[ourplace] Diane's Country Music Newsletter -- 29 March 2017
- From: "nancy Lynn" <seabreeze.stl@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "mcb chat" <chat@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:14:21 -0500
Diane’s Country Music Newsletter
As the biographer of Faron Young and Marty Robbins, I bring you these
newsletters to connect classic country music fans around the world. Feel free
to forward this message to your friends, and tell them to email me if they want
to be added to the list. I welcome your comments and ideas.
NEWS
After the long-running Flatt and Scruggs Grand Ole Opry Show ended in 1969,
there seemed to be no surviving copies of the TV show. Twenty years later, an
advertising executive discovered a box of 16-mm film in his garage. It
contained 24 half-hour episodes of the show sponsored by Martha White Flour and
starring Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and their Foggy Mountain Boys. The films
were donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and then sent to the
Colorlab film preservation company for restoration. According to The
Tennessean, the films suffered from "a malodorous affliction known as vinegar
syndrome." The brittle film had begun to shrink and curl in on itself. Colorlab
pulled images off the original film and attached audio from another 16-mm film.
These restored shows have now been commercially released on DVD.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary
on Saturday, April 1. Kyle Young, who began working at the original Music Row
location in 1976 as a 22-year-old ticket taker, is now the chief executive
officer. During the past 20 years, he has overseen the move to the new downtown
location, the flood aftermath, and a $100 million expansion. The museum
welcomes more than 1 million visitors annually--from tourists and students to
researchers and legendary performers.
The Psalms is the title of the new 12-track CD by Jessi Colter, 73, the widow
of Waylon Jennings. The album and her upcoming memoir, An Outlaw and A Lady,
are both directly inspired by her journey of faith. Guitarist Lenny Kaye
produced the album and co-wrote the book. "I think it was supernaturally
designed for this because [we] began the album 10 years ago," Jessi told Fox
News.
Kern Pioneer Village in Bakersfield, California, is opening the boyhood boxcar
home of Merle Haggard to the public on April 8. The daylong celebration will
feature a concert by Noel and Ben Haggard and their dad's band, the Strangers.
The long-neglected house was moved from Oildale in 2015 and then restored.
"Museum staff will lead visitors through the tiny home," Bakersfield.com
reports, "whose center is a Santa Fe refrigerated box car that Haggard's
father, James, bought in the mid-1930s. He built a couple of additions to
accommodate the five members of the family--wife Flossie and their children
Lillian, Lowell and Merle."
Willie Nelson is NOT deathly ill, his publicist says, denying an anonymous
quote in an online report that called him "deathly ill" and unable to sing.
Other websites then shared the false story. "He's perfectly fine," Elaine
Schock told The Associated Press. She said he performed for 75,000 people at
the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 18 and has been giving other
concerts in recent weeks.
The 2017 inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame will be announced April 5
during a ceremony in the Hall of Fame rotunda. Vince Gill will host the event.
Three new inductees are expected to be in the categories of Modern Era (more
than 20 years of national prominence), Veteran's Era, and Songwriter.
Glen Campbell continues to live in the memory care home in Nashville. His
Alzheimer's disease has progressed to the point where he can longer speak or
play his guitar. His daughter, Ashley Campbell, recently told The Tennessean he
sometimes makes sounds or air guitar movements while she plays her guitar for
him. "With persistence," she says, "something gets in." Glen's wife, Kim, says
he can communicate an occasional short sentence and he's still in there
somewhere.
LETTERS
Tom Kaufman writes from Denton, Maryland, “Just so you know, I got the first
copy that came out last night. But thanks for thinking enough to resend…just in
case. All the best and keep ‘em coming. I really do enjoy the newsletters and
have been forwarding them around to my friends who love country music as much
as I do. I think a couple of them who I had been forwarding to now have their
own subscriptions, so this makes me happy as I am all too glad to circulate the
word around about what you do and to see other people getting on your list.
Keep up the good work as you do provide a wonderful way for us to know what is
going on with the veteran country performers. I love what was in your previous
newsletter--someone said the name country music has been hijacked. I have a
good friend who plays steel guitar over in North Carolina who has also been
saying this…and I agree; the so-called country music I hear on these stations
that call themselves country stations just aren’t playing what I consider to be
country music. But that’s just my opinion. Okay…I’ll get down off my soapbox
now. Take care and keep those newsletters coming.”
Larry Cordle (AE-3 FE-2 CAC-32 VP-16 USN ... formerly) says, “Thanks for the
article you did on me. I thought it was great.”
Kathy Thomas writes, “Wonderful newsletter as always. Could you please add my
sister, Rosemary, on your list? I'm tired of reading it to her.”
Alan del Balso wonders, “Are there any country artist planning to do a tribute
album to Marty Robbins? Willie just did one for Ray Price which is great. Don't
these artists realize how big Marty Robbins was and his contributions to the
music industry?”
Diane: None that I know of. Marty has been gone almost 35 years.
Ron Reagan writes, “I know I've shared my YouTube page before, ronreagan12, but
I've recently uploaded stereo overdubs of Hank Williams that were released in
‘60s. Also a rare later recording of Jimmie Davis and some stuff by The Lewis
Family. There's more to come.”
