From the Tennessean : Steel Guitar Hall of Famer Walter Haynes died Thursday in Tyler, Texas at the age of 80. Haynes was known for working with Jimmy Dickens, Del Reeves, The Everly Brothers and Jeanne Pruett and for producing Pruett’s “Satin Sheets” and Cal Smith’s “Country Bumpkin,” and other production work with artists including Reeves, Marty Robbins and Bill Monroe.
Category Archives: In memoriam
Hank Williams 56 Years On
It’s been 56 years that Hiram (Hank) King Williams, the man commonly referred to as the King of Country Music and the hillbilly Shakespeare, lost his life on an unseasonably cold road somewhere between Knoxville, TN and Oak Hill, West Virginia in the back of a ’52 Cadillac being driven by a hired college freshman to a scheduled show in Canton, Ohio. The official cause of death was attributed to acute right ventricular dilation.
The only items found in the backseat of his car were a few cans of beer and the hand-written lyrics to an unrecorded song.
Williams’ final single was ominously titled “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive”.
Since his death many have imitated, none have surpassed.
Hank Williams and June Carter – Hey Good looking
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLFfHRTA9mc[/youtube]
Happy Veteran’s Day!
To those that served so we may be free.
Johnny Cash – Ragged Old Flag
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whmVGRSgAe8[/youtube]
Happy Birthday Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) was the godfather of two sub-genres of country music, alt.country and country rock, or what he coined as “cosmic American music.) He was also the man that brought Emmylou Harris from folk to country music and led Keith Richards toward country music that showed up as influences on Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers. Gram’s legacy can still be felt today and many artists owe him a debt of gratitude.
Gram Parsons – “Return of the Grievious Angel”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7w8vIVnVhc[/youtube]
Keith Richards – Hickory Wind
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZVVamm7g30[/youtube]
Happy Bithday Hank Williams Sr.
I’m in Nashville for the Americana Music Association Conference which starts full steam tomorrow so today I had time to stop by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to check out their new exhibit Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy featuring Hank Sr. and Hank Jr. I was perusing this great exhibit and reading the history of Hank Sr.’s life and it dawned on me. It’s Hanks 85th birthday today (as well as my Sister’s, not 85 though) !
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFnsGDG5tY[/youtube]
Johnny Cash – 5 Years On
As well as being the birthday of George Jones, Sept. 12th is also the shared date of the death of a country legend, Johnny Cash. RIP J.R., there will never be another like you.
Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues – 1959
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_faH4hFwB0[/youtube]
Musician, Actor Jerry Reed Dead at 71
One of country music’s leading class clowns (reviled only by Roger Miller) and guitar greats has died.
The Tennessean writes: Jerry Reed, country music’s howling virtuoso and a star of stage, studio and screen, has died. Born Jerry Reed Hubbard, Mr. Reed suffered from emphysema and was in hospice care. He was 71, and he leaves an unparalleled legacy of laughter and song.
By the time Mr. Reed came to popular attention as Burt Reynolds’ truck-driving sidekick “The Snowman†in the Hollywood trilogy Smokey and the Bandit, he was already a musical deity to the guitar players who admired the syncopated flurries he unleashed with a casual gleam. He was also a hit recording artist by that time, having topped the charts with “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot†and “Lord, Mr. Ford,’ and having written songs for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Brenda Lee and others. Then there was his work as session guitarist for Presley, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare and many others.
Jerry Reed And Chet Atkins – “Jerry’s Breakdown”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE[/youtube]
Hank Williams pedal player Don Helms dies
From Country Standard Time: Don Helms, pedal steel guitarist for Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys, died this morning at 81. He is featured on more than 100 Williams recordings. Helms played a lap steel (also known as “Hawaiian steel”) guitar. This type of steel guitar lacks the foot pedals found on the more modern pedal steel guitar, which did not come into prominence in country music until after Hank Williams’ death in 1953.
Now go put on a Hank Sr. song (“So Lonesome I Could Cry” is a good one) and listen to the distict wail of Helms’ pedal steel.
Happy Memorial Day!
It’s great to see all the Sailors walking New York City in their dress whites! This goes out to the brave folks that risk it all to protect us.
“Dress Blues” – Jason Isbell
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJb1_EGnapY[/youtube]
Country Music Hall of Fame Member Eddy Arnold Dies
Country Music Hall of Fame member in (1966) Eddy Arnold died on May 8, 2008, in Franklin, Tennessee, just one week short of his 90th birthday.
Arnold brought country music into the 1940’s pop world then inhabited by crooners like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby
was second only to George Jones in the number of individual hits on the country charts and is the all-time leader
in an overall ranking for hits and their time on the charts. From 1945 through 1983 he had 145 charted songs, including 28 number-one hits.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3alnvcAZ50[/youtube]