Free Republic

After the Civil War came the emergence of the American cowboy as we know it. Born out of the need for livestock to be herded northward to different markets, these young, able shepherds became known by the term “cowboy.” Riding the trail and gathering around the campfire, music was always present. The instruments had to be portable. Fiddle, harmonica, or guitar were common instruments on the trail. Hollywood helped galvanize the idea of the singing cowboy. Ken Maynard appeared in silent films but released records on Columbia Records. When sound was added to film, it really came into focus. Gene...

[…]Singing gay love songs once killed the careers of artists like Patrick Haggerty, whose band Lavender Country in 1973 released what's widely considered the first country album recorded by an out gay performer. Even artists who came out decades later, like k.d. lang and Chely Wright, said their careers stalled after they made their sexuality public.Now, out queer people are some of the most celebrated country stars. Brandi Carlile and Lil Nas X are Grammy winners. T.J. Osborne, one half of the Brothers Osbourne, came out last year, the first out gay artist signed to a major country label. Trixie...

Jan Howard, a longtime singer who spent nearly five decades as part of country music’s famed Grand Ole Opry, has died. She was 91. Howard died Saturday in Gallatin, Tenn., the Grand Ole Opry announced. “Jan Howard was a force of nature in country music, at the Opry, and in life,” said Dan Rogers, the musical institution’s vice president and executive producer. “We were all so lucky so many nights to hear her voice on stage and to catch up with her backstage. We’re all better for having had her in our lives.” The Grand Ole Opry, which Howard joined...

Moonshine Jamboree (1993) / Ace Records UK "The "king of the hillbilly piano players" shows up at his best on these 23 tracks, cut during his prime years, 1946 through 1954, when he was associated principally with King Records. It's easy to hear the roots of Jerry Lee Lewis's (as well as elements of Carl Perkins') sound in early cuts like "Cherokee Boogie", on which Moon Mullican and his band find room for a rippling, pounding performance on piano as well as a short, hot guitar solo around a jaunty, funny honky tonk core, and most of the rest of...

George Hamilton IV, whose gentle demeanor and soothing folk-country vocal style earned him worldwide acclaim, died Wednesday (September 17th) at a Nashville hospital, following a heart attack which he suffered on Saturday. He was 77. A 50-year veteran of the Grand Ole Opry, Hamilton was known as the "International Ambassador of Country Music," having toured successfully throughout Europe, Asia, the Soviet Union and Australia... In 1963, he scored his greatest success with "Abilene." ...

VICTORIA, Texas (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas is supporting a gay couple after the men said they were kicked out of a South Texas nightclub for dancing together to country music. The incident occurred Saturday night at a Victoria nightclub when Justin Meyer, 21, said he and his partner danced together to the country song "Cowboys and Angels," the Victoria Advocate reported (http://bit.ly/Jrh5hV ). The men said a manager approached them and told them Cactus Canyon had a policy barring two men from dancing together to country music. Meyer's partner, James Douglas, 30, said the manager...

"He Stopped Loving Her Today," George Jones (1980) George Jones has said that he initially thought "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was too sad to be very popular, but, at one of the lowest points of his career and personal life, he made it one of country music’s defining and most enduring songs. Billy Sherrill’s restrained production highlighted the plaintive yet highly nuanced vocals that were the hallmark of Jones’ mature style, but which stretched back to his days singing for tips in the streets of his hometown, Beaumont, Texas, in the 1940s.

The reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and reality TV personality Blake Shelton made some disparaging remarks about traditional country fans in a recent interview with GAC as part of their Backstory series. The “Hillbilly Bone” singer and judge on NBC’s The Voice made the remarks as part of an update to the original GAC Backstory episode to include more information on Blake Shelton’s continued success. In connection with Blake’s first CMA for “Male Vocalist of the Year” award in 2010, Blake Shelton said, If I am “Male Vocalist of the Year” that must mean that I’m one...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Saaa-lute! The straw hats and braying cartoon donkey of ``Hee Haw'' are back. Time-Life is releasing full ``Hee Haw'' shows for the first time on VHS and DVD on Tuesday, the 35th anniversary of the show's first season. With its pickin', grinnin' and hayseed humor, ``Hee Haw'' was an American TV institution, on the air almost continuously from 1969 to 1997. The hourlong program started on CBS for two years, then went into syndication until 1993 and finally wound up on cable's old Nashville Network. ``'Hee Haw' won't go away,'' said Roy Clark, host or co-host of...

The three-day shoot for the video was about to wrap, and director Mark Romanek needed just one more shot from his singer star, Johnny Cash. As Romanek recalls, "I said to John, 'This is the last take. So if you want to get angry or smash something up, this is your last chance.'" Cash didn't get it. He thought Romanek meant this would be the final shot in the ailing star's life, so he had better make it good. Cash wouldn't, couldn't surrender to such defeatism. "I hope it's not the last take," he said in that baritone growl, which...

<p>He was just a graying man with a guitar, but Johnny Cash's age-old voice carried a burden of mourning and defiance that struck a nerve with young listeners raised on rap, punk and hard rock.</p> <p>By the time Cash died Friday at age 71, he had become a sort of elder-statesman of hellraisers.</p>

Breaking news announced at top of news: Johnny Cash has died today.

<p>While a popular new song on country radio seems to endorse war on Iraq, Nashville's music community is as conflicted about the standoff as the rest of America.</p> <p>At the same time, artists and recording industry officials say, more music that tries to capture the country's uneasy, anxious mood is coming soon or already here — if you listen carefully.</p>