Category: country music

Fiddlin` Sam Long Of The Ozarks – Gennett 3255
Sandy Land / Listen To The Mocking Bird
recorded January or February 1926 in Richmond, Indiana

Here is what seems to be a pretty rare disc. Sam Long was a fiddler from southwest Missouri that apparently got to make some records as a result of a fiddling contest won in Joplin, Missouri. This was about all the information I could find on him. My copy of this disc is not in the best condition, but the sound quality is pretty listenable. Sandy Land has been issued on CD, but as far as I know his Listen To The Mocking Bird has never been re-issued, which is the main reason I`ve posted it here. Happy listening!

Click here to download Fiddlin` Sam Long – Gennett 3255

It’s a great day for music fans: the Austin City Limits Music Festival Lineup has been announced and ACL tickets are on sale now. ACountry is Houston based and our team is always making the annual trek to Austin for the best festival of the summer in our great Lone Star state.

Every year we look forward to the announcement of the lineup and cross our fingers hoping for some favorites, and as usual, this year didn’t disappoint. We are such supporters and fans of C3 and are grateful to have our live music family back where they belong. Remember when live music wasn’t around?!?! We are so appreciative that the organizers have pulled out all the stops to give us this incredible lineup for 2022.

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We have some absolutely phenomenal headliners at this year’s festival, and a wide range of performers hitting the many stages. ACountry is most excited about seeing Kacey Musgraves (how could we not be, we saw her in 2019 and it was perfection) and The Chicks.

Kacey Musgraves released her recent album ‘star-crossed’ just last year, and we can’t wait to hear some of these beautiful songs live. And who can say no to an incredible performance from The Chicks? With so many country classics under their belt, we know that we will be front row ready to belt “Goodbye Earl” or “Travelin’ Soldier”.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats has our Denver friends excited, if you don’t know them you can expect to hear a mix of folk, Americana, and vintage rhythm & blues.   And Austin faves Asleep at the Wheel will get Zilker Park swaying with their western swing.

Who are you most excited to see for this ACL festival? Let us know You can tweet your opinions at us here, you can follow along with country music memes on our Instagram here, and you can keep track of trending news on our Facebook here.

Definitely let us know if you will be attending ACL this year and be sure to tag us in your ACL photos #acountrymusic.

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Feted songwriter Jim Weatherly will be honored by his local community on Saturday (29) in Pontotoc, MS. A Mississippi Country Music Trail marker will be unveiled at 1pm outside the Pontotoc Community House, where he performed many times as a young artist. Weatherly died in 2021 at the age of 77.

Weatherly is celebrated as the writer of many classic songs, including Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train To Georgia” and the same group’s late Motown entry “Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye.” Both songs debuted on the singer-songwriter’s 1972 album Weatherly, the first as “Midnight Plane To Houston.” That LP also included his own love letter to his home state, “Mississippi Song.”

He became labelmates of the soul group on Buddah Records after the success of their cover, which was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Knight and the Pips recorded a dozen of his songs in total. Weatherly was also the co-writer, with Keith Stegall, of Glen Campbell’s country Top 5 hit of 1984, “A Lady Like You”; his own 1974 hit “The Need To Be”; and more than three dozen numbers recorded by country great Ray Price.

Weatherly was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014. Previous local recognition from the state of Mississippi arrived that same year with a Governor’s Award for Excellence in Music.

The Mississippi Country Music Trail commemorates artists’ “many varied contributions and influences as well as the places that cradled their creativity.” Others who have been commemorated with markers include Bobbie Gentry, longtime Glen Campbell collaborator and producer Carl Jackson, Charley Pride, Chris LeDoux, Conway Twitty, Faith Hill, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Marty Stuart, and Tammy Wynette. A full list, with a map of locations, can be found here.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.

A few weeks ago, beloved actor and comedian Leslie Jordan reflected on his life and career in an interview with CBS News, including his recent — and unexpected — pivot to country music. 