Cowboy Joe Babcock writes from Nashville, “I read your newsletter clear through
every time and enjoy it very much. We'll miss Hurshel. He was one of the best.
Ricky Page and I are now the only living members of the Nashville Edition. We
had a great group and were the vocal backing on about 180 No. one records.”
Lloyd Clarke writes from Canada, “I read a Newsletter from Ed Guy, very
informative, I say thanks to you also. Back in the 1940s when a young teenager
and very early in the mornings I listened to WWVA radio. Learned many old songs
as I had a guitar at age 8 yrs father brought from Fort McAndrew a U.S. Naval
station in 1941 as he worked for the U S Military here in Newfoundland, East
Canada. He finished 1946, We were not a part of Canada then until 1949. I think
we are more Americanized. I am still very much active with music and singing
much Bluegrass Gospel as I get many invites to various churches. Oh, yes, I met
Bill Monroe and many others.”
Rich Upright says, “I would like to receive your newsletter.”
Moragh Carter writes, “Greetings from England. It's a small world, as three of
the people you wrote about first in this month's newsletter are known to me. So
sorry you weren't able to interview Tom T. Hall. It seems like he's become more
reclusive since Ms. Dixie died in 2015. Peter Cooper gave you a good summary
though. However, I was more fortunate than you were. In May 2014, I had the
enormous privilege of visiting Tom T. and Ms. Dixie at their home, spending an
hour and a half there. Two years earlier, Peter had arranged for Tom T. to give
me a blurb for the back of my book, In Harmony (my biography of Jack & Misty).
I wanted to meet Tom T. to thank him personally for this blurb and Peter kindly
arranged the visit and drove me there. I'm so glad I was able to visit while
Ms. Dixie was still alive. Peter also put me in touch with Lloyd Green, who
gave me a blurb for my book, too. I was talking to Lloyd on the phone a few
days ago and he was telling me all about his performance at the Family Wash. He
was delighted that both his son and his daughter were able to be there. He said
that playing live, after so long, made him feel that he's come alive again
after looking after his wife for six long years and then coping with her death.
He looked so happy on one of the photos I saw that was taken at that event and
posted on The Steel Guitar Forum. So glad you keep sending us your great
newsletter.”
Mary Mitchell asks, “What do you know about Wynn Stewart? I love his music. I
know he died young due to alcohol. Another performer I like is Leroy Van Dyke.
He is an interesting person.”
Diane: Wynn Stewart died of a heart attack on the eve of his scheduled comeback
tour in 1985. He had just turned 51. Leroy Van Dyke still tours regularly, and
he has a website at leroyvandyke.com.
Alan Potter writes from the U.K., “Great to see Randy Travis is still
improving....nice tribute from Becky Hobbs...she is a lovely lady & friend.”
John Krebs offers, “Speaking of Carl Smith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_3M9jPtyU&t=459s”
BOOK REVIEW -- MINNIE PEARL: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by MINNIE PEARL with JOAN DEW
“I was a mistake from the start,” Minnie Pearl says about Sarah Ophelia Colley
in the first line of her 1980 life story, Minnie Pearl: An Autobiography.
“There was nothing in their ancestry to prepare my proud, conventional Southern
parents for the shock of a child who came into the world determined to be in
show business.” About her first Grand Ole Opry performance, she wrote, “I
remember very little about my debut on the November night in 1940 except that I
was scared to death.” She didn’t know whether she’d succeeded or failed, until
Judge Hay called four days later and told her to return that weekend. A mailbag
with more than 300 letters was waiting for her. “I was flabbergasted!” she
said. “Even though I didn’t know much about show business, I knew it was pretty
good for an unknown to get that much response from a three-minute spot on the
air at 11:05 at night.” It’s been 15 years since I’ve read this book, but
paging through it reminds me to read and enjoy it again.
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME – 1975
Minnie Pearl was the only person elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in
1975. She was born Sarah Ophelia Colley in 1912, daughter of a Tennessee lumber
magnate. After attending finishing school, she planned to be a dramatic
actress. But at age 22, she met an elderly Alabama woman whose talk and
mannerisms inspired her to create a comic character. She debuted on the Grand
Ole Opry as Minnie Pearl in November 1940—and remained an Opry regular for
fifty years. In 1947, Sarah married former Army Air Corps pilot Henry Cannon.
He started a charter service that specialized in transporting country music
entertainers, and he served as his wife’s manager. The woman who moved in
Nashville society circles as Sarah Cannon was also the Minnie Pearl spinster
with the $1.98 price tag on her hat. Her performing career ended when she
suffered a serious stroke on June 17, 1991. She spent the next five years
bedridden in a Nashville nursing home, until a final series of strokes took her
life on March 4, 1996, at age 83. Faron Young told me he felt guilty for not
going to visit his good friend, but he just couldn’t stand to see her in that
condition. Like many others, he wanted to remember her laughing and full of
life and love.
Diane Diekman
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
diane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins
Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story
Navy Greenshirt
A Farm In the Hidewood
Your gift shopping made easy with Mary Kay
Read Diane's speeches and articles
Other related posts:
- » [ourplace] Diane's Country Music Newsletter -- 29 March 2017 - nancy Lynn
