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 […]
Dylan Does Cookeville
James E. Akenson From the iron mines of Hibbing, Minnesota to the University of Minnesota, to the hip folk scene in New York, to the 1965 Newport Festival to Nashville, to just about everywhere else in the world Bob Dylan seems to have been everywhere. He also appeared in Cookeville, Tennessee recently. Well, that’s not […]
The Little Sandy Review Yogi Berra: Deja Vu All Over Again
James E. Akenson New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra keeps coming up again and again as I go through life. Yogi Berra made famous the use of Deja Vu All Over Again. A touch repetitive. A touch redundant. But, it stuck in our cultural mind and heritage. Strangely, it speaks the truth. Things have […]
Breathing in “Black Lung” & Hazel Dickens
Anna Valcour I first heard “Black Lung” by Hazel Dickens in a graduate seminar taught by Dr. Taylor Ackley and was overwhelmed by her haunting, raw, lonesome sound – or as Hazel put it, “hard-core…it’s all feeling and emotion.” And she’s right. But then, I learned her story, and it gripped me even further. […]
Cold War Europe: Country Music
James E. Akenson NATO seems to be a bit shaky these days in the age of the second Trump administration. There are plenty of wars going on in places like Ukraine. I don’t want to be Biblical here…got to be inclusive… and I don’t know the equivalent statements in other world religions or philosophies…..but there […]
Bob Wills: Still A King!
James E. Akenson In various pieces I’ve mentioned that a song gets in my head and stays for longer than I would expect. Well, it’s happened again. For some reason Bob Will Is Still The King has been rattlin’ around my cage for quite a while. I guess you could say “Well why not?” […]
Dottie West Just Keeps Making Life Interesting
James E. Akenson Some things and some people manage to keep finding ways to make your life interesting and worthwhile. You never know for sure exactly when and where they will appear. Dottie West is one of those persons. She’s the first woman to write and record a Grammy winning Country Music song. Not […]
They Weren’t Ready (Though Most Were) for Tina Turner
Editor’s Introduction To Pat Quillen James E. Akenson Baseball great Yogi Bera once said “I can sum it up in just two words, YOU NEVER KNOW.” A bit of contradiction for sure, but I never have forgotten the humor and the tension in the comment. And… what does it have to do with Country Music, […]