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Country Music

Re: country music

I used to watch Hee Haw as a kid and this was always my favorite part of the show.
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Re: country music

Patsy Cline is my favorite. I'm also a fan of Alan Jackson, Sara Evans, Vince Gill, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Tanya Tucker and some others.

I have lost a bit of respect for LeAnn though when she went cheating on her hubby with a married man.
 
Re: country music

Tex Ritter is the father of the actor John who was best known for the sitcom Three's Company.
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Re: country music

I grew up listening to 90's country as a kid so that's the era of country music I love listening to the most, along with some 80's country. I have fond kid memories of listening to Brooks & Dunn, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, LeAnn Rimes, Alabama, Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss & The Union Station, George Strait, Dixie Chicks, etc. on the radio.
 
Re: country music

Shania is more pop than country to me, like a lot of the popular so called country performers today.
 
Re: country music

Now listening to Dolly Parton. :D
I got into Dolly lately because I heard a couple of covers of 'Jolene' and I wanted to know the original and I should have known it's a Dolly song.
When I was younger I didn't like country music. I still wouldn't really say that I love it but it fits best in some situations: by a camp fire or when you're at a summer cottage or alone....
I don't know much country artists, I know Dolly (who doesn't :D )
My uncle didn't listen to anything else but country and Elvis. So I must have heard some oldies when I was in his company.
 
Re: country music

Randy Travis is your man, nice simple songs, i love listening to a bit of country when i'm working.
 
Randy Travis in Critical Condition

Singer-Songwriter Recovering From Surgery After Suffering a Stroke
July 12, 2013; Written by CMT.com Staff
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Randy Travis remained in critical condition Friday (July 12) at a Plano, Texas, hospital after suffering a stroke and undergoing surgery to relieve pressure on his brain.

According to an update from the Baylor Health Care System, the surgery was completed shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday. The surgery is the latest episode in a series of medical problems Travis has experienced.

The 54-year-old singer-songwriter sought emergency treatment Sunday and was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a heart condition caused by a virus. Viral cardiomyopathy is a disease of heart muscle in which the heart is abnormally enlarged, weakening the heart's ability to pump blood.

His publicist said the stroke was a complication of congestive heart failure.

Travis was first admitted to Baylor Medical Center at McKinney, Texas, located approximately 35 miles from his ranch in Tioga, Texas. His condition was stabilized at Baylor McKinney before he was transferred to the Heart Hospital Baylor Plano in Plano, Texas, for more specialized care.

In a video announcement Wednesday morning, doctors said Travis had been in excellent health before developing a viral upper respiratory illness three weeks ago. Prior to the stroke, doctors said his condition had stabilized and was showing signs of improvement.

After signing to Warner Bros Records in 1985, Travis scored 16 No. 1 singles, including "On the Other Hand," "Forever and Ever, Amen", "Diggin' Up Bones," "I Won't Need You Anymore," "I Told You So," Deeper Than the Holler," "Is It Still Over" and "Three Wooden Crosses."

Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1986, he won Grammys for best male country vocal performances in 1987 and 1988.
 
Johnny Paycheck - 11 Months and 29 Days

 
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Don Henley

Don Henley from The Eagles recently released his first solo album (Cass County) in 15 years, and this is is first country album.

 
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn ~ You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly

 
4/6/2016 by Chris Morris Billboard
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Merle Haggard, who overcame a youth of deprivation and imprisonment to become one of the enduring figures in hardcore country music, died Wednesday morning (April 6) in California at age 79. Associated Press reports his manager confirmed Haggard died of pneumonia.

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The singer underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2008, and had been hospitalized for various ailments over the past few years -- most notably for pneumonia, which forced several concert postponements and cancelations in 2015 and 2016.

Haggard was born April 6, 1937 in Oildale, Calif., outside Bakersfield; his family had emigrated three years earlier from the Oklahoma dust bowl. The Haggards lived in a converted boxcar, and Merle’s father died when he was 9.

