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, […]
Jac Holzman Presents Dylan’s Circle
Andrew Smith Elektra Records 603497813575 Curated by Jac Holzman and music historian Dr. Ted Olson to celebrate Elektra Records’ 75th anniversary, Dylan’s Circle showcases Bob Dylan alongside a variety of influential Elektra artists, including Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, and Judy Collins. This special collection honours the creativity, collaboration, and friendly rivalry that defined these artists, […]
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 […]
Much More to the Hank Williams Story
Andrew Smith A review of A Psychological Biography Of Hiram “Hank” Williams, Volumes I, II and III by Paul R. Nail, Ph.D. Since Hank Williams’s passing roughly seventy years ago, he has remained a prominent figure in country music history, and his tumultuous life and early death still fascinate authors and fans alike. Over the […]
The Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story: Appalachia On Record 1946-1954
Andrew Smith Bear Family BCD17549 (12-CD box set) The German Bear Family company has produced some excellent multi-CD sets of country music over the past few decades, though sadly, Bear seems to have ceased releasing new box sets—that is until now, with this collection, which lives up to the high standard of its predecessors, and […]
African American: No Surprise For Country Music
James E. Akenson In 1944 Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal published An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy. It focused on the question of race in the U.S. and the disparities for African Americans maintained by the white power structure. Myrdal helped raise consciousness of racial disparities. The American Creed based on individualism, civil […]
EmiSunshine Brings Down The House Concert
James E. Akenson Here’s a question to ponder. What does a small town East Tennessee Baptist, a Symphony Orchestra, an old concept beloved by folkies and hippies, metaphors, Whipporwills, flowers, and a slight sense of being an outsider, have in common? Well that’s an EZPZ rider to answer. Here it is, boyz and gurls. Shades […]