Robert Plant has always been a cultural carpetbagger. He and the rest of Led Zeppelin were part of the second wave of the British invasion, those brazen English lads that stormed America in the 60’s and taught us about our own musical heritage – the blues. But Zeppelin , though, turned it up to 11 [...]
Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin, best known with his brother Ira as a member of the close harmony duo The Louvin Brothers, is scheduled for surgery for pancreatic cancer on July 22 in Nashville. His manager, Brett Steele, says doctors expect a full recovery. Louvin just celebrated his 83rd birthday and had [...]
Hank Cochran, one of country music’s most storied and prolific songwriters who wrote songs for Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Merle Haggard, George Strait an many others passed away yesterday morning. His Wikipedia bio reads like a Mother lode for source for country gold: Born during the Great Depression in Isola, Mississippi, he contracted [...]
I want to share one of my favorite songs for this holiday weekend. The Ballad of Ira Hayes, written by the folk singer Peter La Farge, tells the story of Ira Hayes, a Pima Native American and one of the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the [...]
Kris Kristofferson’s latest is actually some of his earliest. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 is a collection of raw demos made to shop his songs around to singers while sweeping floors at Columbia Studios in Nashville (where he later first met Johnny Cash.) I listened to 16 cuts [...]
Kris Kristofferson reminisces about his days playing football. The days before he was pulled because of too many head injuries, that is. CMT interviews the Texas Yoda, Willie Nelson about his new T Bone Burnett produced album, Country Music. Dwight Yoakam & Merle Haggard will perform together June 18 & 19 at Oregon’s Chinook Winds [...]
Hank Williams is being posthumously awarded a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board. The honor was revealed Monday (April 12) in conjunction with the announcement of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize recipients in journalism, drama and music. The citation was determined following a private survey among experts of popular music. It notes Williams’ “craftsmanship as [...]
Robert Plant appears to be following the Americana music muse that led him to a successful collaboration with Alison Krauss and T. Bone Burnett on the Grammy-Award winning Raising Sand. Plant has confirmed a 12-city North American tour beginning in July. Plant’ will be supported on tour by the Band of Joy, a name taken [...]
In a case that will go down in Country Music Outlaw history, a Waco, Texas jury has acquitted 70-year-old Texas Country Music Hall of Fame member Billy Joe Shaver of aggravated assault in the shooting of a man outside a Lorena, Texas bar in 2007. the incident came after Shaver had played a show.Willie Nelson [...]
The extraordinary Elizabeth Cook talks to the Utne Reader about her irreverent career, influences and her upcoming Don Was produced album Welder. Jim Lauderdale takes time from his South-By-Southwest appearance talk to Spinner.com about, well, his career, influences and her upcoming album Patchwork River, which was produced by longtime production partner Tim Coates and Doug [...]