“So unexpected just to happen in my 60s — I’m a country music singer now,” he told CBS News with a laugh, just weeks before he died Monday after a car crash.

“I love Nashville and the way that Nashville embraced me, you know, and to be taken kind of serious, and to have made an album with Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile? That’s something.”

Jordan decided to make the career switch after responses on social media. He released his debut southern gospel album, “Company’s Comin’,” last year, which included recreated classic Christian hymns alongside iconic country music artists. 

“I had a Sunday Instagram singing hymns and people started tuning in and somehow from that, we decided to make an album,” he said. 

But before his jump to music, Jordan appeared in array of roles in shows including “American Horror Story” and “Will & Grace,” for which he won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor. 

He said he caught the acting bug while he was a student at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. 

“I was not one who did plays in high school,” he recalled. “I was always funny, but that was to keep the bullies at bay and I got up in that Intro to Theater class, and it just hit me like a drug.”

The young actor headed to Hollywood in 1982 where he landed some roles in commercials. Roles in television followed. 

And when the pandemic hit, Jordan received yet another wave of fame with his viral videos on social media. He went from 80,000 followers to nearly 6 million.

“I blew up,” Jordan said. “Give me a good pandemic and I flourish.”

“I was just thinking, ‘My gosh who are these people that want to hear what I have to say?'” he said. “It was just the innocence of it I guess.” 

He recalled people asking him to “do that Leslie Jordan thing,” which he said is being “just bright and bubbly” — characteristics he said he’s had since a little boy in Chattanooga. 

“I was a sissy, you know? I wasn’t good at sports.” he said. “My dad was a lieutenant colonel in the army. He was a man’s man and his, you know, group of guys would come home and I’d be twirling a baton in the front yard.”

Celebrities and politicians like Billy Eichner, RuPaul, Rosie O’Donnell, Tim Kelly and others mourned the loss of Jordan on Monday, remembering him as a “legend and national treasure who brought joy and hope to millions, leaving behind a lasting legacy of love and acceptance.”

By Ken Paulson –

It would be difficult to imagine a more unlikely group of inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame than the class of 2022, honored Sunday night in the hall’s annual Medallion ceremony.

One had his career disappear after marrying a 13-year-old girl, who also happened to be a relative. Another’s life was cut short by alcoholism, just two albums into his career. The third was a New York label executive who reluctantly moved to Nashville to work with country artists.

Yet Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley and Joe Galante all made the kind of impact that leads to country music’s greatest honor.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Lewis, already a member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, was unable to attend the Country Music Hall of Fame induction due to frail health, but both the vibrancy and diversity of his music came through loud and clear.

 Chris Isaak, accompanied by Jen Gunderman on piano, rocked the room with his take on “Great Balls of Fire.” The McCrary Sisters gamely (and movingly) performed a Lewis arrangement of “My God is Real” that reportedly got him kicked out of a Bible school. Lee Ann Womack drew on Lewis’ post-scandal country career with an outstanding version of “Middle-Age Crazy.”

Before his performance, Isaak recalled a Lewis show he saw during the punk era. A group of young men with plenty of attitude pushed their way to the front of the stage just before Lewis’ performance. When Lewis came out, he headed right to the group, staring at them for 90 seconds, before they stepped back.

“The punks just wilted,” Isaak laughed. 

The induction was done by Hank Williams Jr., who reminisced about Jerry Lee teaching the young Bocephus a few things about playing rock ‘n’ roll piano,

“Imagine how you’d feel if Jerry Lee asked you to share his piano bench while he played,” Williams recalled.  Jerry Lee told me that my father was one of his heroes and if he couldn’t meet his hero, he would meet his hero’s son and teach him how to boogie woogie.”

In his remarks, Williams described the free-spirited Lewis’ most admirable traits, a number of which he found “familiar.”

“Jerry Lee doesn’t walk on stage and politely thank an audience for being there,” Williams said. “Jerry Lee doesn’t ask for your attention. He demands it.”