As a teen, Haggard became a delinquent and petty criminal. He hadn’t turned 20 when he was sentenced to a three-year stretch in San Quentin on a burglary conviction. While in prison, he witnessed a performance by Johnny Cash, an event he later characterized as life-changing.

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Released in 1960, Haggard, who had fallen under the spell of the hard-hitting ‘50s honky-tonk country star Lefty Frizzell, began playing clubs in the Bakersfield area, also an incubator for nascent country star Buck Owens. He joined singer Wynn Stewart’s band, and, with his own group The Strangers, began recording for Tally Records, an independent label run by his manager Fuzzy Owen.

Haggard’s first single, a cover of Stewart’s “Sing a Sad Song” (1964) became a top 20 country hit in 1963; a top 10 smash, “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers,” followed in 1965. At that point, Capitol Records -- then one of the biggest country hit machines -- acquired Haggard’s Tally contract.

The singer-songwriter’s tenure at Capitol produced a string of classic recordings featuring his mellifluous baritone and keenly observed songs. Some, like the barroom odes “Swinging Doors” and “The Bottle Let Me Down,” were in the classic honky-tonk mold; others, such as “Branded Man,” “Sing Me Back Home,” and “Mama Tried,” were inspired by his days in the pen.

Haggard logged eight No. 1 singles in 1966-69 alone. One of these, “Okie From Muskogee,” became a touchstone for debate at the height of the Vietnam War era.

Proclaiming, “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee,” and extolling the virtues of “a place where even squares can have a ball,” Haggard ran afoul of the left. He responded to the rebukes with another single, “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” that rose to the top of the country chart in 1970.

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Haggard saluted his influences on a string of albums that included the Jimmie Rodgers tribute Same Train, Different Time (1969), the Bob Wills homage A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (1970) and I Love Dixie Blues...So I Recorded 'Live' in New Orleans (1973), which tipped the hat to the eccentric minstrel performer Emmett Miller. The records delineated the confluence of early country, jazz, and Western swing in his own music.

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Haggard’s run of No. 1 country hits, which included such indelible numbers as the tender “If We Make It Through December” and the reflective “The Roots of My Raising,” continued through the late ‘70s, when he moved from Capitol to MCA. Though the stream of hits slowed, he hit his stride again at the turn of the decade. He released the powerful and introspective album Serving 180 Proof in 1979, and Clint Eastwood cast him and featured his memorable “Misery and Gin” in his 1980 feature Bronco Billy.

In 1981, Haggard shifted labels again to Epic Records. He enjoyed several No. 1 hits in his own right there, including “Going Where the Lonely Go,” “You Take Me For Granted,” “That’s the Way Love Goes,” “Someday When Things Are Good,” and “Let’s Chase Each Other Around the Room.” He also cut chart-topping duets with peers and labelmates George Jones (“Yesterday’s Wine,” 1982) and Willie Nelson (“Pancho and Lefty,” 1983).

The ‘90s proved to be largely fallow for Haggard, who had a frustrating stint at Curb Records. In 1994, he was feted by performers of the burgeoning alt-country movement on the tribute album Tulare Dust, as well as on the Arista disc Mama’s Hungry Eyes, which contained Haggard classics performed by artists such as Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, and Pam Tillis. The year culminated with his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. As the decade progressed, growing interest in country elders like Johnny Cash set the stage for another revival of his career.

In 2000, Haggard signed a deal with Anti Records, a new imprint aimed at older listeners launched by Los Angeles punk label Epitaph Records. His Anti bow If I Could Only Fly -- cut, like his other latter-day projects, at the studio at his California ranch near Lake Shasta -- renewed his reputation and brought his music to a previously untapped audience. He followed with Roots Volume 1, a tribute to such country precursors as Frizzell, Hank Williams and Hank Thompson.

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After garnering considerable coverage in 2003 with “That’s the News,” his sharply critical song about media coverage of the Iraq war, Haggard founded his own independent label Hag Records, distributed by Nashville-based Compendia Music. An album, Haggard Like Never Before, followed. He would then return to Capitol in 2004-2005 for a pair of standards albums, Unforgettable and Chicago Wind.

