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
classic country music
Ten Things You Need to Know About Ernest Tubb
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
Spreading the Word
The standard mythology about the Bristol Sessions has it that Ralph Peer drifted into Bristol on July 22, a stranger in town; that he placed an ad in the local paper and, as a result, hordes of aspiring country musicians came down from the hills to audition; and that among those hordes were Jimmie Rodgers … Continue reading Spreading the Word
Why Bristol?
Today “the Bristol Sessions” is a portmanteau phrase in its own right, so much a given to country-music aficionados that it hardly seems necessary to ask questions such as “why were there sessions in Bristol?” or, more relevant to this discussion, “Why were the sessions in Bristol?” They didn’t have to be. In the 1910s … Continue reading Why Bristol?
2 States, 12 Days and 90 Years: It’s Time for a Party
I spent a chunk of last summer toying with the idea of staging a country-music festival this summer to mark the 90th anniversary of the Bristol Sessions, aka the Big Bang of Country Music. Sadly, Country 90 NYC (as it was provisionally called) didn’t come together; we’ll just have to wait for 2027 and Country … Continue reading 2 States, 12 Days and 90 Years: It’s Time for a Party
Tennessee Walt 