Over the past few weeks, I have said goodbye to many friends and family, and I share this story in honor of each of them and those who gave tirelessly to care for each of them as they prepared for their final steps. Perhaps it will give us all something to carry throughout the coming year – to always remember […]
It was a blustery cold morning as Kitty and Pearl began their walk over to Maudie Pearson’s house. They carried tins full of green collards, black-eyed peasand hamhocks and some cornbread. “This seems like an odd meal to take Miss Maudie,” Pearl said. “It’s News Year’s Day fixin’s,” Kitty said. “If she eats these she will have all […]
“Here’s the boxes of outside lights,” I said as I handed them down the attic stairs to my father Floyd. Next came the interior boxes that were spread on the floor of the living room for my mother Pearl to sift through. A few hops up and down the attic ladder and all the Christmas […]
In the valley below the Gravelly Spur sometimes life was lost in the living, but at times circumstances would change that for a while. Billy Thurston lived in a sharecropper’s house with his mother Alma and father Fred. Although Billy was just eight-years-old, he already had performed almost every task it took to help run […]
Never rely upon what “other people” say when you develop an opinion. I have spent my life walking in the light of truth. I was taught early to follow the rules and speak the truth. As a small child, I was a whiz at numbers but had some difficulty with spelling, at least that is […]
I have been blessed to meet some amazing performers who have for some period occupied the spotlight in many music genres but especially those who made a home in country music. Through the 1950s and 60s, one of the female vocalists who kept the airwaves filled with her talents from Starday, Mercury, United Artists, Monument, […]
It is hard to walk away when you are at the bottom of the pile. I remember fondly the springs and summers. Hours of play after completing my chores around the house. Of course, as I got older, I took on odd jobs like mowing neighbor’s yards to earn a little money. In my neighborhood, […]
From my earliest memory of country music, the sound and mix of fiddle and steel working together to augment the vocalist has electrified my interest in what some call classic country. From the 1940s until Nov. 2, a talented Alabama steel and resonator guitar man named Barney Miller has shared his talents alongside some of […]
Country music experienced two farewells recently, one from Kenny Rogers and another from John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Rogers completed his farewell performance to Nashville Oct. 25, All In For The Gambler, which reflected the amazing impact his musical career has had upon many genres and several generations. An all-star cast of […]
I could not have been more than four or five when I decided that Halloween can only be better the second time around. It was the day after Halloween. I was playing in the den in my spider man costume that I had worn so proudly the night before as my mother took me from […]
