1.
Durham, North Carolina
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Durham is a city in the U. S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County, though portions also extend into Wake County in the east, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated the citys population to be 251,893 as of July 1,2014. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Area and it is the home of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and is also one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area. The Eno and the Occoneechi, related to the Sioux and the Shakori and they may have established a village named Adshusheer on the site. The Great Indian Trading Path has been traced through Durham, and Native Americans helped to mold the area by establishing settlements, in 1701, Durhams beauty was chronicled by the English explorer John Lawson, who called the area the flower of the Carolinas. During the mid-1700s, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to George Carteret by King Charles I, early settlers built gristmills, such as West Point, and worked the land. Prior to the American Revolution, frontiersmen in what is now Durham were involved in the Regulator movement, according to legend, Loyalist militia cut Cornwallis Road through this area in 1771 to quell the rebellion. Later, William Johnston, a shopkeeper and farmer, made Revolutionaries munitions, served in the Provincial Capital Congress in 1775. Large plantations, Hardscrabble, Cameron, and Leigh among them, were established in the antebellum period, by 1860, Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. There were free African-Americans in the area as well, including several who fought in the Revolutionary War and this road, eventually followed by US Route 70, was the major east-west route in North Carolina from colonial times until the construction of interstate highways. Steady population growth and an intersection with the road connecting Roxboro and Fayetteville made the area near this site suitable for a US Post Office, Durhams location is a result of the needs of the 19th century railroad industry. The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to frequently for wood and water. Eventually a railway depot was established on land donated by Bartlett S. Durham in 1849, sherman occupied the nearby state capital of Raleigh during the American Civil War. The last formidable Confederate Army in the South, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, was headquartered in Greensboro 50 miles to the west. After the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9,1865, fortunately for Durham, its future had nothing to do with 19th-century politics. As both armies passed through Durham, Hillsborough, and surrounding Piedmont communities, they confiscated the areas Brightleaf Tobacco, the community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war. Much of this attributed to the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry. Veterans returned home after the war, with an interest in acquiring more of the tobacco they had sampled in North Carolina
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Country music
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Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the genre of United States, such as folk music. Blues modes have been used throughout its recorded history. The term country music is used today to many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of Europe and Africa along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon, Bristol, Tennessee, has been formally recognized by the U. S. Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. Prior to these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a musical heritage. The first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlantas music scene playing a role in launching countrys earliest recording artists. Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, many hillbilly musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville, during the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a hot string band. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had played at Carnegie Hall. Gospel music remained a component of country music. It became known as honky tonk, and had its roots in Western swing and the music of Mexico. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres
4.
Singer-songwriter
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Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. The genre began with the folk-acoustic tradition, singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano. Singer-songwriter is used to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and often self-manager. Most records by artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that placed emphasis on the song itself. The term has also used to describe songwriters in the rock, folk, and pop music genres including Henry Russell, Aristide Bruant, Hank Williams. Song topics include political protest, as in the case of the Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger, the concept of a singer-songwriter can be traced to ancient bardic oral tradition, which has existed in various forms throughout the world. Poems would be performed as chant or song, sometimes accompanied by a harp or other similar instrument, after the invention of printing, songs would be written and performed by ballad sellers. Usually these would be versions of existing tunes and lyrics, which were constantly evolving and this developed into the singer-songwriting traditions of folk culture. The term singer-songwriter in North America can be traced back to singers who developed works in the blues and folk music style. Early to mid-20th century American singer-songwriters include Lead Belly, Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin Hopkins, Son House, the tradition of writing topical songs was established by this group of musicians. This focus on social issues has greatly influenced the singer-songwriter genre, artists who had been primarily songwriters, notably Carole King, Townes Van Zandt, and Neil Diamond, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the approach of most prior country and folk music. The adjectives confessional and sensitive were often used singer-songwriter style, in the rock band era, members were not technically singer-songwriters as solo acts. However, many were singer-songwriters who created songs with band members. Many others like Eric Clapton found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers, there were hints of cross-pollination, but rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with different audiences. An early attempt at fusing elements of folk and rock was highlighted in the Animals House of the Rising Sun, dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter. In the mid- to late 1960s, bands and singer-songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art/music scene. Lotti Golden, in her Atlantic debut album Motor-Cycle, chronicled her life in NYCs East Village in the late 60s counterculture, visiting subjects such as gender identity, kate Bush remained distinctive throughout with her idiosyncratic style
5.
Kenny Rogers
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Kenneth Ray Kenny Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, on September 25,2015, Rogers announced on NBCs Today Show that he was retiring from show business after a final tour to spend more time with his wife and twin boys. Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About. com poll of The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever and he was voted the Favorite Singer of All-Time in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. He has received such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs. The first single from the album, I Cant Unlove You, was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler. He is also a co-founder of the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters, kenneth Ray Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, on August 21,1938, the fourth of eight children, born to Lucille Lois, a nurses assistant, and Edward Floyd Rogers, a carpenter. Rogers is of Irish and Native American ancestry and he has five children from four of his five marriages. At his estate in Colbert, Georgia, Rogers keeps a pet goat named Smitty, according to Rogers, the goat has been center, providing a calming influence after long and stressful touring schedules. He had a solo hit in 1958 called That Crazy Feeling. After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a group called The Bobby Doyle Three. The group recorded for Columbia Records and they disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called Heres That Rainy Day, failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers, including country artists Mickey Gilley, in 1966 he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player. Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams and they formed The First Edition in 1967. They were later joined by Kin Vassy, when the First Edition disbanded in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. He soon developed a more middle-of-the-road sound that sold to both pop and country audiences and he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles. Fifty of his albums have charted and his music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy, and The Big Lebowski
6.
Randy Travis
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Randy Bruce Traywick, better known by his stage name, Randy Travis, is an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 50 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and 16 of these were number-one hits. Considered a pivotal figure in the history of music, Travis broke through in the mid-1980s with the release of his album Storms of Life. The album established him as a force in the Neotraditional country movement. Travis followed up his debut with a string of platinum and multi-platinum albums. He is known for his baritone vocals, delivered in a traditional style that has made him a country music star since the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, Travis saw a decline in his chart success, in 1997, he left Warner Bros. Records for DreamWorks Records and changed his musical focus to gospel music. Although the career shift produced only one more number-one country hit Three Wooden Crosses, Travis went on to earn several Dove Awards, in 2016, Travis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Randy and his brother Ricky were encouraged to pursue their talents by their father, who was a fan of Hank Williams, George Jones. In 1967, at the age of eight, Randy began playing guitar, two years later, he and his brother began performing at local clubs and talent contests, calling themselves the Traywick Brothers. Randy often fought with his father and soon dropped out of high school and he became a juvenile delinquent and was arrested for various offenses, including auto theft and burglary. Travis has since voiced regret for his past misdeeds, in 1975, while his brother was serving time in jail for a high-speed car chase, Randy won a talent contest at a nightclub, Country City USA, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The clubs owner, Elizabeth Lib Hatcher, took an interest in the singer, hired him as a cook. During the late 1970s, Randy worked and sang at Country City USA, still in his late teens, Travis had one more encounter with the law. At his hearing, the judge told Travis that if he saw the singer back in his court. Travis was released into the guardianship of Hatcher, who became his manager. The two began to focus on his career full-time, in 1978, he recorded a self-titled album, Randy Traywick, for Paula Records. The following year, he released two singles, Shes My Woman and Dreamin
7.
