This Week in Country Music History
2008 – Taylor Swift undergoes surgery to remove her wisdom teeth, but it turns out wisdom teeth don’t have anything to do with pitch control. It was worth a try, anyway.
2006 – Heidi Newfield gives her final performances as a member of Highway 101 Pony at the Wildhorse Saloon.
2005 – A gay cowboy movie takes the world by storm. And by gay cowboy movie, I mean the music video for Jason Aldean’s “Hicktown.” Ba-dum-bum.
2005 – Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts is certified gold and platinum, proving that it’s a good album.
2002 – Toby Keith makes his Grand Ole Opry debut… nine years after the release of his debut album. Pretty sure they don’t like you, big guy.
1989 – Taylor Swift born in Reading, Pennsylvania. Publishes first Myspace blog later that day.
1988 – George Strait takes his remake of Faron Young’s “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’)” to the top of the charts, singlehandedly reviving the phrase “coochie coo.”
1983 – Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton earn a platinum single for “Islands In The Stream,” an enormously popular bit of ’80s kitsch that, uh,…
Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little.
1972 – %*#)@! Shelton Hank Williams, aka Hank III, is born.
1963 – At age 14, Hank Williams Jr. has his first recording session. Tracks include “You Win Again,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Cold, Cold Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Mom, I’m Not Dad,” with the latter being interpreted by some historians as a veiled message to Audrey.
1959 – Marty Raybon born in Greenville, Alabama. Primed as the heir to his family’s thriving Ray-Bon knockoff sunglasses empire, he gives all that up to become the lead singer of popular country group Shenandoah.
1957 – While still technically married to his second wife, Jerry Lee Lewis secretly weds his third – Myra Brown, his 13-year-old cousin. To his credit, though, Lewis never insisted on anyone calling him LeVox.
1949 – Randy Owen born scowling in Fort Payne, Alabama.
1932 – Charlie Rich born in Forrest City, Arkansas. Immediately sets fire to another kid’s birth certificate.
1902 – Nudie Cohn born in Kiev, Ukraine. He turns heads early on with his rhinestone-studded onesies.
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^^Taylor sings with the voice she was given by God, and has achieved more with it than most of the other country ladies of the past decade have in decades more time. Personally, I enjoy and love the sound of her voice in all it’s imperfection, it gives her songs honesty and meaning, and when she sings with only her guitar in a relaxed setting, she can sing as pitch-perfect as anyone and put more emotion and meaning into her songs than anyone. My opinion, just as it’s the opinion of this blogger and others that repeated mockery of someone doing what they love to the best of their ability puts that person down, when in reality it only makes those doing the mocking appear as the crude and low-class individuals.
Good batch this week. I liked the Charlie Rich and Jerry Lee Lewis ones. :)
“Highway 101 Pony”? – no comprende ,senior. Heidi is no Paulette Carlson….
A quick true story inspired by an entry above: I saw Catherine Britt perform a concert in a furniture store parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga back in the fall of 2006. A local radio station was sponsoring a karaoke contest with participants standing inside a tent like structure which contained the video monitor and sound gear. A guy in his late 50’s who looked like Burl Ives literally grabbed Catherine by the arm and pulled her into the tent to duet with him on “Islands In The Stream” and Catherine was completely unfamiliar with the song! Once it was over, and she pried the guy’s arm from her shoulder, she headed behind the stage to seek refuge! (lol)