Norah Jones is a GRAMMY-winning jazz/pop artist, but country music has always been one of her biggest influences. Following the success of her debut album, Come Away With Me, she and four friends formed the group The Little Willies. Named after Norah’s childhood hero, Willie Nelson[Norah grew up in Texas], the group started performing unannounced shows of country cover songs at a small venue in New York.
“I think I had to leave home for me to know how much country music meant to me,” she told the New York Times. “I listened to Hank Williams,Dolly Parton and Willie growing up, but I wanted to play jazz. When I listened to Bill Evans, I transcribed the chords. When I listened to ‘Red Headed Stranger,’ I just listened to enjoy it. But it really seeped in more than I could have known.”
Almost six years after The Little willies released their debut album, they’re back with a new album, For the Good Times. The album, which hits stores January 10, includes covers of songs by Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. The New York Times asked Norah to create a five-song playlist of her favorite Texas songwriters. Willie Nelson, of course, came in on top. The Little Willies cover Willie’s “Permanently Lonely” on their new album. Continue Reading
Pictured L-R: Jamey Johnson, Ken Levitan, Hank Williams Jr., Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings, Carolyn Tate, Michael McCall, Pamela Johnson, Hilary Williams, Holly Williams and Kirt Webster. Photo courtesy of Webster & Assoc.
Hank Williams Jr. helped bring the four-year run of the exhibit Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy to a close with a powerful solo acoustic performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The sold-out December 6th concert raised $75,000 for the Museum. The exhibit will officially close on December 31, but Hank plans to leave several of the artifacts in the Museum’s archives. “I’m going to work with them and leave quite a few of these items here—where they should be,” he said.
Hank performed for 90 minutes and played hits like “A Country Boy Can Survive,” “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” and was joined by his son Sam on “The Blues Man.” He also played some of his father’s material and songs by his heroes, notably Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Special guests in the audience included Jessi Colter, her son Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson. Hank’s wife, Mary Jane, and daughters Hilary and Holly as well as son Sam were also in the audience. Continue Reading
Willie Nelson photo by David McClister, courtesy of Lost Highway Records.
Willie Nelson will release Remember Me, Vol. 1 on November 21. The album is a collection of Willie performing some of country music’s most definitive songs, hand picked by Willie himself. Songs included on the album span 70 years of Billboard hits. Remember Me, Vol. 2 is scheduled to be released next year.
Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Rosemary Clooney, Porter Wagoner and Ray Price are just some of the artists and songwriters Willie chose to cover on volume 1. The first volume comes from Willie’s sessions with longtime friend and producer James Stroud, which yielded more than 30 songs. Continue Reading
George Jones turned 80 years old on September 12 with a birthday party at Rippy’s, a barbecue restaurant in downtown Nashville, before heading to the Grand Ole Opry for a star-studded birthday bash. George, who has battled addiction, is thankful to reach 80. “I am pretty sure this milestone means to me the same thing it means to anyone who reaches 80,” he told the South Bend Tribune. “Dang glad to be here.”
While he has earned the right to retire, George is still on the road, playing around 60 dates a year. He gives full credit to his fans for keeping him on tour. “I would say the secret for my longevity is the fans,” he said. “Country music fans are the most loyal fans in the world. They stick by you through thick and thin.”
Several of George’s brothers in music, including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, have passed away. George, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson have been left to carry on the traditional country sound they are known for.
“I have always stayed true to my roots in country music because it is what I love,” George told the paper. “I am sad to have lost so many of my dear friends. We were like family back in the days when we were young and struggling to make a name for ourselves.” Continue Reading
Ghosts, graves and tormented souls are found throughout the songs of country music. Through the years, music videos have served as a great compliment to depict some of the stories in these songs. In no particular order, here is our list of the Top 10 Most Haunting Country Videos. When you’re finished watching these videos, check out your favorite stars recalling their most memorable Halloween HERE. And if you’d like to have Brad, Carrie, Kellie, Dolly or Jason sitting on your front porch this weekend, check out our pumpkin carving templates and carve a star HERE!
The 2005 CMA Song of the Year is a heartbreaking, traditional country ballad that Brad and Alison recorded for Brad’s Mud On The Tires record. The WW II-era video tells the story of a young soldier returning home from the Army to find his wife in bed with another man, starting the downward spiral of alcoholism that eventually kills him. “I’ll love her ‘til I die,” a note reads by his dead body. If the images of empty bottles and a man out of control weren’t enough, his death sends his cheating widow into her own guilt-fueled spiral as she too drinks herself to death. The video comes complete with two separate funerals. Adding to the haunting nature of the clip, their ghosts meet after she is laid to rest.