Keith Whitley
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Jackie Keith Whitley, known professionally as Keith Whitley, was an American country music singer. During his career, Whitley charted 19 singles on the Billboard country charts, born in Ashland, Kentucky, Whitley grew up in nearby Sandy Hook, Kentucky. Whitley began his career there in 1970, performing in Ralph Stanleys band, establishing himself as a lead singer in bluegrass music, Whitley moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1983 and began his recording career there. His first Top 20 Country Hit single, Miami, My Amy, was released in 1986, while touring for his album L. A. to Miami, he married country singer Lorrie Morgan. In 1988, his first three singles from his studio album Dont Close Your Eyes, the song, When You Say Nothing at All. He died in 1989 at the age of 34 and his later two singles, I Wonder Do You Think of Me and It Aint Nothin, were released after his death. Whitley continues to influence a generation of singers and songwriters. Whitley was born to Faye and Elmer Whitley in Ashland, Kentucky, but was raised 46 miles away in Sandy Hook and he had two brothers, Randy and Dwight, and a sister, Mary. The Whitley family has lived in the Elliot County area since the 1840s, as a teenager in Sandy Hook, Whitley and his friends would pass the time drinking bootleg bourbon and racing their cars down mountain roads at dangerous speeds. Whitley was once in a car whose driver attempted to round a curve at 120 mph, the car wrecked, killing his friend and almost breaking Whitleys neck. In another incident, he drove his car off a 120-feet cliff into a frozen river, in 1969 he performed in a musical contest in Ezel, Kentucky, with brother Dwight on five-string banjo. Ricky Skaggs was also in the contest, Skaggs and Whitley hit it off right away and quickly befriended each other. Fifteen-year-old Whitley and 16-year-old Skaggs were discovered in Ft. Gay, Stanley opened the door of the club and heard what he thought were the Stanley Brothers playing on a jukebox. However it was Whitley and Skaggs, who sounded just like me, the two soon joined Ralphs band. Whitley became lead singer for Stanley in 1974, Whitley also played with J. D. Crowe & the New South in the mid-1970s. During this period, he established himself as one of the most versatile and his singing was heavily influenced by Carter Stanley and Lefty Frizzell. He moved to Nashville in 1983 to pursue a music career. Whitleys first solo album, A Hard Act to Follow, was released in 1984, while Whitley was working hard to achieve his own style, the songs he produced were inconsistent
8.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast
9.
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
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Chartered in 1964, the museum has amassed one of the world’s most extensive musical collections. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the world’s largest and most active popular music research centers, through CMF, industry leaders raised money to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened on April 1,1967. Located at the head of Music Row, the museum was erected on the site of a small Nashville city park, at this point, artifacts began to be displayed and a small library was begun in a loft above one of the museum’s galleries. At the outset, CMA staff had run the museum, but by 1972 the museum acquired its own small staff, which has steadily increased to over 150 full-time professionals. Building expansion took place in 1974,1977, and 1984 to store and display the museum’s growing collection of costumes, films, historic cars, musical instruments, and other artifacts. To become more accessible, in May 2001 the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum moved to a new,130,000 square feet facility in the heart of downtown Nashville’s arts and entertainment district. In 2014, the museum unveiled a $100 million expansion, doubling its size to 350,000 square feet of galleries, archival storage, education classrooms, retail stores, and special event space. The story is revealed through artifacts, photographs, and text panels, recorded sound, vintage video, sing Me Back Home is enhanced by numerous, rotating limited-engagement exhibits. In addition to the galleries, the museum has the 776-seat CMA Theater, the Taylor Swift Education Center, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has developed multiple platforms to make its collection accessible to a wider audience. From weekly instrument demonstrations to its flagship songwriting program for schools, Words & Music, the Country Music Hall of Fame honor was created in 1961 by the Country Music Association, the first inductees were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Fred Rose. Roy Acuff, the first living artist to join the Hall of Fame, was elected in 1962, the most recent inductees are Jerry Reed, Don Schlitz and Alan Jackson. Over the Hall of Fame’s history, the number of new members inducted each year has varied from one to twelve, the election procedure is as follows, A small CMA nominating committee drafts slates of candidates from each category, categories have been defined variously over the years. Award recipients are determined through a two-stage balloting process, the first round of voting narrows each category to five candidates, the second round selects winners. The large select committee of electors that votes on Hall of Fame membership is composed of CMA members who have participated in the music industry for at least ten years. New Hall of Fame members receive special recognition in ceremonies at the Country Music Hall of Fame, today the plaques are displayed in a seventy-foot-high rotunda at the museum’s enlarged downtown Nashville facility. The museum’s archival and library storage, allows for the cultivation of the museum’s collection, hundreds of historic musical instruments, featuring Mother Maybelle Carter’s Gibson L-5, Earl Scruggs’s banjo, Bob Wills’ fiddle, and Bill Monroe’s mandolin. Oral histories, scrapbooks, correspondence, fan club newsletters, sheet music, periodicals, iconic Vehicles, Elvis Presley’s 1960 “Solid Gold” Cadillac limousine, Webb Pierce’s 1962 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, and Jerry Reed’s 1980 Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit II. When viewed from the air, the forms a massive bass clef
10.
