Celebrating the 100th birthday of Lily May Ledford

Kentucky country music legend and banjo picker, Lily May Ledford

Today marks the 100th birthday of Lily May Ledford.  She was born on March 17, 1917 in Pilot, Kentucky.  She began her career in music after being discovered at a talent contest in Chicago by John Lair.  Mr. Lair was the creator of Renfro Valley Barn Dance, which continues to this day here in Kentucky.  

Birthday of a Legend - Hank Williams

Hank Williams, Sr.

Born on this date in 1923 in Mt. Olive, Alabama, was the lonesome drifter, the one with soul, sorrow, and the one that many consider a legend.  Hank Williams, Sr. was born on September 17, 1923.  He would be considered to be one of the earliest country music stars back in the day.  To this day, his music lives on in the hearts of country music fans.

Hank Williams son, Hank Williams, Jr., otherwise known as Bocephus, carried on the family tradition.  His son, Hank Williams, III, or simply known as III or 3, shares a striking resemblance in both looks and vocals of his late grandfather.

Looking at the many works of Hank Williams, he was a poet, a songwriter, a writer of many simple words that yet, put together, brings out a new meaning of things in life.

Who would have thought that a young man would write songs like "I Saw the Light," as well as "Hey, Good Lookin," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."

So much has been said and written about the legend.  He was let go from the Grand Ole Opry, but yet for years they would talk about him during tours and use his image.  Sadly, they updated their tours and Hank Williams is no longer mentioned in their videos or from the tour guides.  It is as if he never existed.

Hank Williams is, however, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The museum featured the entire Williams Family Legacy in a special exhibit a few years ago that was personally beyond amazing with all of the details of the entire Williams family.

Hank Williams has got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as membership into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Rock & Roll Music Hall of Fame, Native American Music Hall of Fame, Recording Academy Grammy Hall of Fame (Lovesick Blues), and a Pulitzer Prize Board Citation.

Before all of the lights, smoke, and theatrics of concerts these days there was Hank Williams who could capture an audience by his vocals.  Sadly we lost the legend at the young age of 29 years old in 1953.  Imagine how many more songs would have been written without this huge loss in music.

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Happy Birthday Possum

George Jones - Billboard Magazine

There is one thing about it - there will only be one George Jones.  On September 12, 1931, George Glen Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas.  So much has been written about the man, the myth, the legend that is of the country music singer over the years.  Last year, the distinctive vocals of Jones were silenced with his passing.  Check out my tribute on Examiner.com on George Jones here.

I have been fortunate to have seen George Jones play several times over the years while growing up.  

On Saturday, September 13th, the family of George Jones will be having a balloon release at his grave site at 1:00 p.m. Central Time.

Today, I plan on cranking up George Jones here in my office in celebration of his birthday.  From "Bartenders Blues" to "Golden Ring" to "I Don't Need Your Rocking Chair" to so many more songs, there is something for everyone.

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Happy Birthday Hank Williams

On this date in 1923, Hank Williams was born in Mount Olive, Alabama. He was considered one of the most popular and influential singer-songwriters in country music.  He was best known for his hit songs, "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheating Heart," "Hey Good Looking," "I Saw the Light," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."

He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry, but would later be fired for not being reliable and being drunk.  The dark side of life took a hold of him when he died early New Years Day due to alcohol and drugs. He was just 29 years old when he died in 1953.

When the Country Music Hall of Fame was established, Hank Williams would be its first inductee in 1961.  He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985.  Two years later in 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame. 

(Read more & view photos after the jump)

Waylon Jennings to be honored with birthday bashes

Today would have been Waylon Jennings' 75th birthday. Even though Waylon passed away at the age of 64, many country music singers and fans are coming together for a nationwide series of Waylon Birthday Bashes.

Kentucky native Billy Ray Cyrus, along with Keith Urban, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson, Shooter Jennings, and more are urging millions of Waylon Jennings fans to come together for the bashes. They are among the members of the new National Honorary Committee for The Waylon Fund for Diabetes Research. All contributions to the fund go to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), one of the nation’s premier non-profit biomedical research institutes. The fund helps TGen to quickly translate laboratory discoveries into new ways to diagnose and treat diabetes, which affects nearly 26 million Americans.

