The last day of October is more than just an excuse to put on a funny costume. As it turns out, the date has been quite an important one for country music. Here’s a list of some notable events that happened on Halloween, courtesy of RolandNote.com, the ultimate country music database! For more country music and Halloween, check out our Halloween section with pumpkin carving templates, fright night memories from the stars and more!

Oct 31, 1912 – Dale Evans born in Uvalde, Texas. In December 1947, she marries Roy Rogers, with whom she stars on radio and TV. She also writes their classic closing theme “Happy Trails”

Oct 31, 1921—Malissa Monroe dies at the family home near Rosine, Kentucky. No one bothers to tell her son, 10-year-old Bill Monroe, that she’s dead until after she’s already been buried

Oct 31, 1931 – Lester Flatt marries Gladys Stacy at the courthouse in Cookeville, Tennessee

Oct 31, 1934 – At a Halloween party in Halifax, Hank Snow meets his future wife, Minnie Aalders

Oct 31, 1947 — Promoter Connie B. Gay books Eddy Arnold for the first-ever country show at Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. Also on the bill are comedians Minnie Pearl and Rod Brasfield

Oct 31, 1952 – Hank Williams checks into a Shreveport hospital with acute intoxication

Oct 31, 1954 – When Eddy Arnold plays Memphis’ Ellis Auditorium, a young Elvis Presley finds his way backstage. Presley meets Arnold and The Jordanaires, and spots–though he does not talk to–Colonel Tom Parker

Oct 31, 1960 – Elvis Presley records “Crying In The Chapel” at Nashville’s RCA Studio B. The single goes unreleased, however, for more than four years

Oct 31, 1964 – Darryl Worley born in Savannah, Tennessee. Noted for the strong traditional influence on his music, the lanky singer builds a solid career after his 2000 debut, striking a major chord for patriotism with his 2003 release “Have You Forgotten?”

Oct 31, 1966 – Decca releases Loretta Lynn‘s “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)”

Oct 31, 1974 – Emmylou Harris records “If I Could Only Win Your Love” and her first single, “Too Far Gone”

Oct 31, 1983 – Lee Greenwood tapes the syndicated “Solid Gold” in Los Angeles, then visits the home of MCA chairman Irving Azoff to present him a tape of “God Bless The U.S.A.”

Oct 31, 1987 – Dolly Parton opens a restaurant in Honolulu, the Dockside Plantation

Oct 31, 1991 – Randy Travis accepts a unique Halloween treat: a gold album for “High Lonesome”

Oct 31, 1993 – Actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room in Los Angeles. His final picture was “The Thing Called Love,” based on Nashville’s famed listening room, The Bluebird Café

Oct 31, 1995 – Bryan White, Derek George and John Tirro write “So Much For Pretending” on Halloween, distracted periodically by trick-or-treaters

Oct 31, 1998 – Lari White blows out the speakers when she sings the national anthem before the Miami Hurricanes’ football game against Boston College

Oct 31, 2000 – “I Hope You Dance” becomes Lee Ann Womack‘s second platinum album

Oct 31, 2005 – “Inside TV” lists the Top 10 TV witches of all-time, ranking Lisa Hartman Black at #9 for her portrayal of Samantha Stevens’ grown-up daughter in the late-’70s series “Tabitha”

Oct 31, 2006 – During a Tuesday edition of the Grand Ole Opry, Jeff Bates gets down on one knee at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to propose to Kelly Vaughn. She nods yes

Oct 31, 2007 – Taylor Swift goes trick-or-treating in Hendersonville, Tennessee, disguised as the hairy “Star Wars” character Chewbacca

Oct 31, 2010 – Trace Adkins performs for U.S. soldiers in Basra, Iraq, near the outset of a USO tour

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Cowboy Jack Clement, famed musician and producer, lost his Nashville home of 40 years in a fire Saturday morning, reports The Tennessean. Jack’s girlfriend, Aleene Jackson, and others escaped the home unharmed. Priceless music memorabilia and memories were lost in the fire.

One possession was saved from the fire, however. “I got my baby,” Cowboy Jack said of a Gibson J200 guitar he bought in 1951 while still in the Marines. The guitar was scratched by Elvis Presley’s belt buckle.

Cowboy Jack has been the producer behind such music as Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” as well as sessions with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Charlie Rich. He developed the careers of Charley Pride and George Jones and stepped outside the country genre to produce three tracks for U2’s Rattle and Hum album and also produced an album for Louis Armstrong. Continue Reading

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Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

It was quite a year for the Coal Miner’s Daughter — 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of Loretta Lynn’s emergence as a national star, and she was honored in a slew of ways, including parties, awards and a tribute album by some of today’s top artists.

Loretta was joined by several other legends as 2010 honorees, including Merle Haggard, Jimmy Dean and now Dolly Parton. The recognition paid to the genre’s pioneering acts represents the No. 10 entry in our countdown of country music’s dozen top stories of the year.

Loretta’s first single, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl,” came out in 1960, and it seemed like every few months during 2010, the music business found some way to pay homage to her impact. Early in the year, she was accorded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, though she was unable to attend the Los Angeles ceremony. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was added to the National Recording Registry, she was saluted with an anniversary party at her Tennessee home, she was celebrated with a Reba McEntire-hosted Recording Academy Salute at the Ryman Auditorium, and a bunch of her classics were remade in the album Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn.

That latter project brought Loretta the opportunity to sing the title track with Miranda Lambert and Sheryl Crow on the Country Music Association Awards. The album also features Lee Ann Womack, Kid Rock, the White Stripes, Alan Jackson and Carrie Underwood, among others. Loretta hand-picked all of the contributors — appropriate, because she’s not one of those veteran stars who dislikes newer versions of country music.

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Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

The members of Rascal Flatts got the biggest cheers from the thousand or so people on hand, but they did not get the only applause during a Music City Walk of Fame installation event Sunday in downtown Nashville that knitted together several generations of performers.

Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney were joined by Kris Kristofferson, Mel Tillis, Little Jimmy Dickens and late singers Bobby Hebb and Eddy Arnold in receiving their sidewalk plaques, extending a row of markers that included Michael McDonald, Elvis Presley and Trace Adkins.

Emceed by GAC’s Bill Cody, the class of performers represented a swatch of Nashville music history. Beyond the contemporary Flatts crew, Kris and Mel hit their strides in the 1970s as artists, songwriters and actors. Bobby accrued a landmark 1960s pop hit with the effervescent “Sunny,” and Eddy and Little Jimmy were among the first artists to have hits with songs recorded in Nashville during the 1940s, when the town hadn’t yet earned its Music City moniker.

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Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Rascal Flatts and four members of the Country Music Hall of Fame will all receive additional recognition next month when they’re embedded in the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville.

Little Jimmy Dickens, Kris Kristofferson, Mel Tillis and the late Eddy Arnold — all of whom have bronze plaques nearby in the Hall of Fame — will have their names etched in the pavement alongside Rascal Flatts Nov. 7. So will the late Bobby Hebb, a Nashville-based artist who earned a 1960s hit with “Sunny.”

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Lee Brice photo courtesy of Curb Records.

One slow week at a time, Lee Brice has pieced together a chart record that demonstrates unusual patience and longevity.

“Love Like Crazy” is in the Top 5 on the current Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, putting him on the list for a whopping 55 weeks. With this latest edition of the chart, Lee passed Eddy Arnold’s “Bouquet Of Roses” to spend more weeks on the magazine’s chart than any other single in history.

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Lee Brice photo courtesy of Curb Records.

When “Love Like Crazy” was released to radio stations in August 2009, Lee Brice had no idea how long it would take for the song to hit its stride.

It’s now been on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for 53 weeks — that’s more than a year that it’s been in circulation, and it’s still on the move in the Top 5. That longevity is so rare that only one song has ever lasted longer on the country chart: Eddy Arnold’s “Bouquet Of Roses,” which began a 54-week run in 1948.

Still, because it’s been around so long, “Love Like Crazy” could have driven Lee crazy. Plenty of artists admit that they watch the charts obsessively, and his ascent — 56 chart positions in a 53-week period — was agonizingly slow. But Lee had a pretty good method for dealing with it.

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Vince Gill performs with Albert Lee at Eric Clapton's 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival. Photo courtesy of Erin Morris.

Brooks & Dunn, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney: several halls of fame are bursting with news about their programs or their members.

The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame have new inductees on the way, the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum has a couple of fundraisers on the docket in Nashville and Los Angeles, and one Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member invoked the names of two Country Hall of Famers when he played next door to Nashville’s best-known museum.

Here’s a bundle of Hall of Fame-related music news:

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Lee Brice photo courtesy of Curb Records.

When Lee Brice titled his current single “Love Like Crazy,” he didn’t realize that the word “crazy” might well describe its performance in the national charts.

But it really has. His record label released it to radio stations Aug. 3, 2009. It took a few weeks to land on the Billboard Country Songs chart — nothing unusual there — but once it did, the song made a long, slow climb toward the upper reaches of the list. In fact, “Love Like Crazy” took a whopping 46 weeks to make it into the Top 10. That’s longer than any other single in the history of the charts, which date back to 1944.

It’s particularly ironic to Lee, who wrote the 2007 Garth Brooks hit “More Than A Memory,” which debuted at No. 1.

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Hank Cochran photo courtesy of So Much Moore Media.

Hank Cochran, a legendary songwriter who had hits in four decades, died Thursday after battling pancreatic cancer. A longtime member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, his words and melodies were significant in the careers of such signature artists as George Strait, Patsy Cline, Keith Whitley and Eddy Arnold.

Hank was part of the first generation of Nashville’s full-time songwriters. Born in Mississippi, he was living and performing in California when he signed his first songwriting contract in 1959 with Pamper Music, a publishing company owned in part by Ray Price. In January 1960, he moved to Music City, where he became a regular at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a legendary music-business hangout. Tootsie’s provided an informal meeting room for country’s artists and writers, including Harlan Howard, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson, who Hank first met there. He helped Willie get signed to Pamper and even gave up a raise to make sure the company could afford Willie.

Hank’s legend was practically cemented when he and Harlan co-wrote “I Fall To Pieces,” a landmark Patsy Cline song with a nicely contoured melody and deftly direct lyrics. It was not just a great calling card. The National Endowment for the Arts named it one of 365 culturally significant recordings in a new-millennium list of the Songs of the Century.

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