Vince Gill
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Vincent Grant Vince Gill is an American country singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has recorded more than 20 studio albums, charted over 40 singles on the U. S. Billboard charts as Hot Country Songs, and has sold more than 26 million albums. He has been honored by the Country Music Association with 18 CMA Awards, as of 2017, Gill has also earned 21 Grammy Awards, more than any other male country music artist. In 2007 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, on February 4,2016 Gill was inducted into the Guitar Center Rock Walk by Joe Walsh of the Eagles. Gill has been married to singer Amy Grant since March 2000, Vince Gill was born in Norman, Oklahoma. His mother had a son, Bob Coen, from a previous marriage and he was Gills half-brother, but was considered a full brother by Gill. His father, J. Stanley Gill, was a lawyer and administrative law judge who played in a music band part-time. His father encouraged him to learn to play banjo and guitar, Gill attended high school at Oklahoma Citys Northwest Classen High School. While there he performed bluegrass in the band Mountain Smoke, which built a local following. After graduating from school in 1975, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Afterwards he spent an amount of time in Ricky Skaggss Boone Creek band before moving to Los Angeles to join Sundance. Gill debuted on the scene with the country rock band Pure Prairie League in 1979. He is the singer on their song Let Me Love You Tonight. Mark Knopfler once invited him to join Dire Straits, but he declined the offer and he provided background vocals for the song Tennessee Line, from Daughtrys second studio album, Leave This Town. Gill left Pure Prairie League in 1981 to join Cherry Bombs, There he worked with Tony Brown and Emory Gordy Jr. both of whom would later produce many of his albums. Gill has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since August 10,1991 and he celebrated his 25th Opry anniversary with a tribute show on August 13,2016. In 2010, Gill officially joined the country swing group The Time Jumpers, in July 2011, Gill appeared as a guest on NPRs news quiz show Wait, Wait. Dont Tell Me. Also in 2011, he appeared on the second of two tribute albums for the British rock band The Moody Blues, Moody Bluegrass TWO
11.
When You Say Nothing at All
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When You Say Nothing at All is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. Overstreet and Schlitz came up with When You Say Nothing at All at the end of an otherwise unproductive day, strumming a guitar, trying to write their next song, they were coming up empty. As we tried to find way to say nothing, we came up with the song. They thought the song was OK, but nothing special, when Keith Whitley heard it, he loved it, and was not going to let it get away. Earlier, he had recorded another Overstreet-Schlitz composition that became a No.1 hit for another artist - Randy Travis On the Other Hand, Whitley did not plan to let When You Say Nothing at All meet the same fate. RCA released When You Say Nothing at All as the single to the title song of Whitleys Dont Close Your Eyes album. The former song already had hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, when You Say Nothing at All entered the Hot Country Singles chart on September 17,1988, at No. 61, and gradually rose to the top, where it stayed for two weeks at the end of the year. It was the second of five consecutive chart-topping singles for Whitley, Keith did a great job singin that song, co-composer Schlitz told author Tom Roland. He truly sang it from the heart, in 2004, Whitleys original was ranked 12th among CMTs 100 Greatest Love Songs. It was sung by Sara Evans on the show, as of February 2015, the song has sold 599,000 digital copies in the US after it became available for download. The single release featured Charlottes in North Carolina, one of several previously-unreleased tracks sung by Whitley on the album, after Krausss cover began to receive unsolicited airplay, BNA Records, the label that had released the album, issued Krauss version to radio in January 1995. The singles B-side was a previously unreleased Whitley song titled Charlottes in North Carolina and its success, as well as that of the album, caught Krauss by surprise. Its a freak thing, she told a Los Angeles Times reporter in March 1995 and we havent had anything really chart before. We dont know whats goin on. The office said, Hey, its charting, the duet garnered national attention, and it spread from at least Philadelphia to Albuquerque, and has been heard on radio stations in California as well. It was never serviced to radio and has never been available commercially. Krauss recording won the 1995 CMA award for Single of the Year, the song has been featured a couple of times in the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Krauss version was used in the 1999 motion picture The Other Sister
12.
George H. W. Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he was referred to as George Bush or President Bush. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed his university studies, enlisted in the U. S. Navy on his 18th birthday and he served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, Bush became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives and Director of Central Intelligence, among other positions. He failed to win the Republican nomination for President in 1980, but was chosen as a mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation, in 1988, Bush ran a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as President, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and, after a struggle with Congress and his presidential library was dedicated in 1997, and he has been active—often alongside Bill Clinton—in various humanitarian activities. Besides being the 43rd president, his son George also served as the 46th Governor of Texas and is one of only two other being John Quincy Adams—to be the son of a former president. His second son, Jeb Bush, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12,1924, to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth, growing up, his nickname was Poppy. Bush began his education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US, Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron as the officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, during this time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles of World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After Bushs promotion to Lieutenant on August 1,1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima
13.
Points of Light
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Each year, Points of Light mobilizes millions of people through affiliates in approximately 250 cities and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits and companies. Points of Light was formed in 2007 by the merger of the Points of Light Foundation, encouraged by major donors and affiliates, the two organizations merged with the goal of strengthening volunteerism, streamlining costs and services and deepening impact. President Bush used the thousand points of light theme frequently, including in his 1991 State of the Union address in which he said and we can find meaning and reward by serving some higher purpose than ourselves, a shining purpose, the illumination of a Thousand Points of Light. And it is expressed by all who know the force of a childs hand, of a friend who stands by you and stays there, a volunteers generous gesture. In 1991 the National Volunteer Center, which had begun in 1970 as the National Center for Voluntary Action, was merged into it, the merged organization also became known during the 2000s as the Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network. The group also sponsored conferences, offered training and other assistance to its network of volunteer centers, the Points of Light Foundation was in fact not a grant-making foundation. It engaged in a variety of tasks, including managing its network of centers, engaging volunteers in disaster recovery, supporting corporate volunteer councils. At the same time as the Points of Light Foundation’s founding, Michelle Nunn joined this group of co-founders as the first executive director of Hands On Atlanta in 1989. When the group held its first Hands On Atlanta Day in 1992, in 2003, Nunn moved from Hands On Atlanta to become CEO of the national Atlanta-based HandsOn Network to expand the volunteer model to cities around the world. They combined forces on August 11,2007, to become the Points of Light Institute, by late 2011, it changed its name to Points of Light. Points of Light has approximately 250 affiliates in 22 countries and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits, in 2012, Points of Light mobilized 4 million volunteers in 30 million hours of service worth $635 million. Points of Light received the highest possible rating on Charity Navigator in 2012,2011, in 2013, Nunn took a leave of absence from CEO to pursue an unsuccessful run for Georgias U. S. Senate seat in 2014. In 2015, Tracy Hoover was named as CEO of Points of Light, the President focused great attention on these individuals and organizations, both to honor them for their work and to call the nation to join them and multiply their efforts. The Daily Point of Light continues to be awarded by Points of Light, President Bush devoted attention to voluntary service as a means of solving some of Americas most serious social problems. In The Points of Light Movement, The Presidents Report to the Nation, President Bush wrote and they are ordinary people who reach beyond themselves to touch the lives of those in need, bringing hope and opportunity, care and friendship. By giving so generously of themselves, these individuals show us not only what is best in our heritage. On July 15,2013, President Barack Obama welcomed President Bush to the White House to celebrate the 5, 000th Daily Point of Light Award. They bestowed the award on Floyd Hammer and Kathy Hamilton of Union, Iowa, for their work founding Outreach, israel Idonije, for his foundation’s work providing support to thousands of kids through after-school programs, sports camps and medical missions in West Africa, Winnipeg and Chicago