Waylon’s “kicking down the doors” style of music will infuse the events, which feature regional and national acts, including Shooter Jennings, Tommy Jennings, and the Rowdy Johnson Band.

In a suburb of Phoenix, the headquarters of TGen, a Waylon Birthday Bash is planned June 17 at the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe. This bash features “DJ Dana” Armstrong, founder of Valley Fever Country Night, and several local live-music acts: Ray Lawrence Jr., Tony Martinez, James Parks, Steve Larson and Hans Olson. Also appearing from Nashville is J.P. Harris and The Tough Choices.

On June 15, Waylon Birthday Bashes will take place at The Wayland in New York, NY, Firehouse Saloon in Houston, TX, and High Dive in Seattle, WA.

On June 15-16, there will be a two-day event, featuring Waylon’s son Shooter Jennings, with a festival in Whiteface, TX, which is near Waylon’s hometown of Littlefield.

On June 17, Richie Albright, Waylon’s long-time drummer and co-producer, and Waymore’s Outlaws will be at Robert’s Western World in Nashville, TN. There will also be a birthday bash at Valley Fever Country Night at the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe, AZ.

Birthday bashes will be promoted by Waylon Fund Partners — which includes Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), Music News Nashville (MNN), Sony Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Country Music Nation (CMN), and the Ernest Tubb Records Shops — with messages expected to reach more than 1 million Waylon fans.

Waylon Birthday Bashes originated from everyday Waylon fans who loved his music and his “Outlaw” genre, which challenged the Nashville establishment, spearheaded crossover appeal and re-popularized country music.

In the same spirit as the “Outlaw” movement, The Waylon Fund enables TGen scientists to challenge conventional ideas and discover novel ways of attacking diabetes.

Working with Waylon’s widow, Jessi Colter, and their son, Shooter Jennings, TGen established The Waylon Fund in October 2011. Waylon, who lived much of his storied career in Arizona, died in 2002 at age 64 from complications of diabetes. He is buried in Mesa, Ariz.

TGen’s research into diabetes will allow physicians to more accurately predict who has the greatest risk of developing both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, while also developing better strategies for identifying and managing many aspects of the disease.

Dr. Johanna DiStefano, Director of TGen’s Diabetes, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases Division, leads a team of scientists working in five areas of research: diabetes and heart disease, diabetic nephropathy, diabetes and obesity, diabetes and liver disease, and diabetes and individualized treatment strategies.

For more information about The Waylon Fund, please visit www.thewaylonfund.org.

To make a donation to The Waylon Fund, please visit www.jointhewaylonfund.org.

Kentucky to celebrate the Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe centennial birthday

Bill Monroe

Kentucky will be celebrating bluegrass music in a huge way in a yearlong celebration. On Thursday, September 9th, the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Arts Council will host the Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert. It will be from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM in the Cralle-Day Garden at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort.

The Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert will begin a year of celebration to honor the Father of Bluegrass Music, Mr. Bill Monroe, who would have been 99 years old on September 13th. The concert will feature Jim Smoak and Danny Jones, former members of Monroe’s band the Blue Grass Boys, and master bluegrass musicians Michael Cleveland, Steve Cooley and Larry Raley. Smoak played the banjo in the Blue Grass Boys during the early 1950s, when he was still in his teens. He later played with country artists Little Jimmy Dickens and Hylo Brown and the Timberliners, and released albums under his own name. Jones has been at the epicenter of the bluegrass music scene since the 1960s. He started out in the Grayson County Boys and then went on to play a mandolin in the Bluegrass Alliance. Jones later joined Monroe, Bluegrass Generation and the Goins Brothers.

In between performances, bluegrass music scholar Thomas A. Adler, Ph.D., will interview the musicians and show a multimedia presentation about the life of Bill Monroe.

