COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday March 12th, 2015
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.countrymusicclassics.com -
http://www.countrymusicclassics.com
Email: Classics@countrymusicclassics.com
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
A lot of hit songs have been written on the highway while the writer was driving
to or from somewhere. And Alabama's 1981 number one "Love In The First Degree"
was one of those tunes!
Songwriter Tim DuBois commented, "I got the idea for the song while I was
driving to the office one morning. I was listening to the radio and the guy was
talking about someone being found guilty of murder in the first degree and
that's where I got the idea for "Love In The First Degree. When I got to the
office- Jim Hurt was working on a piece of music and we sat down and wrote the
first verse and the chorus. I wrote the second verse at home that evening. The
song was easy to write.
Alabama's "Love In The First Degree" became the third single to be released from
their "Feels So Right" album and their fifth number one.
The RCA Victor single came on the country charts October 24th,1981 and was in
the top slot on December 26th.
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I heard that the Academy Of Country Music is moving to Texas. Is that true?
A: THE ACM is not moving. The organization is presenting the 3rd Annual ACM
Party For A Cause in Arlington, Texas April 17th - 18th. The lineup includes
Clint Black, Patty Loveless, Ronnie Milsap and Alabama. Proceeds will benefit
ACM Lifting Lives - the charitable arm of the ACM.
Q: Heard on the radio that Loretta Lynn has something to do with the Governor.
Do you have any info?
A: The Tennessee Arts Commission has honored Loretta Lynn with the 2015
Governor's Arts Award - which recognizes individuals and organizations who had
contributed to the cultural life of Tennessee.
Q: Do you know anything Bill Anderson doing a songwriter thing in Nashville?
A: Bill Anderson will perform at the 2015 "Tin Pan Alley," the Nashville
Songwriter's Association International's annual festival on March 24th - 28th.
Q: Is Graceland moving to Las Vegas? My son heard something about it on the
radio.
A: Graceland is not moving but hundreds of Elvis artifacts from Graceland will
become part of a permanent exhibit inside the Westgate Resort and Casino in Las
Vegas. "Graceland Presents Elvis: The Exhibition - The Show - The Experience"
will open April 23rd and will cover Elvis's entire life plus live entertainment
and the new Elvis Presley Wedding Chapel.
Q: Have you heard of a song titled "Sweeter And Sweeter?" My dad says it was
on the radio several years ago.
A; "Sweeter And Sweeter" was a number 8 hit for The Statler Brothers in 1986.
Q: I saw The Porter Wagoner Show in Oklahoma years ago and Norma Jean sang the
Buck Owens song "Love's Gonna Live Here." Did she ever record that song?
A: Her version of "Love's Gonna Live Here" is in her 1966 "Pretty Miss Norma
Jean" album.
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A T T E N T I O N: R A D I O S T A T I O N S:
Our short form daily radio feature, Story Behind The Song is now
available to radio
stations.
NOT AVAILABLE TO INTERNET STATIONS)
The feature is available at no charge.
For information, email me at
classics@countrymusicclassics.com
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NUMBER ONES ON THIS DATE
1951
Theres Been a Change in Me - Eddy Arnold
1959
Dont Take Your Guns to Town - Johnny Cash
1967
The Fugitive - Merle Haggard
1975
Linda on My Mind - Conway Twitty
1983
The Rose - Conway Twitty
1991
Id Love You All Over Again - Alan Jackson
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Around Our House
By: Jack Blanchard
Misty brought in a rose she grew in the yard.
It's beautiful, but it has no smell.
She calls it her Monsanto Rose.
I said, "'Monsanto Rose' sounds like a song."
We've been watching the news
and I've come to this conclusion:
If you shoot first and ask questions later
you won't get many answers.
I had a little problem today and tried to figure it out.
Like a riddle, it became an obsession and I spent an hour on it.
I took a break and explained it to Misty, and she said this:
"Soften up on the goofy stuff."
I'm for the little guy.
Although I have wealthy friends,
I wouldn't do anything to hurt them.
I think rich people do OK without my support.
I'm not running the world, so who cares what I think?
I'm always surprised when somebody does.
There are only about a dozen basic dramatic situations
in all of literature.
The rest are variations on these...
Saying the same things in different ways.
Here are a couple of pictures you might find interesting...
THE GRAND OLD OPRY SET LIST
posted backstage at The Ryman Auditorium, April 4th, 1970.
Click here:
<http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/m_morgan/Pictures%20in%20Progress/OPRYSETLIST2_zps8f34138e.jpg>
1964. ANOTHER LIFE:.
When this picture was taken we had no idea we'd be on major labels.
We were playing lounges all over the map
for just enough money to get to the next gig.
Click here:
<http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/m_morgan/LEXINGTONC_zps7d523565.png>
There's a voice in my head. It's mine.
I don't know if it's normal,
narrating everything that's going on, but I'm used to it.
I'm glad nobody else can hear it.
