Category: country music

Frank Welling & John McGhee / Perfect 12769
The Crime At Quiet Dell / My Little Mountain Home
recorded November 4/5, 1931 in New York, New York

I have recently became a fan of this duo. I love the bass voice and Hawaiian steel playing in their music. They made a few hundred records, so I have lots of their music to discover. The song The Crime At Quiet Dell was about a crime by Cornelius O. Pierson August 27, 1931 near Clarksburg, West Virginia. Just listening to the lyrics is a pretty hair raising horror story. This song is a great example of a topical/disaster type song of the era. The song was recorded only about two months after the crime. There is a book about it called Quiet Dell. I have ordered it but it hasn`t came yet, I`m looking forward to reading it and comparing the facts to the song. The other song, My Little Mountain Home, is a typical yearning for home and simpler times song that was so popular in the late 1920`s.

Click here to download Frank Welling & John McGhee – Perfect 12769

The 2021 CMA Awards are coming up on November 10 and we are so excited to tune in to see all of the performances!  There are a lot of great nominations (and a few snubs) that we were excited/surprised to see – but most of all, I have predictions! I like to pretend I am ‘Awardstradamus’ and can predict the winner for some of these categories, so let’s get started.

Entertainer of the Year

• Eric Church
• Luke Combs
• Miranda Lambert 
• Chris Stapleton 
• Carrie Underwood 

All of these artists had *incredible* years. Seriously, they all made huge moves for their career, and all of their shows were showstopping. Now, when it comes to a winner, we have to go with Miranda Lambert! While her recent project ‘The Marfa Tapes’ was snubbed for Album of the Year (which feels like a crime) her energy, project levels, and concerts have been off the charts. We are prettttyyyy confident that she will be able to take this award home. 

Single of the Year

• “Famous Friends” – Chris Young with Kane Brown 
  • Producers: Corey Crowder, Chris Young  / 
  • Mix Engineer: Sean Moffitt 

• “The Good Ones” – Gabby Barrett 
  • Producers: Ross Copperman, Zach Kale 
  • Mix Engineers: Chris Galland, Manny Marroquin 

• “Hell Of A View” – Eric Church 
  • Producer: Jay Joyce
  • Mix Engineers: Jason Hall, Jay Joyce   

• “One Night Standards” – Ashley McBryde 
  • Producer: Jay Joyce 
  • Mix Engineers: Jason Hall, Jay Joyce   

• “Starting Over” – Chris Stapleton 
  • Producers: Dave Cobb, Chris Stapleton  
  • Mix Engineer: Vance Powell

All of the tracks that were nominated are jams, constant repeats on our playlists, but when we think about it, there is only one that stood out this past year. We think that Chris Young and Kane Brown are taking home the prize for “Famous Friends.” Kane Brown and Chris Young both have had great years respectively and they certainly knew what they were doing.

New Artist of the Year

• Jimmie Allen 
• Ingrid Andress 
• Gabby Barrett 
• Mickey Guyton
• Hardy 

This one is tough. I had to go over all of these artists again because I wanted to make sure that I am completely correct with my prediction. But I have to go with Gabby Barrett. Her song, “The Good Ones” was nominated for Song of the Year (well deserved, obviously) and her past year has just been incredible. 

Female Vocalist of the Year

• Gabby Barrett 
• Miranda Lambert
• Ashley McBryde
• Maren Morris
• Carly Pearce 

This one…. This one is a doozy. No matter who wins, they absolutely deserve it, but this decision has to be so difficult! Maybe we should come back to this? No. We believe the winner will be… Carly Pearce. While Miranda Lambert for sure is the Entertainer of the Year, Ashley McBryde has an amazing voice, and Maren Morris has been having a great year, Carly Pearce has smashed through it all, especially with her album 29. 

The 55th Annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville Wednesday, Nov. 10 (8:00-11:00 PM/EST) on ABC.

What do you guys think of the predictions I made so far? Tweet at us here, comment on our Facebook page here, and follow us on Instagram here to see all of our concert photos. 

You might be asking yourself “Where are the rest of the nomination categories?”  They are right here in part two of our predictions.  Check em out and let us know if you agree with our picks!