14.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (musical)
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a musical comedy based on the novel by Mark Twain conceived and written by Ken Ludwig, with music and lyrics by Don Schlitz. The musical is the story of a boy growing up in the heartland of America. This Broadway musical version of Mark Twains novel is set in 1840 in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a bustling town on the banks of the Mississippi River. In the course of the story, Tom matches wits with his stern Aunt Polly, falls in love with the beautiful, feisty Becky Thatcher, and goes on the adventure of his life with Becky and Huckleberry Finn. Along the way he meets a terrifying villain named Injun Joe, Toms bratty half-brother Sid, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theater on April 26,2001 and closed on May 13,2001, after 21 performances and 34 previews. Act One In 1840, Tom Sawyer is fishing outside St. Petersburg, Missouri as his friends arrive, Tom’s Aunt Polly sends him to school, where he tricks the schoolmaster, Mr. Dobbins, into letting the class have the day off. Aunt Polly, Mr. Dobbins and the preacher, Reverend Sprague lament that they Can’t Do A Thing About the Boy, Aunt Polly orders Tom to whitewash a fence in front of their house, and Tom’s half-brother, Sid, is happy. Frustrated, Tom plans to run away, as Tom procrastinates, he meets a beautiful newcomer, Becky Thatcher and they are mutually attracted. The towns outcast and Toms best friend Huckleberry Finn says that painting the fence looks like fun, Tom then tricks his friends into painting the fence for him, and paying. At night, Tom and Huck visit the graveyard and see Injun Joe. Joe murders Doc Robinson and the run away and swear in blood to keep quiet forever about what they saw. Injun Joe has a vagrant, Muff Potter, blamed for the murder, on the way to church, Aunt Polly and Judge Thatcher, single parents, lament about Raising A Child By Yourself. In church, Tom tries to impress Becky by fooling Reverend Sprague into giving him the Bible Prize, Tom tries to convince a fearful Huck to learn to read. When Huck saves old Widow Douglas from the advances of the drunk, she offers to teach him to read. Tom and Becky proclaim their love for each other. Muff Potter is arrested for murder, and he pleads with Injun Joe to save him from hanging, Joe agrees to help, but wants a map that Muff has found, a map leading to a treasure, Murrell’s Gold. At Muff Potter’s trial, Tom tells the truth and swears that Injun Joe committed the murder, Injun Joe yells You are dead, boy. Throws a knife at Tom, and runs from the courtroom, act Two As school ends for the summer the children and their parents celebrate
15.
Capitol Records
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Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label which operates as a division of the Capitol Music Group. The label was founded as the first West Coast-based record label in the United States in 1942 by three industry insiders named Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs, in 1955, the label was acquired by the British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary. EMI was later acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company in 2013, making Capitol Records, Capitol Records circular headquarter building located in Los Angeles is a recognized landmark of California. Mercer first raised the idea of starting a company while golfing with Harold Arlen. By 1941, Mercer was a songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to Wallichs while visiting his record store, Wallichs expressed interest in the idea and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify their artists, while Wallichs managed the business side. On February 2,1942, Mercer and Wallichs met with DeSylva at a Hollywood restaurant to inquire about the possibility of investment of the company from Paramount Pictures, while DeSylva declined the proposal, he handed the pair a check worth $15,000. On March 27,1942, the three men incorporated as Liberty Records, in May 1942, the application was amended to change the companys name to Capitol Records. On April 6,1942, Mercer supervised Capitols first recording session where Martha Tilton recorded the song Moon Dreams, on May 5, Bobby Sherwood and his orchestra recorded two tracks in the studio. On May 21, Freddie Slack and his orchestra recorded three tracks in the studio, one with the orchestra, one with Ella Mae Morse called Cow-Cow Boogie, on June 4,1942, Capitol opened its first office in a second-floor room south of Sunset Boulevard. On that same day, Wallichs presented the companys first free record to Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter, on June 5,1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four songs at the studio. On June 12, the recorded five more songs in the studio. On June 11, Tex Ritter recorded Jingle Jangle Jingle and Goodbye My Little Cherokee for his first Capitol recording session, and the songs formed Capitols 110th produced record. 133 - Get On Board Little Chillun - July 31,1942 - is a Freddie Slack/Ella Mae Morse/Mellowaires recording that might be the first rock n roll record and she has sometimes been called the first rock n roll singer. A good example is her 1942 recording of song which, with strong gospel, blues, boogie. Bone Walker recorded Mean Old World a pioneering example of the use of electric guitar. The earliest recording artists included co-owner Mercer, Whiteman, Tilton, Morse, Margaret Whiting, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Johnnie Johnston, Tex Ritter, Capitols first gold single was Morses Cow Cow Boogie in 1942. Capitols first album was Capitol Presents Songs By Johnny Mercer, a three 78-rpm disc set with recordings by Mercer, Stafford and the Pied Pipers, all with Westons Orchestra
16.
Billboard (magazine)
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Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a division of Eldridge Industries. It publishes pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events and it is also known for its music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows, Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegens interest in 1900 for $500, in the 1900s, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows. It also created a service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the industry as the jukebox, phonograph. Many topics it covered were spun-off into different magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment so that it could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was passed down to his children and Hennegans children, until it was sold to investors in 1985. The first issue of Billboard was published in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 1,1894 by William Donaldson, initially, it covered the advertising and bill posting industry and was called Billboard Advertising. At the time, billboards, posters and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co. managed magazine production, the first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns like The Bill Room Gossip and The Indefatigable, a department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896. The title was changed to The Billboard in 1897, after a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegans interest in the business in 1900 for $500, to save it from bankruptcy. That May, Donaldson changed it from a monthly to a paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London and he also re-focused the magazine on outdoor entertainment like fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, a lack of professionalism, economics and it had a stage gossip column covering the private lives of entertainers, a tent show section covering traveling shows and a sub-section called Freaks to order. According to The Seattle Times, Donaldson also published articles attacking censorship, praising productions exhibiting good taste
17.