It's like like peeing in the pool
with an innocent smile on your face.
Jack Blanchard
http://www.jackandmisty.net
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TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
Compiled by Bill Morrison
1951 - Eddy Arnold's "There's Been a Change in Me," topped the charts.
1952 - Marshall Wilborn, bassist for the Johnson Mountain Boys, born Austin,
Texas.
1957 - Buddy Holly & the Crickets recorded "Maybe Baby."
1959 - Johnny Cash recorded "I Got Stripes" and "Five Feet High and Rising."
1964 - The 6th Annual Grammy Awards were presented this evening. Winners in the
Country Music category included: Best Country Recording "Detroit City" Bobby
Bare; and that's it for '64.
1966 - Eddy Arnold's #1 single "I Want to Go with You" debuted on the charts.
1967 - Merle Haggard's "The Fugitive" went to #1.
1969 - The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour featured guests Leslie Uggams, Ken Berry,
Merle Haggard, and John Hartford.
1969 - The 11th Annual Grammy Awards were presented this evening in California.
Winners in the Country Music category included: Best Album "By the Time I Get to
Phoenix" Glen Campbell; Best Song "Little Green Apples" songwriter Bobby
Russell; Female Country Vocal "Harper Valley P.T.A." (Single) by Jeannie C.
Riley; Male Country Vocal "Folsom Prison Blues" (Single) Johnny Cash; Best
Performance Duo or Group "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" Flatt & Scruggs; Best
Country Song "Little Green Apples" Songwriter Bobby Russell; Best Gospel
Performance "The Happy Gospel of the Happy Goodmans" The Happy Goodman Family:
Best Folk Performance "Both Sides Now" Judy Collins.
1974 - Herald Goodman of "The Vagabonds" died.
1975 - George Jones and Tammy Wynette "Mr. & Mrs. Country Music" became
officially single again today. The couple sang so well together, but other than
that their marriage can accurately be described as a disaster. Tammy got custody
of Tamala, the couple's only child, and the very famous house they owned on
Music Cities Franklin Road. Some nights when their relationship wasn't going
well, the only dressing room back stage at the Ryman was the Jones domain, and
the door remained closed. I never understood why the door was closed, no one
would have purposely tried to entered that disaster in progress anyway. Except
maybe George Morgan. He could make even that couple smile while the sparks were
still in the air.
1977 - Charlie Pride topped the charts with "She's Just an Old Love Turned
Memory."
1980 - Ralph Sloan, age 55, founder of the Grand Old Opry dance troupe, the
Tennessee
Travelers died.
1981 - MCA released the Oak Ridge Boys single "Elvira." The song charted three
weeks later and became the Boys 4th #1 hit single, and has been certified Gold
by the RIAA.
1983 - Willie Nelson's self penned Columbia single "Little Old Fashioned Karma"
charted. The record topped out at #10.
1990 - Vern Gosdin's Columbia album "Chiseled In Stone" was certified gold by
the RIAA. Columbia released 5 of the songs on this album as singles, including
"Set 'Em Up Joe" and the title cut.
1991 - Alan Jackson's Arista album "Here in the Real World" was certified
Platinum by the RIAA. This was Alan's first album.
1996 - Tracy Lawrence's Atlantic album "Time Marches On" was certified Gold by
someone.
1996 - Columbia Records released Chet Atkins' album "Almost Alone." This was Mr.
Guitar's 32nd chart album.
2001 - Vince Gill and Amy Grant Gill became the parents of a beautiful baby girl
named Corrina.
2005 - George Jones performed in concert at the Ryman Auditorium.
2007 - The Recording Industry of America just certified Waylon's 1980 single
"Theme from The Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys)." a Platinum Mastertone for
one million ringtones purchased. Waylon wrote and performed the song for the
television series "Dukes of Hazzard." The Mastertones are ringtones that utilize
the original recording rather than a synthesized instrumental version of a hit
song.
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html>
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VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock
Traditionally, the Front Porches of America were one of the most important parts
of any home design. The big porches of the late 1800s through the mid 1900s were
more than just shelters from the weather when opening the front door, they were
essential to a pleasant lifestyle. When weather permitted, the Front Porch was
the family gathering place, where neighbors would come to visit and sit and have
actual conversations.
Front Porches, along with screened-in back or side porches had practical uses
also. In the years before air conditioned comfort, day beds were kept on the
screened-in porches to sleep during the heat of Summer. From May through
September that was my bed of choice, growing up on the farm in the Ozarks.
When America started building houses without big front porches, closing
themselves up in their climate controlled cocoons, the interchange between
neighbors changed. There is just something inviting and open about a family
sitting on their front porch that invites others to join them. You drive down
most new neighborhoods today, and it is hard to find a single person sitting out
front, if they are outside they have built a patio behind the house that
isolates them from the neighbors.
