THIS FROM THE TENNESSEAN
t’s been an anxious couple of years for the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum and its founder and owner, Joe Chambers.
A year or so after he opened the museum on Sixth Avenue South in 2006, Chambers learned it lay in the path of the proposed downtown convention center. But architects then started discussing the possibility of incorporating his 30,000-square-foot venue into the convention hall, and he was thrilled.
That possibility has waxed and waned with changes in the project’s budget, however. It still isn’t guaranteed, though city officials say they want to make it happen — if the convention center gets built.
The uncertainty, coupled with the city’s decision to start legal proceedings to seize Chambers’ property — at a price he’s not happy with — has made him nervous about the future and led him to talk to other cities about relocating his facility.
….More on this issue later.
Well folks I’ll be honest with you I do promote songwriters on my site beside myself that deserve credit. One of those guys is Kurt Fortmeyer.
He’s been kind enough to be my guest several times in two states.
Before I go on to tell you about his work let me say that he is a talented man and I am so very proud to say he’s my freind.
You know they say that Nashville takes care of their own…and it’s true
I have pallbeared for many country stars,I took care of a few when they got sick. We have benefit shows for each other to pay medical bills…not too often do you run into a guy who would give his friends
the shirt off his back or anything else he has.
Kurt is one of those guys.
Not only is he well schooled in the craft of guitar he is WELL
knowledgable on music trivia as well. This man knows his craft!
His Title song “What’s Not To Love” co-written by Bo Thomas
who is also a good guy,is just an absolute family orientated sing along song that will lift you up in spirit and make you happy.
“My Dog Jesus” is my mom’s personal favorite…and one of mine too.
It is a great story and I really don’t wanna ruin the plot of the song.
“Too Many Bubbas” is a fun beer drinking song,it’s a great song to
hear.
One of my personal favorite songs he does is “I’m not A Fool”
not only because it is in the traditonal form of country music but it is VERY well written.In fact this man has co-wrote songs with some of nashville’s finest writers.
You can purchase his CD at Kurt Fortmeyer
or contact me on this website and I will make sure he gets contacted.
The one song I admire most for it’s overall creativity is the “hundered letter word”…I gotta say it’s a song that will NEVER have a problem with copyright infringment
This song is quite possibly the most overall creative piece of work I have EVER heard.
Buy this songwriter’s album,I PROMISE YOU you won’t regret you did.
And it’s a GREAT stocking stuffer!
Folks we lost Marty Robbins today in 1982,and I thought it would be a kind gesture to remember this great man that not only helped build the foundations of country music…he was a whole wall!
I certainly remember him,however I never got a chance to meet him or spend time with him.So whenever I get the chance I go over to Woodlawn and visit his place of rest.And I always place pink carnations on his grave.
Here’s to you Marty,we shurenuff miss you and them flashy smiles you had!
Born Martin David Robinson in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was reared in a difficult family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of ten children. His father’s drinking led to divorce in 1937. Among his warmer memories of his childhood, Robbins recalled having listened to stories of the American West told by his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle. Robbins left the troubled home at the age of seventeen to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music.
After his discharge from the military in 1945, he began to play at local venues in Phoenix, then moved on to host his own radio station show on KTYL. He thereafter had his own television (TV) show on KPHO in Phoenix. After Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Robbins’ TV show, Dickens got Robbins a record deal with Columbia Records. Robbins became an immensely popular singing star at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He was especially known for his kindness toward his many fans.
In addition to his recordings and performances, Robbins was an avid race car driver, competing in NASCAR races, including the 1973 Daytona 500. In 1967, Robbins played himself in the car racing film Hell on Wheels. Marty was partial to Dodges, and owned and raced a couple of Chargers and then a 1978 Dodge Magnum. His last race was in a Junior Johnson built 1982 Buick Regal in the Atlanta Journal 500 on November 7, 1982 the month before he died. In 1983, NASCAR honored Robbins by naming the annual race at Nashville the Marty Robbins 420. He was also driver of The 60th Indianapolis 500 Buick Century pace car in 1976. He was awarded an honorary degree by Northern Arizona University.
In 1948, Robbins married the former Marizona Baldwin (September 11, 1930 - July 10, 2001) to whom he dedicated his song “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife”. They had two children, a son Ronny (born 1949) and daughter Janet (born 1959), who also followed a singing career in Los Angeles.