Rock and roll legend and recently-inducted Country Music Hall of Famer Jerry Lee Lewis is NOT dead, Saving Country Music can confirm. Despite multiple reports of Jerry Lee’s passing on Wednesday (10-26), including from TMZ, the New York Post, and UK’s Independent, Jerry Lee Lewis publicist Zach Farnum has confirmed the music titan is still alive in Memphis.

TMZ appears to have been the originator of the false report, and has since offered a retraction to their story, saying in part, “We’re told the rock ‘n’ roll legend is alive, living in Memphis. Earlier today we were told by someone claiming to be Lewis’ rep that he had passed. That turned out not to be the case. TMZ regrets the error.”

Jerry Lee Lewis was formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 16th, but due to health concerns, could not be at the Medallion Ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Nashville in person. Instead, Hank Williams Jr. and Kris Kristoffferson received the medallion in Jerry Lee’s honor, and then Kris Kristofferson drove to Memphis to deliver the medallion to Jerry Lee Lewis personally.

Jerry Lee Lewis experienced a stroke in 2019, which has mostly put him out of the spotlight in recent years, but he did appear at the press conference announcing his Hall of Fame induction on May 17th.

After becoming frustrated at his inability to land a hit in rock and roll after his heyday, Lewis decided to become a country music artist in 1968. He released his first country single, “Another Place, Another Time” by Jerry Chestnut in March of 1968, and would later release many albums of country material. Jerry Lee eventually had 17 Top 10 hit singles on the Billboard country chart, and four #1’s as a country artist.

Jerry Lee Lewis is said to have been working on a Gospel album recently, with a release date TBA.

By John W. Barry –

Mention the late Levon Helm to a fan of Americana music and you’re likely to get a very strong response.

The quick comeback could focus on The Band, for which Levon played drums and mandolin, and sang. And there are, of course, those iconic Band songs that Levon sang, “Up On Cripple Creek,” “Ophelia” and “The Weight” among them.

Levon and The Band performed and recorded with Bob Dylan. Levon played on Ringo Starr’s First All Starr Band tour in 1989. And after recovering from cancer of the vocal cords and nearly losing his home-recording studio to the bank, Levon during the early 2000s staged a colossal comeback.

And after recovering from cancer of the vocal cords and nearly losing his home-recording studio to the bank, Levon during the early 2000s staged a colossal comeback.

His winning formula revolved around house concerts he held at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, that he called the “Midnight Ramble.” What started out as rent parties and a last hurrah ended up saving Levon’s home and setting him on a path to triumph. The Midnight Rambles were presented to a bankruptcy judge as a source of revenue, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Rambles drew sold-out crowds and attracted the likes of Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs. These intimate performances set the stage for three Grammy-winning solo albums, and as they reconnected Levon to his loyal fans, the Rambles introduced him to new ones.

But for all that he accomplished in the music industry, the Levon Helm that I got to know, while collaborating on a book with him, has more to do with things that may seem a bit more, well, routine.

When I think of Levon Helm, I recall the guy who grew up in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, and never lost his passion for farming, tractors and harvest time. Let’s not forget that the Midnight Rambles were based on the traveling medicine shows Levon saw as a kid, growing up in Phillips County, Arkansas. And his 2007 comeback album was called Dirt Farmer.

The Levon Helm I knew loved to watch college football. He indulged his passion for sushi and Popeye’s chicken. And he liked a lot of ice in his beverages of choice—Coca Cola and Boylan’s grape soda—which he drank in a red plastic Solo cup, slipped inside another red Solo plastic cup.

In the wake of Levon’s death in 2012, I continued to work on the book we were collaborating on. Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble—The Inside Story of the Man, the Music and the Midnight Ramble was recently published and I think that Levon would have been as proud of the final product as I am.

One reason for this is that Rock, Roll & Ramble—with a foreword written by Ringo Starr—covers the ups and the downs of Levon’s life, rather than just his successes.

I traveled often with Levon during his Midnight Ramble era, and during those trips to concerts in the Northeast, and a journey on his tour bus to Bonnaroo in 2008, I recorded our conversations and used them to write the book.