Williams was joined by the now-retired Kris Kristofferson in unveiling Lewis’ plaque. Politically, the two men are on different planets, but have long shared an admiration for Lewis.

Keith Whitley

Keith Whitley had a brief, but influential career, with just an EP and two albums released during his lifetime. He began as a teen bluegrass player in tandem with a young Ricky Skaggs. Both joined the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band before moving on to solo careers.  

It’s a measure of Whitley’s talent that he’s been named to the Hall of Fame despite a recording career that spanned just 4 years before his death in 1989. A number of his biggest hits were posthumous.

Whitley had fans in high places, including Garth Brooks, who called him “one of the greatest voices ever to grace country music.”

Brooks recalled that an early knock on Whitley from country radio programmers was that he was ‘too country.’

“That’s like saying that something’s too good,” Brooks said shortly before performing Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes.”

Also on hand to celebrate Whitley were Mickey Guyton, who performed “When You Say Nothing At All,” and a trio consisting of Ricky  Skaggs, Molly Tuttle and Justin Moses doing a rendition of “Tennessee Blues.”

Joe Galante

Joe Galante was recognized for his work helping build the careers of Whitley, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Clint Black, Brooks and Dunn, Alabama, Miranda Lambert and Kenny Chesney, with the latter three honoring him Sunday night with performances.

Alabama sang “My Home’s In Alabama,” Lambert performed her breakthrough hit “White Liar,” and Chesney performed “The Good Stuff.”

Kix Brooks presented the award and recalled that he and Ronnie Dunn had concluded that their run as Brooks and Dunn was probably over after an album had lackluster sales. Then Galante told them he wanted to work with them, opening the door for another decade of hits. He was “Joe Frickin’ Galante,” he said of the duo’s decision to continue recording.

Clayton McMichen And His Georgia Wildcats – Joe Davis 3510
Give The Fiddler A Dram / The Old Hen Cackled
recorded August 30, 1932 in New York City, New York

The reason I`ve posted this is because I was in a short discussion about the McMichen discs on the Joe Davis label on Facebook recently. This was recorded for and issued on the Varsity label originally, the Facebook discussion mentioning Joe Davis label material was mostly, if not all, rented/leased from other labels. Joe Davis shellac is usually pretty grainy, causing the discs to be pretty noisy, but this one is pretty good sound quality-wise. Enjoy!

Click here to download Clayton McMichen – Joe Davis 3510

We are in the full swing of festival season and it feels good. The Bonnaroo lineup was just released, and we have to say that we can count the good vibes collectively. The team has their lists ready with all of these great acts in Manchester, Tennessee on June 16th -19th for a four-day celebration.

ACountry is so excited to see so many country artists perform at Bonnaroo this year, hosted only a few miles down the road from the country music capital. There are so many excellent headliners and performers to check out, so let’s dive into our recommendations.

On Friday, you’ll find us front and center for The Chicks, hot on the pace of their full 2022 festival tour! We love The Chicks over here at ACountry and know that they will put on an excellent show. We’ve got fingers crossed that the setlist will include “March March”, our favorite ‘new’ song, and maybe a few slower ballads like “Travelin’ Solider”.

We also have the pleasure of hearing Alison Krauss perform with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. We are huge Alison Krauss fans, and we have been following her career since she was a first chair violinist at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. We hope that she performs some of her greatest hits like “Down To The River To Pray”. We grabbed the live version on YouTube for you to enjoy before the festival. So powerful.

There are so many other acts the team here at ACountry is excited to explore, like Judah & the Lion performing on Saturday. We also have been watching the up-and-coming Billy Strings and we are pumped to see this stellar singer live. We love his song with Luke Combs called “The Great Divide,” and definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t yet.

Who are you most excited about seeing at Bonnaroo? Don’t forget to grab your tickets for this exciting festival here! There are so many acts to explore and we know that there is always a new artist to listen to, so tweet us your anticipated favorites here. You can also follow along with country music news by following our Facebook here, and get all the country music memes when you follow our Instagram here.