Robbins later portrayed a musician in the 1982 Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man. Robbins died a few weeks before the film’s release in December 1982 of complications following cardiac surgery. At the times of their deaths, Marty and Marizona lived in Brentwood in Williamson County, outside Nashville. They are interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville. The city of El Paso, Texas later honored Robbins by naming a park and a recreational center after him.
His musical accomplishments include the Grammy Award for his 1959 hit and signature song “El Paso”, taken from his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. “El Paso” was the first song to hit #1 on the pop chart in the 1960s. It was followed up, successfully, by “Don’t Worry”, which reached #3 on the pop chart in 1961, becoming his third, and last, Top 10 hit. “El Paso” was followed by two sequels: “Faleena” and “El Paso City”, both of which continued the story featured in the original song. Also in 1961, Marty wrote words and music, then recorded “I Told the Brook,” a ballad later also recorded by Billy Thorpe.
He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording 1961, for his follow-up album More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970, for “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife.” Robbins was named “Artist of the Decade” (1960-69) by the Academy of Country Music, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998 for his song “El Paso”.
Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. For his contribution to the recording industry, Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Blvd.
Robbins has been honored by many bands, including the Grateful Dead who covered “El Paso”. The Who’s 2006 album Endless Wire includes the song “God Speaks of Marty Robbins.” The song’s composer, Pete Townshend, explains that the song is about God deciding to create the universe just so he can hear some music, “and most of all, one of his best creations, Marty Robbins.” The Beasts of Bourbon released a song called “The Day Marty Robbins Died” on their 1984 Debut LP The Axeman’s Jazz. Johnny Cash recorded a version of “Big Iron” as part of his American Recordings series, which is included in the Cash Unearthed box set. Both Frankie Laine and Elvis Presley, among others, recorded versions of Robbins’s song “You Gave Me a Mountain”, with Laine’s recording reaching the pop and adult contemporary charts in 1969.
Robbins performed and recorded several songs written by longtime songwriter Coleman Harwell, most notably “Thanks but No Thanks” in 1964; Robbins and his producers employed the top sessions musicians and singers including the Jordanaires to record Harwell’s songs. Harwell is the nephew of former Tennessean newspaper Editor Coleman Harwell.
When Marty Robbins was recording his 1961 hit “Don’t Worry”, session guitarist Grady Martin accidentally created a fuzz effect during the session. This came about because of a faulty channel in the console where Martin’s guitar was plugged in. The effect was left in the recording and this is rumored to be the birth of the fuzz guitar. The song made position #1 on the country charts and position #3 on the pop charts.
He’s been called “The Cat In the Hat” longer than Jack Roushe from Nascar.He’s been called ‘the Total Mandolinist”…We just call him Bobby Osbourne,and his band the Rocky Top Xpress.
He was born Bobby Osbourne is Hyden Ky today in 1931.
Along with his brother Sonny (who retired in 2005) they pioneered
bluegreass music by performing the bluegrass classic “Rocky Top” written by Felice and Bearboux Bryant in 1967 and is the Tennessee State Song.
The Osbourne Brothers were made Opry members in 1954,and
International Bluegrass Hall Of Fame members in 1994.
Bobby still performs with his band The Rocky Top Xpress,as failing health made Bobby to decide to retire.
Billy Joe Shaver will tour heavily during the final weeks of 2009 and most of the year 2010 as he looks to release a new album and a series of live dates with Willie Nelson.
Shaver will appear in a sold-out show with Nelson, Ray Price, Billy Bob Thornton and Kris Kristofferson on Wednesday, December 16 at Carl’s Corner in Hill Country, Texas. He has also launched what he calls the “Bottom Dollar Shows” to keep the music flowing in recession-plagued times. Selected home state live dates will cost $1 to attend. He can afford to do this because he’s found that when the cover charge is low, he sells far more merchandise and CDs. “We’re going to start this at our Willie’s Nightlife Theater date on Dec. 20, and if it catches on, we’re going to take it everywhere,” he said.
Two new guitarists have joined Shaver’s band in recent weeks: Jamie Hartford, powerhouse guitarist and son of the late John Hartford, and 15-year-old Adam Carter, a South Carolinian who learned much of his technique by listening to Billy Joe’s son and former band member, the late Eddy Shaver’s recorded work.