In February 2009, I was traveling with Levon from Manhattan back to Woodstock, after the Levon Helm Band had performed on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

This was during the early stages of the book and I asked Levon if he was comfortable talking about his cancer, his bankruptcy and nearly losing Levon Helm Studios to foreclosure. I am paraphrasing here, but he replied by explaining that a stool needs three legs to work properly, and if you only have two legs, it’s going to fall over. In other words, Levon was saying, we needed all three legs of the stool—we needed to tell the entire story, his entire story.

And so I am very proud to present these excerpts from that story, from Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble—The Inside Story of the Man, the Music and the Midnight Ramble:

“We were just about at the end of our rope financially,” Levon said. “So the Midnight Ramble was going to be one big rent party or go out with a bang. We were going to have one more tear ‘em down night or two, and all of a sudden, the thing started getting legs of its own and people started wanting to come and pay to get in.

“That was just about the time when the shit was ready to hit the fan. All of a sudden, you’re sick and you can’t work and you haven’t been able to work and the bills don’t stop and they’re still coming in. You’ve got your hands full trying to get well, and then to have the other stuff heaped on top is certainly an unfair way to go. Those radiation treatments, after a while, they can get ahold of you. It’s a little bit raw. The bankruptcy part—that was just getting ready to cloud over and really rain—that don’t scare you after all that radiation.”

On growing up in Arkansas:

“I’ve been to all day sing-alongs with dinner on the ground,” Levon said. “They’d lay out those cotton sheets—a big row of them. And putout a couple of tubs of iced tea at the end of one of them; another tub full of Kool-Aid. And all up and down those cotton sheets would be platters of cold fried chicken and coleslaw and potato salad. My mom would always make chicken salad. I would stand right in front of her chicken salad while the blessing was getting said and I’d attack that first.

“I’d go up and down the row of sheets, looking for stuff like angel food cake, things I’d never seen before. That angel food cake was something else. That was the wildest damn thing I’d ever chewed on. Anything you could chew on that was cold, they’d have a bunch of it. It was all gospel groups. In the morning part would be the local church and their choir people. Then everybody’d eat dinner, then other churches would bringin their choir. I could eat, fight and raise hell and listen to music all at the same time”

On The Band, Band manager Albert Grossman and Bob Dylan:

“There weren’t any real albums after the first two, first three. Everything else was ‘Best of,’ ‘Live at You-Know-Where.’ The Band was just a miserable fucking deal. The Band wasn’t never no fun, shit. The Band always, you know, Albert always wanted to lock everyone in the room, have that stand-offish bullshit, like with Bob. ‘You can’t see Bob.’ Fuck all that, you know? I don’t want to be like that. Shit. There is a lot of arrogance to that bullshit. In fact, that’s why I never could stomach that shit. That ain’t me. No. Uh-uh.”

On the Midnight Ramble:

“The easiest thing I’ve ever done. The whole place turns into a temple for me. There is nothing else and time and everything else is kind of suspended. All I’m conscious of is the pitch, if the pitch is correct. There are no echoes or fancy sound devices. And about 50 percent of what you hear, even on a full electrical tune, is acoustic.

“And walking out of your living room and playing a show—it’s the best. It’s the best. Especially the way the room responds. All I have to do is go shave, take a shower and head out there. We usually stop when it feels like it’s time to stop. When the show’s over, I just walk next door and take my boots off. I believe this might be my payback for all the traveling and stuff. Musicians, their years are like dog years. All that traveling around and now, all of a sudden—I don’t know how we got it to happen. They’re coming here and we don’t even have to crank a car. We leave everything set. And we’ve got all my best equipment; we can sound better here than we can anywhere.

“Each band plays at least an hour, and we probably play at least twohours. By the time we quit, which is between 11:30 and midnight, they’ve had four-to-five hours of music and that’s just about enough in one day. You really can lose the outside world and all those aggravations. At the end of each tune, you can kind of feel that embracement, where you start to realize—music being medicine, you know?

“There is no pressure around here. When you play, you can start prettymuch and finish when you want to and play what you want to. We try to leave it that way, let it be what it wants to be.”

And here are some of my thoughts from the book, as the author, regarding Levon Helm:

When Levon sang, you could feel your own heart aching in his voice. The conviction with which he sang gave you courage. His signature vocal tone was part growl, part roar, part plea for help and it served as a lightning rod for all of our troubles, not just for a few hours at a gig, but across generations.

