Ai: How Much Is Too Much For Ava Bentley or Sir Edward Grey?
James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A Going back to the future with Michael J. Fox? No. I’m going back to the future in my undergraduate days at the University of Minnesota. Let’s ask the questions. What does a quirky, eccentric, far-out Professor from the University of Minnesota have to do with […]
Cherokee Hope
From Celina To Twang Town? James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A Celina, Tennessee and Hibbing, Minnesota share something in common in my psyche. No, we won’t do a Hee Haw “Salute to Celina (Population 1,424) or Hibbing ( Population 15,940). But the link in my psyche is worth a different Hee […]
A Dolly Tribute
Hip Cookeville Indeed James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A Christmas 2025 was its usual enjoyable self following a clearly establish ritual pattern. We get up when we’re ready. Put out the King James version of the Bible to the Gospel of Luke. Read the Christmas Story. Say a prayer. And […]
Second Verse Same As The First
James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A HH? No Dylan “It was a dark and stormy night.” I’m not stealing from Snoopy of Peanuts fame as he wrote the beginning to never completed stories. It was, for sure, an overcast, gloomy, and threatening late afternoon as a special time with the music […]
Roseanna Rogers: A Long Time Never Met Relationship
James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A A few years back I wrote about my friend Andrew Smith in Tasmania who I had known for years but never met in person. Finally, at the 2018 International Country Music Conference (ICMC), I met Andrew Smith. We continue to be friends and communicate […]
Country Music Where?: A Drop In the Bucket. The Upper Cumberland
James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A Country Music seems to be the Energizer Bunny. It keeps on running. There is an amazing number of books, articles, blogs, and social media postings about Country Music. When I first started learning about Country Music there weren’t lots of sources easily found. Now you […]
Lesley Riddle Meets Artificial Intelligence
James E. Akenson Tennessee Tech University (Retired) Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A You never know what’s coming down the proverbial pike. I’ve known about the African American influence on Country Music for quite a while. From time to time, I heard about African American Lesley Riddle who worked with A.P. Carter collecting songs. Recently, I stumbled on […]
2 Cubed x Ten=More Dolly and TheoDollyGy
James E. Akenson You never know. My friend Pat Quillen likes to quote a baseball legend Yogi Berra who said “I can sum it up in two words. You never know.” That’s off by 50% but nevertheless it’s true. You never know. We just got through the Christian based holiday season, then New Years, […]
Keeping the Sacred and Profane Coming, Y’all
James E. Akenson Mary Kutter, Carter Faith and AI Over the years discussions of the Sacred and the Profane in Country Music have been seen in journals, books, conferences, and social media. My friend and colleague Randy Williams and I have labored in the Sacred and Profane vineyard for quite a while. In fact, Randy […]
Six Degrees, Six Sigma, Or What
James E. Akenson Ray Griff Comes Around Just How Much? There’s all sorts of fascinating about unusual and unexpected connections that happen in our lives. Six Degrees of Separation gets a lot of attention. We’re supposed to be connected to anyone on the planet by a mere six connections through the right people. There are networks […]