“What is it you like so much about the sad songs?” One of the things I enjoy the most about the country shows I’ve been doing for the past few years is the opportunity to talk to audience members afterward. People come up to tell me that they’ve enjoyed the show, to take issue with … Continue reading Sing Me a Sad Song
For a man whose recording career lasted barely six years, Hank Williams casts an immense shadow. I’m currently doing a show called Tennessee Walt’s Hanks a Lot!—and most of the audience members seem to come in assuming that it’s a show of Hank Williams songs. When they learn that I’ll be doing songs not … Continue reading The Shadow of Hank Williams
There's a lot more that you should know about Cindy Walker, one of country music's all-time greatest songwriters, but here are 10 to get you started. 1) She was born 100 years ago today, on 20 July 2018, on a farm in Mart, Texas, east of Waco. 2) She was inducted … Continue reading Ten Things You Should Know about Cindy Walker
He’s not the greatest country singer who ever lived, but he may be my favorite. It’s hard to say why I love Tubb’s music so much, but I responded powerfully the first time I ever heard his voice (duetting with Loretta Lynn on “Sweet Thang” (1967), though I heard it on a Lynn collection that … Continue reading Ten Things You Need to Know About Ernest Tubb
I did a great show last weekend in Deer Park—and I should emphasize that I did a show I’d done many times before, something like the 25th performance of Tennessee Walt’s The Other Great American Songbook, and did it neither better nor worse than usual; it was the audience that made it great, by being … Continue reading My Favorite Things
It’s been nine years since I started listening to country music and, unwittingly, placed my feet on the path that led to the birth of Tennessee Walt. (For further details of this story, check here.) The people who have known me longer than that are, for the most part, baffled by my new taste in … Continue reading Love Is Blind, in 4/4 Time
by Gary Graff c.2012 Gary Graff Glen Campbell gets a warm but wary reception as he strides onstage at the University of Michigan's Hill Auditorium. It's no secret that the five-time Grammy Award winner is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He announced it himself, in June 2011, and has said that his latest album, "Ghost … Continue reading Glen Campbell Faces the End with Guitar in Hand
On August 6, 1927, Ralph Peer left Bristol. By Monday, August 8, there weren’t many people who even remembered that the Bristol Sessions had happened. Most of the musicians who had auditioned for him were already back in their everyday lives, scrambling to get by. Peer returned to New York, Bristol went about its business … Continue reading ‘The Most Important Event in the History of Country Music’
If you listen to the recordings from the Bristol Sessions (and you should—the Bear Family collection, The Bristol Sessions: 1927-1928 is the definitive version, despite some unfortunate errors in its accompanying hardcover liner notes, but the Country Music Hall of Fame release The Bristol Sessions is also excellent) … if you listen to the recordings … Continue reading Six Songs, Plus Three More
On August 4, 1927, Jimmie Rodgers—free of his entanglement with the Tenneva Ramblers—made his first recording as a solo act. Commercial country music, which had been born, unheralded and unnoticed, on August 1, when the Carter Family made their first recordings, came into focus at that moment. (The Tenneva Ramblers—free of their entanglement with Jimmie … Continue reading I Walk the Line