When Denise and I first drove in the driveway of The Old Farm House, back in
1997, looking to buy a place in Tennessee and move back to our preferred Home,
the first thing that I saw was the big front porch that stretched all the way
across the front of the house. It just looked invitingfriendlyopen. It looked
like Home. And, that it has been now, for all these years, raising our boy
Scott, always having our home open and welcoming visitors, and giving me a place
to view the World as it goes by our roadby the Chuckling Creek with the
Sycamores.
We have taken this old 1920s Farm House, sitting on the hill above the creek,
and cared for it with the respect that old homes deserve. The work is never done
on a home this old, and that is the blessing of owning older homes, you are
never without a challenge. They built them different in the periods of 1890 and
1930, doing the underpinnings with huge squares of Oak and Yellow Poplar,
building the interior walls with two sets of interlocking tongue and groove
boards, on each side of the thick studs and rafters, covering the exterior with
Cypress Siding that continues to get harder and stronger every year.
When our home was built, in 1920, it was designed with four fireplaces, which
heated the whole house, upstairs and down. It was built before REA brought
electricity to Rural America, and sometimes I still get a whiff of Coal Oil
Lamps lingering almost a hundred years later. The Fireplaces have been sealed
now, to better accommodate the Heat and Air, but the four hearths still proudly
attest to their heritage.
As I have said in the past, sometimes when Old Buck and I are in our favorite
spots on our Front Porch, I can sense the Spirits of the Old Folks, comfortable
as they settle around us. The old folks that lived through the Depression, the
Second World War, Korea and Vietnamwho watched their Sons and Daughters go off
to serve and waited for them to returnand sometimes, not return.
Ninety Four years of the Sun coming up and shining on this Front Porch,
sheltering the families that lived and loved here. I believe that you never
really own an old home, you simply are the Caretakers for awhile, to enjoy and
love the old place, being respectful of the ones that were here before us, and
leaving it to the ones that come after.
My View From The Front Porch is probably pretty slanted toward a way of life
that is now, mostly ancient history. I accept that, but, you look at life the
way you were brought up, and like Grandpa, who used to sit at his kitchen table,
smoking his pipe, saucerin his coffee and looking back at what I do not knowlife
is a movie, and if you are lucky enough to have lived it, and remember it, then
you can watch it in your mind any time you like.
Stan Hitchcock
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
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SOUTHERN STYLE
By: Randall Franks
Randall Franks is a film and TV actor best known as: Officer Randy Goode
(1988-1993) in the television series In the Heat of the Night. He is also an
author, and a bluegrass singer and musician who was inducted into the
Independent Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013; recognized by the International
Bluegrass Music Museum in 2010 as a Bluegrass Legend; inducted into the Atlanta
Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004; and has been designated the "Appalachian
Ambassador of the Fiddle".
A little Funny Never Hurts
One of my readers said that I needed to share a bit of comedy in my column to
raise the spirits of the folks back home. Well I dont know if I can do that but
Im willing to take aim at it.
One of my favorite places to find funny comments or situations is in church and
sometimes the funniest thing you find relates with youngins and church thinkin
I remember a few years ago my nephew asked me if he had a guardian angel. I told
him Sure you do. Your guardian angel is always with you.
Does he eat with me? he asked.
Sure, I said.
Does he sleep with me?
Sure, I said.
That must have been who kicked me out of bed last night, he said.
Now I wont take credit for this next one, it is one I heard from an older feller
which will remain nameless:
Do you know where radio was invented?
Where?
The Garden of Eden.
What?
God took Adams rib and made the first loudspeaker.
A little known fact about Noahs Ark:
There were three camels on board.
The first was the camel many people swallow while straining at a gnat.
The second was the camel whose back was broken by the last straw.
And the third was the one who shall pass through the eye of a needle before a
rich man enters the kingdom of Heaven.
Farmer Jud and his wife Jeweldine, a childless farm couple prayed to have a
child.
As an answer to the prayer, the couple received the blessing of triplets.
The preacher commented as to how their prayers were answered.
Jud said, Yep, but I never prayed for a bumper crop.
A lady searched endlessly to find the love of her life with no success so she
finally turned to prayer:
Oh Lord, I am not asking for a thing for myself but please send mother a
son-in-law.
A father asks a prospective son-in law Can you support my daughter in the manner
she is accustom to?
He replies She aint gonna move is she?
I have always heard that bread cast on the water always returns. Bread cast on
the water, may return but all the bread we send overseas sure doesnt.
Laughter has always been an important part of life in our family mainly because
of the nature of our ancestors to lean towards being stoic in their approach in
life. That approach comes even more naturally to me than laughter does. I am
often asked Why dont you smile more. My answer is sometimes I am smiling on the
inside. Moments of joys and laughter are even more cherished to me. May laughter
always fill your days because God does have a sense of humor otherwise, he would
have never made someone quite like us, would he?\
Randall Franks
http://www.randallfranks.com
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows
in the hands of a warrior are children born in ones youth.
Psalm 127:3-4 (NIV)
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