40 Hour Week (For a Livin')
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40 Hour Week is a song written by Dave Loggins, Don Schlitz and Lisa Silver, and recorded by American country music band Alabama. It was released in April 1985 as the single and title track from Alabamas album 40-Hour Week. The song, a salute to the Americas blue-collar workers, became Alabamas 17th No.1 song on August 3, the end of the song includes a few bars from America the Beautiful. Country music historian Bill Malone, in his notes for Classic Country Music, A Smithsonian Collection. Probably owes its popularity as much to its patriotic sentiments as to its social concern, Malone also noted that, with few exceptions, almost no one in country music has spoken for the industrial laborer, one of the main groups of workers Alabama salutes in this song. This straightforward homage gives the worker the respect that the Reagan years denied him. A music video was filmed for the song, depicting people on the job in various blue-collar jobs and it was directed by David Hogan and has aired on CMT and Great American Country. 40 Hour Week is one of the central to a point of contention among country music historians. However, the bands 1982 Christmas single, Christmas in Dixie,35, bringing about the point of contention. Sonny James, a music superstar in the 1960s and 1970s, had previously set the standard of most Billboard No.1 songs with 16 straight without a miss in any single release. Some sources, including the Alabama Music Hall of Fame web site, state that the failure of Christmas in Dixie snapped Alabamas streak before achieving parity with James, others — such as Joel Whitburns Top Country Songs, 1944-2005 — disregard non-No. 1 Christmas singles in determining chart-topping streaks and consider Alabama to have surpassed the record, several hard-core country fans were quick to point out the discrepancy, but Billboard magazine writer Paul Grein responded, Only a Scrooge would count that against them. James, on the hand, attended a celebratory gathering for Alabamas accomplishment. Whitburn, Joel, Top Country Songs, 1944-2005,2006
18.
Alabama (American band)
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Alabama is an American country, Southern rock and bluegrass band formed in Fort Payne, Alabama in 1969. The band was founded by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry and they were soon joined by their other cousin, Jeff Cook. First operating under the name Wildcountry, the group toured the Southeast bar circuit in the early 1970s and they changed their name to Alabama in 1977 and following the chart success of two singles, were approached by RCA Records for a record deal. Alabamas biggest success came in the 1980s, where the band had over 27 number one hits, seven multi-platinum albums, the bands popularity waned slightly in the 1990s although they continued to produce hit singles and multi-platinum album sales. Alabama disbanded in 2006 following a tour and two albums of inspirational music but reunited in 2010 and have continued to record and tour worldwide. The bands blend of country music and Southern rock combined with elements of gospel. They also toured extensively and incorporated elements such as lighting. The band has over 30 number one records on the Billboard charts to their credit and have sold over 75 million records. AllMusic credited the band with popularizing the idea of a country band, Alabama was formed by guitarists Randy Owen and Jeff Cook, and bassist Teddy Gentry, three cousins born and raised near Fort Payne, Alabama, an area with strong country music roots. Owen and Gentry grew up on cotton farms on Lookout Mountain, learning guitar together. Gentry and Owen played in groups during the 1960s, ranging from pop to bluegrass. Cook joined the band in 1969 forming the group Young Country, Cook also played in numerous bands and was a rock and roll disk jockey. The three cousins all shared vocal duties, with cousin, drummer Jackie Owen, completing the groups first lineup. The bands first performance was at a school talent contest, for which they won first prize. Despite this, all were busy with commitments to pursue music, Owen still in high school, Cook working for Western Electric. The band grew further inactive when Cook went to college and Owen into the military, the group became a professional band in 1972, adding drummer Bennett Vartanian and changing their name to Wildcountry. During this time, the group accepted a position playing at the nearby Canyonland theme park, the park would bring in established stars, such as Jerry Wallace, Bobby Bare, and Narvel Felts, and the band would back them, afterwards performing a one-hour dance set. After a while, with opportunities for the band slimmed, a discouraged Cook took a government job in Anniston, Owen was studying English at Jacksonville State University, and Cook had an electronics job
19.
Almost Goodbye (song)
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Almost Goodbye is a song written by Billy Livsey and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music singer Mark Chesnutt. It was released in August 1993 as the single and title track from his 1993 album of the same name. The song peaked at number-one on the U. S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, the music video was directed by John Lloyd Miller and premiered on June 221993. The song debuted at number 68 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart dated September 4,1993. It charted for 20 weeks on chart, and became his fourth Number One single on the Country Music chart dated November 20,1993
20.
Mark Chesnutt
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Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer. Between 1990 and 2002, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashvilles MCA and Decca branches, during this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached No.1. His late 1998-early 1999 cover of Aerosmiths I Dont Want to Miss a Thing, in addition to topping the country charts, Chesnutt is known for his neotraditionalist country and honky-tonk influences. He has charted singles that were recorded by John Anderson, Don Gibson, Conway Twitty. He has recorded in collaborations with Tracy Byrd, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, George Jones, Chesnutt is the second son of Bob and Norma Jean Chesnutt. He learned to love music from his father, who was a singer and he dropped out of school after his sophomore year of high school to begin playing in clubs around southeast Texas. When he turned 17, his father began to take him to Nashville, for the next ten years, he began to record on small regional labels while he was the house band for local Beaumont nightclub Cutters. He slowly gathered a large fanbase who loved to hear his traditional style, by the late 1980s, he had released eight singles, which would later be released together on Doing My Country Thing. He has been married to his wife, Tracie, since 1992, Chesnutt signed to MCA Records in 1990, releasing his major-label debut Too Cold at Home that year. The album produced five straight Top Ten country hits, first the No.3 title track followed by his first No.1 hit, after it came Blame It on Texas, Your Love Is a Miracle, and Broken Promise Land. These singles helped the album earn RIAA platinum certification in the United States, Chesnutts second album, 1992s Longnecks & Short Stories, also sold platinum and continued the chart momentum of Too Cold at Home. In order of release, its singles were Old Flames Have New Names, Ill Think of Something, Bubba Shot the Jukebox, chestnutts third album for MCA was titled Almost Goodbye. Led off by three straight chart-toppers, it was also his third platinum album. The albums fourth single, a cover of Don Gibsons 1972 No.1 hit, Woman, Chesnutt saw his sales declining by 1994s What a Way to Live, which was nonetheless certified gold. The album included four singles for him. First was the number 6 She Dreams, previously a number 74 single in 1993 for its co-writer, after it came the number 2 Goin Through the Big D and then his sixth number-one hit, Gonna Get a Life. Finishing off the album was the number 23 Down in Tennessee, also in 1994, he contributed the song Goodbye Comes Hard for Me to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country, produced by the Red Hot Organization. For his next album, Wings, Chesnutt was transferred to Decca Records newly re-established Nashville branch and this album, however, sold even more poorly than its predecessors, with its lead-off single Trouble stopping at No.18
21.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American folk-rock band that was formed in 1966 in Long Beach, California. The band has had many changes, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when it was known as the Dirt Band. Original members include singer and guitarist Jeff Hanna and drummer Jimmie Fadden, multi-instrumentalist John McEuen was a member from 1966 to 1986 and returned during 2001. Keyboardist Bob Carpenter joined in 1977, the bands successes include a hit single with their cover version of Mr. Bojangles by Jerry Jeff Walker and a gold album, Will the Circle be Unbroken featuring Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, and Doc Watson. A follow-up album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume Two was certified gold, according to the bands website, trying to figure out how not to have to work for a living, Hanna and Kunkel joined jam sessions at McCabes Guitar Shop in Long Beach. They met several multi-instrumentalists, guitarist/washtub bassist Ralph Barr, guitarist-clarinetist Les Thompson, harmonicist and jug player Jimmie Fadden, around this time, Steve Martin jammed with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, playing as he still does, the banjo. Their first paying performance was at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, Browne was in the band for only a few months before he left to concentrate on a solo career as a singer-songwriter. He was replaced by John McEuen on banjo, fiddle, mandolin, McEuens older brother, William, was the groups manager, and he helped the band get signed with Liberty Records, which released the groups debut album, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band during 1967. A second album, Ricochet, was released later during the year and was successful than their first. Kunkel wanted the band to go electric, and include original material. Bruce left the group to form WordSalad and Of The People and he was replaced by guitarist-fiddler Chris Darrow. By 1968, the band adopted electrical instruments anyway, and added drums, the first electric album, Rare Junk, was a commercial failure, as was their next, Alive. The band also played Carnegie Hall as an act for Bill Cosby. The group was inactive for a 6-month period after Paint Your Wagon, with William McEuen as producer and a renegotiated contract that gave the band more artistic freedom, the band recorded and released Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy, issued in 1970. Their version of Mr. Bojangles became the groups first hit, peaking at #9 on Billboards all genre Hot 100 chart, the next album, All The Good Times, released during early 1972, had a similar style. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band next sought to solidify its reputation as a band when band member John McEuen asked Earl Scruggs if he would record with the group. Earls yes was followed the week when John asked Doc Watson the same question. The track I Saw the Light with Acuff singing, was a success, veteran fiddler Vassar Clements was introduced to a wider audience by the album and it gave him a new career
22.