Billy Joe Shaver has been writing material for the new album and is starting to talk with producers. Among the new songs is The Get Go, which he’s debuting in live appearances.
Tour dates are:
Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 Savannah, GA The Jinx
Sunday, Dec. 12 Columbia, SC White Mule Music Pub
Wednesday, Dec. 9 Birmingham, AL Zydeco’s
Thursday, Dec. 10 Ruston, LA The Dawghouse
Friday, Dec. 11 Fort Worth, TX Longhorn Saloon
Friday, Dec. 18 Houston Firehouse
Saturday, Dec. 19 Fredericksburg, TX Luckenbach Dancehall
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010 Steamboat, CO Big Ski Trip
Saturday, Jan. 16 Stephenville, TX -City Limits
Friday, Feb. 12 Austin Paramount Theatre
Thursday, March 11 The Woodlands, TX Dosey Doe
Jack Cooke, longtime bass player and singer with Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, died Tuesday (Dec. 1) at a hospital in his hometown of Norton, Va., after collapsing at his home. The 72-year-old musician had been ill and away from the band for several months. Vernon Crawford “Jack” Cooke was in his teens when he got his first professional job with the Stanley Brothers. As a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys from 1956 until 1960, Cooke was featured on Monroe’s recordings such as “Gotta Travel On, ” “Big Mon” and “Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone.” Later, he formed his own group, Jack Cooke & the Virginia Mountain Boys, and played in bands headed by Earl Taylor and the Stonemans. He joined the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1970 and remained there until he was sidelined by health problems early this year. In 2002, he shared the best bluegrass album Grammy for Lost in the Lonesome Pines, a project headlined by Jim Lauderdale and Stanley. Lauderdale produced Cooke’s only solo album, Sittin’ on Top of the World, which was released in 2007.
This was my last pic of The Clinch Mountain Boys before his health problems kept him from performing.
Dr. Ralph Stanely is one of my personal favorites and he represents
roots of honest music.This world would be a empty place without him here with us.
Big Bill Lister, a former member of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys who later rediscovered a forgotten acetate recording of “There’s a Tear in My Beer,” died Tuesday (Dec. 1) in San Antonio. He was 86. A native Texan who stood 6 foot 7 inches tall, Lister moved to Nashville in 1951 at the recommendation of Tex Ritter. He opened concerts for Williams before joining the Drifting Cowboys. He was a member of the group when it disbanded in 1952. After moving back to Texas, Lister began to record for Capitol Records. Lister said he needed a drinking song to record, so Williams gave him an acetate demo recording of “There’s a Tear in My Beer,” which Lister later found in his retirement and gave to Hank Williams Jr. The younger Williams overdubbed his vocals on the track and released it as a single and music video in 1989. The new recording won a Grammy and a CMA award.
RIGHT NOW I have so many people to thank and love on for making me into the empire that I have. Allen Sircy began and designed this website and for that I am truly thankfull.Without him and his mushbrain head I couldn’t have built the foundation.
I love you my freind.A guy couldn’t ask for better!
To the writers,the artists,the publishers,the PR people
the A+R people that help me with the lunches,the meetings
the behind the scenes stuff!
To my favorite writers in Nashville,Jerry Foster,Jimmy Payne
Kurt Fortmeyer,Billy Arr,Dallas Frazier (retired),
Charlie Craig,Hank Beach,and Donnie Winters.
thank You guys for giving your hearts and your minds to
strangers.
THANKS to steel guitarists! YOU GUYS MAKE our songs sound so
wonderfull! And you sit in the background contented
to be featured for breif moments. YOU GUYS are more talented
than the finest singers.
To my ALL TIME HERO Hank Williams Sr.
YOU ARE and always will be the BEST songwriter we ever had!
I don’t forget my freinds,anyone that knows me knows I am a honest christian man,and as long as there is breath in my lungs I WILL NOT let country music be taken over by the media and by teenagers that don’t know their ass from their elbow!
If your’e a ‘new country” act and you honestly repsect this music YOU WILL be featured on this website,I PROMISE!
I do NOT hate all country that is “new”,I hate country that is POP!
With all that said I wanna thank each and every one of you that
come see my writers nights and shows,and help me with my album
collections.And allow me to bother them with questions.