There are several Johnny Cash videos that could have fit this list, but his breathtaking cover of rock band Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” is the most haunting as it features Johnny, just seven months before his death, reflecting on his life. Noted by many as possibly the single greatest music video of all time, the clip features archival footage of Johnny in his younger days against new images sitting alone on his throne, surrounded by decaying riches, pondering if the decisions he made were the right ones. His voice is weak, detailing exactly where he is at that moment in his life, and the raw emotions conveyed are stunning.
Shot in black and white under a full moon amidst the headstones of an empty cemetery, Alan’s “Midnight in Montgomery” music video reaches beyond the grave to beckon the ghost of Hank Williams, Sr. Kneeling by Hank Sr.’s grave in the dark night, Alan smells “whiskey in the air” before seeing the legendary figure before him. The song’s acoustic arrangement and stirring harmonies only add to the haunting nature of the video that won the 1992 CMA Award for Music Video of the Year.
Willie’s 2007 video “Gravedigger” essentially reels off one haunting image after another throughout the black and white clip. The music video details a funeral, where Willie plays multiple characters while the lyrics read through obituaries and ask for a shallow gave so he “can feel the rain.” Willie’s seen behind the wheel of a hearse as the driver, he’s shown as one of the attendees and he also plays a man of the cloth presiding over the burial. While one of the most striking images is Willie as the digger himself, standing three feet down in the grave with a shovel in his hands, make sure to check out the twist at the end for the most haunting image of all. The bluesy acoustic/electric arrangement sets the scene as the music gradually intensifies.
The first video from Nashville’s The Civil Wars, who are nominated for the 2011 CMA Vocal Duo of the Year, leaves a lot to the imagination, as they never reveal the whole story. “Barton Hollow” features quick camera edits and artistic angles, like the momentary glimpse of a swinging axe or the use of reflections in a river, to create the atmosphere. Shot in black and white, it seems as though Joy Williams and John Paul White of The Civil Wars have committed a crime and are trying to escape, but that redemption is far off as the Southern stomp song ends with the line, “can’t no preacher man save my soul.”
Recently ranked as Time Magazine’s No. 7 Most Controversial Video of all time, Garth Brooks’ emotionally charged tale of domestic violence burns with intensity. The 1991 CMA Music Video of the Year opens with an abusive husband leaving his mistress at their motel room in the middle of a storm. Lightning flashes reveal details like his wife’s black eye as she waits at home for his return. However, set against thundering acoustic guitars and pounding drums, a fight ensues upon his arrival and the abused wife pulls a gun. The last shot shows Garth standing across the street from the house as a patrol car pulls up.
Miranda’s first music video, “Kerosene,” follows her down a path of revenge – pouring out a can of gas along the way. Leaving the house where she lives with her boyfriend, Miranda struts with a don’t-mess-with-me attitude as she creates a trail of gas leading back to their home. Black and white shots of her and the band cranking out the hard-hitting tune are split with scenes of her boyfriend in bed with another woman. “Now I don’t hate the one who left, you can’t hate someone that’s dead,” she snarls just before reaching the cheating couple with a match book in her hand.
Sammy’s black and white 1993 music video features dark alleys, industrial elevator shafts and effecting shadows to depict a man haunted by his lover’s memory. Throughout the video, it’s not so much that Sammy is searching for her, but more that her apparition appears to be around every corner. With a traditional country thump and layered harmonies, moody visuals like cigar smoke and puddles transforming into buckets of dark water create an uneasy scene.
We’re going with the Mindy Smith version here due to the moody official music video created that features Dolly throughout. Mindy’s voice is on one hand desperate and the other seductive as she interprets Dolly’s classic song of confronting the other woman. Shots of Dolly writing the lyrics to the song are interspersed with a storyline detailing Mindy searching through dark woods to find the cheating couple. Is this sequence meant as a flashback for Dolly and the inspiration for the song she’s writing? The viewer is left wondering as the haunting acoustic guitars and touches of reverb echo even after the video is over.
