left the premises on her own accord with no further incident early Sunday morning. Wilson took to Twitter to outline her side of the story. “Was a guest in Las Cruces NM yest & had a blast w/ the people there. However, you should all band together to put Hotel Encanto out of business. Had to wait 2 hrs for breakfast. Then they sent police to kick me out in the middle of the night for no reason. I complied. Home early,” the star shared. Wilson later added the following in a separate Tweet, “I got off stage at 11:30pm. At 12:30pm I was only talking in my room. The hotel informed me that QUIET HOURS started at 10pm. Wrong hotel for 3rd shifters.’...MORE