John Denver
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He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best selling artists. By 1974, he was established as Americas best selling performer. After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, with total record sales of over 33 million. He recorded and performed primarily with a guitar and sang about his joy in nature, his disdain for city life, his enthusiasm for music. Denver starred in films and several television specials in the 1970s and 1980s. He continued to record in the 1990s, also focusing on issues by lending vocal support to space exploration. He lived in Aspen, Colorado for much of his life and was known for his love of Colorado which he sang about numerous times, in 1974 Denver was named poet laureate of the state. The Colorado state legislature also adopted Rocky Mountain High as one of its two songs in 2007. Denver was a pilot and died at the age of 53 in a single-fatality crash of his personal experimental aircraft. Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. was born in Roswell, New Mexico, to Lt. Col. Henry John Deutschendorf, Sr. an Air Force officer, Henry Sr. was of German ancestry, and met and married his Oklahoma Sweetheart. Denvers Irish Catholic and German maternal grandmother was the one who imbued Denver with his love of music. In his autobiography, Take Me Home, Denver described his life as the eldest son of a family shaped by a father who could not show his love for his children. He is also the nephew of singer Dave Deutschendorf of The New Christy Minstrels, because Denvers father was in the military and his family moved often, it was difficult for him to make friends and fit in with other children of his own age. Constantly being the new kid was troubling for the introverted Denver, and he grew up feeling like he should be somewhere else. While living in Tucson, Arizona, Denver was a member of the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus for two years, Denver was happy living in Tucson, but his father was transferred to Montgomery, Alabama, then in the midst of the Montgomery boycotts. The family later moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where Denver graduated from Arlington Heights High School, attending high school in Fort Worth was a distressing experience for the disenfranchised Denver. In his third year of school, he borrowed his fathers car and ran away to California to visit family friends. His father flew to California in a jet plane to retrieve him
23.
Kathy Mattea
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Kathleen Alice Kathy Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic, and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. This total includes the number one hits Goin Gone, Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses, Come From the Heart, and Burnin Old Memories, as well as twelve additional Top Ten singles. Mattea was born in South Charleston, West Virginia because it had the nearest hospital to her parents home in Cross Lanes and she discovered her love of singing at Girl Scout camp. In 1976, while attending West Virginia University, she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro, and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. Matteas third album, Walk the Way the Wind Blows, proved to be her critical and commercial breakthrough, Her cover of Nanci Griffiths Love at the Five and Dime was her first major hit, reaching No. 3, and the produced three other top ten songs, Walk the Way the Wind Blows, Youre the Power. Love at the Five and Dime also drew attention because well-known country singer Don Williams sang harmony vocals on the track, further hit songs include her first No. Mattea is a winner of the County Music Associations Female Vocalist of the Year, which she won on the success of Eighteen Wheels. She won another Grammy in 1993 for her gospel-oriented Christmas album and her first single from the album, Mary, Did You Know. went on to be covered by Kenny Rogers with Wynonna Judd, as well as Reba McEntire. Also on that album, Mattea teamed up with Jackson Browne to contribute Rock Me on the Water, through the 1990s, she often collaborated with Scottish folksinger songwriter Dougie MacLean. In 2000, released the ballad-heavy The Innocent Years, a tribute to her ailing father. Wanting to explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea changed labels to Narada and her 2008 release, Coal, combined her social activism with songs about coal-mining. It debuted at #64 on the albums chart, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Traditional Folk category. Kathy Mattea was honored as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame 2011 class of inductees and she is the recipient of the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award, as well as the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award. She performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter on VH1s very first Save The Music concert, in 1991, Mattea took part in Voices That Care, a multi-artist project that featured other top names in music for a one-off single to raise money for the allied troops in the Gulf War. The project included Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, in The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Kathy Matteas Official Website Kathy Mattea at the Internet Movie Database Kathy Mattea interviewed on Conversations from Penn State
24.