When Levon sang—with one turn of a phrase, one note, one lyric—he somehow managed to capture the despair we all feel, the hope that keeps us going and the resolution for which we never stop longing. He tapped into that terrifying sensation of solitude that every one of us has experienced, at those times in our lives when you feel like you haven’t got a friend in the world. But Levon also made you feel like he was right there with you, clinging desperately to any solid ground that remained, as his world fell apart in a manner that wasn’t much different than the way in which your world might be falling apart.

Levon Helm had resolve. He did not give up. And he maintained that

sparkle in his eye and that laugh in his gut through all the calamity. Levon Helm represented much of what we value in those we admire, and a lot of what we wished to be true of ourselves.

All of this resonated so strongly with his audience because just like you and me, Levon was forced to manage the madness of life and make sense of insanity. There was a bond of familiarity he shared with millions of people he never met.

To quote Levon about Levon, “There was a guy who never met a stranger.” Here’s a Coke, have yourself a chair, I’m glad to know ya.

John W. Barry first met Levon Helm while working as music writer for the USA Today Network/Poughkeepsie Journal in New York’s Hudson Valley.

You can learn more about Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble by visiting rockrollramble.com and https://amzn.to/3Q7FHOI.

Hobbs Brothers (Elmer & Jud) / QRS R. 9003
Turkey In The Straw / Hell Among The Yearlings
recorded November 7, 1928 in New York, New York
I don`t think there is any information about these musicians. The performance of both sides are pretty virtuostic and reminds me a good bit of the Kessinger Brothers. I actually almost wonder if it is the Kessinger Brothers. The songs are old fiddle standards. These sides were recorded by Paramount and issued on Paramount and other mail order store labels such as Banner, Jewel, Oriole, Domino, Homestead, Regal, Conqueror,Broadway, Apex and others lesser known. I also have the Paramount, but it`s in a little rougher condition, so It`s noisier, but am going to include it for downloading. Happy downloading!

Click here to download The Hobbs Brothers – QRS R. 9003

Click here to download The Hobbs Brothers – Paramount 3224

The second installment of our 2021 CMA Awards predictions is hot off the press and ready to be shared, y’all! Like we said in part one of our CMA predictions, we are so excited about these nominations! While there were some snubs that we would like to discuss with the Academy, we also believe they got it right with a lot of these nominations. Let’s dive right in, shall we? 

Male Vocalist of the Year

• Dierks Bentley 
• Eric Church 
• Luke Combs
• Thomas Rhett
• Chris Stapleton

This one is tough because all of these guys had great years! Releasing new albums, chart smashers, and really cute Instagram photos. This one was one of the toughest to guess, but we decided to go with Thomas Rhett!

Vocal Group of the Year

• Lady A
• Little Big Town 
• Midland 
• Old Dominion 
• Zac Brown Band 

It is hard to pick between all of these groups because they allllll have songs that repeat on our playlist. In our personal opinion, it is going to have to be Old Dominion! They had such a stellar year and definitely should be recognized. 

Vocal Duo of the Year 

• Brooks & Dunn
• Brothers Osborne
• Dan + Shay
• Florida Georgia Line
• Maddie & Tae

Look we love Dan + Shay endlessly, but this year, we are going with Brothers Osborne! It’s time to give them a little award love.  

Album of the Year

• 29 – Carly Pearce
• Dangerous: The Double Album – Morgan Wallen
• Heart – Eric Church 
• Skeletons – Brothers Osborne 
• Starting Over – Chris Stapleton 

All of these albums splashed into the country world with strong singles and amazing production. We have a feeling it is between ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’ or ‘29’. They both were critically acclaimed and accompanied a lot of personal turmoil for both of these artists – publicly and privately. .

But wait!  There’s more!  Check out our 2021 CMA Awards predictions part one for even more country music fun.

The 55th Annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville Wednesday, Nov. 10 (8:00-11:00 PM/EST) on ABC.

‘Awardstradamus’ has spoken! What do you think about this round of predictions? If we nailed it, or if we didn’t, let us know on Facebook here, Tweet at us here, or share your opinions with us on our Instagram here.