“Sittin’ Up With The Dead” – Ray Stevens
In his humorous 1990 video “Sittin’ Up With The Dead,” Ray tells the story about how where he’s from, because there aren’t mortuaries, the dead would be laid out in their homes for viewings. The thing is, mourners were expected to stay by their side all night because leaving them alone just wasn’t right. Well, when Ray’s Uncle Fred passes away at age 97, a comedy of errors leads to such unnatural events as his lifeless body sitting straight up and Ray falling into an open grave while running through a cemetery. The lyrics are fun, the visuals are campy and the chorus has a sing-along hook.
Country music is full of legends, ghosts and eerie events. This is our list of the Top 10 Most Haunting Country Videos, but there are many more out there. If your favorite isn’t on the list, tell us what it is!
Words like “gritty” come to mind when The Dirt Drifters take to the stage. Of course, there’s no shortage of grit out there, but something in the sound of this five-piece separates it from the pack.
Maybe it’s the vivid images on these 11 tracks performed by band members: drummer Nick Diamond, lead singer/guitarist Matt Fleener, singer/guitarist Ryan Fleener, bassist Jeremy Little and singer/guitarist Jeff Middleton. The images — cigarettes and beer cans on “Sun Goes Down” (written by Matt Fleener, Middleton and Rivers Rutherford), the bullet holes, blue lights and traces of cheap perfume on “Married Men and Motel Rooms” (Middleton, Mark Irwin and Josh Kear) — seem to have been scraped up from a cellar of hard-time memories. (The group wrote or co-wrote all but one track on the album.)
Then there’s the performance, the power chords, the galloping groove that feels like you’re taking corners a little too fast on “Something Better” (Diamond, Matt Fleener, Ryan Fleener and Middleton), the blue-collar epic that John Mellencamp might have conceived had he grown up in a Southern factory town (“Always a Reason,” Ryan Fleener, Middleton and Justin Wilson), the way that lyrics come to life in the union of Matt Fleener’s whiskey-rough lead vocals and pristine backup harmonies.
Reba McEntire photo courtesy of The Valory Music Co.
Reba McEntire will headline the International Festival of Country Music when the festival returns to Wembley Arena in London for the first time in 20 years on February 26, 2012. This will be Reba’s first performance in the UK in 12 years.
“My band, crew and I are really looking forward to going back to Europe to play our music,” Reba said. “The last time we performed there was in 1999! We have been very busy for the last 10 years doing the Reba TV show and concerts in North America. Now, we are so excited to be able to travel abroad and do both our new and old songs for our European audience, who has always been so good to us.”
“I’m bringing the International Festival of Country Music back after over twenty years due to popular demand,” Mervyn Conn, festival founder and CEO of MM Events Ltd., said. “The regard for Country Music has grown significantly in the UK since the first year I promoted this event and I believe that now is the time to reintroduce this once hugely popular event to converted fans of country music and to a new and emerging group of country music lovers.” Continue Reading
The American Cowboy is known all over the world as a symbol of America. The cowboy life might not have been quite as glamorous as the silver screen portrayed it, yet most of the men and women who lived their lives as cowboys or cowgirls wouldn’t have traded it for any big city job available to them at the time.
From that golden era came many familiar cowboy songs, some of them originating as folk tunes in other countries and adapted to their new situation by those Irish or Spanish cowboys who worked out west. Later, cowboy songs were big parts of movies during the singing cowboy era, with Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Rex Allen and Gene Autry gaining popularity not only as actors but singers too. Carl T. Sprague is considered the original singing cowboy, recording the first authentic cowboy song, “When the Work’s All Done this Fall,” which sold 900,000 copies.
Today’s singer/songwriters have not forgotten the cowboy way. Folks like Ian Tyson, Michael Martin Murphey, Riders in the Sky, Don Edwards, Ed Bruce and the late Chris LeDoux have given us newer songs and also revived some of the older tunes. Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, the late Marty Robbins and the late Johnny Cash were also more than happy to sing the new western songs and keep the cowboy tradition alive in country music.
In no particular order, here are our picks for the Top 20 Cowboy & Cowgirl Songs. Leave us a comment below and let us know your favorite! And don’t forget to enter our Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Sweepstakes for your chance to win a trip for two to the rodeo in Las Vegas! Enter now >>
Although Chris LeDoux recorded this song first, most people remember George Strait’s version, which begins with a beautiful intro played by fiddle great Buddy Spicher. Here’s a clip of George singing “Amarillo By Morning” live. The song is about a cowboy’s love for the sport of rodeo, no matter what happens to him and no matter what he loses, saddles and girlfriends included. George, as most of his fans know, sponsors his own Team Roping Classic in San Antonio each year. He is no slouch as a roper either!
This song, written by Jerrod Niemann (performing it in the clip above), Richie Brown, Bryan Kennedy and Bob Doyle, became Garth Brooks‘ tribute to his friend Chris LeDoux after the rodeo champ and singer passed away in 2005. It chronicles Chris’ rise to fame in the rodeo world and as a singer, as well as his down-to-earth ways as a father and husband. Chris and Garth became friends after the Oklahoma singer named the rodeo cowboy in his first single, “Too Young to Feel This Damn Old.” They also recorded a duet in 1992, “What’cha Gonna Do With A Cowboy.”
Upon hearing this song, one would assume it was written in the heyday of the cowboy. A little research finds it was written by real-life cowboy Michael Burton, but in a much more recent setting, circa 1975. It describes how one cowboy chose career over true love and how he sometimes thinks about what might have been. Those thoughts don’t linger long, however, as he quickly remembers why he chose the life of a cowboy on the range. The tune has been recorded by everyone from Chris LeDoux to Garth Brooks and Nanci Griffith, but Suzy has one of the great versions of the tune. Here she is singing it with Jerry Jeff Walker.
Despite the fact that he is as much at home on a horse as he is on a stage, Toby Keith laments in this song that he should have been a cowboy. The Oklahoma native thinks he should have learned to rope and ride in a cattle drive, because he thinks as a cowboy he could have stolen the young girls’ hearts like his heroes, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Who among us hasn’t thought how glamorous it would be to be a cowboy on a big ranch somewhere out west, or at the very least, in a movie?
“Someday Soon” – Ian Tyson
Written by Ian Tyson, “Someday Soon” has been recorded by Judy Collins, Suzy Bogguss and many others and has charted in pop, folk and country. This 2009 video features Ian singing it – and you can see Suzy’s version HERE. Continue Reading
Marshall Grant, a member of Johnny Cash’s original band The Tennessee Two, pictured at rehearsals on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at the Johnny Cash Festival at Arkansas State University. Photo courtesy of Arkansas State University.
GAC extends condolences to the family, friends and fans of Marshall Grant, the last surviving member of Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two. The Associated Press reports Mr. Grant, 83, passed away Sunday, August 7 in Jonesboro, Arkansas after an aneurysm and stroke. He fell ill after rehearsing for a concert to raise funds for the restoration of Johnny Cash’s boyhood home, according to Johnny’s daughter, Rosanne Cash.
Marshall, Johnny Cash and guitarist Luther Perkins shaped the unique sound heard on songs like “I Walk the Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire,” “’Big River” and “Cry Cry Cry.” They happened upon their sound almost accidentally when Marshall and Luther, who were both mechanics in Memphis, were introduced to Johnny by his brother, Roy Cash. Since all three of them couldn’t play rhythm guitar, Luther borrowed a Fender Telecaster with the volume controls stuck in wide open, said John Rumble, senior historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, and Marshall bought a Kay bass. From there, their sound evolved.
The trio began recording in 1955 on Sun Records, a label that included Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. They earned success quickly and appeared on first the Louisiana Hayride and then the Grand Ole Opry. “I think the word that comes to my mind is originality,” Marty Stuart once said in an interview. “They were pure American originals, all three of them.” Continue Reading
GAC extends condolences to the family and friends of artist Jack Barlow, who has passed away at the age of 87. He died July 29 at Jackson Memorial Hospital following a long illness. Jack began working as a singer/songwriter in the mid-1960s, releasing his first single “I Love Country Music,” which reached No. 1 on the charts.
Born in Moline, Illinois in 1924, Jack served in the Navy during World War II. After leaving the Navy, he worked on a farm before quickly becoming a popular mid-west disc jockey. After “I Love Country Music” hit No. 1, he moved to Nashville where he worked with artists such as Johnny Cash, George Jones,Lefty Frizzell, Dottie West, Patsy Cline, Mel Tillis, Porter Wagoner, Chet Atkins and Boots Randolph. He went on to record 4 albums and numerous singles including “Catch the Wind,” a Top 10 hit. Continue Reading