Tim O'Brien (musician)
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Tim OBrien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, in November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Tim OBrien was born on March 16,1954 and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, at the age of 12, he first heard a Bob Dylan record, played by his older sister Mollie, afterwards deciding to take up music. Throughout his teens, he himself to play guitar, violin. As a boy of the 1950s he had his ears open to the country and bluegrass melting pot on the local WWVA show. In high school, he and his sister Mollie, a singer, began performing Peter, Paul, in 1973, he dropped out of Colby College to pursue music professionally. He wrote to his mother at the time, saying, Im heading west, I know 200 songs now, and I figure if I keep learning more I should be all right. He eventually moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s and became part of the scene there. In Colorado, he met guitarist/bassist Charles Sawtelle, banjoist Pete Wernick, Mike Scap was soon replaced by Nick Forster on bass with Sawtelle moving to guitar. Over the next years, the quartet earned recognition as one of Americas most innovative. Never straying too far from a sound, Hot Rize stood out with fresh harmony singing, Wernicks melodic banjo playing. To broaden their repertoire, the members of Hot Rize would often split their show with a set of classic and offbeat country and western music in the guise of Red Knuckles. The band would walk off stage, change clothes, and reappear as a different band, with its own songs, fictional back story and odd costumes. Hot Rize was the International Bluegrass Music Associations first Entertainer of the Year in 1990, in 1990, Hot Rize disbanded as a regular touring and recording band. However, after the death of guitarist Charles Sawtelle, in 2002 Hot Rize was joined by award winning guitarist Bryan Sutton, in 1984, OBrien and his sister Mollie OBrien reunited for a Mothers Day concert, and four years later recorded the duet album Take Me Back. Chip Renner of AllMusic gave the album 4. 5/5 stars, in 1986 they began performing again as an Americana duo, and produced two more albums, Remember Me, and Away Out on the Mountain. All three records were released on Sugar Hill Records, OBrien, who had already recorded several albums without Hot Rize, embarked on a solo career. He briefly signed to RCA Records, recording an album with them called Odd Man In, Sugar Hill Records eventually released the album, and OBrien has not signed to a major since
25.
Sara Evans
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Sara Lynn Evans is an American country music singer and songwriter. Evans has released seven albums, Three Chords and the Truth, No Place That Far, Born to Fly, Restless, Real Fine Place, Stronger, Slow Me Down, plus one Christmas album. Of her albums, Born to Fly is her best-selling, with a certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of two million copies. Four additional singles have reached No.1 as well, Born to Fly, Suds in the Bucket, A Real Fine Place to Start, several of her singles have also crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, where she has seven Top 40 entries. Evans has also won one each from Billboard, the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, Broadcast Music Incorporated. Evans has collaborated with The Warren Brothers, Vince Gill, Martina McBride, Mindy McCready, Lorrie Morgan, Phil Vassar and she has covered songs by Edwin McCain, Radney Foster, Rod Stewart, and Gavin DeGraw. Evans was born in Boonville, Missouri, in 1971, and is of Welsh, English, Irish and she was raised on a farm near New Franklin, Missouri, the eldest girl of seven children. By five, she was singing weekends in her familys band, at the age of eight, she was struck by an automobile in front of the family home, and her legs suffered multiple fractures. Recuperating for months in a wheelchair, she continued singing to help pay her medical bills, when she was 16, she began performing at a nightclub near Columbia, Missouri, a gig that lasted two years. Evans moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991 to be a music artist. She met fellow musician Craig Schelske and left Nashville with him in 1992 and she returned to Nashville in 1995 and began recording demos. Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard was impressed by her demo of his song Tiger by the Tail and he decided to help her music career, leading to a signed contract with RCA Nashville. In 1997, Evans released her album for RCA, Three Chords. Although none of its three singles reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the album received praise for its neotraditional country sound. In 1998, Evans released her album, No Place That Far. The albums lead single, Cryin Game, also failed to reach the Top 40, however, the albums second single and title track, gave Evans her first Number One hit on the Hot Country Songs chart in March 1999. The album was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA, and produced one additional Top 40 country hit in Fool, Evanss third studio album, Born to Fly, was released on October 10,2000. She insisted on hiring Seattle-based rock drummer Matt Chamberlain, who brought a different sound to her music, the albums title track, which was released as the lead single, was a Number One hit on the Hot Country Songs chart
26.
Michael Johnson (singer)
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Michael Johnson, is an American pop, country and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1978 hit song Bluer Than Blue and he also co-wrote Cains Blood, the debut single of 1990s country group 4 Runner. Johnson was born in the town of Alamosa, Colorado, in the south-central part of the state. He started playing the guitar at 13, in 1963, he began attending Colorado State University to study music but his college career was truncated when he won an international talent contest two years later. First prize included a deal with Epic Records, Epic released the song Hills, written and sung by Johnson, as a single. Johnson began extensive touring of clubs and colleges, finding a receptive audience everywhere he went, wishing to hone his instrumental skills, in 1966 he set off for Barcelona, Spain, to the Liceu Conservatory, studying with the eminent classical guitarists, Graciano Tarragó and Renata Tarragó. Upon his return to the States, he joined Randy Sparks in a called the New Society. When the band dissolved in 1967, he signed on with the Chad Mitchell Trio for a year, spending some of that time co-writing with another member, the group was renamed Denver, Boise & Johnson. The show visited New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago over the year, by then. Feeling this first effort wasnt a reflection of his music, Johnson self-produced his next LP in 1975, For All You Mad Musicians, relying more on his voice. He followed this up with Aint Dis Da Life, where he added a rhythm section, with each new recording and his continued touring, his popularity was increasing. It was time to make a move on the national market, teaming up with Brent Maher and Steve Gibson in Nashville, Tennessee, Johnson created a two-song demo consisting of Bluer Than Blue and Almost Like Being in Love. EMI America took one listen and wasted no time in signing him, Almost Like Being in Love went to No.91 on the R&B chart while hitting the Top 5 on the AC chart and the Top 40 on the pop chart. His next EMI album, Dialogue, provided his big hit, This Night Wont Last Forever. Johnsons change proved successful, as he scored five Top Ten country hits from 1986 to 1989, including the chart-toppers Give Me Wings, after two country albums on RCA, Johnson moved over to Atlantic Records in 1991, which effectively halted his commercial momentum. He recorded sporadically in the 1990s for smaller labels, in 1995, the country music group 4 Runner scored a minor hit with the single Cains Blood, for which Johnson co-wrote an updated version with Jack Sundrud of Poco. Johnson also proved to be a writer of print when he wrote The Solo Performer columns for the magazine Performing Songwriter from 1993 through 1998. In August 2007, Johnson underwent successful quadruple bypass heart surgery, a charitable organization, Friends of Michael Johnson, was temporarily set up to help defray medical expenses
27.
Deeper Than the Holler
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Deeper Than The Holler is a song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz, and recorded by American country music singer Randy Travis. It was released in November 1988 as the single from the album. The song was his eighth Number One single, and his sixth consecutive, deeper Than the Holler is a mid-tempo ballad in which the narrator describes his love for his woman. He starts by saying that hes heard many people sing about how they love their loved ones, the man then decides to sing his song about how he feels about his lover. In the second verse, the narrator sings on how there are at least a million songs that people love to sing about their true love. A3 CD single was released in Germany featuring the cover as I Told You So. The songs I Told You So,1982 and No Place Like Home were included. The song debuted at number 42 on the Hot Country Songs chart dated November 19,1988 and it charted for 18 weeks on that chart, and became Travis eighth Number One single on the country chart dated January 28,1989. In addition, it was his sixth consecutive Number One, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
28.
