Country California

2007 – Sammy Kershaw officially becomes a candidate for lieutenant governor of Louisiana. While Kershaw’s promise of a National Working Woman’s Holiday is met with wide approval, his campaign becomes embroiled in controversy after a night of drinking tequila and talking dirty in Spanish with an unidentified woman.

2006 – Taylor Swift performs “Tim McGraw” in her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. I wonder what Carrie Underwood was doing that night…

2005 – John Rich’s autobiographical “Mississippi Girl” tops the Billboard country singles chart.

2003 – At the age of 75, Jimmy Dean finally receives his diploma from Plainview High School in Texas. Addressing the student body, he explains: “Algebra is really hard.”

2000 – The Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces is certified for shipment of 10 million units. To put that number in perspective, if you lined up all the jewel cases end-to-end, you would have to drive the bulldozer 789 miles.

1996 – Capitol releases a long-lost Carter Family album, Did I Shave My Legs For This?

1990 – Tracy Lawrence arrives in Nashville in a run-down Toyota. He’s branded a communist and run out of town, but accepted when he comes back with a case of PBR in the back of a beat-up Ford.

1981 – MCA releases George Strait’s debut album, Strait Country, which ignites a career and series of Strait-related puns that will continue for more than a quarter century… continuously.

1973 – Charlie Rich grabs his first gold single, “Behind Closed Doors.” With a dramatic flick of his lighter, he sets fire to his own paycheck on the grounds that the song wasn’t country enough.

1968 – Jeannie C. Riley makes her Grand Ole Opry debut. Eat that, Widow Jones.

1962 – Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman” begins its eight-week stay at the top of the Billboard country singles chart. By most accounts, it’s the first song ever written about Martha Stewart.

1949 – Hank Williams records “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” and “Cowboy Casanova” during an afternoon session at Cincinnati’s E.T. Herzog Studio.

1933 – Harold Jenkins (better known as Conway Twitty) born in Friars Point, Mississippi. Harnessing the magic of time travel, Charlie Rich snatches up the birth certificate and burns it. What was that guy’s problem, anyway?