Celebrated as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in December 2010, his most recent solo studio album was 2011's Working In Tennessee, released on Vanguard. Haggard re-teamed with Nelson in 2015 for the Sony Legacy release Django & Jimmie, which topped the Country Albums chart, also peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 -- his highest ranking ever on the overall listing. His 38 chart-toppers on the Country Singles chart are third only to George Strait (44) and Conway Twitty (40).

Haggard was the recipient of two Grammys and was the only California-born inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The singer is survived by fifth wife Theresa Ann Lane and his six children.
 
Artists Of Then, Now & Forever ~ Forever Country {2016}

Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Randy Travis (doesn't sing), Blake Shelton, George Strait, Kacey Musgraves, Eric Church, Ronnie Milsap, Charley Pride, Dierks Bentley, Trisha Yearwood, Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Martina McBride, Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Willie Nelson, Brooks & Dunn, Alabama, Brett Eldredge, Reba McEntire, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton
 
Gordie Tapp {June 4, 1922 - December 18, 2016}

by Etan Vlessing Hollywood Reporter
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Canadian comic and entertainer Gordie Tapp, best known as the country bumpkin Cousin Clem on Hee Haw, has died. He was 94.

Tapp died Sunday in Burlington, Ontario, after a long illness, the CBC confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was born in 1922 in London, Ontario, and got his start in TV at the Canadian public broadcaster during the 1950s.

Tapp conceived the hayseed Cousin Clem character while hosting Country Hoedown between 1956 and 1965. Success with the Canadian network for 13 years encouraged Tapp to take his Cousin Clem character to Nashville, where he eventually went on to star in 90 of the 306 episodes on CBS' comedy/variety show Hee Haw, between 1969 and 1988.

He also wrote for 78 of the Hee Haw episodes he appeared in. Tapp's other acting credits included the 1983 indie movie Sweet Country Music, which he also wrote, and Wild Horse Hank, a 1979 film by director Eric Till that co-starred Linda Blair and Richard Crenna.

Younger Canadians came to know Tapp as the pitchman for Ultramatic adjustable beds in TV commercials that ran during the early 2000s.

Tapp received the Order of Canada in 1998 and the Order of Ontario in 1999, and became a member of Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. He is survived by his wife of 73 years, Helen, and two daughters and a son.
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Tapp in November 2013
 
By Billy Dukes | December 28, 2016 | Taste Of Country
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Now more than ever Randy Travis understands the importance of music, so when a friend and North Texas police officer lost everything — including his cherished guitar — in a house fire, he was eager to help.

Officer Keith Bartlett of the Gainesville, Texas police department got his family out safely when the Dec. 12 fire started, but the home was a total loss. The community has rallied behind him, helping him replace home items. His department even helped him find a place to live. Travis himself donated furniture, according to KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, Texas.

However, Bartlett was missing his Gibson acoustic guitar. He was an avid player, and his favorite instrument was irreparable after the blaze. That’s when Travis, his wife Mary, the Bartlett family and the Gainesville PD plotted their surprise. Bartlett was sent to respond to a phony call about a suspicious vehicle on Christmas Day, and when he returned he found the Country Music Hall of Famer in the department’s briefing room.

“When Randy found out about this tragedy, Randy wanted to help him out,” Officer Michael Green told KXII in Texas. It was Bartlett who helped with a theft case at the Travis ranch in Cooke County several years ago, an act that didn’t go forgotten. Travis made a call to his friends at Gibson, and the guitar maker had an acoustic overnight delivered to Texas. The surprise brought Bartlett to tears.

“I just know how important music is and what therapy it is, especially at a time like this,” Travis’ wife Mary told KXAS. Her husband is three years removed from a stroke, and she adds that music has played a major role in his recovery. While it all unfolded, Travis watched with a smile on his face.

Last October Travis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and during the 50th annual CMA Awards, his music was honored during a massive medley. At the end of both, he sang for the audience, marking his first public songs since his stroke. On Feb. 8, his music will be honored during “1 Night. 1 Place. 1 Time.: A Heroes & Friends Tribute to Randy Travis” at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
 
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