The concert is free with admission to the KHS history campus: $4 for adults, $2 for youth ages six to 18 and free for children five and under. For more information, email Mark Brown or call him at 502-564-1792.

Beginning September 10th, the International Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky, will open their Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit. It will feature many of Monroe's personal artifacts, including two that have never been on display before - Uncle Pen's fiddle and the famous headstock veneer from Bill Monroe's mandolin. The fiddle owner, Pendleton Vandiver, was influential in Bill Monroe's life. It was aquired by Terry Woodward, who has graciously loaned the instrument to the museum for the celebration. It has been used in recent recording sessions, including a soundtrack for a movie on Monroe's life. Golden Globe nominee, Peter Sarsgaard, will star as Bill Monroe. His real-life wife Maggie Gyllenhaal will star as Bessie Lee Mauldin. Legendary producer of Americana films and music, T-Bone Burnett will serve as music director.

The other piece of history to be on display will be the original headstock veneer from Monroe's famous Gibson 1923 F-5 Lloyd Loar Mandolin. It is a legendary piece as after a disagreement with Gibson instrument company, Bill Monroe removed the company's name from the headstock with a pocketknife, leaving only the word "the." It would go on to be auctioned off in December of 2009 and purchased by Laura Weber Cash, the wife of John Carter Cash, son of Johnny Cash. She has now loaned the piece to the International Bluegrass Museum for the Centennial Celebration.

The Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit is the second of three special shows that will be open during the two-year Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration. The Bill Monroe Centennial Art Exhibit is the first exhibit in the set, which opened to an overflowing crowd at the museum during the Blue Grass Boys Reunion on opening day of ROMP 2010.

The third Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit will open on Monroe's 100th birthday, September 13, 2011, and will feature artifacts of the Blue Grass Boys, as well as expand upon the Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit.

Monroe remains the only person ever to be inducted into the trio of the Bluegrass, Country, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. He received the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton in 1995.  Even with the great loss of Bill Monroe several years ago, it is good to know that the blue moon of Kentucky will keep on shining with his musical spirit that lives on.

Kentucky native Loretta Lynn celebrates birthday and 50 years in business

2010 is turning out to be a year of celebration for Butcher Holler, Kentucky native, Loretta Lynn. Seventy-five years ago in 1935 a young child was born in the hills of eastern Kentucky.  She would then grow up through the hard times and make her way through the ranks of country music to become a legend in the music industry.  Even after all of these years, she hasn't slowed down one bit.

This year also marks 50 years in the music business.  The Coal Miners Daughter has experienced some life changing events that some of us would never dreamed of.  She was married to Oliver "Mooney" Lynn, also known as Doo, when she was 14 and soon was having children of her own.  Mooney pushed her to get in the business and with hard work and persistence, her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," reached #14 on Billboard's charts.

Loretta Lynn has been known to sing songs that women could relate to.  She was bold and sassy and didn't care to take risks of songs that were considered indecent at the time.  It is hard to believe in this day and age of music you hear on the radio that a song called "The Pill" or anything about drinking was considered indecent. Women country music listeners, and some men, to this day still love to listen to songs such as, "You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man)," “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind)," and “Fist City” among others that raced their way to the top of the charts.  Loretta was not afraid to stand up for herself.  To this day, she continues to influence women in country music.

She would later go on to perform award winning duets with Conway Twitty, as well as have a book and movie portraying her life called "Coal Miner's Daughter." By the time of her last major hit, ”I Lie,” in 1982, Lynn had 52 Top 10 hits and 16 #1’s. And who could not forget when asked to become a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Loretta Lynn jumped right in the arms of Johnny Cash in 1998?

In 2005, Lynn received a Grammy Award for Best Country Album for "Van Lear Rose," produced by longtime fan, Jack White of the White Stripes.  Just a couple of months ago, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Today she is preparing to release two more albums in the future and keeping a performance schedule just as strong as she has held in recent years.  There are several Kentucky stops, including Hullabalou Festival on July 25th, and Renfro Valley on October 8th and 9th.

Lynn has proved that she is still woman enough to be strong in the music industry even to this day.