Free Republic

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>