Reviewing I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, by Vivian Cash At first glance, it’s remarkable that I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny is seldom drawn upon by the constantly swelling ranks of authors writing books about Johnny Cash. After all, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin (referred to hereafter as “Vivian,” to distinguish … Continue reading Triangulating, Part 1: Johnny, Vivian and June
History
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘From Bakersfield with Love’
Island Trees Public Library, April 12, 2025 “Streets of Bakersfield” (Homer Joy, 1972). This song was the last of Buck Owens’ 20 No. 1 hits, and an absolute fluke. In 1988 Owens and Merle Haggard were scheduled to appear at the Country Music Association Awards and sing a duet. At the last moment Haggard couldn’t … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘From Bakersfield with Love’
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s An Afternoon in the Country
Friday, December 9, 2022 * Westbury Memorial Public Library, Westbury, New York Click here to read your program notes!
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Three Chords and the Truth: Country’s Greatest Songwriters’
Bethpage Public Library, April 23, 2023 1. “Always on My Mind” (Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, 1970). People are often surprised to learn that Nelson didn’t write this song, and that it actually had been recorded by a number of famous singers in the decade before Nelson got to it. In part this … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Three Chords and the Truth: Country’s Greatest Songwriters’
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Riding with the Outlaws’
Bethpage Public Library * June 8, 2025 1. “Honky Tonk Heroes” (Billy Joe Shaver, 1973). The story goes that in late 1972, after repeated efforts to corner Waylon Jennings and play his songs for him, Billy Joe Shaver had had enough. Knowing that Jennings was going to be recording at Tompall Glaser’s “Hillbilly Central” recording … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Riding with the Outlaws’
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘An Afternoon in the Country’
Westbury Memorial Public Library, Westbury, NY * December 16, 2022 1. “Night Train to Memphis” (Roy Acuff, 1942). Roy Acuff It’s impossible to say for sure who did what on this song, since it has three co-writers: Owen Bradley, Marvin Hughes and Beasley Smith. However, Bradley and Hughes were both best known as musicians, while … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘An Afternoon in the Country’
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Hanks a Lot”
Voorhies Hall, Bay View, Michigan * July 20, 2022 “Honky Tonking” (Hank Williams, 1947) Williams actually recorded and released this song twice in consecutive years, once for the low-budget, no-royalties Sterling Records in 1947 and again for the far more professional MGM Records in January 1948. Sterling didn’t have much distribution, so the MGM recording … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘Hanks a Lot”
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country’
March 13, 2021 “Honky Tonking” (Hank Williams, 1947) Williams actually recorded and released this song twice in consecutive years, once for the low-budget, no-royalties Sterling Records in 1947 and again for the far more professional MGM Records in January 1948. Sterling didn’t have much distribution, so the MGM recording is the version almost everybody knows … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s ‘A Year in a Distant Country’
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s The Other Great American Songbook
Chappaqua Library, January 28, 2023 “Setting the Woods on Fire” (Hank Williams, 1952) Written by Fred Rose and Edward G. Nelson, this is a great example of why many people said that Fred Rose could write a Hank Williams song better than anyone, even Williams himself. Since the song first hit the airwaves, people have … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s The Other Great American Songbook
Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s Bristol and Beyond: The Birth of Country Music
Voorhies Hall, Bay View, Michigan, July 18, 2022 “Keep on the Sunny Side” (Carter Family, 1928) Songwriters get their ideas from all over, but the best ones keep their ears open, knowing that any random phrase they hear might be the germ of a great song. In the case of lyricist Ada Blenkhorn, she had … Continue reading Program Notes: Tennessee Walt’s Bristol and Beyond: The Birth of Country Music
Tennessee Walt 