Lorrie Morgan
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Loretta Lynn Lorrie Morgan is an American country music singer. She is the daughter of George Morgan, a country singer who charted several hit singles between 1949 and his death in 1975. Morgan charted her first single in 1978, although she did not break into the top of the U. S. country charts until her 1989 single, Trainwreck of Emotion. Since then, she has charted more than 25 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts and she has also recorded more than 15 studio albums. At various points in her life, Morgan has been married to three different country singers, Keith Whitley, Jon Randall and Sammy Kershaw and she has sold over 6 million records worldwide. Morgan was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry at age 13, performing Fred Spielman, after her father died in 1975, she took over his band at age 16 and began leading the group through various club gigs. Within a few years she disbanded the group, and in 1977 she joined the Little Roy Wiggins band and she then became a receptionist and demo singer at Acuff-Rose Music, where she also wrote songs. Morgan had one hit single in 1978, the following year she recorded another minor hit with Im Completely Satisfied With You. She began touring Nashville nightclubs and opened for a number of acts, including Jack Greene, Billy Thunderkloud and she toured as a duet partner with George Jones and spent two years as part of the Opryland USA bluegrass show and as a regular singer on TNNs Nashville Now. In 1984, Morgan scored a hit with Dont Go Changing. That year she became the youngest singer ever to join the Grand Ole Opry, four years later, she signed with RCA Records, her first major label, her first album on that label, Leave the Light On, was released in 1989. In 1990, Morgan had her first number one single, Five Minutes, morgans second album, Something in Red, was released in 1991 and went platinum. The same year, she married her husband, Brad Thompson. Watch Me, her album, was released on RCAs newest label, BNA Records, it contained the number-one single. Watch Me also was certified platinum, making Morgan the first female country artist to have three albums in a row to be certified platinum, morgans romantic life gained tabloid attention with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. In 1994 she was voted Female Vocalist of the Year by the fans in TNNs Music City News Awards and she would earn this honor again in 1996,1997 and 1998. Morgan also appeared on Frank Sinatras Duets II album, singing a version of How Do You Keep the Music Playing intertwined with Sinatras My Funny Valentine. Morgans Greatest Hits album, which produced her third and, to date, the next year, Morgan was featured on the Beach Boys now out-of-print album, Stars and Stripes Vol.1, performing a cover of their 1964 hit, Dont Worry Baby
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Guardian Angels
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The Guardian Angels is a non-profit international volunteer organization of unarmed crime-prevention patrollers. The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13,1979, in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has more than 130 chapters around the world, Sliwa originally created the organization to combat widespread violence and crime on the New York City Subway system. The organization originally trained members to make arrests for violent crimes. The organization patrols the streets and neighborhoods but also provides programs and workshops for schools. In the beginning, New York City Mayor Ed Koch publicly opposed the group, many government officials also opposed the group whenever they attempted to open a chapter in their cities, including Toronto Mayor David Miller and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. Over the years, the controversy has died down in many cities, Ed Koch later reversed his stance on the organization, and former New York City Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg have publicly supported the group. In 1992, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa issued an apology for faking several subway rescues in the 1980s in order to get publicity for the group. Since the statute of limitations on filing false reports had expired. The original and main Guardian Angels activity is Safety Patrol in which members walk the streets or ride transit, Guardian Angels must be in uniform to represent the organization. They can be identified by their red s and red jackets or white T-shirts with the red Guardian Angels logo of an eye inside a pyramid on a winged shield, Chapters operate similar to franchise networks supporting one another regionally under standard rules, regulations, and training. The Guardian Angels states that it is an equal opportunity organization that encourages diversity, the organization accepts volunteers who do not have a recent or serious criminal record and are not members of a gang or racial-hate group. In order to join the Safety Patrol program, members must be at least 16 years old, Safety Patrol members are prohibited from carrying weapons and are physically searched before patrolling. They are trained in first aid and CPR, law, conflict resolution, communication, members are paired up and follow the directions of a Patrol Leader. If their own or other citizens lives or health are endangered, they are allowed to do whatever is lawful, CyberAngels was founded in 1995 by Gabriel Hatcher as an online neighborhood watch. Originally the group monitored chat rooms directly with the intent of apprehending sexual predators, later the group took what it had learned and changed its focus to educating police, schools, and families about on-line abuse and cyber crime. In 1998, CyberAngels received a Presidential Service Award, macSupport. com founder Tony Ricciardi was an early member of the group. The plan as announced was first to solidify the standards for the organization so that members from around the world could easily interact, the other goal for the training included an effort towards reducing the liability potential for members and for the organization during their physical interventions of crime deterrence. In 1992, a New York Times article discussed the lack of training faced by recruits, at the 2011 International Conference held in Chicago Illinois USA, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa signed into effect the Official Guardian Angels primary defensive tactics system
30.
The Judds
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The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in music history, the Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The duo also charted twenty-five singles on the music charts between 1983 and 2000, fourteen of which went to Number One and six more of which made Top Ten on the same chart. In 1985, the duo appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits during Season 10, the duo appeared on the PBS childrens show Square One TV many times. After eight successful years as a duo, the Judds ceased performing in 1991 after Naomi was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, soon after, Wynonna embarked on a highly successful solo career. The two have occasionally reunited for tours, the most recent of which began in late 2010. In 2011, the duo starred in the reality television series The Judds during their Last Encore Tour, Naomi Judd was born Diana Ellen Judd on January 11,1946, in Ashland, Kentucky. She played piano at her local church, at age 17, she married Michael Ciminella, with whom she had Christina Ciminella, who would later be renamed Wynonna Judd. After Dianas parents divorced, she and her daughter moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1968, by 1979, Diana and her daughter moved back to Tennessee. Diana renamed herself Naomi and began playing music with her daughter, at the same time, Naomi began studying to be a nurse. In 1983, they got their big break when Naomi convinced a producer whose child she had cared for as a nurse to come to her home. The producer was charmed and the duo was signed by RCA and their biggest hits, Girls Night Out, Turn it Loose, Why Not Me, I Know Where Im Going, and Grandpa, electrified audiences. Naomi was the performer of the group, and the leader, while Wynonna was the artistic. Wynonna and Naomi briefly reunited for a performance at the Super Bowl XXVIII halftime show, the reunited again in a commercial for the retail chain Kmart, performing the song Changing for the Better. The duo also performed shows in 1998. During this time, the duo also charted one more single credited to the Judds, in addition, Naomi sang harmony on Wynonnas 2004 single Flies on the Butter, although this song was credited as Wynonna with Naomi Judd. In 2009, the Judds performed at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville
