Handprints

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In March of 2003, there was a packed lineup that included 38 Special, Loretta Lynn and Joe Nichols.

ABOUT 38 SPECIAL: 

After more than three decades together, 38 SPECIAL continue to bring their signature blast of Southern Rock to over 100 cities a year. And at each and every show, thousands of audience members are amazed by the explosive power of the band’s performance.

Their many Gold and Platinum album awards stand in testament to the endurance of a legendary powerhouse.

With sales in excess of 20 million, most associate the band with their arena-rock pop smashes, “Hold On Loosely,” “Rockin’ Into the Night,” “Caught Up in You,” “Fantasy Girl,” “If I’d Been the One,” “Back Where You Belong,” “Chain Lightnin’,” “Second Chance,” and more – Timeless hits that remain a staple at radio, immediately recognizable from the first opening chord, and paving the way to their present-day touring regimen.

Guitarist/vocalist DON BARNES says it’s all about maintaining that intensity in their live shows. “We never wanted to be one of those bands that had maybe gotten a little soft or complacent over the years. We’re a team, and it’s always been kind of an unspoken rule that we don’t slack up, we stack up. We go out there every night to win.”

It is that steely determination that lives on in the hearts of these ‘Wild-Eyed Southern Boys.’

Completing the team is keyboardist/vocalist BOBBY CAPPS, drummer GARY MOFFATT, bassist BARRY DUNAWAY and guitarist JERRY RIGGS. For 38 Special onstage, it is a celebration of camaraderie and brotherhood, a precision unit bringing the dedication and honesty to a long history of classic songs, as well as surprisingly fresh new material.

Barnes adds, “This music keeps our wheels on the road. We’re a band that’s tried to stay honest with what has driven us over the years. We started out with nothing but bold determination to make our own history and to endure. Looking back now, it has been our greatest pride to have persevered and attained that level of success and longevity. For us, it’s the ultimate validation.”

Around the fall of 2009, the notion of releasing a new live album started to take precedent. The band felt that their in-concert offering many years before had lacked in sound quality not yet available in the technologically-advanced decade since. Additionally, a need to showcase a new spirit of 38 Special was growing, a band that had matured into a tighter unit after three decades on the road, with an innate ability to read each other on the stage.

Barnes explains, “Back then, we had been rushed to release something quickly without having the luxury of choosing between different performances. It was a single show in the 90’s that had been recorded at a venue where logistics were a real challenge, the weather wasn’t cooperating, and we ended up not entirely satisfied with what we got.

For LIVE FROM TEXAS, we were able to carry our digital recording equipment with us to several cities, and now had our own private studio for remixing. So this was going to be a real pleasure to put together. The crowds were massive and all of those classic songs deserved a chance to shine in an enhanced live fashion. We were finally able to deliver what we represent onstage.”

Their initial idea was to make a live recording available exclusively at the band’s shows, with an eye toward having fans take home a copy to carry on the party. But what they found as they listened back – after gleaning select tracks from various cities across Texas – was a blistering new set with a distinct difference in performance as well as audio quality than years before. It grew into an excitedly motivated plan to make available to the world 38 SPECIAL – LIVE FROM TEXAS, a collectively proud history of a band that has made the road a part of its heritage.

“And the magic’s still there,” adds Barnes. “It’s an emotional high for us to keep ‘bringing it’ after all these years. That’s what you hear on the new live stuff, that sense of urgency and power.”

“When those lights go down and we all walk up those steps to the stage and hear that crowd roar, it’s a real rush to the head. It feels like we’re getting ready to strap ourselves in and it just takes off from there.”

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In 1995, Aaron Tippin came to play on the main stage, and we added his hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT AARON TIPPIN:

Twenty-Five years – a huge career accomplishment, especially in the music business. Aaron Tippin – who marks his silver anniversary as a recording artist this year – admits that he looks at his career longevity with a little bit of amazement.

“I think about it and go ‘Wow. What am I doing still here?’ I look at the flight that we took off in,” referring to his fellow newcomers at the time of his career launch. “A lot of them are gone, it seems. Some quit by choice. Some ran out from under it, but to be here twenty-five years doing it, I am the luckiest hillbilly that ever lived.”

Tippin says that nobody was any more surprised that he got an invitation to join the roster of Nashville powerhouse RCA back in 1990 than him. In fact, at the time he inked his deal, he had almost given up hope of success as a vocalist, concentrating on his budding career as a songwriter – with cuts from the likes of The Kingsmen, Mark Collie, and Charley Pride.

“I thought my chances were gone. I came to town when I was about twenty-five years old. I had been seriously trying to get a record deal for about three or four years. I just thought ‘Man, this ain’t gonna happen.’ I really had settled into songwriting, and my songs started to get recognized. One of the gals down at RCA – Mary Martin heard me singing my demos. She said ‘Who is that?’ They said, ‘That’s that Tippin guy down there who writes for Acuff / Rose – the muscle guy.’ She said ‘That’s hillbilly. That’s country. Let me hear what else he’s got. I want to meet him.”

Aaron recalls that walking into the RCA office to meet with label head Joe Galante definitely had a magical vibe, as well it should. “The label was on fire. Clint Black was on top of the charts, along with the Judds and Keith Whitley. What a great team to fall into there. I’m so thankful that Joe took a chance on me. It sure worked out, and I had a great run there. I remember when he sent me my plastic Nipper dog and my Varsity Jacket. I couldn’t believe it.”

He also couldn’t believe that his first single, “You’ve Got To Stand For Something,” hit the Billboard Country Singles chart – eventually peaking at # 6. The success of that record also brought him a career opportunity that completely blew his mind. “When the song started to get played in Los Angeles, we got a call from Bob Hope’s daughter Linda. She heard the song and asked if I’d be interested in going over and entertaining the troops. It didn’t take him long to give her an answer. “I said ‘Are you kidding me? Bob Hope? I never in a zillion years dreamed I would be on the Bob Hope show.”

And, just like that, Aaron Tippin was off to the races. The hits continued to pile up – “There Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With The Radio,” “My Blue Angel,” and “Workin’ Man’s Ph.D.,” among them. He was building his brand on songs that touched a nerve with his blue-collar audience – and that one-of-a-kind vocal style that definitely was Country. “You either liked it or you hated it. I is what I is,” he says with a smile. “I think several times during my record career, we tried to change and follow trends and stuff. But, it never seemed to work for me. The most success I had in the business was with songs that I crafted. I’m very proud of that. I think it makes a fan able to identify with me easier because these songs are about me – my life, who I am, and how I was raised. I tell people I get recognized a whole lot faster in a truck stop than I do in my tuxedo walking into the back of the Opry. You better check my credentials when I have a tuxedo on because it don’t look right.”

That’s not to say that Tippin was a one-trick pony. His 1995 smash “That’s As Close As I’ll Get To Loving You” showcased a more dramatic side to his vocal approach, something that continued into his next label affiliation – as the flagship artist for Lyric Street Records.

“Everybody saw that with ‘That’s As Close As I’ll Get To Loving You’ that I could do other things. So, when they were pitching songs to Aaron Tippin, it was with a lot broader range. A lot of times, it would be songs that I particularly couldn’t write. It was a new place for my career, and to kick things off at a new label – I think it was a big success,” he recalls of “For You I Will,” his debut single for the label.

Signing with Lyric Street was like a family reunion for Tippin, with many people he had worked with before – such as Greg McCarn, Randy Goodman, Doug Howard, and Kevin Herring, as well as promotional guru Dale Turner – who had helped to build the Tippin brand at RCA. “I was happy to be one of the first people they signed. I enjoyed my time there as well.”

Another important piece of the Tippin story is his wife – and business partner Thea. “She is as much Aaron Tippin as I am,” he says. “She’s only six months behind me in my record deal. I signed with RCA, and then six months later, I signed with Narvel Blackstock and Trey Turner. She was Trey’s assistant, so she started working the Aaron Tippin career six months after it started. She’s got as much stake in this game as I do. She saw me at my lowest days, stood right there, and stayed – even when things weren’t great, and I wasn’t having hit records. She listened to me whine all through it all. I owe her everything.” It’s not just his 25th anniversary as a recording artist in 2015 that Tippin is celebrating, but also his and Thea’s 20th anniversary as husband and wife, as well. Family is the center of Tippin’s universe – with two teenage sons, Ted and Tom, a grown daughter, Charla, and a granddaughter.

As the new millennium dawned, Tippin returned to the top of the charts with “Where The Stars And Stripes And Eagle Fly,” a song that became part of the American soundtrack during the aftermath of 9/11. “I wanted to talk to Americans about who we are at heart and the fact that when the going gets tough, that’s when we really stand up. We may have a lot of differences when everything is calm and fine, but when it hits the fan, I think we’re the best in the world at sticking together, and rallying around the cause. That song served that purpose very well. I wanted us to be proud as Americans, and get back on with living free.”

In the past decade, Tippin has recorded several musically diverse projects – including a well received 2009 truck driving album, In Overdrive. He also partnered with restaurant chain Cracker Barrel for the release He Believed. To celebrate his 25th-anniversary making records, he plans to celebrate in a big way. “We’re looking at putting together a project that has ten old songs, ten new ones, and five recordings that you never thought you would hear Aaron Tippin do. We’ll probably do some big band stuff, like “The Way You Look Tonight” – that’s a song I love. Thea and I love Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett. Her dad was a jazz and big band guy. That was our dance song at the wedding. I would also love to do a little bit of bluegrass – most people probably don’t know that I came from bluegrass back in Traveler’s Rest, SC, where I grew up. Nobody’s ever heard me do any Gospel, so this gives me a chance to do that. I grew up in the south, so southern rock is big in my world. I’d like to take a shot at some of that. I don’t know what the fifth cut is going to be. We’ve got the hits cut, and we’re fine-tuning the new ones. We just want to make sure that it’s everything I want it to be, It’s important to me because I don’t know if I will make fifty years or not!”

And, of course, another place where Aaron Tippin will be celebrating such a notable milestone is on the road. The singer still delights in that hour and a half performing on the stage – and those who come out to see him. But don’t call them “fans” – he thinks of them as family. “They have been so great to me over the years, and they’re still coming out to the shows. That’s why I still sign autographs every night. I just want to get out there and shake their hand and give them a big hug – just to say thank you. They’re not strangers anymore – they’ve been coming for twenty-five years.”

The Aaron Tippin 25th Anniversary Celebration promises to be an unforgettable year of music and fun – After all, he ‘wouldn’t have it any other way,’ would he?

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Fort Worth proclaims January 16  “Aaron Watson” Day. To commemorate the special occasion, he partners with Billy Bob’s Texas to raise more than $10,000 to support Fort Worth homeless population. Watson is inspired by the book Same Kind of Different as Me by local author, Ron Hall.

ABOUT AARON WATSON:

Aaron Watson’s career is perhaps summed up best by Forbes, who says he’s “one of country music’s biggest DIY success stories.”

For the past 20 years, Watson has achieved success on his own terms, hand-building a lauded career through songwriting, relentless touring, and more than a dozen self-released albums. His independent Texas spirit and strong work ethic are emblematic of the western lifestyle; virtues that have taken him from humble honky-tonks of Texas to multiple sold-out tours around the world.

In 2019 he released Red Bandana  — “his most ambitious album yet” (Taste of Country) —whose 20 songs were hailed by The Boot as “a pure expression of his traditional country ethos.”

This unprecedented acclaim follows Watson’s previous album, Vaquero, whose Top 10 hit “Outta Style” earned a BMI Millionaire award, and The Underdog, the first independent album in the history of country music to top the Billboard Country Albums chart.

With a dozen additional records under his belt, Watson is exceeding major-label-sized metrics while maintaining his independence, further galvanizing his “Texas country’s reigning indie underdog” (Rolling Stone) brand.  “There may be no more genuine singer-songwriter at the moment than Watson,” says Texas Monthly, pointing to a self-made businessman, chart-topper, and road warrior whose authenticity has made him a country music staple.

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On February 7, 1992, Alabama rocked the main stage and cemented their hands on the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT ALABAMA:

It’s been 40 years since a trio of young cousins left Fort Payne, Alabama, to spend the summer playing in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, bar called The Bowery. It took Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook six long years of tip jars and word of mouth to earn the major label deal they’d been dreaming of, but then seemingly no time at all to change the face of country music.

ALABAMA is the band that changed everything. They reeled off 21 straight #1 singles, a record that will probably never be equaled in any genre. They brought youthful energy, sex appeal and a rocking edge that broadened country’s audience and opened the door to self-contained bands from then on, and they undertook a journey that led, 73 million albums later, to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

Alan Jackson is inspired to write his hit song “Dallas” after he plays to an enthusiastic crowd. According to his liner notes on his greatest his album, “After that show, he wishes Dallas was in Tennessee.”

Kubota celebrates its 40^th anniversary with a special performance by Alan Jackson. One lucky employee walks away with a $20,000 ruby.

ABOUT ALAN JACKSON:

At a time when country music is as much hip-hop and pop as anything, it makes sense that Alan Jackson would emerge with an album that has the same cleansing quality as “Here In The Real World” all those years ago. Having weathered every trend, seen “superstars” come and go, the soft-spoken legend returns with Where Have You Gone, a twin-fiddle’n’steel survey of real country. Classic songwriting that exhumes sorrow, love, life, loss, cheating, drinking, the South, wanting, children growing up and parents dying, these 21 songs are a witness to what country music was born from and will always be.

“It’s a little harder country than even I’ve done in the past,” Jackson concedes. “And it’s funny, I was driving out here where I live and was listening to the final mixes, just listening to what Keith (Stegall, his longtime producer) sent me, and I started to tear up. I was surprised to get so overly emotional, but I just love this kind of music. It’s what I’d always wanted to do.”

When Alan Jackson broke the country charts wide open with “Here In The Real World,” his unadorned classic country was a stark reminder of how gut-wrenching a simple song can be. With the chorus closing revelation, “The one thing I’ve learned from you/ is how the boy don’t always get the girl/ here in the real world,” the future Country Music Hall of Famer deployed the kind of vulnerability only a strong man of deep dignity can. Tall, thin, quiet, Jackson hadn’t come to save country music in 1990. But, somehow, that’s what happened. In the world of jacked up, arena-ready Nashville, Alan Jackson stood as a voice where bruised hearts, small pleasures, words written in red and easy good times were strung like laundry on lines of steel guitar, fiddle and a Telecaster that evoked Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Buck Owens.

Entertainer of the Year. Grammy winner. Headliner. Thirty-five #1s. Enduring hits, including “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Chattahoochee,” “Gone Country,” “Remember When,” “Drive (for Daddy Gene),” “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” “Where I Come From,” “Wanted,” “Little Man,” “Who’s Cheatin’ Who,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” with Jimmy Buffett and “Murder on Music Row” with George Strait. And when America was stunned in the aftermath of 9/11 and the World Trade Center falling, it was Jackson who took the stage at “The CMA Awards” and in his quiet way expressed the confusion and grief of the entire nation with, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” Once again, he delivered for a country that couldn’t find the words: simple, straightforward and hollow without buckling as only the greatest country songs can be.

“It’s been way too long since you slipped away
I just can’t forget, I can’t pretend it’s okay
No other one could ever replace you
So I’ll keep on believing and dreaming of you…”
>– “Where Have You Gone”

Alan Jackson, more than any artist of the modern era, understands the power of a song to cut loose to, shed tears to, reckon your mistakes to, even marry your daughters to. When it finally came time to go into the studio, those songs kept tumbling out. “You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” is self-explanatory, as is “I Do (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)”; “Beer:10,” and “Livin’ On Empty” pack the same good-timing wallop as many of Jackson’s best loved rompers. “Boats and cars,” he says about the latter. “I’ve gotten so many good songs out of those things, because growing up boats and cars is what I loved to do, I still do. And a lot of the language suits country music.” As for wedding songs, “The first I wrote for Mattie’s wedding, the summer of 2017. But it was so hard to do, I told ’em, ‘I wrote this for all of you. I’m not writing another! The second just came out one day.” But as he allows, “The fun ones for me are always the sad ones, the sadder the better.”

There was – sadly – an awful lot of inspiration since the 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee released Angels & Alcohol. His mother, Ruth Musick Jackson, passed away in 2017, then his son-in-law died in a boating accident in 2018. The album that was underway was shelved, “and I didn’t really feel like making music for a couple years.” He emerged with, “Where Her Heart Has Always Been (Written for Mama’s funeral with an old recording of her reading from The Bible),” one of the most beautiful songs about leaving this world for the next, written for his mother’s funeral. After the recording was mixed, one of Jackson’s four sisters found a recording of “Mama Ruth” reading Scripture, which was added in. “That was sweet. Towards the last few years, she had a scratchy voice. But she was just such a sweet woman, a sweet, sweet lady, so we had to have that on here.”

That raw ache, the quiver at the very edge of the moment that made Jones’ country so consuming, defines the haunted “Way Down in My Whiskey,” while the lamenting “Wishful Drinkin’” with its piano flourishes and vivid images marinates in a chorus truth of “wishin’ you had never left and drinkin’ ‘cause I’m the reason you won’t stay.” With a mandolin-driven “Chain,” Jackson draws on Hank Williams’ blues for a song from a man who can’t let go of what’s gone.

“Merle and George and Hank,” Jackson intones. “A lot of young people liked that music when I was growing up, but it felt like nobody was making it. Somebody had to go to Nashville to make that kind of country. Randy (Travis) did and was great. But real country music is gone. It feels like 1985 again, and somebody has to bring it back. Because it’s not just 50-year-old people, it’s 20- and 25-year-olds. They have a real ear for country music, because it is real and genuine. They know the difference, and you can’t fake those things.”

“But I can be that whiskey in your bottle
I can be that smile that takes away your tears
I can be that place you just want to run to
I can be that something to get you through…”
— “I Can Be That Something”

To hear the giddy “Back,” a quick “Subterranean Homesick Blues” tumble through everything country life is, the ’67 Telecaster romance sparked “Where The Cottonwood Grows,” the elegant heartbreak salvage “I Can Be That Something” with its gentle invitation is to understand how much life true country music contains. It’s not bumper stickers or emojis, but a 100 proof distillation of a way of living.

“When I write, I visualize back home and growing up,” he admits. “I say this, ‘Real country songs are life and love and heartache, drinking and Mama and having a good time, kinda like that David Alan Coe song.’ But it’s the sounds of the instruments, too. The steel and acoustic guitar, the fiddle, those things have a sound and a tone – and getting that right, the way those things make you feel, that’s country, too.”

Jackson and Stegall rounded up many of the players who helped Jackson forge his ’90s modern traditional sound. Guitarist Brent Mason, drummer Eddie Bayers, bluegrass icon Stuart Duncan, steel legend Paul Franklin, as well as Gary Prim on keyboards, JT Corenflos and Rob McNelley on electric guitars, Scotty Sanders on dobro and steel and Glenn Worf, Dave Pomeroy and John Kelton sharing bass duties. “The playing was just exceptional; they played their rear ends off. It knocked me over the playing was so good.”

The feeling was mutual. Jackson explains, “I don’t know how many of them came up to me, saying, ‘I can’t tell you how good it feels to play on a real country song.’ We always cut live. I’ll go in and sing six or seven times while they’re figuring (the dynamics) out. Listening in the booth, the fiddle and steel stuff just about killed me.”

“’Cause if you’re gonna leave me, just pack up and go
There are just some things, A man don’t need to know
And I don’t wanna hear, What’s going through your head
Just take out your lipstick and write it in red…”
— “Write It In Red”

The cheater confronting “Write It In Red” with its slow cascade of fiddle and pools of steel bears that out. An adult male looks at the woman doing him wrong, acts like a man and tells her to get on with it. “You don’t hear songs like that anymore, especially when it’s the woman doing wrong. That never happens, so I wasn’t sure. I use Keith to guide me a little bit, because when you write, you’re too close to it. Sometimes he’ll say, ‘We can cut it and see how it sounds..’ So, we did.” Pausing, he now enthuses, “And it feels… incredible.”

Having written 15, found five from friends including nephew Adam Wright, who contributes the bar wisdom “The Boot” and the philosophical “The Older I Get,” co-written with Hailey Whitters and Sarah Turner, there’s a lot of life and a lot of wonder on Where Have You Gone. It’s a surprise not lost on the 60,000,000+ selling artist.

“I never felt the need to chase anything different than I did. I just did what I liked and was lucky enough to connect with people who love the same kind of country music I do. My heart was in the real country music, that was what I wanted to do, and I thought if my career lasts three or four years, I’d be happy.”

He may joke about being labeled “Merle Haggard on milk” coming up, but Jackson was true to the country that mattered to him. He’s also honoring his influence’s influence with a tender rendering of “That’s the Way Love Goes (A Tribute to Merle Haggard)” which evokes the title track of Hag’s 1983 album. “I’d heard that Haggard cut it for Lefty Frizzell, to honor him,” Jackson explains, “I’d been wanting to do the Haggard song for so long. With everything this album was, it just seemed to be the time.”

With playing so good, songs so classic, his time spent in grief lifting, Jackson, Stegall and the players found themselves waist deep in great songs. Following his longtime producer’s notion to “cut it and see how it sounds,” they suddenly realized they’d amassed more songs than a single project could contain. “There was some discussion of ‘Let’s do a double album, but do it one disc, then a second,’” Jackson remembers. “Sometimes it can be too much. If it’s a lot stuff, it can overwhelm. But the more we talked, the more I realized: people are hungry for this, and I want these songs to stand together.”

Though they barely did get by, I never saw them cry
They said when things get rough, You gotta pick yourself up…”
— “A Man Who Never Cries”

“You listen to these songs, and you realize these things are true. ‘The Older I Get’ sounds like where I am in my life, what I’ve learned and how I feel. “A Man Who Never Cries’ makes you cry. Denise (his wife of 42 years) said, ‘A lot of those lines are you, but you do cry.’ Truth is I’m pretty emotional, and I cry maybe more than she does, but it’s really about when those tears are shed.”

That emotion stains “Things That Matter” and “This Heart of Mine.” It echoes on “I Was Tequila,” a heartbreak reflection on worlds colliding, a stubborn man and the recognition some things can’t be; mirroring his very first single, the jovial optimistic “Blue Blood Woman (Redneck Man),” he looks back on what was lost – and what it truly means now that there’s been time to reflect.

“I know I’ve changed, but I’m still pretty much the same person who came to Nashville all those years ago. I still eat beans and cornbread. I fool with my cars, and I like to go outside and watch the sunset. I fool with my cars, and I like to go outside and watch the sunset…things I did when I was 20 years old. My heart’s still there. I still think like that, have those values. That’s how I was raised, so those things don’t change. I kept what I love and believe in.”

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On New Year’s Day in 2001, Andy Griggs cemented his hands for our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT ANDY GRIGGS:

Andy Griggs often says his influences in music are like a pot of gumbo. Growing up in Monroe, LA, he was raised on Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggert, Waylon, Bill Monroe, hardcore blues, and hardcore rock’n roll, sprinkled with a touch of jazz. He often says, “there is no defining a style of song. As long as there’s soul, it has a place in music.” Andy moved to Nashville in 1995 after a childhood life of major mountains and valleys. Music was such a huge inspiration in his young life that it helped him grieve. And he did plenty of that. His father, the praise and worship leader at their church, died from a brain tumor when Andy was 11 years old. His brother Mason, his only sibling took the baton of music and ran with it. Throughout their teenage years, Mason was Andy’s hero. Mason died at the early age of 21 from heart complications that he had had since birth. Andy grabbed that same baton and he quotes, “when I jumped into the pool of music, I jumped into the deep end and never came out.”

After several years of playing in the blue grass band, ‘Jerry and Tammy Sullivan’ Andy found himself a record deal with RCA and exploded with his first single “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely.” After two #1’s, five top 5’s and 4 other top 10’s, Andy came to a musical crossroad in his life…there was something missing. Feeling that his music was only reaching 99% of his capability of releasing his heart and soul, his life was not complete. “My childhood was a rollercoaster ride and so has been my profession as a singer. I’m at that point in my life, where I either want to make a difference with a song and a worn out guitar or I need to find something else to do. I’ve learned that you don’t come to this town and TRY to fit a certain mold. You don’t TRY to fit a certain style. You don’t TRY to sing your heart out. You either DO or you DON’T.” This awakening in Andy’s restless being caused him to start writing most of his songs and producing his own music. “Heck, I don’t know how to produce, I just know what I hear and feel. That’s what I want and that’s what I have to have.” As you listen, to the songs that come out of his voice now, you will realize that he is finally complete and one with his music. Ladies and gentleman, please make welcome to the stage the new, improved, and REAL Andy Griggs.

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April 18^th of 2003,  Asleep at the Wheel’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” album was recorded back to back with the Gatlin Brothers.

ABOUT ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL:

Asleep at the Wheel landed a gig opening for Alice Cooper and Hot Tuna in Washington, DC in 1970. At the height of Vietnam, many Americans were using their choice of music to express their stance on the conflict in southeast Asia. “We wanted to break that mold,” said Benson. “We were concerned more with this amazing roots music, which we felt was being lost amid the politics. We were too country for the rock folks and we were too long-haired for the country folks. But everybody got over it once the music started playing.”

A year later, they were coaxed into moving to California by Commander Cody, leader of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. But, the band’s big break came when Van Morrison mentioned them in an interview with Rolling Stone “there’s some relatively unknown group around that I really dig. Asleep at the Wheel, they play great country music.” Van Morrison Rolling Stone Interview (1973). The record offers started coming in and The Wheel got rolling.

The musicianship of Asleep at the Wheel has become the stuff of legends. Reuter’s pegged The Wheel as “one of the best live acts in the business.” Taking a page from Bob Wills’ book, the band has constantly toured at a national level throughout its history; with anywhere from 7-15 of the finest players Ray Benson could talk into jumping in the bus to play a string of dates. The alumni roster is well over 80+ members, and includes an impressive list of musicians who have gone on to perform with artists such as Bob Dylan, George Strait, Van Morrison, Lyle Lovett, Ryan Adams, and many more. A quick scan of awards, such as “Touring Band of the Year” (CMAs, 1976) and “Lifetime Achievement in Performance” (Americana Music Awards 2009), not to mention near dominance of the GRAMMY “Country Instrumental” category over the years, reflects the reputation of the band’s musicianship. Ray Benson fell in love with western swing because of its unique combination of elements of American blues, swing and traditional fiddling but also for its demanding musical chops. Western swing is what Benson calls “jazz with a cowboy hat,” is a thrill to hear live, and thanks in large part to the Wheel’s 40+ years of promotion, is a living and creative genre of music today.

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Legendary Bluesman B.B. King places his hands in concrete and joins the Billy Bob’s Wall of Frame.

ABOUT B.B. KING:

His reign as King of the Blues has been as long as that of any monarch on earth. Yet B.B. King continues to wear his crown well. At age 76, he is still light on his feet, singing and playing the blues with relentless passion. Time has no apparent effect on B.B., other than to make him more popular, more cherished, more relevant than ever. Don’t look for him in some kind of semi-retirement; look for him out on the road, playing for people, popping up in a myriad of T.V. commercials, or laying down tracks for his next album. B.B. King is as alive as the music he plays, and a grateful world can’t get enough of him.

For more than half a century, Riley B. King – better known as B.B. King – has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue his music career. Memphis was where every important musician of the South gravitated, and which supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.

B.B.’s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, and later to a ten-minute spot on black-staffed and managed Memphis radio station WDIA. “King’s Spot,” became so popular, it was expanded and became the “Sepia Swing Club.” Soon B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King.

In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.’s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

Soon after his number one hit, “Three O’Clock Blues,” B.B. began touring nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one-night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls to rock palaces, symphony concert halls, universities, resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist’s vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.’s words, “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.”

In 1968, B.B. played at the Newport Folk Festival and at Bill Graham’s Fillmore West on bills with the hottest contemporary rock artists of the day who idolized B.B. and helped to introduce him to a young white audience. In “69, B.B. was chosen by the Rolling Stones to open 18 American concerts for them; Ike and Tina Turner also played on 18 shows.

B.B. was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS’ Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates from Tougaloo(MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990; Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.

In 1991, B.B. King’s Blues Club opened on Beale Street in Memphis, and in 1994, a second club was launched at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. A third club in New York City’s Times Square opened in June 2000 and most recently two clubs opened at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in January 2002. In 1996, the CD-Rom On The Road With B.B. King: An Interactive Autobiography was released to rave reviews. Also in 1996, B.B.’s autobiography, “Blues All Around Me” (written with David Ritz for Avon Books) was published. In a similar vein, Doubleday published “The Arrival of B.B. King” by Charles Sawyer, in 1980.

B.B. continued to tour extensively, averaging over 250 concerts per year around the world. Classics such as “Payin’ The Cost To Be The Boss,” “The Thrill Is Gone,” How Blue Can You Get,” “Everyday I Have The Blues,” and “Why I Sing The Blues” are concert (and fan) staples. Over the years, the Grammy Award-winner has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951’s “Three O’Clock Blues,” and 1952’s “You Don’t Know Me,” and four #2 R&B hits, 1953’s “Please Love Me,” 1954’s “You Upset Me Baby,” 1960’s “Sweet Sixteen, Part I,” and 1966’s “Don’t Answer The Door, Part I.” B.B.’s most popular crossover hit, 1970’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” went to #15 pop.

B.B. passed away in his sleep on May 14th 2015.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

David Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers met his wife at Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT THE BELLAMY BROTHERS:

Howard and David continue to prove that the trail they’ve ridden to fame has been as unique as their music itself—music that is now celebrating 40 years of success.  The road that started on the pop music charts in the ’70s, took a winding turn into country music in the ’80s, paving the way for duos to come, such as Brooks & Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, Big & Rich, and previously—The Judds. But before the road forked into country, the musical odyssey of brothers Bellamy started creatively smoldering in their home state of Florida, before exploding nationally amidst the ’70’s pop music culture of L.A. The brothers’ first official gig was in 1968, playing a free show with their father at the Rattlesnake Roundup in San Antonio, Florida. They honed their early skills playing black clubs throughout the south, and singing backup for artists such as Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, and Little Anthony & The Imperials. Within a few months, the brothers moved north, immersing themselves and their rock/country sound in the Atlanta market, where the Allman Brothers were the emerging kings of the music world.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Bill Engvall made his debut on June 21, 2008 and cemented his hands on the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT BILL ENGVALL:

The thing that makes any entertainer successful is the ability to connect with an audience. It’s the quality of sharing the humor in everyday situations that has made Bill Engvall one of the top comedians today – and one of the busiest.

Although he currently resides in Park City, Utah with his wife, Engvall is a native of Galveston, Texas. Early on, he moved to Dallas and was working as a disc jockey with plans of becoming a teacher. While in a nightclub one evening, Bill decided to try his hand at stand-up comedy and quickly found that making people laugh was truly his forte. Soon after, he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue television opportunities.

TV & Film

First, Engvall appeared in a Showtime special, A Pair of Joker’s, with Rosie O’Donnell, followed by hosting A&E’s Evening at the Improv and appearances on both The Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman. Then in 1992, Bill won the American Comedy Award for “Best Male Stand-up Comedian.”

After appearing in episodes of Designing Women, Bill went on to portray Buck Overton on the ABC sitcom, Delta starring Delta Burke. Bill also starred in the NBC series, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, where he played Foxworthy’s best friend.

Bill has hosted numerous television shows including the game show LINGO for GSN, Country Fried Videos and Mobile Home Disaster for CMT as well as several award shows. He had a 3-episode arc on the TNT show Hawthorne, made guest appearances on the TNT show Leverage staring Timothy Hutton and the FOX show Last Man Standing staring Tim Allen, narrated a documentary for the Speed Channel on Darrel Waltrip and starred in the Hallmark Channel movie Kiss at Pine Lake.

Bill starred in and executive produced his own self-titled sitcom, The Bill Engvall Show, for TBS, which ran for three seasons. He was one of the stars of the sketch comedy show, Blue Collar Comedy TV, on the WB network.

In 2008 Engvall starred in Bait Shop, which co-starred Billy Ray Cyrus and had its world premiere on the USA Network. Then in 2013, he voiced an animated character in a show for CMT titled Bounty Hunters.

A star of the big screen as well, Engvall has also appeared in several films including Strawberry Wine with Christina Ricci, and Bed and Breakfast with Dean Cain, as well as Delta Farce. His latest film, The Neighbor, takes him out of his typical comedy scene and into the horror genre.

Comedy

Alongside Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White, Bill Engvall was part of the enormously successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour concert films, which have sold more than 9 million units and are some of the most watched movies and specials in Comedy Central history. The soundtrack for Blue Collar Comedy Tour, One For The Road, (Warner Bros./Jack Records) was also nominated for a Grammy Award.

Following the Blue Collar Comedy Tour movies, Engvall was reunited with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy on the Them Idiots Whirled Tour, which was filmed as a special for CMT and aired 2012. Bill also has several solo specials on Comedy Central including Aged and Confused (2009) and Live (2004), which was certified multiplatinum, 15° Off Cool (2007) and Here’s Your Sign (1996).

Bill’s first album, Here’s Your Sign (1996), has been certified platinum and held the #1 position on the Billboard Comedy Chart for 15 straight weeks, went on to peak at #5 on Billboard’s Current Country Album Chart and reached the Top 50 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart. The single of the same name was ranked #1 on Billboard’s Country Singles Sales Chart for ten weeks, reached the Top 30 on the Billboard’s Singles Sales Chart, and achieved Gold status, which is not a common occurrence in the comedy market. In 1997, Engvall won the “Best Selling Comedy album” award at the annual NARM convention, outselling albums by Chris Rock and Adam Sandler.

Bill’s second album, Dorkfish (1998), was certified gold (500,000 copies), and had the honor of being ranked #1 on Billboard’s Comedy Chart, even surpassing Jerry Seinfeld’s album. All of his following comedy album releases debuted at #1 on the Billboard Comedy Chart, including 15° Off Cool and Aged and Confused.

Albums

Ultimate Laughs – A Compilation of Bill Engvall’s Best (2014)
Aged and Confused (2014)
15° Off Cool (2008)
Decade of Laughs – A Compilation of Bill Engvall’s Best (2008)
Live (2004) – Certified Multiplatinum
Here’s Your Sign Reloaded (2003)
Now That’s Awesome (2000)
Here’s Your Christmas Album (1999)
Dorkfish (1998)
Here’s Your Sign (1996) – Certified Platinum
Books
Bill has written several books, including You Don’t Have to Be Dumb to Be Stupid (1997) and Here’s Your Sign (2005). Most recently in 2007, Engvall penned his autobiography, Bill Engvall – Just A Guy: Notes From a Blue Collar Life.

Awards & Accolades

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One For The Road (Warner Bros./Jack Records) Received a Grammy Award Nomination
Album 15 Degrees Off Cool Ranked #1 on Billboard’s Comedy Chart
Album Aged and Confused Ranked #1 on Billboard’s Comedy Chart
Album Dorkfish was Certified Gold; Ranked #1 on Billboard’s Comedy Chart
Best Selling Comedy Album Award at NARM in 1997
Album Here’s Your Sign was Certified Platinum; #1 position on Billboard Comedy Chart for 15 weeks; #5 on Billboard’s Current Country Album Chart; and Top 50 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart
Single Here’s Your Sign achieved #1 on Billboard’s Country Singles Sales Chart for 10 weeks; Top 30 on the Billboard’s Singles Sales Chart; Gold status
American Comedy Award for “Best Male Stand-up Comedian” in 1992

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In September 2004, Billy Currington makes his Billy Bob’s debut.

ABOUT BILLY CURRINGTON:

Billy Currington’s latest album bears the breezy title Summer Forever, but the talented Georgia native has spent more than a decade in the spotlight proving he’s truly a man for all seasons. Possessing one of the smoothest and most distinct voices in any genre of music, Currington is equally skilled at delivering upbeat summertime anthems as well as exploring the complexities of life and love with a poignant ballad. On Summer Forever, Currington’s sixth studio album, he brings both with a collection of songs that will take the listener on a riveting musical journey and leave them breathless at the end of the ride.

Since his self-titled debut album bowed on Mercury Records in 2003, Currington has scored eleven career No. 1 singles, most recently, “Don’t Hurt Like It Used To.” His other hits that reached the No. 1 spot include such memorable songs as “Good Directions,” “Let Me Down Easy,” “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right,” “People Are Crazy,” “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” “Hey Girl,” and “We Are Tonight.” Over the years, the self-effacing Georgia boy has amassed an impressive list of accolades. He won the “Hottest Video of the Year” honor at the fan-voted CMT Music Awards for “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right” in 2006. The same year, he received an ACM nod for Top New Male Vocalist. His hit duet with Shania Twain, “Party for Two,” earned nominations from both the CMA and ACM. “People Are Crazy” took Currington’s already hot career to another level. He earned Grammy nominations for Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song in addition to being nominated for Single and Song of the Year from the Country Music Association.

Currington has come a long way from his rural Georgia roots. He spent his early years on Tybee Island before his family moved inland to Rincon. He grew up listening to vinyl records by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kenny Rogers, and when his mom took him to one of Rogers’ concerts, 10-year-old Billy knew immediately he wanted to someday be the one on stage performing. However, he wasn’t sure how he was going to get there. “To be honest, I never even heard of Nashville till I was 17 or 18,” he says. All that changed when Currington’s pastor recognized his talent while he was singing in church, and decided to give the youngster some career guidance. “He had been living in Nashville at one point,” Currington recalls. “He said, ‘Man, there’s a town called Nashville that you can get a record deal. Your dreams could come true. I’m going to take you there.’ So he took me and showed me the town. He introduced me to people. When I got back home, I totally made up my mind that when I graduated high school I was going to go back.”

And so he did. He made the move to Music City at 18 and began paying his dues by pouring concrete and working as a personal trainer at a gym during the day. At night, he was getting a musical education playing in bars all over Nashville. Naturally, he began meeting other aspiring songwriters and artists. He began writing songs and his warm, strong voice made him one of the town’s most in-demand demo singers. “I was doing 10 demos a day,” he says. “Before you know it, I started getting deal offers from record labels.”

He signed with Mercury in 2003 and immediately garnered attention with his debut single, “Walk a Little Straighter,” an autobiographical song about life with his alcoholic stepfather. The song peaked at No. 8, an auspicious debut for a newcomer. He proved the quick success was no fluke when he followed with “I Got A Feelin,” which became his first top-five hit. From there, the hits continued as his sophomore album Doin’ Somethin’ Right spawned his first No. 1 with “Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right” and his second No. 1 with “Good Directions.” Released in 2008, his third album, Little Bit of Everything, featured five songs co-written by Currington. The Bobby Braddock/Troy Jones penned “People Are Crazy” became his third No. 1 and he followed that with a song he co-wrote, “That’s How Country Boys Roll,” which also hit the top of the charts. In September 2010, Currington released Enjoy Yourself, which included No. 1 hits “Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer” and “Let Me Down Easy.” His fifth album, We Are Tonight, further fueled his momentum spawning two No. 1 singles – “Hey Girl” and the title track.

Though Currington has grown in knowledge and confidence, his goals in making Summer Forever is the same as when he recorded his debut. “Music is a snapshot of people’s lives and most of all, I want to leave people in a happy place,” he says with a smile. “Whether they’re sitting on a beach listening to this album or they’re walking around their house or cleaning their house or whatever. Wherever they’re at listening to this album, I want to leave them with a happy and peaceful feeling.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 14, 1991, Billy Dean made his debut and cemented his hands on to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT BILLY DEAN:

Born in the small town of Quincy, Florida, Billy Dean started his music career at the age of eight, singing with his father’s band, the Country Rocks. After touring the Gulf Coast circuit in his late teens and early twenties, Billy’s first big break came in 1988 when he won Best Male Vocalist on Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon. His success on the show led to signing with Capitol Records and the release of his debut album Young Man in 1990. Buoyed by the singles “Only Here for a Little While” and “Somewhere in My Broken Heart,” Young Man became Billy’s first of many Gold records.

His second and third albums, Billy Dean and Fire in the Dark, were also certified as Gold Records and featured the Billboard-charting singles, “You Don’t Count the Cost,” “Only the Wind,” “Billy the Kid,” “If There Hadn’t Been You,” “Tryin’ to Find a Fire in the Dark,” “I Wanna Take Care of You,” “I’m Not Built That Way” and more.

Over the course of his 25+ year career, Billy has released 11 albums and has been recognized with several awards and nominations. In 1992, he was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year for “Somewhere in My Broken Heart,” which went on to win Song of the Year at the American Country Music Awards. That same year, Billy was named Top New Male Vocalist of the Year at the Academy of Country Music awards and nominated by the Country Music Association for the Horizon Award. Four years later, Billy won a Grammy for Amazing Grace, A Country Tribute to Gospel, an album featuring Martina McBride, Allison Krauss, the Charlie Daniels Band and others. In 2017, Billy was inducted as a member of the Florida Artist Hall of Fame.

A modern-day American Troubadour, Billy Dean has performed and toured with some of the industry’s biggest country music stars including the Judds, Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Wynonna Judd and others.

After making a home in Nashville for decades, Billy has returned to his Florida roots and now lives in Quincy with his wife, Stephanie. Billy continues to perform and write – doing what he does best – telling the stories that have become the soundtrack of our lives.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

July 7, 1989, we asked Billy Joe Royal to join our “Wall of Fame.” (He said yes).

ABOUT BILLY JOE ROYAL:

Best known for his country-flavored rock hit “Down in the Boondocks,” Billy Joe Royal had a long career that saw him become one of the first pop performers to successfully revive his commercial fortunes by turning to straight country music. Although he never had another hit as successful as “Down in the Boondocks,” he racked up about 15 singles that hit the country charts over the course of the 1980s.

Royal was born into a family of musical entertainers in Valdosta, Georgia, and made his debut on his uncle’s radio show at the age of 11. He learned to play steel guitar and joined the Georgia Jubilee in Atlanta at 14, performing with Joe South, Jerry Reed, and Ray Stevens, among several other artists. Royal had his own rock & roll band in high school and was regularly singing around Atlanta by the age of 16. He also spent time in Savannah, where he was influenced by African-American vocal styles and began to develop his distinctive vocal sound. Performing at a nightclub that also booked Sam Cooke and other African-American stars, Royal observed their vocal moves and began to practice them on his own time. In 1962, he recorded an independent single that went unnoticed. Royal and South roomed together for a time, and two or three years later South contacted him with a song he wanted Royal to sing as a demo, in the hope that Gene Pitney would record it. Royal flew from Cincinnati (where he was working at the time) to Atlanta and cut “Down in the Boondocks,” whose churchy echo resulted from the use during recording of a large septic tank that had been dragged into the studio.

The demo ended up at Columbia, and the label signed Royal to a six-year deal. The song became Royal’s breakthrough single, reaching number nine on the pop charts and briefly making the vocalist into a teen idol. Following its success, Royal had a string of lesser hits, including the Top 40 pop singles “I Knew You When,” “I’ve Got to Be Somebody,” and “Cherry Hill Park.” By the end of the decade, Royal’s star waned, and he became a regular performer in Las Vegas and around Lake Tahoe. He also did a bit of acting on television, in feature films, and in commercials. In 1978, he recorded a cover of “Under the Boardwalk” and scored a minor hit.

Tell It Like It Is

The wrong-side-of-the-tracks theme of “Down in the Boondocks” was a familiar one to country audiences, and during the early ’80s Royal worked on establishing himself as a country artist. In 1984, he broke through when he recorded the Gary Burr composition “Burned Like a Rocket”; it was picked up by the Atlantic label, which signed Royal to a contract. The single became a hit and reached the country Top Ten in early 1986. Over the next two years he had a string of Top 40 hits, breaking into the Top Ten in late 1987 once again with “I’ll Pin a Note on Your Pillow.” In 1989, Royal released the album Tell It Like Is; the title cut, a remake of the venerable soul standard, became his biggest hit, peaking at number two, while the album itself stayed in the Top 15 for over a year. By 1990, Royal’s style of pop-inflected country had been replaced by neo-traditional honky tonk at the top of the charts, and his popularity began to decline. He continued to have minor hits into 1992 and toured into the 2000s. Royal launched a comeback with the 1998 album Stay Close to Home on the Intersound label, following up with the independent release Now and Then, Then and Now in 2001. “I know exactly what George Jones feels. But I know exactly what Ray Charles feels, too,” Royal once said, and by the beginning of the new century, a host of reissues of Royal’s work testified to his status as a vocal craftsman whose success transcended genre.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1982, A young singer from South Texas named George Strait opened for Billy Joe Shaver.

ABOUT BILLY JOE SHAVER:

Billy Joe Shaver never achieved the same level of fame as outlaw country peers like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, but his songs were a significant part of the movement’s architecture and were widely covered by stars ranging from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. A native Texan who lived the type of rough-and-tumble life that made his songs so appealing, Shaver was well into his thirties by the time he made his album debut. Bobby Bare heard something he liked in Shaver’s earthy honky-tonk paeans to sinning and redemption, and hired him as a staff writer, a move that effectively launched his career in Nashville. 1973’s Old Five and Dimers Like Me has over time earned the reputation as a classic, but in the mid-’70s, Shaver originals like “Honky Tonk Heroes” and “Good Christian Soldier” were far better known as hits for Jennings and Kris Kristofferson among others. Kind-hearted but often full of bluster and mischief, Shaver could be difficult, a trait that infused his songs with a sense of authenticity; this awareness of his flaws made songs like 1981’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)” work like a charm. As his career wore on, the consistent quality of his work remained undiminished and his perennial underdog status for better or worse became a part of his cultural identity. A streak of strong releases in the 1990s and early 2000s kept him current and further bolstered his reputation as one of America’s great unsung songmen, as did ongoing plaudits from Nelson, Cash, Dylan, and so many others. It’s one of the great ironies of his career that after four decades, his final album, 2014’s excellent Long in the Tooth, marked his first-ever entry on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Shaver died six years later in 2020 from a massive stroke.

Born in Corsicana, Texas in 1939, Shaver’s early years seem like a blueprint for the type of outlaw country fare he and other songwriters would later immortalize. Largely raised by his grandmother while his mother worked in a Waco honky-tonk, he dropped out of school after eighth grade to pick cotton alongside his uncles, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy the day he turned 17. He later bounced from job to job, trying his luck as a rodeo clown and then working at a sawmill, where an accident claimed a pair of fingers from his right hand. In a display of the tenacity he carried throughout his life, Shaver quickly adapted and taught himself to play guitar without them. Around this same time, he met and married Brenda Joyce Tindell, with whom he had a son, Eddy, in 1962. In a strange twist of fate, he and Tindell divorced and remarried twice, seemingly bound together until her death in 1999. Their first divorce purportedly came about as a result of Shaver’s decision to pursue a songwriting career, and in 1966, after Tindell filed the papers, Shaver promptly hitchhiked to Nashville in the back of a cantaloupe truck.

It took a couple of years and some retreats back to Texas, but his tenacity once again paid off after an unannounced visit to Bobby Bare’s Nashville office (where he practically demanded to be heard) earned him a contract as a staff songwriter. Bare went on to record a number of Shaver’s songs, including the hit “Ride Me Down Easy,” but he wasn’t the only one who heard potential in the Texan. Shaver’s own debut single, 1970’s “Chicken on the Ground,” may have sunk without a trace, but he soon began landing other songs with big names like Tom T. Hall (“Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me”), Kris Kristofferson (“Good Christian Soldier”), and Waylon Jennings. The latter was so taken by Shaver’s songs that he recorded an entire collection of them for his 1973 LP Honky Tonk Heroes, a landmark record often cited as helping launch the outlaw movement. That same year, Kristofferson produced Shaver’s own debut, Old Five and Dimers Like Me, which featured a number of originals already made famous by others, while also yielding one of his own signature cuts in “Georgia on a Fast Train.”

Despite his status as one of the original outlaw songwriters, Shaver’s career as a singer never blossomed in the same way as his more celebrated contemporaries. Still, he remained in the thick of it and even appeared on the platinum-selling 1976 compilation Wanted! The Outlaws, playing a support role to Jennings, Nelson, and Jessi Colter. During this period, he recorded two more solo albums, When I Get My Wings and Gypsy Boy, for the Capricorn label, garnering yet more industry respect without coming near star status. Meanwhile, his songs continued to live on through other acts, with Johnny Cash recording a version of Shaver’s aspirational honky-tonk gem “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Some Day).” Shaver’s own version headlined a 1981 album of the same name and marked his first release for Columbia Records.

Throughout the ’80s, he remained a prolific writer, turning in a handful of quality albums rife with the kind of hard-earned wisdom of the criminally underrated. Flying under the radar for so long does have its advantages, though, and by the early ’90s, Shaver had achieved something of a vaulted cult-hero status that also happened to line up with a career peak in creativity. Teaming up with his guitar-slinger son Eddy, he recorded the 1993 classic Tramp on Your Street under the family name Shaver. Eddy remained a part of his father’s band over the coming years and helped out on subsequent late-’90s highlights like Highway of Life and Victory. In a catastrophic end to what had been a banner decade, Shaver endured not only the 1999 death of his wife Brenda, but also of his mother. Compounding these losses was the unexpected death of his son Eddy a year later from a heroin overdose.

Turning to his music for comfort, Shaver entered one of the most prolific periods of his career, kicking off an impressive five-year run with 2001’s excellent The Earth Rolls On and managing a new studio album each year, along with a live release. Flirting with alt-country, folk, rock, and Americana, he even turned to spiritual matters on 2007’s gospel-inspired Everybody’s Brother, which earned him a Grammy nomination and featured duets with his old friends Cash and Kristofferson. During this period, he also dabbled in acting, an endeavor he’d begun in 1996, playing opposite Robert Duvall in The Apostle. His mid-2000s roles included parts in Secondhand Lions and The Wendell Baker Story. Additionally, his song “Live Forever” was featured in the 2009 film Crazy Heart, sung by Duvall.

Shaver continued to tour regularly, releasing a couple more live albums before returning to the studio for what would end up being his final LP. Released in 2014, Long in the Tooth was a lovingly crafted set of world-weary songs that ironically marked the singer’s first-ever appearance on the Billboard Country Albums chart, peaking at number 19. Harking back to his outlaw days, it featured a duet with longtime friend Willie Nelson on “It’s Hard to Be an Outlaw.” The album and its long-overdue commercial performance served as a fitting swan song from one of country music’s most enduring and respected songwriters. Shaver died on October 28, 2020 in Waco, Texas from a stroke.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On May 11, 2001, Blackhawk played Billy Bob’s Texas but before they took the main stage, we had to get them to add their hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT BLACKHAWK:

For more than 20 years, BlackHawk has shared a unique sense of harmony with their voices, their songs and their fans. It’s a harmony that has sold over 7 million albums, scored some of the most distinctive country radio hits of the ‘90s, and still draws tens of thousands of fans to their electrifying live performances. Today BlackHawk continues to honor its past as it forges its future, and does it all with a commitment that takes their music – and the harmony – to a whole new level.

“When we started,” says BlackHawk co-founder & lead vocalist Henry Paul, “our individual careers as writers and performers gave us somewhat of a more creative sensibility. We were three guys whose goal was to approach country with smart songs and unique harmonies for people who may not automatically like country.” Paul had previously co-founded Southern Rock legends The Outlaws, as well as leading the popular ‘80s rockers The Henry Paul Band. Van Stephenson had mainstream pop success as an ‘80s singer-songwriter-guitarist (“Modern Day Delilah”). And Dave Robbins had written hits for Eric Clapton and Kenny Rogers while partnering with Stephenson to write a series of classic #1 hits for Restless Heart, including “The Bluest Eyes In Texas” and “Big Dreams In A Small Town”.

“Even though the three of us had a love and appreciation for traditional country music,” says Dave, “we knew we weren’t going to be that. Henry was coming from Southern Rock, Van & I were in Nashville, but were writing country songs with pop sensibilities. When it came to our vocals, we wanted the three of us to be up front in the choruses like Crosby, Stills & Nash or The Eagles. What set us apart from the very beginning musically was being true to who we were individually.”

BlackHawk’s 1993 self-titled Arista debut album launched with the smash single “Goodbye Says It All”, followed by the Top 5 hits “Every Once in a While”, “I Sure Can Smell the Rain”, “Down in Flames” and “That’s Just About Right”. The album soon certified Double-Platinum, and the band received an ACM nomination as Best New Vocal Group Of The Year. BlackHawk followed up with the hit albums Strong Enough, Love & Gravity and Sky’s The Limit, which collectively featured such hits as “I’m Not Strong Enough To Say No”, “Like There Ain’t No Yesterday”, “Big Guitar”, “Almost A Memory Now”, “There You Have It” and “Postmarked Birmingham”. It was an unprecedented run of hits for a band that never quite fit the standard country mold. “Getting a BlackHawk record on the radio was often a tough sell,” explains Henry, “for the same reason country radio rejected bands like The Mavericks, The Dixie Chicks and Alison Krauss. But we were committed to smart, strong songs whether they fit the format or not. And the fans responded.”

But at the height of the trio’s success in 1999, Van Stephenson was diagnosed with an aggressive form of melanoma. “Van’s contribution to the group was enormous,” Henry says. “He could be a tremendously gifted songwriter and a deeply spiritual guy. We found ourselves at a crossroads as a band, and it would have been an easy time for country music to count us out.”

“Two days before Van passed away, Henry and I went to visit him,” Dave remembers. “Van was in a wheelchair at this point, and we took him for a stroll around his neighborhood. We spent the morning just talking, reminiscing about our career and good times together. Towards the end of our visit, Van said ‘I’ve got two things to ask of you guys. First, do what you can to help raise awareness and find a cure for this thing. The other is, don’t quit. There’s still a lot of great music left in BlackHawk.’” Since Van’s death on April 8th, 2001, the band and its fans have raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for The Van Stephenson Memorial Cancer Fund at Nashville’s Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Henry and Dave regrouped and soon returned to the album charts with their Greatest Hits – dedicated to Van and featuring his final track “Ships Of Heaven” – as well as 2002’s Spirit Dancer and 2011’s Down From The Mountain, along with a touring schedule that brought the music to fans like never before. “Our audiences today are often full of 18 to 30 years olds,” says Dave. “They listened to us as kids, and still have a love for the music we made. That’s a big part of what propels us to keep creating as writers and performers.”

For the fans, for the music and for the brotherhood of Henry and Dave, harmony remains a powerful force. BlackHawk continues to record new music – including their well-received 2015 Brothers Of The Southland album, a forthcoming Christmas record and an acoustic greatest hits album – and deliver stellar live shows, backed by an all-star band of veteran country and southern rock players. “BlackHawk has a 20-year history of a certain kind of song craft as well as a quality of performance,” Henry says with pride. “People have always come to our shows expecting a concert that is emotionally and musically engaging, and the band still sounds even better than the records, night after night, show after show. When we take the stage, we work as hard as we ever have. We owe it the music, we owe it to ourselves, and Van, and we owe it to the fans. Now more than ever, that’s the true legacy of BlackHawk.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2001 Blake Shelton makes his debut and says “I’ve heard of Billy Bob’s all my life.” His song “Austin” spends several weeks at No. 1.

ABOUT BLAKE SHELTON:

Blake Shelton may have been an unlikely candidate for superstardom, but that’s hardly due to a lack of charisma. Shelton possesses a warm, masculine ease that has given his rowdier numbers a sense of sly humor, but this relaxed touch also made him an effective crooner of ballads, the ace in the hole that helped him cross over from country to the mainstream in the 2010s. His transition to household-name status was certainly assisted by his starring role as a judge on NBC’s hit musical competition The Voice, but by that point Shelton had racked up plenty of number one country hits, beginning with his 2001 debut “Austin” and running through “Some Beach,” “Home,” “Doin’ What She Likes,” “She Wouldn’t Be Gone,” “Hillbilly Bone,” “All About Tonight,” and “Honey Bee,” the 2011 single that went triple platinum around the time The Voice hit the airwaves. Over the next few years, Shelton was at the apex of his stardom, appearing regularly on The Voice and earning headlines through his romances with fellow singers Miranda Lambert and Gwen Stefani, the latter proving to be his foil on television and on record. The former No Doubt singer duetted with Shelton on the 2020 Billboard Country Airplay number ones “Nobody But You” and “Happy Anywhere,” singles that extended a streak of Top Ten hits that included “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” “Boys Round Here,” and “Neon Light” — smashes that proved he was one of the biggest country stars of the 21st century.

A native of Ada, Oklahoma, Blake Shelton picked up the guitar in his early adolescence and started writing songs not long afterward. Bitten by the musical bug, he started working the local bar circuit, earning a large enough following to win the Denbo Diamond Award, a prize given to young Oklahoma entertainers. He left his home state for Nashville just two weeks after his high-school graduation in 1994, peddling his songs to Music City publishing houses, including Warner/Chappell Music, Jerry Crutchfield Music, and Naomi Martin Music. Bobby Braddock, the legendary songwriter behind George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” discovered Shelton in the late ’90s and brought the singer to the attention of Giant Records in 2001. Braddock wrote “I Want to Talk About Me” with the intention of making the rap-influenced number Shelton’s first single, but Giant rejected the notion (it was recorded instead by Toby Keith, who turned it into a country number one).

The Dreamer

What came instead was “Austin,” a single that outlasted its record company. Giant shuttered not long after the release of “Austin” and Warner took over Shelton’s contract, keeping the single in print and helping it reach number one on the country charts. Spending five weeks at the top of the charts, the single — along with its follow-ups “All Over Me” and “Ol’ Red,” which reached 18 and 14, respectively — helped his eponymous 2001 full-length debut reach three on the Billboard country charts; it would also earn a platinum certification. The Dreamer, his sophomore set, appeared in February 2003 and although its lead single “The Baby” was a hit, spending three weeks at the top of the Billboard country charts, the album was something of a commercial underperformer, with neither “Heavy Liftin'” nor “Playboys of the Southwestern World” cracking the Top 20. “When Somebody Knows You That Well,” the first single from 2004’s Blake Shelton’s Barn & Grill, didn’t reverse this downward trajectory as it reached a peak position of 37, but the next single, “Some Beach,” was his biggest since “Austin,” spending four weeks at number one and becoming a 21st century standard. Blake Shelton’s Barn & Grill spawned two other Top Ten hits — “Goodbye Time” and “Nobody But Me,” which made it to four — and he kept the momentum going on 2007’s Pure BS, which featured “Don’t Make Me,” “The More I Drink,” and the number one single “Home.”

Startin’ Fires

Pure BS also featured a cameo from Miranda Lambert, a runner-up on Nashville Star who had started dating Shelton. Over the next few years, their relationship strengthened — they appeared on each other’s records and married in 2011 — and this romance helped elevate the profile of both singers. Shelton’s 2008 Startin’ Fires boasted two big hits — the number one “She Wouldn’t Be Gone” and Top Ten “I’ll Just Hold On” — but the album was his first record not to be certified gold. This proved to be a minor bump in the road for Shelton. In 2010, he released a pair of successful EPs (Hillbilly Bone, All About Tonight) along with the hits collection Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton (which contained the title tracks from the two EPs), and then in 2011 his breakthrough into the mainstream arrived via the NBC televised singing competition The Voice. As one of four celebrity coaches — he was paired with Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera, and Cee Lo Green, each representing a different style of music — Shelton became a household name and he soon had record sales to match.

Red River Blue

Red River Blue, his summer 2011 album, was his first to reach number one on the Top 200 (it also topped the country charts), and that was on the strength of four hit singles: “Honey Bee” and “God Gave Me You,” both certified triple platinum, and “Drink on It” and “Over,” which topped out at platinum. After a pit stop for a holiday album in 2012 (Cheers, It’s Christmas, which featured appearances by Lambert, her band Pistol Annies, Kelly Clarkson, Reba McEntire, and Michael Bublé), Shelton’s streak intensified in 2013 with Based on a True Story…, his biggest-selling album to date. Anchored by the hits “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” “Boys Round Here,” “Mine Would Be You,” “Doin’ What She Likes,” and “My Eyes,” Based on a True Story sold over 1.4 million copies and generated hits into 2014, which is when he delivered Bringing Back the Sunshine. Another hit right out of the box — debuting at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 — it had the hit singles “Neon Light,” the Ashley Monroe duet “Lonely Tonight,” and “Sangria.” As his career rolled on, Shelton experienced personal loss when he and Lambert announced their divorce in the summer of 2015. Shelton released a second hits collection named Reloaded: 20 #1 Hits in October 2015; it was accompanied by a new single called “Gonna.”

If I’m Honest”Came Here to Forget,” the first single from Shelton’s tenth studio album, appeared in March 2016, followed quickly by “Savior’s Shadow” in April. The full-length If I’m Honest appeared that May. A year later, in September 2017, Shelton returned with “I’ll Name the Dogs,” which was the first single from his November LP Texoma Shore. Two other singles — “I Lived It” and “Turnin’ Me On,” both making the Country Airplay Top Ten — followed in 2018. In the spring of 2019, the single “God’s Country” went to number one on both of Billboard’s Country singles charts on its way to becoming Shelton’s biggest hit in six years, also earning him a Grammy nomination for Best Country Solo Performance. “God’s Country” anchored the December 2019 compilation Fully Loaded: God’s Country, which featured three additional new songs, along with the hits from If I’m Honest and Texoma Shore, including the Billboard-charting single “I’ll Name the Dogs.” Two new singles, “Happy Anywhere (featuring Gwen Stefani)” and “Minimum Wage,” appeared in early 2021 ahead of the release of Shelton’s 12th long-player, Body Language, which arrived later that May.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Bobby Bare, played Billy Bob’s the second month it was open on May 16, 1981 and then got to cement his hands on to the “Wall of Fame” on March 22, 1991.

ABOUT BOBBY BARE:

Bobby Bare scored nearly five dozen top 40 hits from 1962 to 1983. In a laconic vocal style that embraces both wry country wit and poignant folk storytelling, his literate, cross-cultural appeal has earned him the sobriquet “the Springsteen of country.”

Born Robert Joseph Bare in Ironton, Ohio, he had a rough early life. “Well, my mother died when I was five,” he told the author of Country Music Changed My Life. “That was in early ’41. I had two sisters, one was seven, one was two. My dad couldn’t take care of all us. So my younger sister was adopted to some people who lived down the road. Then, my other sister stayed with my grandparents and different relatives.” To cope with the unease of being shifted around so much, the youngster dreamed of being a country singer and even made his first guitar. “Yeah. I’d get me a coffee can, put a flat stick in it, get some screen wires to make some strings–your imagination really works good when you’re young,” he laughed before adding, “It sounded like s**t.”

Although he lived and worked on a farm, Bare picked up some surprisingly eclectic musical influences during his youth. “We didn’t have any rock ‘n’ roll or other country, really all we had was the Grand Ole Opry, that was my favorite,” Bare recalled, “but I always listened to the big bands of the ’40s and I liked different songs–Phil Harris singing ‘That’s What I Like about the South,’ the Dominoes doing ‘Sixty Minute Man’–I loved that song. I found out later that was Shel Silverstein’s favorite song too. And then, of course, there came Hank Williams, Carl Smith, Webb Pierce, Hank Thompson, and Little Jimmy Dickens. I loved all of that, still do. The first song I ever sang in public was one of Little Jimmy Dickens’ ‘Sleepin’ at the Foot of the Bed.”

By his own account a bright student–he was in eighth grade at age eleven–Bare never finished his education. “I couldn’t get along with my stepmother,” he explained. “So, I left home and stayed with my grandmother, my aunts and my uncles, and put a little band together.” He was still a teenager when he and his first group began playing on an early morning radio show in and around Springfield, Ohio. Eventually he parlayed that experience into a much better weekly radio gig approximately 59 miles away in Wilston. “Looking back, I was really hot. We were broadcasting live from a radio station which was a farm house out in the middle of a field. This was before TV completely took over in about ’52 or ’53. On Saturday afternoons, it wasn’t unusual to look out the window of the radio station while we were broadcasting and see a hundred cars parked in that field watching the farm house.”

After figuring that he had gone as far as he could in Ohio, Bare got a ride to the West Coast with a man who claimed to know famed country instrumentalists Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West. “The reason he wanted us to go was because he didn’t have any money and he needed someone to pay for gas,” Bare recalled with a chuckle. After an adventurous ride that necessitated playing for tips to raise gas money, the singer arrived in California to a pleasant surprise: “[I]t turns out this old boy we were riding with really did know Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West,” chuckled Bare. “Speedy loved my singing and started taking me around. I wrote songs for his publishing company, met Cliffie Stone, and I’d do his radio show…. Speedy was the one who got me a record deal with Capitol.”

First Hit under Another Name

Recording for legendary producer Ken Nelson (who worked with Wanda Jackson, Buck Owens, Gene Vincent, etc.), Bare’s future seemed assured. However, the young singer’s first country single–a cover of Buck Owens’s “Down on the Corner of Love”–stiffed, so Nelson and Capitol decided to make his next outing a rockabilly record. “That didn’t work,” Bare told this writer. “I did one thing called ‘The Living End’ and ‘I Beg Her.’ They weren’t very good records.”

Rebuffed when Nelson wouldn’t let him pursue his own musical ideas, Bare asked for his release from Capitol so he could sign with the relatively small Challenge label. There he recorded with his friends the Champs (of “Tequila” fame), but these sides–released on the Jackpot subsidiary– didn’t click either. Friend and country legend Wynn Stewart helped keep him housed and employed in California clubs, but just as he was making headway in his own nightspot, he received his draft notice.

Back in Ohio awaiting induction, Bare ran into his friend Bill Parsons who was just being discharged from the Army. Parsons wanted a record deal and Bare advised him to cut some demos. “So, we got some musicians off the streets of Dayton, Ohio, I was staying there with my sister, and got this old boy who bought the club I used to work in–his name was Cherokee–and he wanted to be in the record business,” Bare recalled. “So, he was paying for the studio time and the musicians. We went to King Records in Cincinnati and did some demos, spent most of the three hours working on a thing called ‘Rubber Dolly,’ with Bill [Parsons] singing it. In the meantime, I was making up this talking blues song about going into the army. We had 15 minutes left and I said, ‘Let me put this down real quick so I don’t forget it.’ So, I did. That was ‘The All-American Boy.’ Cherokee, who was paying for all of it, wanted to get a copy made but Syd Nathan was revamping his studio then and had all of his equipment tore down–his copy machines and everything. So, he suggested that maybe Harry Carlson of Fraternity Records and Cincinnati could make a copy off that tape. Bill and I went back up to Dayton to a bar we used to hang out in and Cherokee went down to the record company to get an acetate made and they heard it and wanted to put it out. While he was there, he called us at the club and said that they had offered him 500 bucks, I said, ‘Hell, take it. Just don’t put my name on it.'”

The next time Bare heard “The All-American Boy” was during his basic training stint at Fort Knox. By the time he came home on leave, the satirical allusion to both his and Elvis Presley’s rise to fame and subsequent army hitch was one of the hottest records in the country, hitting number two on the pop charts in 1959. Fraternity had put Bill Parsons’s name on the label–since Bare was still under contract to Challenge– and had him lip-synch the record on tour. Although he never received any royalties for the song, Bare didn’t begrudge his friend the hit. “No. No, not at all,” Bare stated. “Fact is, it was really good that my name wasn’t on that record. Because then I probably wouldn’t have had any serious hits like ‘Detroit City.’ I would’ve been pegged as a novelty type guy.”

Became a Star at RCA

During his two-year army hitch, Bare entered several talent competitions and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with an instrumental combo called the Latin Five. By then Fraternity had discovered that it was his voice on their biggest hit and began recording sides crediting Bare on the label. (All of Bare’s Capitol, Challenge, and Fraternity sides are included on the 1994 Bear Family boxed set All American Boy.) None became hits, but he recalls that the Barry DeVorzan-produced “Book of Love” was a near-miss in 1961. Bare recorded three songs for the Jimmy Clanton teen flick Teenage Millionaire, but the singer-songwriter, who ached to record his version of country music, was floundering at Fraternity, a fact not lost on his friends. “I made records for about a year or so for Fraternity,” explained Bare, “by then all my friends that I started out with in California–Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran, and all them people had moved back [to Nashville], and became really successful…. But, they all ganged up and told [RCA vice-president and guitarist extraordinaire] Chet [Atkins] how great I was and he wanted to meet me. So, I met Chet who said, ‘Come back in a week and we’ll have you a contract and look for songs, cut you a record.'”

At RCA, Atkins was willing to listen to Bare’s ideas. When he singer wanted to use horns on a country record–a first for Nashville–and strings, the producer made it happen. The result was Bare’s breakout hit “Shame On Me.” Better still was his Grammy-winning rendition of the Mel Tillis and Danny Dill-penned “Detroit City,” which became a classic anthem for displaced southerners everywhere. “I heard Billy Grammer’s record of ‘Detroit City’ while I was driving down the street one day and I damn near wrecked my car,” laughed Bare. “I thought it was the greatest song I ever heard in my life.”

During his early period with RCA, Bare’s records seemed as much folk as country. “That was just the taste I had in songs at the time,” the singer explained. “I wrote ‘500 Miles away from Home,’ that’s an old folk song. Me and Don Bowman were driving back home from San Diego one night when I lived in California and I heard Peter, Paul, & Mary sing that and I said, ‘Godd**n that’s great!’ I remembered that title–Glen Campbell lived right down the street from me at the time, and he had just done a bluegrass album or something with [an instrumental version of] that in it and brought it to me. So, I just wrote a new set of lyrics and recorded it.”

Bare’s music became increasingly country with such hits as “Miller’s Cave” and “Four Strong Winds” and he became a regular, if not overwhelming, presence in that genre’s top 40. He used his power as a hitmaker to introduce his friend Waylon Jennings to RCA, and to craft unusual projects such as the narrative-oriented Bird Named Yesterday. By decade’s end, he’d scored a major hit with his former bass player Tom T. Hall’s song, “(Maggie’s at) The Lincoln Park Inn,” which shocked listeners with its matter-of-fact approach to adultery. Despite the controversial hit, which he was not allowed to sing on a scheduled American Bandstand appearance, Bare’s career had obviously cooled.

Worked with Shel Silverstein

In 1970, Bare switched to Mercury Records where he recorded Tom T. Hall’s “How I Got To Memphis,” along with Kris Kristofferson’s “Come Sundown,” and “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends.” Keenly appreciative of the great country songwriters, he produced albums on such legendary songsmiths as Harlan Howard, Mickey Newberry, and Billy Joe Shaver. That said, the songwriter most in tune with his own sensibilities was Shel Silverstein.

“Well, I loved Shel’s songs before I even knew he wrote them,” Bare disclosed. “Years ago I heard Burl Ives singing a song on TV called, ‘Time.’ I had no idea that Shel wrote that but I loved that song, eventually I cut it a couple of times. Once I was in Europe and I heard Marianne Faithfull sing ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,’ and I said, ‘God, that’s great!’ I found out years later that Shel wrote that. Then, of course, I heard ‘Sylvia’s Mother,’ and I thought, ‘Man that’s great!’ Anyway, Shel is the greatest lyricist there ever was.”

Silverstein figured prominently upon Bare’s return to RCA where he wrote what many have claimed to be the first country music concept album, Lullabys, Legends & Lies, (1973) which contained the singer’s duet with his five-year old son Bobby, Jr., “Daddy What If” and his lone chart-topper “Marie Laveau.” Another popular and witty Silverstein–Bare collaboration was the Grammy-nominated Singin’ in the Kitchen which sported a catchy, informal family sing-along atmosphere. Many other Silverstein songs figured prominently during Bare’s renewed chart run, most notably “The Winner” and the controversial “Drop Kick Me, Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life),” the latter said to be former President Clinton’s favorite song.

Dubbed the Springsteen of Country

Due to his outsider stance and willingness to record material by Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, and the Rolling Stones, Bare has always had credibility with rock audiences. Acknowledging his ability to convey a song’s story, famed promoter Bill Graham christened Bare the “Bruce Springsteen of country” in 1977. One of the few country veterans to regularly receive airplay on FM rock radio, he garnered a surprisingly strong following among college audiences of the era.

Bare’s final important chart singles came at Columbia Records where he nearly cracked the country top ten with “Sleep Tight, Good Night Man,” and “Numbers,” which both hit number eleven in 1978. Equally fine was his duet with Roseanne Cash “No Memories Hangin’ Around.” Although Bare had done much to widen the parameters of mainstream country music, radio playlists couldn’t find room for his work during the neotraditional 1980s. A few of his EMI singles dented the bottom of the charts and he hosted his own talk show on TNN, but his career devolved to a largely leisure-time activity.

A notable exception came when he teamed with friends Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, and Mel Tillis for an album of geriatric country comedy called Old Dogs. Shel Silverstein penned all the songs. “We spent about a year in the studio working on that,” recalled Bare. “We had a ton of fun. That’s the last thing Shel ever did. I was just devastated when he died…. It just floored me because he was the last one I expected to go. He was the only one of all my friends who took care of himself…. With most of my other friends, you could see it coming. With Chet, I could see that coming for two or three years at least. With Cliffie Stone, I could see that coming … And, Harlan [Howard], I didn’t expect him to last as long as he did because he drank so hard there at the end. Waylon, we knew that was coming. But with Shel, we weren’t ready for that, we were blindsided.”

The early 2000s found Bare playing country legends tours, casino dates, and doing as much fishing as he desired. Yet, he still occasionally dabbles in music, guesting on the eclectic alt. rock/country albums of his son, Bloodshot recording artist Bobby Bare, Jr. Asked if he has been able to advise his son’s career, Bare chuckles with pride, “It’s a brand new ballgame what he’s doing. My phrase to him was, ‘Son, I can’t help you with this.'”

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In late 2017 and 2018, The Boxmasters had the honor to team up with legendary Engineer/Producer Geoff Emerick for an album that Geoff has called, “One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on since The Beatles.”  The album “Speck” will be released on June 7th through KeenTone Records /Thirty Tigers.  Sadly, before “Speck” was formally released, Geoff passed away.

Known for taking over the engineer’s chair on The Beatle’s albums “Revolver,” “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and more, Geoff added a familiar sonic touch to the sound of The Boxmasters, who have been unapologetic Beatles and British Invasion fans.  His work on albums by Badfinger, The Zombies, America and Paul McCartney, among many others, have always been huge influences on The Boxmasters.

Sonically “Speck” touches on all of The Boxmaster’s influences, including The Beatles, The Byrds and Big Star but there are new sonic touches as well.  Ukulele, cardboard boxes and the Beatle’s famous “tea towels on the drums” trick pop up on songs throughout the album.  “Geoff really did an amazing job on the mixing of this album and did it in a way that you recognize sounds you’ve known all of your life, but at that same time are in a new way.  And I really loved being able to sit back and enjoy the mixes of an album instead of sweating every tiny detail of every song,” says J.D., who typically mixes all of The Boxmaster’s material.

“Lyrically it deals with every thing from personal relationships to politics, and social issues . The theme being that we are all specks in this universe trying to navigate it , during trying times in the world we still have our own loves, desires , problems and dreams as individuals,” says Bud.  “We’re just little humans.  No matter what our standing is in society”.

The always prolific Bud, J.D. & Teddy have also been working on finishing another long awaited project titled “And Then We Drove” as well as contributing music to an upcoming independent feature film titled “Spare Room.”

The 2019 “Speck Tour” kicks off in the summer and again the Boxmasters will be traveling from coast to coast.  For all of the details on the tour, the album, and anything else of note, please visit www.TheBoxmasters.com.

Stay tuned!  Before you know it The Boxmasters will have another album ready to go!

HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

ZZ Top retuned to open for their good friend, actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton, who fronts the Boxmasters in his Billy Bob’s debut in March of 2009.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Brandon Rhyder recorded his “Live at Billy Bob’s” album on February 25^th of 2011. His remake of the Don Williams hit, “Lord, I Hope This Day is Good”, is a bonus track on the album.

ABOUT BRANDON RHYDER:

For over a decade, singer-songwriter and musician Brandon Rhyder has been living the high life as one of the most celebrated music artists to come out of Texas. Widely exalted for his exquisite ability to couple gorgeous melodies with superb storytelling and deeply admired for his signature songbird vocal style, Rhyder is an artist’s artist. His resume boasts 18 years of highly praised albums, a rigorous tour schedule of 175 plus dates a year, and the privilege of working with top-notch songwriters like Liz Rhodes, Keith Gattis, Lori McKenna, and Radney Foster to name a few. Born and raised in Carthage, Texas, Rhyder grew up singing in church, where his voice, even then, stood out. In college, he discovered the guitar and began writing songs. He moved to Austin in 1999, quickly becoming part of the Red Dirt scene. His first album, “Because She Loves Me,” appeared in 2001, with his second, “Behind the Pine Curtain” released in 2003. The Walt Wilkins-produced “Conviction” was released in 2005 that included the timeless classics “Freeze Frame Time” and “Back Roads.” By then Rhyder was firmly established on the Texas scene. Arriving in 2007 “Live” on Apex Records delivered Rhyder’s first charting Texas single, “Before I Knew Your Name.” Radney Foster produced “Every Night,” which appeared in 2008, while Rhyder went back to Wilkins as a producer for 2010’s “Head Above Water.” “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” appeared in 2011, with “That’s Just Me following “ in 2013. After a four-year break, Rhyder returned with a self-titled album in July of 2017 that was praised by the media including Rolling Stone Country, Taste of Country, TheBoot.com, Wide Open Country, and Lone Star Magazine. On September 13th Brandon Rhyder will release his new single “I Felt Good Today,” a magnum opus of a song inspired by his resurrection and layered with the poignant sentiment of loss. His live acoustic album “Main Street Crossing” will follow in November. At his core, Brandon Rhyder is a songwriter who has the uncanny ability to create songs that mean different things to different people. He writes the stories of our lives exposing all the milestones that make us human. Today he travels a brand new road and the new music fueling this ride has never been better.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Poison front man Brett Michaels makes his Billy Bob’s Texas Debut and brings the TV crew to tape VH1’s “Rock of Love” series.

ABOUT BRET MICHAELS:

With his glammed-up good looks and commercial songwriting skills, Bret Michaels became one of rock & roll’s most recognizable frontmen during the 1980s. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Bret Michael Sychak migrated west in 1984, trading the blue-collar ambience of his native Pennsylvania for the seedy gloss of Los Angeles. Along with his three bandmates in Poison — guitarist C.C. DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall, and drummer Rikki Rockett — Michaels became an integral part of the popular hair metal scene, mixing feel-good party anthems and sensitive ballads into some of the decade’s top-selling singles. Poison’s popularity took a hit in the ’90s, however, when the advent of grunge music (not to mention the group’s unstable lineup) resulted in sluggish sales. Poison continued to record sporadically, but Bret Michaels also took time to focus on other projects, eventually launching a film company with actor Charlie Sheen. He also made his solo debut in 1998 with Letter from Death Row, the soundtrack to a movie that Michaels wrote, directed, and co-produced with Sheen. Poison reconvened the following year, and Michaels balanced his continued frontman duties with his growing singer/songwriter career, releasing the solo efforts Songs of Life and Freedom of Sound during the first half of the 2000s. He also participated in the 2005 season of Nashville Star, and later returned to reality TV with his own dating competition series, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. The show ran for two seasons and was followed by 2008’s Rock My World compilation, which also featured several new tracks. As the new decade began, Michaels continued his reign as a reality TV star: Rock of Love faded away after 2009’s Rock of Love Bus, then in 2010 he won the NBC game show Celebrity Apprentice 3 in the spring and prepped for a fall show, Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It, in the fall. In between these two shows he released Custom Built which combined songs from his previous solo albums and new cuts.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2005, bluesman Buddy Guy has to cancel his September concert due to Hurricane Rita.

ABOUT BUDDY GUY:

Buddy Guy is one of the most celebrated blues guitarists of his generation (arguably the most celebrated), possessing a sound and style that embodies the traditions of classic Chicago blues while also embracing the fire and flash of rock & roll. Guy began his recording career in 1959 and scored his first hit in 1960 with “First Time I Met the Blues.” He spent much of the next decade a well-regarded journeyman, praised by peers and blues fans without breaking through to a larger audience; his best album of the ’60s originally didn’t even have his name on it (Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues). However, he found an audience in Europe in the ’70s and rock fans began discovering his work through the endorsements of noted fans Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Mark Knopfler. Guy released little material in the ’80s (his best-known album of the decade was 1981’s Stone Crazy, one of the few that received an American release), as he focused on live work. But in 1991, Guy finally enjoyed a commercial breakthrough with Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, and since then he’s been one of the biggest names in contemporary blues, touring frequently and cutting new material on a regular basis. In the 21st century, Guy was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, kept recording (2001’s Sweet Tea, 2008’s Skin Deep, and 2010’s Living Proof are high points from this period), played an annual residency at his Chicago nightclub Legends, and even played at the White House, inviting President Barack Obama on-stage for a duet on “Sweet Home Chicago.”

George “Buddy” Guy was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana on July 30, 1936, and is said to have first learned to play on a home-made two-string instrument fashioned from wire and tin cans. Guy graduated to an acoustic guitar and began soaking up the influences of blues players such as T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, and Lightnin’ Hopkins; when his family relocated to Baton Rouge, Guy had the opportunity to see live performances by Lightnin’ Slim (aka Otis Hicks) and Guitar Slim, whose raw, forceful sound and over-the-top showmanship left a serious impression on him. Guy started playing professionally when he became a sideman for John “Big Poppa” Tilley, and he learned to work the crowd and overcome early bouts of stage fright. In 1957, Guy cut a demo tape at a local radio station and sent a copy to Chess Records, the label that was home to such giants as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Etta James, shortly before buying a one-way train ticket and moving to Chicago, eager to make music his career.

Guy didn’t enjoy immediate success in Chicago, and struggled to find gigs until his fiery guitar work and flashy stage style (which included hopping on top of bars and strutting up and down their length while soloing, thanks to a 100-foot-long guitar cable) made him a regular winner in talent night contests at Windy City clubs. Guy struck up friendships with some of the city’s best blues artists, including Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Freddie King, and Magic Sam, and landed a steady gig at the 708 Club, where he became known as a talent to watch. In 1958, Magic Sam arranged for Guy to meet Harold Burrage, the owner of local blues label Cobra Records, and Guy was soon signed to Cobra’s sister label Artistic Records. Willie Dixon produced Guy’s debut single, “Sit and Cry (The Blues),” as well as its follow-up, “This Is the End,” but in 1959, Cobra and Artistic abruptly closed up shop, and like labelmate Otis Rush, Guy found a new record deal at Chess. His first single for Chess, 1960’s “First Time I Met the Blues,” was an artistic triumph and a modest commercial success that became one of his signature tunes, but it was also the first chapter in what would prove to be a complicated creative relationship between Guy and label co-founder Leonard Chess, who recognized his talent but didn’t appreciate the louder and more expressive aspects of his guitar style. While Guy enjoyed minor successes with outstanding Chess singles such as “Stone Crazy” and “When My Left Eye Jumps,” much of his work for the label was as a sideman, lending his talents to sessions for Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and many others. And one of Guy’s definitive ’60s recordings wasn’t even issued by Chess; Guy had been performing occasionally with blues harpist Junior Wells, and Guy and his band backed Wells on the 1965 Delmark release Hoodoo Man Blues, a masterful exercise in the Chicago blues style, with Guy credited as “Friendly Chap” on initial pressings in deference to his contract with Chess.

Chess didn’t issue an album of Guy’s until the 1967 release of I Left My Blues in San Francisco, and when his contract with the label ran out, he promptly signed with Vanguard, which put out A Man and the Blues in 1968. As a growing number of rock fans were discovering the blues, Guy was finding his stock rising with both traditional blues enthusiasts and younger white audiences, and his recordings for Vanguard gave him more room for the tougher and more aggressive sound that was the trademark of his live shows. (It didn’t hurt that Jimi Hendrix acknowledged Guy as an influence and praised his live show in interviews.) At the same time, Guy hadn’t forsaken the more measured approach he used with Junior Wells; Buddy and Wells cut an album that also featured Junior Mance on piano for Blue Thumb called Buddy and the Juniors, and in 1972, Eric Clapton partnered with Ahmet Ertegun and Tom Dowd to produce the album Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues. In 1974, Guy and Wells played the Montreux Jazz Festival, with Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones sitting in on bass; the show was later released as a live album, Drinkin’ TNT and Smokin’ Dynamite, with Wyman credited as producer.

By the end of the ’70s, Guy was without an American record deal, and his career took a hit as a result; while he recorded some material for specialist labels in Europe and Japan, and Alligator issued two collections in 1981, Alone & Acoustic and Stone Crazy, for the most part Guy supported himself in the ’80s by extensive touring and live work, often appearing in Europe where he was more well-respected than in the United States. Despite this, he continued to plug away at the American market, buoyed by interest from guitar buffs who had heard major stars sing his praises; in 1985, Eric Clapton told a reporter for Musician magazine, “Buddy Guy is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive…he really changed the course of rock & roll blues,” while Vaughan declared, “Without Buddy Guy, there would be no Stevie Ray Vaughan.” In 1989, Guy opened his own nightclub in Chicago, Buddy Guy’s Legends, where he frequently performed and played host to other top blues acts, and in 1991, after a well-received appearance with Clapton at London’s Royal Albert Hall (documented in part on the album 24 Nights), he finally scored an international record deal with the Silvertone label, distributed by BMG. Guy’s first album for Silvertone, Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, featured guest appearances by Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Mark Knopfler, and featured fresh versions of several fan favorites as well as a handful of new tunes; it was the Buddy Guy album that finally clicked with record buyers, and became a genuine hit, earning Guy a gold album, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Guy wasted no time cutting follow-ups, releasing Feels Like Rain in 1993 and Slippin’ In in 1994, both of which racked up solid sales figures and won Guy further Grammy Awards.

In 1993, Guy reunited with Junior Wells on the stage of his Legends club; it would prove to be one of Wells’ last live performances, and the show was released in 1998, several months after Wells’ passing, on the album Last Time Around: Live at Legends. While most of Guy’s work in the late ’90s and into the new millennium was the sort of storming Chicago blues that was the basis of his reputation, he also demonstrated he was capable of exploring other avenues, channeling the hypnotic Deep Southern blues of Junior Kimbrough on 2001’s Sweet Tea and covering a set of traditional blues classics on acoustic guitar for 2003’s Blues Singer. In 2004, Guy won the W.C. Handy Award from the American Blues Foundation for the 23rd time, more than any other artist, while he took home his sixth Grammy Award in 2010 for the album Living Proof. Guy also received the National Medal of the Arts in 2003, and was awarded Kennedy Center Honors in 2012. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, with both Eric Clapton and B.B. King presenting him with his award, and in 2012 he performed a special concert at the White House, where he persuaded President Barack Obama to join him at the vocal mike for a few choruses of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Guy continued his late-career revival with the 2012 memoir When I Left Home: My Story and the summer 2013 release of the ambitious, guest star-laden, double-album Rhythm & Blues. The record reached number one on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums chart and 27 on their Top 200. Two years later, Guy returned with Born to Play Guitar, another album recorded with producer Tom Hambridge, who has helmed the guitarist’s albums since 2008’s Skin Deep. In 2018, Guy took time off from his busy road schedule to release a studio album, The Blues Is Alive and Well, which featured guest appearances from Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, and Mick Jagger. The album earned Guy the Grammy Award (his eighth) for Best Traditional Blues Album.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Buddy Jewell made is debut and cemented his hands on the “Wall of Fame” the same night, on August 29, 2003.

ABOUT BUDDY JEWELL:

Buddy Jewell burst onto the country music scene after winning the inaugural season of the USA Network’s hit television series “Nashville Star.” After Buddy’s win, Columbia Records released his self-titled debut album “Buddy Jewell” which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Album charts as well as #13 on the Top 100 Pop Album Charts. The album was certified Gold later that same year, selling over ½ million copies. Buddy’s first two singles, “Sweet Southern Comfort” and “Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey’s Song)” both landed in the top 5 on the singles chart. Jewell has since followed up with 5 more albums, “Times Like These,” “Country Enough” , “I Surrender All”, “Wanted : LIVE “and his newest release, “My Father’s Country.”

After living throughout the Arkansas Delta in Dyess, Helena-West Helena and Forrest City, Buddy’s family finally settled in Osceola. That’s not far from Dyess, where his mother and father grew up with the Cash family…as in Johnny Cash. Conway Twitty hailed from nearby Helena, and Glen Campbell is a native of Delight. Jewell was influenced by the music of all three. Both of his parents were musical, and there were stacks of classic country records around the house. His uncles Clyde and Hubert taught Jewell to play guitar. Enthralled with the instrument, he began performing publicly, mainly in church, at age 15.

Buddy Jewell was also a natural athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football. He was team captain and quarterback of his high school team and played college football at Arkansas State University as well. While in college, he began to perform in clubs and talent contests, igniting his passion for performing and country music.

Buddy Jewell’s voice is the voice of experience. It has a friendly, “lived in” quality because, as the old saying goes, he has “been around.” Born to a working-class family in Arkansas, Jewell has been singing for his supper since the age of 21, from coast to coast. He has also driven a beer truck and worked as a nightclub bouncer. Buddy knows the meaning of hard work and perseverance.

In 1985, Jewell became the lead singer of the country band White Oak based in Camden, Arkansas. The group signed up with a booking agency that also represented Canyon, Lariat and Bayou Speak Easy, the last of which was fronted by the then-unknown Trace Atkins. Buddy was making progress, but finally realized that if he was going to get anywhere musically, the family would have to move to Nashville. In January of 1993, Buddy, his wife Tené and their 3 year old son, Buddy III, took that giant leap of faith.

In between all those working-stiff jobs, Jewell began to make contacts on Music Row. His larger-than-life voice eventually made him Nashville’s most popular “demo” singer. That’s an anonymous vocalist who is hired to record a demonstration of a song that is then played for a star’s consideration. George Strait’s “Write This Down,” Lee Ann Womack’s “A Little Past Little Rock,” Clay Walker’s “You’re Beginning to Get to Me” and Gary Allan’s “The One” were all first sung as Buddy Jewell demos. He has recorded more than 5,000 such projects. In 1997, alone, Jewell sang 663 song demos. But he yearned for something more. He wanted a shot at the country-music big time.

Songwriters and music publishers loved him. The record companies did not. Buddy Jewell became increasingly frustrated as he was turned down for a recording contract by one label after another on Music Row. One offer evaporated when the interested label shut down. Another one vanished when the label was sold. And believe it or not, he missed out on another opportunity because a tornado struck blocks away from a label showcase, knocking out the power! Buddy kept on patiently singing demos with dignity, slowly letting his recording-contract dream die. Daughter Lacey came along in 1993. Second son Joshua was born in 2000.

Fast forward two years…encouraged by his wife, Tené, Buddy entered the USA Network’s contest Nashville Star in 2003. Thousands of performers tried out for the show; 125 of them made it to the semi-finals; 12 were chosen for the nine-week series. Buddy was the true viewer favorite from the premiere episode, capturing 65% of the nationwide voting among the 12 contestants and beating out, most notably, a young Miranda Lambert, by over 2 million votes on the final episode. TV audiences and critics alike fell in love with Buddy Jewell’s gentility, enthusiasm and true musical passion. Columbia Records rushed him into the studio with producer Clint Black, and within two weeks Buddy Jewell delivered his superb debut CD.

“I had a little website. The first night I sang ‘Help Pour Out the Rain’ on the show, it had so many responses that it crashed the website and cost me about $1000 in overages. I didn’t have a clue that the song would have that kind of impact. Tené and I started printing out emails off the site. A lot of them were from parents whose children had died. I got hundreds of letters. We collected the print-outs and letters and put them in a binder. Not for public consumption. Just for ourselves. I’m honored that I had a hand in creating something that means so much to people. But it was bittersweet. You wish that it was for a happier reason.”

The year that followed his win on Nashville Star was truly a dream fulfilled for Buddy. He earned major award nominations from the ACM for Best New Artist, the CMA for the Horizon Award, their version of the Best New Artist of the Year and a Grammy nomination for his participation in Amazing Grace III, a special gospel project. He was also named “New Artist of the Year” by the prestigious ABC Radio Networks.

In April 2005, Buddy was honored by the National Fatherhood Initiative as a recipient of their annual Fatherhood Award. Recipients of this award are individuals who exemplify the ideals of involved, responsible and committed fatherhood. First Lady Laura Bush spoke at the event. In 2011, Jewell was named “Entertainer of the Year” and “Crossover Artist of the Year” by the International Country Gospel Music Association. Most recently, in September 2015, he was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainer’s Hall of Fame, taking his place alongside music legends Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell.

Jewell’s fan base is stronger than ever in 2016. The success of that relationship has always been built on mutual respect and admiration. Buddy remains as immensely loyal to his fans as they are to him. “They are amazing”, says Buddy of his fans. “They have followed me and supported me through thick and thin. They have kept me motivated and I’m grateful to them for that. I couldn’t have done this without them”

Having shared the stage with the likes of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Brooks and Dunn, and ZZ Top, Buddy Jewell is a well-rounded performer, a true entertainer, and an absolute crowd pleaser.

Buddy, an Arkansas native, is a true southern gentleman both on and off the stage. Above all these things, Buddy is a proud Arkansan, a loving father, a devoted husband, passionate patriot and an outspoken Christ follower. He has always reached out to his community and beyond, and considers his roles as spokesperson for The Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation and work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as some of the most important of his career.

Jewell has also been a constant supporter of our men and women in uniform throughout his career. In December 2010, Buddy traveled with the Sergeant Major of the Army, Kenneth O. Preston to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait on an extensive USO tour, visiting and performing for our troops in remote forward operating bases, “If they can put their lives on the line for me and my family on a daily basis, spending a couple weeks facing the same challenges and hostile environment as they do is the least I can do to show my appreciation.” “I believe in giving back”, asserts Jewell. “Everyone can make a positive difference. With a little time and a little effort, we can make this world a better place.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On December 28, 1991, Carlene Carter put her hands in concrete for us to add her to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT CARLENE CARTER:

Carlene Carter comes full circle with her latest CD, Carter Girl, on Rounder Records. As the daughter of country music legends June Carter Cash and Carl Smith, and granddaughter of “Mother” Maybelle Carter of the original historic Carter Family, Carlene said it was her lifelong goal to make this record. “The songs on the album cover three generations of Carter Family music,” she explains. “The original Carter Family (A.P., Sara, and Maybelle); Momma’s ‘Tall Lover Man’ and Aunt Helen’s ‘Poor Old Heartsick Me’; then two of mine: ‘Me and the Wildwood Rose’ and a new song about Momma and John’s passing called ‘Lonesome Valley 2003.'”

Carlene shares writing credit on “Lonesome” with her great uncle A.P. Carter (recently in the Billboard Top 10 as co-writer of the pop phenomenon “Cups”), and the track features vocals by Vince Gill. Other guest artists on the CD are Willie Nelson on “Troublesome Waters,” Kris Kristofferson on “Blackjack David,” and “Elizabeth Cook steps in as an honorary Carter Girl,” Carlene adds, “singing harmonies on six of the twelve songs.” Family is represented by cousin Lorrie Carter Bennett (daughter of Anita Carter), and Carlene’s husband Joe Breen, each heard on two songs.

The CD was produced by Don Was and mixed by Bob Clearmountain, both on Carlene’s wish list for the project, and she says Carter Girl has “lots of fabulous musicians: Don on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, Rami Jaffee (from The Wallflowers and Foo Fighters) on keyboards. Greg Leisz plays steel guitar, acoustic, and electric too. Sam Bush is playing mandolin on three songs. Blake Mills plays most of the stringed instruments, electric guitars, and tiple, which is a kind of mandolin. I play piano, and acoustic guitars in the style of my grandma, but it’s different from the 1920s! I’m really glad I was able to pull together all of these perfect people.”

“Cowboy Jack Clement played acoustic guitar on ‘Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow,'” Carlene continues, “and we used an old track for that to have Helen, Anita, Momma, and me, along with Big John, singing background on the chorus. We built a new track around our vocals from the Wildwood Flower album we did back in 1986. Kind of a cool thing to have the technology to bring it as a part of this project.”

Looking back on her own musical history, Carlene remembers, “I started my career singing with The Carter Family at 17. My first album came out in 1978.” Recorded in England with rock band Graham Parker & the Rumour, that self-titled debut was named “Tops in Pops” by Time magazine, while Newsweek called Carlene “a stunning newcomer.” At the album’s release party in L.A., Dolly Parton whispered in her ear, “Keep on smiling, no matter what!” Advice, Carlene says, has served her well. When Maybelle Carter died later that fall, Chet Flippo wrote in Rolling Stone that she “lived to see her granddaughter Carlene merge Nashville with contemporary rock and roll.”

Her third album, Musical Shapes, still often cited as being ahead of its time for its blend of country and rock, was recorded with her then-husband and producer Nick Lowe and his group Rockpile in 1980. Making their home in London, Carlene spent a year on the West End stage in the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, then filled in for her aunt Anita one night when The Carter Family played Wembley with the Johnny Cash show. She ended up touring with them for the next two years, until she felt ready to go out on her own again, encouraged by Dwight Yoakam, who told her, “Carlene, there is a place for you in country music.”

More advice came from the man Carlene affectionately refers to as “Big John,” her stepfather Cash. “He was a huge influence on my becoming an entertainer and a strong woman, not just a chick singer-songwriter, because of his encouragement,” she recalls. “‘All music is good if you’re being yourself,’ he told me. ‘Don’t let labels of being country or rock ever hold you back! Just be yourself. Then you are unique and can’t be held in a box musically.'”

Working with producer Howie Epstein (of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), Carlene Carter became Nashville’s homecoming queen of 1990 when her rockin’ “I Fell In Love” topped the country singles and video charts, and the album was named one of the year’s 10 best by Time, People, and Stereo Review. Award nominations followed for the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Vocalist, and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female (for the I Fell In Love album) at the 1991 Grammy Awards. Her dynamic personality made her a natural as VH1’s first country video hostess with her own daily hour, The Carlene Carter Show, and she had another smash hit single and video with “Every Little Thing,” from Little Love Letters, in 1993.

Producing her next album, Little Acts of Treason, in 1995, Carlene got her father Carl Smith out of retirement for a duet of his hit “Loose Talk” (#1 for 7 weeks in 1955), and included The Carter Family and Johnny Cash on “The Winding Stream.” Back on television with a series of specials for TNN, Carlene Carter: Circle of Song featured many friends and family members; and she made history with two other famous Nashville daughters, Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis, on what USA Today called “the first all-female major country tour” in 1996. Her first “best of” collection, Hindsight 20/20, with 20 songs spanning 20 years of her recording career, was also released that year.

European tours and appearances on other albums continued, including a Waylon Jennings tribute covering his anthem “I’ve Always Been Crazy,” but Carlene’s life was devastated by the deaths of longtime partner Epstein, mother June, stepfather Cash, and sister Rosey Nix, all in 2003. Her performance of “Jackson” with Brooks & Dunn at the Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute Concert (which The Tennessean named “the show’s emotional highlight”), led to Carlene being cast as her mom in Wildwood Flowers: The June Carter Story, a 2005 Nashville stage musical about June’s early years with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters. The show ended with Carlene’s emotional tribute to her grandmother and Rosey on “Me and the Wildwood Rose” segueing into “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.”

Carlene continued to honor Rosey on the title track to her next CD, Stronger, produced by old friend and musical collaborator John McFee (of The Doobie Brothers and Southern Pacific) in 2008. Elvis Costello called the record “astounding,” and Bernie Taupin wrote that it was “a staggering achievement by one of the great voices and fearless hearts of country rock.” USA Today said simply, “It’s great to hear her again.”

Carlene Carter’s songs have continued to be heard again too, as “It Takes One To Know Me,” her long-lost birthday present to her stepdad when she was 19, closed the Johnny Cash box-set The Legend in 2005; and “Easy From Now On,” first recorded by Emmylou Harris in 1978, was included on the 2007 #1 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend CD by Miranda Lambert, who said, “That’s a ridiculously great song.” Another one of the current generation’s strong female country singer-songwriters, Ashley Monroe, is a distant relative of both the Carter and Smith families, and as she told CMT News, “I grew up knowing Carlene was my cousin as well. Wore her little tapes out.” Sirius Outlaw Country radio host and frequent Grand Ole Opry guest Elizabeth Cook says, “Carlene is my hero.”

With the release of Carter Girl, Carlene is excited to be singing some of the songs from the CD to live audiences for the first time, including Farm Aid 2013 and 2014, another full circle for her since she attended the first Farm Aid in 1985. “It was the sweetest reunion to be with Willie (Nelson) again,” Carlene said. “He’s the last living person who knew my two sets of parents in a very close way.” She also returned to the musical theater stage in the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County 2014 North American Fall Tour (written by Stephen King, with music and lyrics by John Mellencamp), and was the Special Guest on all 80 dates of the John Mellencamp 2015 Plain Spoken North American Tour, an opportunity she called “an honor and a privilege. I’m thrilled to have been chosen to share the stage with one of America’s greatest songwriters. He has a strong appreciation for our Carter Family roots, and of course, he and my mom were mutual admirers, as were he and ‘Big John’.”

Wherever she performs, Carlene knows that she is doing her part to honor those who came before her, in her own way. “From the day I first touched a guitar or piano,” she recalls, “my mom said, ‘You have to carry on the legacy of the Carter Family music. It’s supposed to be passed on and passed around.'” Nearly a century after their first recordings changed the course of American music, that circle remains unbroken by Carlene Carter.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

August 22^nd of 2020, Casey Donahew returned to his backyard here in the stockyards and lit up the stage in front of a sold-out crowd.

ABOUT CASEY DONAHEW:

In just over 10 years, Casey Donahew has risen from being a favorite on the local Texas music scene to a nationally popular touring act who has racked up 13 No. 1 singles and consistently sells out venues across the country. Donahew has released four independent albums to critical and commercial acclaim. His 2011 release, DOUBLE WIDE DREAM, spawned three No. 1 singles: the title track, “Double Wide Dream,” “Let’s Not Say Goodbye Again,” and “One Star Flag.” Casey’s last CD, STANDOFF, quickly topped the iTunes Country Chart at No. 1, upon its release, and yielded five No. 1 radio singles “Whiskey Baby,” “Small Town Love,” “Lovin’ Out of Control,” which is Donahew’s fastest rising single to date, “Not Ready To Say Goodnight” and “Loser.” His most recent #1 single “Feels This Right,” from his EP release PRE-PARTY, marks his latest Texas radio hit. Donahew released his most recent studio album ALL NIGHT PARTY on August 19, 2016, and it immediately rocketed to No. 3 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart, No. 13 on the Top Album Sales Chart and Top Current Album Sales Chart, and No. 40 on the Billboard 200 Chart. The hot new project also took the No. 2 spot on the Internet Albums Chart and landed at No. 3 on the Independent Albums Chart. Donahew worked with acclaimed producer Josh Leo (Love & Theft, Timothy B. Schmit, and Alabama, among others) on this latest project, marking the first time he has engaged an outside producer. Leo has performed on over 150 records, produced 21 singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, written six singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart, and has won 6 BMI Millionaire awards.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On November 17, 1995, CBS This Morning aired live its entire two-hour show. Anchor Harry Smith donned a white Western hat, and weatherman Mark McEwen took a ride around the arena on the longhorn steer, Lonestar.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 6, 1992 when Pride cast his handprints for Billy Bob’s “Wall Of Fame.” Charley performed at Billy Bob’s Texas about a dozen times during his career. And as recently as November 16, 2018, he joined his longtime friend Willie Nelson on stage at Billy Bob’s to sing a few songs.

ABOUT CHARLEY PRIDE:

Becoming a trailblazing Country Music superstar was an improbable destiny for Charley Pride considering his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi. His unique journey to the top of the music charts includes a detour through the world of Negro league, minor league and semi-pro baseball as well as hard years of labor alongside the vulcanic fires of a smelter. But in the end, with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with Nashville insiders into an amazing legacy of hit singles and tens of millions in record sales.

Growing up, Charley was exposed primarily to Blues, Gospel and Country music. His father inadvertently fostered Charley’s love of Country music by tuning the family’s Philco radio to Nashville’s WSM-AM in order to catch Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. At 14 years of age, Charley purchased his first guitar—a Silvertone from a Sears Roebuck catalog—and taught himself how to play it by listening to the songs that he heard on that radio.

By the age of 16, Charley began emerging as a talented baseball player. He first played organized games in the Iowa State League and then professional games in the Negro American League as a pitcher and outfielder for the Memphis Red Sox. In 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. But during that season a shoulder injury hampered his pitching. He was first sent to the Yankees’ Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and then released. Over the next several years, Charley rejoined the Memphis Red Sox, moved to the Louisville Clippers and then was sold, along with another player, to the Birmingham Black Barons in order to fund a replacement for the Clippers’ broken-down team bus. He also played for the El Paso Kings and the Yaquis in Nogales, Mexico. Upon rejoining the Memphis Red Sox in 1956 he won 14 games as a pitcher and earned himself a position on the Negro American League All-Star Team. It was during the 1956 season that Charley transitioned into a knuckleball pitcher—he had cracked a bone in his elbow early in the season but had managed to recover quickly enough to rejoin the team during the latter half of the season.

As an all-star player in 1956, Charley played against a group of major-league players (the Willie Mays All‑Stars) that included Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. At the end of the season, these teams barnstormed together all over the south playing exhibition games that the major-league all-stars almost always won. However, one October night in Victoria, TX, Charley sealed a rare victory for the negro-league all-stars by closing out a game with 4 innings of shutout ball.

In late 1956 Charley was drafted by Uncle Sam and ordered to report to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for basic training. During Christmas leave from basic training, he married his wife Rozene, whom he had met earlier in the year while playing baseball in Memphis. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was assigned to quartermaster duty and the baseball team. While serving at Ft. Carson, Charley was known to sing in the barracks and occasionally perform at the officer’s club (which was very unusual for a black man at the time).

The fort’s baseball squad was stacked with baseball talent in 1957 and won the “All Army” sports championship at a tournament at Ft. Knox. In addition to Pride, the team included several other players who had been playing or would go on to play professionally, including George Altman (Cubs, Cardinals, Mets), Willie Kirkland (Giants, Indians, Orioles, Senators), Eddie Kopacz and J.C. Hartman.

Upon receiving his discharge from the US Army in early 1958, Charley rejoined the Memphis Red Sox and returned to doggedly pursuing his dream of becoming a major league baseball pitcher. As an all-star player again that year, Charley pitched against major league all-stars including Al Smith, Gene Baker and Ernie Banks.

In 1958, he also made his first attempt to launch his singing career. Charley dropped by 706 Union Avenue in Memphis with his guitar and cut a professionally recorded demo at Sun Studio. Several takes were recorded on a song titled “There’s My Baby (Walkin’)”, a thinly disguised adaption of the 1957 pop hit “The Stroll” by the Diamonds. For better or worse, Charley was still trying to find his voice as a singer and the demo didn’t prove very helpful in furthering his aspirations as a music artist at the time.

In 1960, Charley moved to Montana to play for the Missoula Timberjacks in the Pioneer League, but ended up working at a smelter operated by the Anaconda Mining Company and playing for its semi-pro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites. In 1961, he was invited to try out for the Los Angeles Angels during spring training but found himself heading back home to Helena, Montana after just two weeks in camp.

During the first half of the 1960’s, Charley continued to work at the smelter and play baseball for its semi-pro team. But he also began making a name for himself as a local performer by singing the national anthem at baseball games and performing at honky-tonks, churches and nightclubs in the Helena, Anaconda and Great Falls areas. In 1962, with the help of Tiny Stokes, a local disc jockey, Charley was introduced to Country singers Red Sovine and Red Foley and invited to perform “Lovesick Blues” and “Heartaches By The Number” during one of their shows. This brief initial encounter with Red Sovine would turn out to be crucial in laying the groundwork for Charley’s future music career.

After a disastrous 1963 tryout with the New York Mets in Clearwater, Florida it became clear that a major league baseball career was not in the cards. Charley chose to return to Montana via Tennessee because Red Sovine had told him that if he ever became serious about a singing career and decided to visit Nashville, he should stop by Cedarwood Publishing, the company that booked Sovine’s shows.

From the Greyhound bus station in Nashville, Charley walked over to Cedarwood’s office and by sheer luck ended up meeting Jack Johnson, who had been actively searching for a promising black Country singer. Johnson made a simply produced recording of Charley performing a couple of songs and then drove him straight back to the bus station with the promise of a management contract. Johnson quickly made good on that promise and it was the beginning of a working relationship that would start off slow, but prove to be very fruitful over the next decade.

While Johnson attempted to stir up interest in Nashville, Charley continued to perform in and around the Montana area. Sometimes he performed as a solo artist and other times as a member of a combo or group. One of these groups, The Night Hawks, was an unusually progressive Country music ensemble for the 1960s. Founded by a young guitarist named Jimmy Owen, the group featured Charley on guitar and vocals, Jimmy’s father George on steel guitar and a 14 year old girl by the name of Monty Cowles on the drums!

In Nashville, Johnson ran into significantly more resistance than he had anticipated as he shopped around the crude demo recording that he had made of Charley to the record labels. It wasn’t until 1965 that forward progress was made. Charley returned to Nashville and Johnson introduced him to producer “Cowboy” Jack Clement. Clement gave Charley seven songs to learn and within a week they cut two of these songs – “The Snakes Crawl At Night” and “Atlantic Coastal Line” – during a split studio session with top-notch session players.

Even with the professionally produced sides, Johnson and Clement continued to have a difficult time as they shopped Charley around to the Nashville labels. But finally in 1966, Chet Atkins, the legendary guitarist and a rising executive at RCA Records, decided to trust his ears and with his backing RCA signed Charley. Atkins took Charley under his wing, nurtured his talent and spearheaded a shrewd promotional campaign that addressed the racial challenges of mid 1960s America.

Charley’s first two singles, “The Snakes Crawl At Night” and “Before I Met You”, set the groundwork for “Just Between You and Me”, which caught fire in 1967, breaking into the Top-10 Country chart and garnering Charley his first GRAMMY® nomination. What happened next is Country Music history. Charley Pride quickly became Country Music’s first black superstar. Between 1967 and 1987, he amassed no fewer than 52 Top-10 Country hits and went on to sell tens of millions of records worldwide. In 1971, Charley won two GRAMMY® Awards related to his Gospel album DID YOU THINK TO PRAY–“Best Sacred Performance, Musical (Non-Classical)” for the album, as well as “Best Gospel Performance Other Than Soul” for the single “Let Me Live.” Later that year, his #1 crossover hit “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” sold over a million singles and helped him to win the Country Music Association’s (CMA) “Entertainer of the Year” award and the “Top Male Vocalist” awards of 1971 and 1972. It also brought him a “Best Male Country Vocal Performance” GRAMMY® Award in 1972. Some of Charley’s unforgettable hits from the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s include “All I Have To Offer You Is Me,” “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone,” “Amazing Love,” “Mississippi Cotton Pickin’ Delta Town,” “Burgers And Fries,” “Roll On Mississippi” and “Mountain Of Love.” After parting ways with RCA Records in 1986, Charley spent the remainder of the decade releasing albums on the 16th Avenue Records label.

Charley wrote an autobiography in the early 1990s, with the assistance of Jim Henderson, called PRIDE: THE CHARLEY PRIDE STORY. That book covers the events of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in significantly more detail.

In 1993, Pride was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, 26 years after he had first played there as a guest. Charley is always quick to point out that he’d always had an open invitation to join the Opry from as early as his first appearance in 1967. “It was purely an economical decision for me. When I was first invited to join the Opry, they had a requirement at the time that you had to perform 26 Saturdays per year. Fridays and Saturdays were the best days for drawing people to shows and making money out on the road–and my career was starting to take off. So I had to politely decline.”

Many of Pride’s other honors clearly underscore his impact on American Music. In 1994, he was honored by the Academy Of Country Music (ACM) with its prestigious Pioneer Award. In 2000, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. And in 2017, The Recording Academy®, renowned for its GRAMMY® awards, honored Charley with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

As an international superstar, Charley has performed all over the world and continues to tour regularly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, The United Kingdom and Ireland.

Interestingly, Charley’s popularity with many of his Irish and UK fans can be can be traced back to the insurgent territorial conflict known as “The Troubles.” Characterized by bouts of intense political violence, The Troubles were primarily centered in Northern Ireland. And because of the risks, international music acts were routinely skipping Belfast. In 1975, at the height of The Troubles, legendary Irish concert promoter Jim Aiken flew out to a rural Ohio concert and persuaded Charley not to bypass Belfast during his upcoming European tour. In November 1976, Charley’s appearance at Belfast’s Ritz Cinema brought the community together and he subsequently became a hero to both sides of the conflict for helping to break the informal touring ban of Northern Ireland after several other international music acts such as Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones followed suit. Shortly thereafter, “Crystal Chandeliers” became considered a ‘unity song’ in Ireland and the UK when it was subsequently released as a single.

Although he no longer dominates the Country radio airplay charts, Charley has never stopped recording new music. Since 1990, Pride has released many new studio albums, including MUSIC IN MY HEART in July 2017.

One of the more surprising aspects about Pride’s rise to fame is how easily he was accepted by the Country music audience once they heard him sing. “People often say to me, ‘You must have had it hard,’ and when I say, ‘No, I didn’t,’ they give me that you-gotta-be-lying look. But there was never one iota hoot-call at any of my shows. The big problem early on was that [concert] promoters were reluctant or scared to book me,” says Pride. “But they finally came around.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1990, CBS tapes another Happy New Year, American television special at Billy Bob’s featuring Charlie Daniels and Tanya Tucker.

ABOUT CHARLIE DANIELS BAND:

From his Dove Award-winning gospel albums to his genre-defining Southern rock anthems and his CMA Award-winning country hits, few artists have left a more indelible mark on America’s musical landscape than Charlie Daniels. An outspoken patriot, beloved mentor to young artists, and still a road warrior at age 81, Charlie has parlayed his passion for music into a multi-platinum career and a platform to support the military, underprivileged children, and others in need. Raised among the longleaf pines of North Carolina, Charlie began his career playing bluegrass music with the Misty Mountain Boys. After moving to Nashville in 1967, he began making a name for himself as a songwriter, session musician, and producer. Elvis Presley recorded a tune Charlie co-wrote titled “It Hurts Me,” which was released on the flip side of “Kissin’ Cousins.” He played on such landmark albums as Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and tried his hand at producing the Youngbloods’ Elephant Mountain and Ride the Wind.

His own unique voice as an artist emerged as Charlie recorded his self-titled solo album in 1970 for Capitol Records. Two years later he formed the Charlie Daniels Band and the group scored its first hit with the top ten “Uneasy Rider.” Since then the CDB has populated radio with such memorable hits as “Long Haired Country Boy,” “The South’s Gonna Do It Again,” “In America,” “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” and of course, his signature song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1979 as well as single of the year at the Country Music Association Awards. The CDB performed 100+ concert dates in 2017, including performances on the Grand Ole Opry, and will perform another full concert schedule in 2018. “I love what I do,” says Charlie of his 60-plus years in the music business. “I look forward to entertaining people. When show time gets here, I’m ready to go, ready to go play for them. It’s a labor of love. I just thank God I make a living at what I enjoy doing.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Charlie Robison made his Billy Bob’s debut with Cory Morrow on April 16, 1999 and his first solo debut on July 2, 1999. He has played at The World’s Largest Honky Tonk a total of 38 times.

On August 31, 2012 Charlie got a tattoo on his arm to commemorate his “Live at Billy Bob’s” recording.

Charlie left his mark on our handprint wall of fame.

ABOUT CHARLIE ROBISON:

Charles Fitzgerald Robison (September 1, 1964 – September 10, 2023) was an American country music singer-songwriter. His brother, Bruce Robison, and his sister, Robyn Ludwick, are also singer-songwriters.

After a knee injury at Southwest Texas State University ended a potential football career, Charlie Robison came to Austin, Texas in the late 1980s and had stints in the bands Chaparral, Millionaire Playboys, and Two Hoots and a Holler. He went solo with his album “Bandera” in 1996. He subsequently signed with Sony and released “Life of the Party” on Sony’s subsidiary Lucky Dog Records. The album gave him three of his biggest hits including “My Hometown.” His next release was a live disc called “Unleashed Live,” which is credited to Charlie, brother Bruce, and Jack Ingram. He then signed with Columbia Records for “Step Right Up” and another live album.

In 2003, Robison was a judge on the first season of the TV singing competition Nashville Star.

Unhappy with the expectations & limitations of being a Nashville country artist, he moved to a smaller independent label, Dualtone, for “Good Times” in 2004, followed by extensive touring and newfound control over his career. Accordingly, his sound began to evolve away from mainstream/Nashville country and toward more Southern & hard rock influences.

Five years after the release of Good Times, Robison released Beautiful Day on June 23, 2009, on Dualtone. This was the first CD he self-produced. Both albums featured several songs written by Nashville singer-songwriter Keith Gattis.

His song “Good Times” was featured in the credits of HBO’s original series True Blood in the first season’s third episode.

In 2009, he embarked on an East Coast tour with stops in Little Rock, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Iowa City, and Memphis to promote “Beautiful Day.” Since then he played primarily in Texas, with occasional shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Robison was known for playing classic rock covers during his live shows. Some of these include: “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Highway to Hell” (AC/DC), “Call me the Breeze” (JJ Cale), “Rocket Man” (Elton John), and several Rolling Stones songs, including “Dead Flowers” and “Honky Tonk Women.” He also played several songs associated with Willie Nelson, including “Whiskey River” and “Stay all Night.”

His live band included Mark Tokach (lead guitar), Abe Combest (drums), Zeke Benenate (bass) J.C. Burt (steel guitar) and Chris Valdez (road manager and additional guitar). Prior to Beautiful Day, his band was known as The Enablers, and included Keith Robinson (drums), Scott Esbeck (bass) and Travis Woodard (drums). Other notable members have included Kim Deschamps (pedal & lap steel, mandolin and guitar from 2000–2009), Kevin Carroll (guitar), Chris Grady (bass), Louis Landry (keyboards and accordion), and Kris Brown (bass). His recordings have also featured special guests Lloyd Maines (who produced “Step Right Up” and “Good Times”), Rich Brotherton, Charlie Sexton, and Natalie Maines (duet on “The Wedding Song” and harmony vocals on “El Cerrito Place”).

In September 2014, Robison opened Alamo Icehouse in San Antonio, Texas, with former Major League Baseball player Brooks Kieschnick.

On September 24, 2018, Robison announced that he was permanently unable to sing due to complications from surgery, and that he was regretfully officially retiring from stage and studio.

Hey amigos, Charlie here. I’m sure you’ve all been wondering where I’ve been. Well, at the beginning of this year I underwent a surgical procedure that because of complications left me with the permanent inability to sing. Therefore, with a very heavy heart I am officially retiring from the stage and studio. Gonna keep it short but just wanted y’all to hear it from me. It’s been an amazing ride and I cannot tell you all what the last 25 years has meant to me. I was looking forward to another 25 but as they say “shit happens”. I thank you all for everything you’ve given me and I hope I was able to give you a fraction of the happiness you gave me. It was a hell of a ride but as they say all good things must end. Keep on supporting this thing we call Texas/Red dirt and hopefully we’ll all get to have a cocktail or two and talk about the good ol days. Until then, Buenos Noches. It’s been fun. Love each and every one of y’all.

Robison resumed his music career in 2022. He returned to Billy Bob’s as part of his first tour since 2018, playing at the same venue where he first played in 1999.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

ABOUT CHEAP TRICK:

With over 5,000 performances spanning four decades, 20 million records sold worldwide, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, CHEAP TRICK is undoubtedly one of the most influential classic rock groups of the past 50 years. The band was formed in 1974 and while it has evolved throughout the years, CHEAP TRICK has continued to reach mainstream and critical success.  Hits such as “I Want You To Want Me,” “Dream Police,” and “Surrender” have cemented the group as one of America’s top rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 14, 2001, Chely Wright rocked out on the main stage for her first time and even cemented her hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT CHELY WRIGHT:

Chely Wright rose to fame as a commercial country singer in the ’90s, and has since released eight studio albums and charted more than 15 singles on the Billboard charts. The Academy of Country Music named Wright “Top New Female Vocalist of 1995.” Her first hit came in 1997 with “Shut Up and Drive,” followed two years later by her first number one single, “Single White Female,” and in 2005 “The Bumper of My S.U.V.” In 2010, Chely Wright released her eighth album, Lifted Off the Ground produced by Rodney Crowell, revealing a dramatic artistic transformation and emerging as a singer songwriter of the first order. Chely made history by being the first country music star to publicly come out as gay, which she revealed in her 2010 memoir entitled “Like Me,” published by Random House. In 2016, Wright released her critically- acclaimed studio album entitled I Am The Rain, produced by Joe Henry. The end of 2018 saw the release of the holiday EP Santa Will Find You, which No Depression called the “warmest, most-family oriented” of recent holiday records. Chely released a new Americana EP entitled Revival in May of 2019.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Chris Cagle once serenaded a fan over the phone while playing on the main stage here at Billy Bob’s Texas.

ABOUT CHRIS CAGLE:

When he was four years old, Chris Cagle moved from Louisiana to the outskirts of Houston, where he grew up. He began taking guitar lessons at six, but gave them up after a year. He took piano lessons during high school and returned to the guitar in his senior year. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Texas at Arlington, but dropped out at 19 to pursue a musical career. He moved to Nashville in 1994 and struggled for five years. His earliest songs were published by famed Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard, after which he landed a publishing deal and placed some of his songs with David Kersh. He was discovered by the assistant to the president of Virgin Records Nashville, whom he met in a restaurant where he was working. Virgin signed him and released his debut single, “My Love Goes on and On,” which reached the country charts in July 2000, eventually peaking in the Top 20. His first album, Play It Loud, followed in October. It reached the country charts, and its track “Laredo” made the country Top 40. In 2001, Cagle switched from Virgin to Capitol Records (both are subsidiaries of EMI), and his new label reissued Play It Loud in June 2001 with two bonus tracks. A self-titled album came in 2003, followed by Anywhere But Here in 2005, which reached the Top 40. My Life’s Been a Country Song appeared in 2008. The compilation album The Best of Chris Cagle appeared on Capitol in 2010. After a few years spent away from the music industry, during which time he built a ranch, got married, and had his first child, Cagle signed with the label Big Picture Music Group. In 2011, Cagle issued the single “Got My Country On” as a precursor to the studio album Back in the Saddle, which was set for a 2012 release.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Chris LeDoux arrived at his first Billy Bob’s performance in a motorhome with a small equipment trailer.

Chris LeDoux wish Billy Bob’s a “Happy 10th Birthday” in April 1991. He gives his well wishes saying “My name is Chris LeDoux and someday I’m going to play Billy Bob’s.” This Came true less than a year later in January of 1992!

ABOUT CHRIS LEDOUX:

Enough tears have fallen to fill the Powder River through Kaycee, Wyoming where Chris LeDoux called home. He died of a rare form of cancer in March of 2005. During his all-too-short 56 years of life, LeDoux was indeed a rare breed. Beloved by the rodeo world, LeDoux’s music captured the spirit of the sport – and of the American West – as few will ever likely match. The young Chris put pen to paper often. Poem after poem reflected his love of rodeo and of a young girl, Peggy, who would become his wife and bear him five children. His sense of humor and self-deprecating manner were constants even in the most painful of times. Besides writing words to become songs, Chris liked to sketch cartoons ala Charlie Russell and “Ole Chuck” would have been honored to ride alongside LeDoux. Many heroes don’t quite live up to their reputations. This Wyoming, and rodeo, hero outshined them all. A practical joke player extraordinaire, who would not intentionally hurt even the squirrels on the golf course, Chris will forever be thought of with a certain amount of reverence in these parts. There is a hole in Wyoming’s heart.

He was world champion professional bareback rider in 1976. When speaking about that accomplishment LeDoux chuckled recalling his bounty. “I won a saddle and a buckle and I got a hat and a pair of boots – and a little bit of money. The money’s gone. The boots are worn out. The hat’s gone – someone bit a big chunk out of it at Fort Worth that next winter. I still have the saddle and the buckle. But that championship gave me credibility in the music that I’m doing and helped tremendously,” LeDoux believed. His stage act came to represent a rodeo complete with mechanical bull, pyrotechnics, and pulsating energy that kept standing-room-only crowds on their feet for two hours – always howling for more. The moment the net fell and the first strains of “Copenhagen” rang out is one all Chris LeDoux fans cherished. Flinging tins was a sport in itself. It was a way to show love too, sort of like resting a bunch of roses at Barbara Streisand’s feet. Forgive the comparison but it is just the kind of image that would make Chris smile and say, “Yeah.”

His interest in rodeo stemmed from a childhood in Texas surrounded by friends and neighbors for whom rodeo was a way of life. LeDoux decided to give it a try, won a buckle, and was “bitten by the bug.” The family moved to Wyoming where rodeo continued to peak his interest. Before he gave much thought to girls or hot cars, Chris LeDoux dreamt of becoming a rodeo champ. He wrote his classic tune “Bareback Jack” while a student at Casper College. His mom had bought a guitar for Chris at Jay’s Music Store in Cheyenne a few years earlier. He first strummed and sang along to Marty Robbins “Big Iron.” He had many rodeo stars to gaze upon while living in Cheyenne and musicians then started to gain his attention. Favorites included Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Charlie Daniels. “I started listening to country music and loved it. I wanted to be able to play the guitar and sing some of those songs,” LeDoux remembered.

Football competed for some of his extracurricular time while at Central High School in Cheyenne but it was always Cheyenne Frontier Days that gave him “Gold Buckle Dreams.” His bareback riding skills rose measurably as fellow contestants offered pointers. Soon Chris LeDoux was among the top riders. He could have chosen many different paths during that period in the late 1960s and 70s but decided a wife and family – settling in rural Wyoming – was the best course for his life. A successful rodeo career was overtaken by music. Hundreds of songs about the West, cowboy and rodeo life, and love ensued. It was Garth Brooks who kicked things up several notches by singing the line “Worn out tapes of Chris LeDoux” in Brooks’ 1989 hit “Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old).” Almost immediately millions more fans of Chris launched a career that brought recognition and a degree of fame well outside the rodeo world.

Writing songs became more work than fun and Chris would come to depend on others for many of his recordings during the latter part of his long musical journey. “Writing to me is like sitting in a room by yourself all day pulling one hair out a time. I did enough of that. I’m ready to enjoy other things – be outside,” he said. He would get back home to the Kaycee ranch often and when there fix fence and do ranch chores his father-in-law saved for him. “I’m usually home calving time,” LeDoux recalled. “I kind of wish I was out on the road then.”

Another passion entered LeDoux’s life in the latter half of the 1990s. Golf. That surprised the cowboy musician. “I hate to admit it. I cussed the game for years. But it’s addicting. I don’t understand it. Maybe it’s just the nice little parks you get to walk through.”

Aren’t we glad he walked through our lives? More like leaped, and sang, and helped teach us to believe there is a lot of good out there we can do for others while at the same time enriching our own souls beyond measure.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

RCA recording artist Chris Young appears for the first time in July.

ABOUT CHRIS YOUNG: 

With a dark baritone well beyond his years and a keen ear for the melodic country music of his childhood, Chris Young went from Nashville Star champion to actual Nashville star over the course of just a few years. Young won the reality show competition in 2006, securing a recording contract with RCA. After a slow start, he hit radio paydirt with his second record, 2009’s The Man I Want to Be, featuring the sweet, seductive smash “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song).” He stayed right near the top, hitting number one on the country charts with subsequent smashes like “Tomorrow,” “You,” “Neon,” “I’m Comin’ Over,” and “Losing Sleep” and hit a career goal with his 2017 induction into the Grand Ole Opry. Beginning in 2020, Young issued several tracks including “Famous Friends” from his next album.

The grandson of onetime Louisiana Hayride performer Richard Yates, Young hails from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and first drew the public’s attention when he appeared on the Nashville Star television show in 2006. Young’s singing abilities first surfaced in children’s theater productions in grade school, and with his family’s full support, he threw himself into learning all he could about music, and country music in particular. By the time he was a senior in high school he was already playing clubs in the Nashville area, and his self-released debut album was out before he even graduated from high school. Young attended college at Belmont University in Nashville and then Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, all while still managing to do some 150 live shows a year. He was offered and accepted a gig fronting the house band at Cowboy’s in Arlington, Texas, and it was there that a fan kept insisting that he audition for the Nashville Star TV show.

Young eventually made the trip to Houston and passed the audition, and the whole affair paid off handsomely with a contract from RCA Records. Young’s debut single, “Drinkin’ Me Lonely,” a song he wrote with Larry Wayne Clark, was released in 2006, followed later in the year by a Buddy Cannon-produced album called simply Chris Young. A second album, The Man I Want to Be, produced by James Stroud, appeared in 2009. Young’s third album, 2011’s Neon, may not have gone gold — The Man I Want to Be had — but it did have “Tomorrow,” a heart-wrenching ballad that was his biggest hit to date, reaching number one on the Billboard country charts and cracking the pop Top 40 on its way to going platinum. “You,” the second single from Neon, also went to number one on the country charts, and two other hits followed: “Neon” and “I Can Take It from There.”

Young delivered his brighter, happier third album, A.M., in the fall of 2013; it was preceded by the party anthem “Aw Naw,” which peaked at 16 on the Billboard charts. A.M. produced two further country Top Ten hits with the softer “Who I Am with You” and “Lonely Eyes,” singles that appeared on the charts in 2014. Young returned in the fall of 2015 with “I’m Comin’ Over,” another Top Ten hit that was also the title track to his fifth album, which saw release in November of that year. “Think of You,” a duet with Cassadee Pope, followed “I’m Comin’ Over” to number two on Billboard’s U.S. Hot Country chart, while the Vince Gill duet “Sober Saturday Night” went to number 31 later that year. During the holiday season of 2016, Young released It Must Be Christmas; it peaked at four on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. He released his sixth album of originals, Losing Sleep, in October 2017. After promotion of that effort concluded, Young continued into 2019 with the singles “Raised on Country,” “Drowning,” and “Town Ain’t Big Enough,” the latter of which was a duet with Lauren Alaina. He returned in 2020 with the singles “If That Ain’t God” and “Famous Friends.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On May 13, 1994, Clay Walker made his debut and got to add his hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT CLAY WALKER:

Multi-Platinum country music artist and East Texas native, Clay Walker, rocked the country scene in 1993 with his debut album that included the smash hit “What’s It To You.” He continued to make a splash releasing a string of number one hits including “If I Could Make A Living”, “This Woman and This Man” and “Rumor Has It”. In 1996 he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis but he didn’t let that set him back. He has continued touring and recording steadily since the diagnosis and is well known for his high-energy concerts and performance style. He later founded the Band Against MS foundation after realizing the impact the disease has on others. Since its’ formation in 2003, Clay has helped Band Against MS raise upwards of $5,000,000 through charity performances, golf tournaments, bike rides, auctions, etc. Clay has had 4 RIAA Platinum albums, 2 Certified Gold albums, and 11 #1 singles to date. After “She Won’t Be Lonely Long” reached the top 5 on the radio, Clay began working on new music with a fresh sound. He recently released his single “Right Now” to The Highway on Sirius XM this past fall, teasing an impending album release. The full album is expected to debut later this year.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1989, Clint Black and his manager visit Billy Bob’s Texas to meet with Robert Gallagher. Black was decked out in a black duster and black cowboy hat – a look that would come to be a staple of his early wardrobe. By the end of the year, he was performing on the BBT stage.

In 1991, Clint Black played the Tarrant County Convention Center and Billy Bob’s booked his brother, Kevin Black. The show drew a large crowd suspecting Clint might show up at his brother’s performance. He didn’t, and the next day’s paper read, “Black & Black, Back to Back.”

ABOUT CLINT BLACK:

It has been three decades since the release of Clint Black’s groundbreaking debut album, Killin’ Time. The genre altering record cemented the Country music icon as one of the truest traditionalists in the game and his widespread influence can still be felt in the works of artists today. Now, the seemingly unstoppable legend is set to release his incredible 12th studio album, Out of Sane, dropping on June 19th. The record, self-produced by Black, not only stays true to sounds that birthed Country music but also progresses the genre to today’s sensibilities.

Having sold over 20 million records, earning 22 #1 career singles, nearly two dozen gold and platinum awards (U.S. and Canada), a Grammy Award, numerous CMA, ACM and American Music Awards, and being honored with at star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Clint Black has had one of the most storied careers in modern music. The Houston raised musician has certainly come a long way from the Texas nightclub circuit where he first began.

In his latest effort, Out of Sane, Black continues to hold firm in making great music that doesn’t fit a mold or conform to current popularity.

“I try to make records that don’t fit into a trend,” explains the Houston-born producer/guitarist. “I never wanted to start a trend, and I’m not going to chase a trend, either. To me, a great band will always sound great, today and in ten years. If you listen to this record, it’s not about fitting into today’s country, or yesterday’s country, or tomorrow’s country, it just is.”

The Grammy-winning Country superstar, understands that people consume music in the real world; but to create something that endures, a whole lot of lab time is required. Laughing, he explains the album’s title – a lyric from the road boogie “What I Knew Then” — comes from the dual states of mind that come into play with making records.

“I have a studio on my property, so I can walk out there and never finish working because I have this passion for it. But so many hours can drive me insane: I don’t sleep, I’m exhausted and completely consumed. It’s like a radio that clicks on in my sleep, to get up and get back to work. The music comes out of the sane part of me, and the record itself the insane…”

The lead track from Out of Sane is the unadorned piano ballad “America (Still In Love With You),” which is currently available on all digital streaming platforms. It plays as an intimate song of romance, yet serves as a pledge to the fundamental truths and values of the country at a time of incredible divisiveness.

A collection of material that will certainly stand the test of time, Out of Sane, is one of the most personally gratifying albums Black has ever recorded.

“Out of Sane is made up of all original songs, except for one cover. I recorded it with a varied collection of musicians; some from my band and some with session players. I believe it’s one of my best albums ever and I think my fans will love it. They’ve been asking for new music for a while and I’m thrilled to finally be able to deliver after five years since the last studio album,” says Black.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Cody Johnson is the only artist to have two signature logos on the backstage wall.

ABOUT CODY JOHNSON:

With more than one billion career streams, COJO Music / Warner Music Nashville recording artist Cody Johnson has clearly established a rabid following of loyal fans who thirst for his authentic brand of country music. The aptly named “COJO Nation” purchased half a million concert tickets in one calendar year and regularly pack out shows across the country. Johnson sold out 45+ shows in 2019 alone including a sold-out show at the historic Ryman Auditorium and RODEOHOUSTON for the second consecutive year. His first major-label release Ain’t Nothin To It skyrocketed to No. 1 on both the Billboard Top Country Albums and All-Genre Digital Sales charts. Also reaching Top 10 on Billboard 200, it became the third-highest pre-added album of all time in the country music genre on Apple Music at the time of release. Johnson’s “On My Way To You” has been RIAA-certified Platinum and marks his first Top 10 hit at country radio. Now he returns to country airplay with his latest single “Dear Rodeo,” which MusicRow described as “a beautiful piece of work,” going on to state Johnson “just might be the future of real country music.” Co-written by Johnson and Dan Couch, the reflective song serves as Johnson’s ode to his previous bull-riding career and has already surpassed 30 million streams to date.

The country star is known for his explosive live shows and electrifying stage presence. Even prior to signing a joint venture with Warner Music Nashville, Johnson’s independently released project reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and No. 11 on the Billboard 200 Chart. With ACM and CMA nominations to his name, Johnson has been recognized as one of The Tennessean’s “Nashville’s Next Stars,” MusicRow’s “2019 Next Big Thing,” iHeartRadio’s “Artists to Watch in 2019,” and highlighted on Pandora’s “Artist to Watch 2019” playlist.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Cole Swindell concreted his hands to add to Billy Bob’s “Wall Of Fame” on September 22, 2017.

ABOUT COLE SWINDELL:

As a songwriter and a singer, Cole Swindell is one of the linchpins of the breezy country-pop sound that became known as bro-country in the 2010s. Swindell first came to prominence as a songwriter for Luke Bryan, a fellow alumnus of Georgia Southern University, but around the time Bryan took “Roller Coaster” to number one, Swindell began his own climb up the charts. He racked up several big hits in the middle of the 2000s — “Chillin’ It,” “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,” “Ain’t Worth the Whisky,” “You Should Be Here” — that became emblematic of the sound of the mainstream country of its era: friendly, melodic, and sunny, blending elements of rock and hip-hop with country.

Born in Bronwood, Georgia on June 30, 1983, Cole Swindell began to pursue music while he was a college student. After spending time at Dawson’s Terrell Academy, he transferred to Georgia Southern University, where he happened upon Luke Bryan, a fellow member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Bryan returned to GSU to play a show while Swindell was attending college and the two became fast and enduring friends. Once he left university in 2007, he entered Bryan’s team, selling merchandise for the star and spending his spare time writing songs.

Swindell signed with Sony/ATV Publishing in 2010 and soon began landing prominent placements. Bryan recorded a number of Swindell songs, including the hit “Roller Coaster,” but the fledgling songwriter also had Thomas Rhett, Scotty McCreery, and Craig Campbell cut his tunes. As he gained a foothold as a songwriter, Swindell made tentative steps toward a performing career, releasing “Chillin’ It” independently in 2013. It did well enough to earn the attention of Warner Music Nashville, who signed Swindell in July of 2013, then re-released the single to country radio. “Chillin’ It” wound up climbing to number one on Billboard’s Hot Country charts, crossing over to 28 on the pop Top 40.

Down Home Sessions”Chillin’ It” launched Swindell into the mainstream, setting up the release of his eponymous debut in February 2014. The album generated two number one hits on the Country Airplay charts that year — “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” and “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey” — and they shared space on the charts with “This Is How We Roll,” a song he co-wrote with Luke Bryan, who recorded the tune with Florida Georgia Line. As he worked on a new album, Swindell released an EP called Down Home Sessions in November 2014; the Down Home Sessions would become a late-year tradition for the singer, who released an EP every November or October into 2017.

You Should Be HereSwindell’s purple patch extended into 2015 when he won ACM’s New Artist of the Year award and “Let Me See Ya Girl” was pulled from his debut; it went to number two on the Country Airplay charts. “You Should Be Here,” the first single from the album of the same name, was released in December 2015 and worked its way to number one on the Country Airplay charts in early 2016. “Middle of a Memory” reached the same position a little after the May 2016 release of You Should Be Here. “Flatliner,” a duet with Dierks Bentley, kept the album in the charts into 2017 — it peaked at two on Country Airplay — after which time, Swindell turned to record his third album. Entitled All of It, the record appeared in August 2018, preceded by “Break Up in the End,” which peaked at six on Country Airplay. The following year saw the release of the singles “Down to Earth,” “All Nighter,” and “Drinkin’ Hours.” 2020 brought the ruminative but punchy “Single Saturday Night.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In December of 1992, Collin Raye shoots the video for “I Want You Bad,” using Billy Bob’s regulars for the crowd shots.

Collin recorded parts of his music video for “I Want You Bad [And That Ain’t No Good]” the same night as his “Live at Billy Bob’s” recording.

ABOUT COLLIN RAYE:

Born Floyd Elliot Wray on August 22, 1960, in De Queens, Arkansas, country artist Collin Raye was one of the true hit makers of the 1990s. Collin still continues to crank out soulful, heartfelt material with the honesty and richness that is signature to his vocals alone. With 24 top ten records, 16 #1 hits, and having been a 10-time male vocalist of the year nominee (5 CMA and 5 ACM), this truly electrifying performer of his era remains one of the great voices of our time.

Collin Raye is nothing if not passionate. His soulful delivery has set country standards in such searing ballads as “Love, Me,” “In This Life,” “Not That Different” and “If I were you”. Always an energizing showman, he has also blazed through such vivid rockers as “My Kind of Girl,” “That’s My Story,” “I Can Still Feel You” and “I Want You Bad.”

Collin shot to fame with “Love, Me” in 1991. Listeners were so moved by this golden and pure voice that this song set the cornerstone for a career built on meaningful and emotional songs that have often been used for weddings, anniversaries, memorial services, and funerals. When “Little Rock”, an anthem for those struggling with addiction recovery, hit the chart in 1994, its video led to over 100,000 phone calls to Alcoholics Anonymous from folks seeking help in their addictions. “Not That Different” was a song that pleaded for tolerance. “In This Life” became a wedding favorite, and, “I Think About You” won awards for its song and video which exposed the exploitation of women and children.

Collin Raye has consistently used his stardom to advance social causes. Among the organizations he has supported are Boys Town, First Steps, Al-Anon, Special Olympics, Country Cares About AIDS, Catholic Relief Services, Parade of Pennies, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, The Tennessee Task Force Against Domestic Violence, The Emily Harrison Foundation, Childhelp USA, Silent Witness National Initiative, Easter Seals, The Life and Hope Network, and Make a Difference Day. It came as no surprise when in 2001 at the Country Radio Seminar, Clint Black presented Collin Raye with the organization’s Humanitarian of the Year award in recognition of Collin’s issue-oriented music and his tireless charity work.

The man who has topped the charts with such great songs as “On the Verge,” “One Boy, One Girl,” “What the Heart Wants,” “Every Second”, “That Was a River”, “Anyone Else”, and “If I were you” continues to touch hearts across the globe in both traditional and new ways. Collin Raye’s new outreach is very personal. In 2010, after the loss of his precious 10-year-old grandchild, Haley, Collin and his daughter Britanny (Haley’s mother) established The Haley Bell Blessed Chair Foundation to honor her memory. The Foundation supports and assists families of the cognitively and physically disabled with a primary emphasis on supplying wheelchairs and other necessary medical equipment to elevate the quality of life for a disabled family member in need. Collin wrote a very special song for Haley called, “She’s with me”, which carries a powerful message for families of special needs children. Additionally, in 2011 Collin released his first inspirational album, His Love Remains, which quickly shot to #1 on Amazon for inspirational and religious music. Collin continues to perform his traditional country music across America and abroad and has added Christian and Catholic concerts to his tour schedule as well. His autobiography, That’s My Story: The Undefeated Life of Collin Raye is set for release in early 2014. He currently resides in Nashville, TN with his daughter, Britanny, and granddaughter, Mattie.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

ABOUT COLTER WALL: 

Western Canadian songwriter, Colter Wall, is a weathered baritone that spins narratives on the stage. He sings traditional known to most, historic reverie, and poignant originals, raising both goosebumps and beers throughout the evening. It’s a nostalgic atmosphere and a simple yet colorful experience.

Wall recorded a seven-song EP, Imaginary Appalachia, with Jason Plumb as producer in 2015 at Studio One in Regina, Saskatchewan. He collaborated on the EP with other artists from Regina such as Belle Plaine and The Dead South. He described his music as a blend of blues, folk and Americana. The EP was released on March 9, 2015, and “The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie” was released as his first single. His music gained more attention in late 2015 when professional wrestler Brock Lesnar mentioned him as a favorite artist during an interview with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Songs from the album were featured in the television show Dog the Bounty Hunter, and the films Hell or High Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The track used in the films, “Sleeping on the Blacktop”, gained more than a million streams on Spotify.

Three of Wall’s songs are featured in the fourth season of the Paramount series Yellowstone, including a rendition of Rex Allen‘s 1951 classic “Cowpoke”, plus Wall’s own “Plain to See Plainsman” and “Sleeping on the Blacktop”.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Country Legend Conway Twitty died June 5, 1993, only a few weeks before his scheduled performance at Billy Bob’s on June 26. With many tickets for the show already sold, Skip Ewing performed a tribute to the late singer. Ticket holders were allowed to enjoy the for free, and were also offered a refund of their tickets. Around 50 percent of the concert-goers did not ask for a refund so they could keep their ticket as a memento.

ABOUT CONWAY TWITTY:

By any measure, the career of singer, songwriter, producer, entertainer and recording artist Conway Twitty stands among the greatest in the history of popular music. His 55 No. 1 singles are an astounding and singular accomplishment in the annals of the recording industry. Those hits drove sales of more than 50 million records, powering literally thousands of live performances for tens of millions of fans, and led to more than 100 major awards.

Numbers, however, don’t tell the whole story. They don’t even tell the most important part of the story. Because in Conway Twitty, the world has a refreshing example of a natural — a natural athlete, a natural singer, a naturally caring and charismatic person who never took his abilities for granted. Instead, Twitty respected his gifts by working at them, and by respecting everyone he touched. There is no tortured artist in this story. There is no grand comeback from the brink of self-destruction. Just the remarkably steady journey of a man who never drank, never used drugs, but simply worked hard at what he loved, a family he loved deeply and the fans that cared for him.
From Sun Studios in Memphis and the infancy of rock and roll to the top of the country charts and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Conway built an astounding musical legacy that spanned five decades. The truest assessment of that legacy will never make it onto history’s pages, however, because it is written on the hearts of everyone he knew and everyone who knew him through his music. This is Conway Twitty. Even as a small child, it was apparent there was something special about Twitty. Born Harold Lloyd Jenkins on September 1, 1933 in rural Friars Point, Mississippi, the boy had uncommon abilities and a penchant for helping those around him.Given his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of four, Harold demonstrated a musical gift. He formed his first band, the Phillips County Ramblers when he was 10 after the family had moved to Helena, Arkansas. His mother was the breadwinner and his father found spotty work as a Mississippi riverboat pilot. Harold obtained employment as a carhop and used his earnings to buy clothes and shoes for his brother and sister.
When one of a group of friends horsing around in a local cemetery was pinned under a fallen tombstone, young Harold started to flee with the rest of the frightened pack of boys. He stopped short, however, returning to assist his friend and lifting the stone enough for the boy to scramble free. When the full group returned the next day to reset the stone, they marveled at the feat, as the entire group of them were unable to lift it.

He landed a weekly radio show, and in his other passion, baseball, developed his skills to the point of playing semi-pro and being offered a contract by the Philadelphia Phillies after high school. Jenkins figured his destiny was decided when he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. Fate intervened, however, when he was drafted by a much bigger team — the U.S. Army. While stationed in Japan, he kept both his dreams alive by forming a band and playing on the local Army baseball team. The band was called the “Cimmarons” and played at different clubs. After his release from the army it was the mid 1950s and the sudden popularity of a young man named Elvis Presley drew a still very young Harold Jenkins to Memphis.

While recording at Sun Studios with Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, Jenkins began developing a sound that would lead to a record deal with MGM. He also took a stage name, contracting the names of two cities — Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas. In 1958, Conway Twitty scored his first No. 1 hit titled “It’s Only Make Believe.”

His career as a rock-n-roll act took off, with the single topping the chart in 22 different countries and going on to sell eight million copies. Despite making a name for himself as a rock n roller, Twitty had always loved country music. In fact, his reverence for the genre and its seasoned performers factored into his decision to become a rock n roll performer. Twitty also enjoyed a short-lived movie career, appearing in films like Sex Kittens Go To College (with Mamie Van Doren), Platinum High School (Mickey Rooney), and College Confidential (Steve Allen) and writing the title and sound track songs for the films. A play and movie was created titled “Bye Bye Birdie” which was a story about a young rock-n-roll star. It was written with the idea that Conway would do the starring role. The lead character’s name, Conrad Birdie, was created specifically with Conway in mind. Conway did a lot of soul searching and decided that theatre and the movies were not for him, so he turned down the offer and remained focused on his true love of music.

At first, rock n roll seemed to be a place where a young man with a lot of raw talent could thrive. Through his early recording and touring (including three gold records), Twitty got to know a fair number of country stars, eventually abandoning his insecurities so he could “compete with my heroes.”

After eight years of playing sock hops and dance clubs, Twitty heard the ticking of an internal clock that seemed to guide all the major decisions in his life. One night on a stage in Summer’s Point, New Jersey, Twitty looked out at a room full of people he didn’t know. With a wife and three kids at home, he realized his days of providing background music for sweaty teens were over. Twitty put down his guitar, walked off the stage and embarked on one of the greatest country careers in history.

Signed by legendary producer Owen Bradley to MCA/Decca in 1965, Twitty released several singles before 1968’s “Next In Line” became his first country No. 1. And thus began a run unmatched in music history. Twitty reeled off 50 consecutive No. 1 hits.

Widely regarded by Nashville’s songwriters as “the best friend a song ever had,” Twitty was pitched top shelf material for the better part of two decades. Much of it he turned away, even passing eventual smash singles on to other artists. One of his many gifts, beyond the elusive art of
knowing which songs would be hits, was knowing which of those songs would work for him. Of course, he was one of Music Row’s best songwriters in his own right, writing 19 of his No. 1s and earning Grammy nominations for compositions including his signature song “Hello Darlin’.”

Twitty’s tunes are the mile markers for three decades of country music: “Hello Darlin’,” “Goodbye Time,” “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” “Linda On My Mind,” “I’d Love To Lay You Down,” “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” “That’s My Job.” Conway also entered into a duet partnership with the top female vocalist of that time, Loretta Lynn. They became the most awarded male/female duet in history recording with songs like “After The Fire Is Gone,” “Lead Me On,” and “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man

His way with hits extended beyond writing, choosing and making great records to arranging them in a way that brilliantly paced his live performances. As an entertainer, he was a master of understatement and mystery who was nicknamed the “High Priest of Country Music” by his peers.

He avoided onstage banter in favor of a tightly woven journey through his beloved hit songs. “I’m often asked why ,” Conway said, Why don’t I talk at my concerts. My answer is always the same. I do talk, but the communication is through my music” Conway said.

His voice even reached into outer space when “Hello Darlin” was played around the world during the link up between America’s orbiting astronauts and Russia’s cosmonauts in a gesture of international good will.

Twitty had a tremendous respect for women and sang many of his biggest hits directly to them. By choosing to perform songs with adult themes, many of which were controversial at the time, he built a passionate fan base. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this is illustrated by a California performance where an audience member suffered a heart attack. The woman refused paramedic’s urgings that she accompany them to the hospital, saying she wasn’t leaving until she heard “Hello Darlin’.” A note was passed to the stage and Twitty performed the show closer earlier than planned so his fan could receive proper medical care.

Despite such adoration, Twitty remained a genuine and unpretentious person. He regularly stayed hours after his shows signing autographs, once staying so long as to be engaged in a discussion with the venue janitor as his bus left without him. At home, he drove an old Pacer station wagon and favored jogging suits and ball caps. On many occasions people would stop him and ask if he’d been told he resembled Conway Twitty. “I’ve heard that,” he’d reply, “but I don’t see the resemblance.”

In 1982, Conway opened one of the largest tourist attractions in the state of Tennessee. Twitty City, located north of Nashville in Hendersonville, was a true testament to his deep love and appreciation for his fans. Hundreds of thousands of them roamed the grounds year round, taking in views that included the mansion of Conway and his wife, Mickey, the home of his mother and the homes of his four adult children. The Twitty City complex also included Conway Twitty Enterprises, a gift shop, a
theatrical showcase of Conway’s life, beautifully landscaped grounds with water falls and a pavilion area.

His love of Christmas led to an annual light festival that eventually included live reindeer, snow machines and millions of visitors. Twitty donated proceeds from tours of the grounds to help the families of local fallen police and firefighters. Another regular event was a Christmas For Kids concert that raised funds to help underprivileged children. He also built a ball field for the local Little League that still bears his name.

Giving back was not simply a reaction to his wealth, however. It was part of his nature. In the early rock days when he was barely clearing enough money to cover expenses, Twitty was approached at a truck stop by a man asking for $20 so he and his pregnant wife could buy enough gas to return home. Twitty gave the man $200. Years later, Twitty and his children were dining at a restaurant in Oklahoma City when a man asked to speak to the star. Twitty’s children watched their father talking quietly with the man, and saw him grow misty eyed as the man handed their father an envelope.
Despite Twitty’s insistence that the money was a gift, the man from the truck stop was determined to repay him.

Charitable endeavors were something rarely discussed. “If you have to talk about it, it’s not from the heart,” Twitty would say. And though his pairing with Loretta Lynn was one of the most celebrated duets in history, he never complained that the Country Music Association never recognized him with an award for his accomplishments as a solo artist. “Each one of my fans is enough of an award for me,” he’d say.

Nevertheless, he was a hard working, determined and quietly ambitious man who believed he was called to do more than rest on his God-given abilities. And so he pushed to evolve his gifts, driving to improve upon his last album, to record another smash, to break another concert attendance record. In 36 years of touring, he never missed a show — an example of consistency that, to use an analogy from his favorite sport made him a musical DiMaggio or Ripken. This came from a man who would turn down so much as an aspirin, and coming out of an era when entertainers were often encouraged to medicate by their own traveling physicians.

Asked in the midst of his incredible streak what he’d do if one of his songs didn’t reach No. 1, the unassuming Twitty replied, “I’ll just start over.” And when the follow up to “Don’t Call Him A Cowboy” peaked at #2, that’s exactly what he did — scoring five more chart-toppers, the last being “Crazy In Love,” before his untimely death in June, 1993. His last album, Final Touches, was released after his death later that year.

If there’s an unfortunate addendum to Twitty’s story, it is that his place in the history of country music has largely been overlooked. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, but a legal battle over his estate kept his sons and daughters from endeavoring to tell his story for almost 14 years. Until now.

And yet as they begin work on the reissues, the box sets and the retrospectives so long overdue, they are continually reminded of the foundation upon which their father’s unparalleled achievements were built. Those who worked with Conway, knew him or were influenced by him approach with stories of a true gentleman, someone who, as one fellow performer described him, “wore a white hat.” Throughout his life, Conway would tell people, “If you do what you love and you’re able to take care of the people you love, it doesn’t matter what you do. You’re a successful man. ” Undoubtedly, that is the legacy that would have meant the most to Harold “Conway Twitty” Jenkins. Which makes the rest of his story — the accomplishments and accolades — that much sweeter.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

The Song “Llano Estacado” from his “Live at Billy Bob’s” album was featured in a Dodge truck TV campaign.

ABOUT COODER GRAW:

Cooder Graw barreled out of the gate in 1997, amidst a ferocious stampede of Texas artists including Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Roger Creager, on a trail blazed by legendary Texas musicians turned national stars like Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green, and Jack Ingram, in the heat of the uprising Texas and Red Dirt music revolution. No shortage of excitement on stage, their unpredictable live show, and hard-charging, guitar-driven sound – uniquely branded “loud country” – coupled with that enigmatic yet unforgettable name, set Cooder Graw firmly among the landmark acts that built the Texas music machine around the turn of the millennium.

From modest beginnings playing covers at the Golden Light Cantina in Amarillo, the band – including lead singer/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Matt Martindale, lead guitar Kelly Turner, and Paul Baker on bass guitar – quickly earned a loyal fan base and in 1998 released their debut album, Home at the Golden Light, which credits Matthew McConaughey, a fraternity brother of Martindale, as executive producer. The live offering led to opening shows for such renowned country artists as Willie Nelson, Alabama, Dwight Yoakum, Robert Earl Keen, and Asleep at the Wheel, among others. In 2000 came their debut studio release, the self-titled Cooder Graw, co-produced by multiple Grammy Award-winner Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel and Hayden Nicholas, nine-time #1 country songwriter and guitarist for Clint Black. The sophomore effort made itself at home on the national radio charts for 13 straight weeks and delivered classic favorites like “18 Wheels of Loving,” “Dirty Little Hometown Girl,” and “My Give a Damn is Broken.” In early 2001, Cooder Graw issued their second live album, Segundo, which mixed previously unrecorded tunes with renditions of favorites from their debut, and spawned the group’s first top 10 hit on the Texas country charts with “Willie’s Guitar.” A second 2001 offering, the studio album Shifting Gears, scored two more top 10 Texas hits with “New Dress” and “Better Days,” the latter of which remained on the charts for an incredible 40 weeks, and inspired the band’s first music video that aired on major country music networks including Great American Country (GAC). The band’s 2002 installment in the famed Live at Billy Bob’s Texas album series opened with “Llano Estacado,” the now-infamous loud country anthem that was featured on a series of national Dodge truck commercials and made Cooder Graw a household name across the Lone Star state. In 2004, the Panhandle band released their sixth album, Wake Up, featuring the chart-friendly single “Lifetime Stand.” Described by Martindale as “edgier and a little rawer,” with the hard-rocking live show staple “Clarksdale” and haunting melody of “That Girl Crystal,” the release was a decidedly different offering from the group who had matured musically.

Cooder Graw toured relentlessly for most of a decade, playing 200 dates a year at many of the finest venues across the Southwest, and by the end of 2006, the road-weary band was feeling the toll of living their songs nightly and longing for home. They played a final show at The Horseman Club in Fort Worth on New Year’s Eve and announced they would stop touring indefinitely. After a six-year hiatus, the group came together in 2012 for what was expected to be a short reunion tour but the Cooder fan base is as fervent as ever and the band is enjoying a relaxed touring schedule without expectations, having a good time playing well-worn songs and writing new ones. With the 2016 release of Love to Live By, a six-song EP, the Panhandle band marks the beginning of a new chapter. Produced by Rich Brotherton and recorded at The Congress House Studio in Austin, the long-awaited seventh album release is a sweet taste of all that fans love about Cooder Graw. The chart-climbing lead single, “Heart of Breaking Up,” delivers with Martindale’s signature down-home lyrical style and the good-feeling, loud country sound that fans know and love. Same with the hard-rocking “Virginia Slims and Little Kings,” a nostalgic, adolescent love anthem set to be the song of the summer. The title track, “Love to Live By,” a sensual slow burner that calls for dancing slow and close, is accompanied by a powerful new music video with a message of support for military veterans and their families. With the return of drummer Kelly Test and the addition of Carmen Acciaioli on fiddle and Danny Crelin on pedal steel, the momentum continues to build for Cooder Graw, blazing a new trail and leaving their unmistakable mark in Texas music history.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

The night of June 17, 2011, Cory Morrow stepped on the main stage to record his “Live at Billy Bob’s” album was his 30^th show at Billy Bob’s Texas.

ABOUT CORY MORROW:

Cory Morrow didn’t become a Texas legend by being quiet. He sings about strippers and Jesus with equal fervor. While this dichotomy may leave those on either side of the moral equator perplexed – the answer is actually very simple. Cory Morrow is beautifully and uncomfortably transparent. From the beer-soaked, cocaine laden days of his early career, to today’s more sober and spiritual leg of the journey, one thing about Morrow has never changed – as goes Cory’s life, goes Cory’s songs – and that’s never been more evident than on his newest studio release “Whiskey & Pride”.

The record is an aggressive blend of early Morrow sound with a current day perspective. Vintage feel from an evolving heart and mind. The title track, “Whiskey & Pride” features the age-old struggle of love versus ego and cleverly straddles the line of sermon and self-deprecation. The twist comes in the form of a mirror behind a bar that reveals the true identity of the accuser. The track, which is also the first single release, features the Texas Country-style instrumentation prevalent in Morrow’s early days, including steel guitar phenom and producer of “Whiskey & Pride”, Lloyd Maines.

“Whiskey” boasts twelve songs previously unrecorded, including two covers giving nod to mentors Rodney Crowell (Funny Feeling) and Jerry Jeff Walker (Hill Country Rain). Quite possibly, the jewel for fans is “Always and Forever”, an iconic Morrow ballad that has only appeared on live recordings. Cory is joined by the unforgettable Jamie Lin Wilson on the long-awaited studio version of the classic.

“Whiskey and Pride” runs the gamut on subject matter from the daily grind (Restless, Blue Collar) to living in the moment (Breath, Let’s Take This Outside). Musically, it explores the spectrum from tender (Smile, Daisey) to raucous (One Foot, Revival), and includes spectacular moments from long-time band-leader and coveted studio guitar player John Carroll. “Whiskey” seamlessly weaves its way through simple and sweet, moody and complex, and offers equal doses of introspection and fun.

If the record, and this phase of Morrow’s career, had to be summed up in one word – the word would be “real”. As evidenced by his latest recordings, live shows, and online communication with fans, he’s not pandering, he’s simply doing what he knows. Pulling back the curtains, letting us in, and letting the chips fall where they may.

“Whiskey & Pride” is much more than a collection of songs. It’s another mile-marker in the journey of Cory Morrow.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On April 7, 2001, Creedence Clearwater Revisited made their debut at Billy Bob’s Texas.

ABOUT CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL:

Creedence Clearwater Revival founding members and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Stu Cook and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford have been on quite a ride. Following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cosmo and Stu launched their Creedence Clearwater Revisited project in 1995 to once again perform live in concert the hit songs — touchstones of a generation.
Since then, the legendary rhythm section has been thrilled by the outpouring of affection for their new band. World tours and a platinum selling album Recollection followed. The astounding response to the band has been driven in part by new generations of fans that, as Cosmo says, “weren’t even born when the music came out.”

It is the rhythm section Doug Clifford’s drums and Stu Cook’s bass that is a hallmark of Creedence Clearwater Revival

While, as udiscovermusic.com recently commented, it is the “rhythm section Doug Clifford’s drums and Stu Cook’s bass that is a hallmark of Creedence Clearwater Revival,” the boys did not take assembling the rest of the new group’s players lightly. “In the beginning Cosmo and I decided that if we could find the musicians that could capture the sound and recreate what the music was about, we’d do it,” recalls Stu.

As fans around the world can attest, Stu and Cosmo found the right players. Lead guitarist Kurt Griffey brings crowds to their feet and the front of the stage with his solos. He has recorded and toured with other notable musicians including members of the Eagles, Foreigner, the Moody Blues, Wings, Lynyrd Skynryd, Santana and Journey. On lead vocal and rhythm guitar is Dan McGuinness. The purity, power and range of Dan’s soaring voice hits right to the heart. Multi-instrumentalist Steve Gunner rounds out the group. As Cosmo puts it, “Gun provides live all the overdubs that were on the records – keyboard, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonica and the high harmonies.”

In 2013, Classic Rock Revisited critic Jeb Wright wrote about a Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert he attended. “The true test of any concert is how the music makes you feel. On this night, this writer walked away with a wonderful feeling, having just witnessed timeless, historical music, performed to perfection. Creedence Clearwater Revisited not only looks to the past, performing iconic songs, they bring them to the modern day, reminding us all of the true importance of this music.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Cross Canadian Ragweed once jammed an impromptu set on the Honky Tonk stage after a Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo show.

They held their Red Dirt Round Up Festival at Billy Bob’s Texas in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

ABOUT CROSS CANADIAN RAGWEED:

Cross Canadian Ragweed established themselves as a relentless touring band throughout the Texas/Oklahoma area and then broadened their reach, nationally releasing several albums of rabble-rousing alt-country. Formed in 1994 in Stillwater, OK, the band took its name from those of its members: frontman and lead guitarist Cody Canada, drummer Randy Ragsdale, rhythm guitarist Grady Cross, and bassist Jeremy Plato. Though the band toured heavily from its inception, establishing a particularly strong fan base in Texas, it didn’t release its first album until 2001 when Underground Sound released Highway 377. Two more releases for the label followed, Live and Loud at the Wormy Dog (2001) and Carney (2002), before the band moved to Smith Music Group for Live and Loud at Billy Bob’s Texas (2002). In 2004 the group signed to Universal South and released Soul Gravy, followed by Garage in October of 2005. The band released the double live CD/DVD Back to Tulsa: Live and Loud at Cain’s Ballroom in 2006, followed by its sixth studio album, Mission California, in 2007. Happiness and All the Other Things, which was dedicated to Willie Nelson’s late stage manager Randall “Poodie” Locke, arrived in 2009.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 7, 1990, Dan Seals added himself to the “Wall of Fame” after putting his hands in concrete.

ABOUT DAN SEALS:

Dan Seals was a Country & Soft Rock musician. He was known initially as “England Dan”, in the duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, which he formed with his childhood friend John Coley. As a duo, they’ve charted nine singles on the Billboard charts between 1976 and 1980, including the hit “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight”.

In 1983, Dan pursued a solo career after signing with Capitol Records & moving to Nashville to record Country music. Starting with his debut record on Capitol, “Rebel Heart”, Dan achieved a string of 20+ consecutive Top 10’s across 16 albums. Some of the notable singles include his duet with Marie Osmond “Meet Me in Montana”, “God Must Be A Cowboy”, his cover of Sam Cooke’s “Good Times” and “Bop”. Following the release of his charting 1991 Record “Walking The Wire”, He continued recording solo and later touring with his brother Jim as Seals & Seals.

In 2009, Dan had unfortunately passed away from mantle cell Lymphoma in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2010, a duet of “These Dreams” Seals had recorded with Juice Newton on her duets record that year, and Kenny Rogers included a cover of “It’s Gonna Be Easy Now” that was released on his 2013 record.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

South Carolina-rockers Hootie & the Blowfish perform in June, then Hootie front man Darius Rucker returns solo in October to support his second solo disc Learn to Live.

ABOUT DARIUS RUCKER:

Darius Rucker first attained multi-Platinum status in the music industry as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of GRAMMY award-winning Hootie & the Blowfish. Since re-introducing himself to the world as a country artist, he has released four consecutive albums to top the Billboard Country albums chart and earned a whole new legion of fans. In 2014, Rucker won his third career GRAMMY award for Best Solo Country Performance for his 4x Platinum selling cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” off his album, True Believers.

Rucker’s first two country albums, Learn To Live and Charleston, SC 1966 produced five No. 1 singles including “Come Back Song,” “This,” “Alright,” “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” and “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.” Southern Style, his fourth studio country album, features his seventh No. 1 single “Homegrown Honey,” co-written by Rucker, label mate Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Nathan Chapman.

When Was The Last Time, his forthcoming fifth album for Capitol Nashville, is due out October 20, and the first single, “If I Told You,” has already gone on to become Rucker’s eighth No. 1 on country radio. The album’s second single “For The First Time” is available digitally and currently climbing the country charts.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 21, 1995, Daryle Singletary cemented his hands on to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT DARYLE SINGLETARY:

Neo-traditionalist singer Daryle Singletary was among the brightest new stars to arrive on the contemporary country scene of the mid-’90s, winning fans with his simple, honest songcraft and distinctively gravelly vocals. Born and raised in Cairo, Georgia, he grew up singing gospel alongside his cousins and brother, and while attending high school enrolled in a variety of vocal classes; after graduation, he worked at a tractor dealership before relocating to Nashville to pursue a career in music.

In Music City, Singletary frequently shared open-mike stages and amateur showcases alongside fellow up-and-comers like Tracy Lawrence and Tim McGraw; he eventually found work as a demo singer, recording the track “Old Pair of Shoes” for an independent label. The song made its way to Randy Travis, who decided to record it himself while recommending Singletary to his management team. In short time, Singletary signed to Giant Records, and in 1995 he released his self-titled debut LP, scoring the smash hit singles “I Let Her Lie” and “Too Much Fun.” The follow-up, All Because of You, appeared in late 1996 and generated the hit “Amen Kind of Love.” Singletary’s third album, Ain’t It the Truth, was released in early 1998, followed by That’s Why I Sing This Way on Audium Records in 2002.

It would be five years before his next release, Straight from the Heart, appeared in 2007 from Shanachie Records. Rockin’ in the Country was released by Koch Records in 2009. After a six-year hiatus from recording — he still performed live in the interim — Singletary returned in 2015 with There’s Still a Little Country Left. In the summer of 2017 he released American Grandstand, a duets album with Rhonda Vincent. Daryle Singletary died unexpectedly at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee on February 12, 2018. He was 46 years old.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Tammy Wynette cancels because of illness on June 24 of 1995. Billy Minick calls David Allan Coe on his cell phone and asks him to fill in for the legend. Coe makes it by showtime and even sings “Stand by Your Man.”

ABOUT DAVID ALLAN COE:

Born in Akron, Ohio, US, Coe lived a troubled youth, spending much of his time in and out of various youth correctional facilities. Having befriended each other in prison, it is thought that Coe was inspired to pursue a career in music by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, with the pair thought to have written songs together whilst behind bars. Upon release from a prison term, Coe took heed of Hawkins’ advice and travelled to Nashville to begin a career in music, where he caught the attention of Plantation Records, releasing his debut album “Penitentiary Blues” in 1970.

Coe became one of the most desired songwriters in the Nashville scene, writing hit songs for artists such as Billie Joe Spears’ 1972 song “Souvenirs and California Mem’rys” and Tanya Tucker’s number one hit in 1973, “Would You Lay With Me (in a field of stone). Despite this success, he had not managed to forge a path with his own career as a solo artist, remaining an underground talent, unable to break into the mainstream charts. Although in 1975, his second record, “Once upon a Rhyme, “ featured the number ten hit of his cover of Steve Goodman’s and John Prine’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.”

Moving to Key West,Florida, US, Coe independently released two albums, the comedy inspired “Nothing Sacred” (1978) and his controversial “Underground Album” (1982). Coe again enjoyed chart success in the 1980s, with his hit songs “The Ride” (1983) and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” (1984). Since the 90s, Coe has being involved in a number of collaborative efforts, most notably “Rebel Meets Rebel,” a joint effort by Coe and Dimebag Darell and his brother Vinnie Paul alongside Rex Brown, a pioneering work fusing country with metal.

As a talented songwriter and charismatic performer, Coe has garnered legendary status in the world of country music, alongside his wild tales and behaviour. His lyrics have spurred controversy, featuring frequent profanities, tales of drug use and sexually explicit material, gaining him the title of the ‘outlaw’s outlaw.’ With his throaty baritone and dirty grooves, Coe’s honky-tonk country certainly sounds pretty badass.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 8, 1994, David Ball cemented his hands on to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT DAVID BALL:

Vocalist and songwriter David Ball is a country artist whose music respects the traditions of classic honky tonk sounds while also leaving room for folk and blues accents. After earning a cult following with the acoustic country act Uncle Walt’s Band, whose sound anticipated the Americana movement, Ball found fame with his 1994 album Thinkin’ Problem and its title track, a superb exercise in neo-traditionalist country that often saw him compared to acts like George Strait and Randy Travis. In many respects, however, he had more in common with Dwight Yoakam in his mix of old-school sounds with a newfangled energy and sense of sonic adventure. While Thinkin’ Problem was Ball’s best and most popular album, after he left the major labels behind, he welcomed the freedom to embrace more traditional sounds on independent releases such as 2001’s Amigo and 2004’s Freewheeler.

David Ball was born in July 9, 1953 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and grew up in Spartanburg, a town 60 miles to the west. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother played the piano. When he was little, Ball picked up a ukulele and learned to play, and he graduated to the guitar when he was 12. When Ball was in junior high, he began writing songs and played bass in the school band while playing country tunes with his friends, occasionally performing at school talent shows. Ball made friends with two other local music fans, Walter Hyatt and Champ Hood, and they started playing music together that was one-part traditional country, one-part bluegrass, and one-part Western swing. The trio called themselves Uncle Walt’s Band (with Ball singing lead and playing upright bass), and after winning over audiences in South Carolina, they relocated to Nashville, hoping to break into the big time. Uncle Walt’s Band never landed a breakout hit or a major-label deal, but their independently released albums were well-regarded and they found a loyal following in Austin, Texas, where their smart but unpretentious sound was a good fit for the city’s well-established singer/songwriter community. The group made a home in Austin, but a wider audience eluded them, and they broke up in 1983.

By the late ’80s, Ball had returned to Nashville and was making ends meet as a contract songwriter when he landed his first record deal as a solo artist with RCA. Between May 1988 and September 1989, they released three singles from Ball, “You Go, You’re Gone,” “Steppin’ Out,” and “Gift of Love” (curiously they all had the same B-side, “I Wish He Was Me [And She Was You]”), but sales were middling at best and an album Ball cut for the label went unreleased. He fared better when he signed with Warner Bros. several years later; his first single for Warner, 1994’s “Thinkin’ Problem,” was a major hit that rose to number two on the Country Singles chart (it also crossed over to the pop chart, peaking at 40), while the album of the same name went platinum and spawned four other singles that entered the Country charts (“When the Thought of You Catched Up with Me” peaked at number seven and “Look What Followed Me Home” rose to number 11). The success of Thinkin’ Problem prompted RCA to finally bring out Ball’s unreleased 1989 album in 1994, simply titled David Ball (it also appeared as Steppin’ Out).

Starlite Lounge

Ball released two more albums for Warner Bros., 1996’s Starlite Lounge and 1999’s Play, before he moved to the independent Dualtone label in a bid for greater creative freedom. (During his Warner period, Ball was invited by Bob Dylan to contribute a performance of “Miss the Mississippi and You” for his 1997 multi-artist set The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute.) Ball’s Dualtone debut, 2001’s Amigo, included the song “Riding with Private Malone,” which became one of the rare indie label country singles to become a major commercial success, peaking at number two on the country singles survey. The album also earned enthusiastic reviews from critics, as did 2004’s Freewheeler, which appeared on Wildcatter Records. 2004 also saw the release of Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster, another multi-artist tribute album, with Ball singing “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).” 2007’s Heartaches by the Number (on Shanachie Records) included one original song, “Please Feed the Jukebox,” along with covers of ten country classics. Ball had 11 fresh originals at hand for 2010’s Sparkle City, which found him jumping labels again, this time to E1 Entertainment. A holiday album, The Greatest Christmas, arrived in September 2011 in time for yuletide festivities.

Anthology: Those Boys From Carolina, They Sure Could Sing…

After a long recording layoff in which Ball devoted his time to touring, he issued the album Come See Me in September 2018. That same year, the celebrated reissue label Omnivore Recordings brought out a collection of material by Uncle Walt’s Band, Anthology: Those Boys from Carolina, They Sure Enough Could Sing, while 2019 saw the same label release an expanded edition of UWB’s 1974 debut (which was issued as Uncle Walt’s Band and Blame It on the Bossa Nova). Omnivore next teamed up with Ball for an expanded reissue of Thinkin’ Problem, which came out in 2020 and included his original songwriting demos for several of the tunes.

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Deana Carter, whose CD Did I Shave My Legs for This? Is a hot seller throughout 1997. Carter is known for performing without shoes on, so a DJ from a local radio station encouraged the audience to remove their shoes. Many oblige- including some in cowboy boots.

ABOUT DEANA CARTER:

Drenched in sun-kissed natural beauty both inside and out, Nashville native, Deana Carter, didn’t take a seemingly easy route to stardom, but instead chose to defy the conventional expectations of the typical Nashville artist blueprint and make her own mark. And she did, undeniably taking the industry and fans by storm with her wildly successful multi-platinum international debut “Did I Shave My Legs For This?” more two decades ago. Anchored by the
dreamy super hit ” Strawberry Wine”, Carter showcased her own blend of country and retrorock sprinkled with the folksy singer/songwriter qualities that have garnered Deana Carter well-deserved respect and wild acclaim.

With EIGHT albums under her belt, Carter explores many subjects commonly shared over a quaint dinner, afternoon coffee or a sunny day hike with a good friend.

Her last release of Southern Way of Life was her first dive as Label CEO on her own Little Nugget Records, distributed by Sony/Red. These songs weave through the sometimes rocky
terrain of adulthood, including loss of love, relationships on many different levels, trials, tribulations and simply put – life. As always, Instinctively autobiographical, the subject matter mimics the interesting ride of Carter’s own life – so far.

The daughter of famed studio guitarist and producer Fred Carter, Jr., Deana grew up exposed to the wide variety of musicians her father worked with, including Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, Simon & Garfunkel, Muddy Waters, Dolly Parton, and many more. Their strong influence would eventually seep into Deana’s own country-pop style, which reflects qualities that can also be heard in similar artists now, such as Miranda Lambert and reflective
of artists like Sheryl Crow.

Developing her songwriting skills by trial and error at writer’s nights throughout Nashville, Carter eventually signed a writing deal with Polygram and soon after a record deal with Capitol Records. One of her demo tapes happened to fall into the hands of none other than Willie Nelson, who remembered Deana as a child. Impressed with how she’d grown as a songwriter, Nelson asked Deana to perform along with John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson and Neil Young
as the only female solo artist to appear at Farm Aid VII in 1994.

Her debut album, “Did I Shave My Legs For This?” boasts six songs co-written and with the album co-produced by Carter, was released to strong reviews in late summer 1996. By the end of the year, the record had climbed to the top of both the country and pop charts, quickly achieving multi-platinum status, with 3 number one singles in a row. A “first” for the genre, Deana’s celebrated debut album held this distinction and many ground breaking achievements
for more than 5 years and has become one of Country Music’s most treasured classics of the
90’s.

“Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” followed in late 1998 and in 2001 Carter realized her dream of performing with her dad on an intimate holiday album, aptly titled “Father Christmas.” Making a strong move towards adult pop Carter released “I’m Just a Girl” on Arista Records in 2003, the same year Capitol Records released a Greatest Hits compilation. Follow-ups “The Story of My Life” in 2005 and “The Chain” in 2007 were both released on Vanguard Records. In an effort to pay homage to her musical roots and preserve her legendary father’s label Nugget Records, that famously presented some of the best in country music some 40 years ago, Carter opened her own label, Little Nugget Records, on which her latest album “Southern Way of Life” was released.

Carter now divides her time between Los Angeles, Florida and Nashville, writing and producing for both the pop/rock and country markets when not on the road touring or making movies.

Her superstar success continues to be evident as the chart topper “You & Tequila”, co-written with Matraca Berg and recorded by Kenny Chesney, was nominated as CMA’s “Song of the
Year”, as well as two Grammy nods, notable the coveted “Song of the Year” , and, also, received a nomination as ACM’s “Song of the Year”. You and Tequila received a coveted ‘Songs I Wished I’d Written’ by the NSAI in Nashville, something Deana treasures, coming from
her hometown music community.

Carter also co-wrote and produced an album for recording artist Audra Mae & the Almighty Sound, while putting the finishing touches on her own “Southern Way of Life.”

She has recently held a Governor’s seat on the Grammy Board for the Recording Academy and served on the Producer’s & Engineer’s Wing, The Membership Committee, & held an active voice for Artists & Creators with Advocacy in Washington, D. C. & throughout the last year for Pandemic Relief.

Singer, songwriter, producer – Deana Carter continues to defy conventional expectations,
making waves as she makes great music, tours, & makes movies.

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Marcia Ball joined Delbert McClinton onstage after her performance downtown at Caravan of Dreams.

ABOUT DELBERT MCCLINTON:

Delbert: 2020
“Yeah Baby!”

Congratulations to Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men + Dana for their 2020 Grammy® Win for Best Traditional Blues Album: Tall, Dark, & Handsome (Hot Shot Records/Thirty Tigers).

It’s been a big year for Delbert, as he has earned the Americana Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance; celebrated the 26th annual Sandy Beaches Cruise; riding the wave of his fourth Grammy®, he kicks off a new year of tour dates from coast to coast.

Delbert will turn 80 in November, and this month marks his 63rd year on stage. From the road houses of Fort Worth to Carnegie Hall and the White House, Delbert admits that he has always been “a fugitive from the law of averages.” Delbert wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on Tall, Dark & Handsome, and Rolling Stone said, “It’s not a stretch to say that McClinton is making the best music of his career.”

Never one to rest on his laurels, today, he is working on his next album which should be out within the year. 2020 will also bring a new paperback edition of the Delbert McClinton: One Of The Fortunate Few (by Diana Finlay Hendricks, Texas A&M University Press) with a new introduction and additional chapter including the latest news of the Texas blues legend.

Tall, Dark, & Handsome (Thirty Tigers/Hot Shot Records), the follow-up to Delbert McClinton’s 2016 Prick of the Litter, offers the easy balance of experience and adventure that has characterized his career for more than sixty years. With this, his 26th original album, Delbert celebrates the strength of his songwriting expertise, the energy of his live performances, and the drive of his touring band.

Fourteen new, original songs, all written or co-written by Delbert, gain momentum as they take the listener on a musical odyssey across the map, moving gracefully from big band to jazz to blues and swing. A dash of tango and a rough-edged, romantic ballad illustrate the diversity, depth, and range of Delbert as an artist, producer, songwriter and musician. Writing sessions with close friends and bandmates, Bob Britt, Kevin McKendree and Mike Joyce, and Dennis Wage, were inspiring.

From Joe Maher’s drum intro on “Mr. Smith,” this album captures the power of a live Delbert show. His trademark vocal style (Lyle Lovett says, “If we could all sing like we want to, we’d all sound like Delbert McClinton.”), is matched by Bob Britt’s guitar and Kevin McKendree’s piano and B-3 organ; with James Pennebaker on guitar; Glenn Worf on bass; and a rock-solid horn section of Dana Robbins (Tenor Sax), Quentin Ware (Trumpet); along with Jim Hoke (Tenor and Bari Sax) and Roy Agee (Trombone), for good measure.

Delbert is the definition of road warrior, having traveled the highways from coast to coast for each of those 62 years. The band on the album is his live band, and he admits, “I love this band. This is the best combination of musicians I have ever worked with.”

Rolling Stone calls him the “Godfather of Americana Music,” and rightfully so. Delbert’s musical style grew from his Texas roots. A little Tejano. A little Bob Wills. Throw in some Jimmy Reed harmonica. Add a splash of Big Joe Turner, and a big band horn section. He has also been nominated for Grammys in the Country category, and has been featured in media from the Los Angeles Times to the Washington Post. He has developed a sound that continues to serve him well, as evidenced by the three Grammy Awards for Contemporary Blues on his mantel.

Born in Lubbock, raised in Fort Worth, and now with homes in Austin, Nashville, and San Miguel de Allende, Delbert recognizes that he has been One Of The Fortunate Few. He grew up with a backstage pass to some of the most significant moments in American culture and music history.

This year, he received the fifth prestigious sidewalk star in Austin’s historic Paramount Theatre on Congress Avenue, an honor that he shares with only two other musicians (Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker) and two celebrated actors (Jaston Williams and Joe Sears, of “Greater Tuna” fame). Also in 2019, The Nobelity Project, which has honored Dan Rather, Kris Kristofferson, and many more, awarded Delbert McClinton with the prestigious Feed the Peace Award, as a dedicated and generous supporter of many great causes throughout Texas and the nation.

From his early Fort Worth bands, the Straitjackets and the Rondels, to his current band, Self‑Made Men + Dana, he continues to play sold‑out concert halls and dance halls, historical theatres and music festivals across the nation. A major player in several waves of the national surge of Texas music popularity, Delbert has performed multiple times on Saturday Night Live, has been featured on Austin City Limits seven times, as one of the most celebrated guests on the popular series; and appeared on many other national television shows.

His career truly defines Americana music: Delbert’s unique story of American history – with big horns, a strong rhythm section and a hot harmonica lead. To borrow from one of the songs on Tall, Dark & Handsome, whether he’s doing a live show or a recording, you can be assured that Delbert McClinton “don’t leave no chicken on the bone.”

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Desert Rose Band made their main stage debut at the World’s Largest on September 8, 1989.

ABOUT DESERT ROSE BAND: 

A contemporary vehicle for country-rock pioneer Chris Hillman (ex-Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers), the Desert Rose Band formed in 1985 with primary songwriter Hillman on lead vocals, guitar, and mandolin. Other members, culled mainly from southern California session players, included banjoist/guitarist Herb Pedersen, guitarist John Jorgenson, steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness, bassist Bill Bryson, and drummer Steve Duncan. Their first single was a 1986 cover of Johnnie & Jack’s “Ashes of Love,” which climbed into the country Top 30. Their self-titled debut album followed in 1987 and spawned a number one hit in “He’s Back and I’m Blue,” plus two more Top Tens in “Love Reunited” and “One Step Forward.” 1988’s Running produced the number one smash “I Still Believe in You,” the number two “Summer Wind,” and the number three “She Don’t Love Nobody.” 1990’s Pages of Life brought their final Top Ten hits in “Story of Love” and “Start All Over Again.” Major personnel turnover followed; Maness was replaced by steel guitarist Tom Brumley, Jorgenson by guitarist Jeff Ross, and Duncan by drummer Tim Grogan. This lineup recorded three albums — 1991’s True Love and two in 1993, Traditional and Life Goes On — but failed to duplicate the success of the band’s first incarnation. After the Desert Rose Band broke up, Hillman and Herb Pedersen continued to work together on a sporadic basis.

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On July 5, 1991, Diamond Rio made their made stage debut and even got add their hands to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT DIAMOND RIO:

Formed in 1989 in Nashville, TN the band consists of Gene Johnson (mandolin, tenor vocals), Jimmy Olander (lead guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo), Brian Prout (drums), Marty Roe (lead vocal), Dan Truman (keyboards), and Dana Williams (bass guitar, baritone vocals).

Diamond Rio recently released I Made It, their tenth studio album. The title track was co-written by the band’s lead guitarist Jimmy Olander and features 11 new songs.  Produced by Olander and Mike Clute, I Made It is available on iTunes and www.diamondrio.com

Diamond Rio signed to Arista Records and in 1991 with the release of “Meet In The Middle” became the first country music group in history to reach No. 1 with a debut single.  The band is also known for their hits “How Your Love Makes Me Feel,” “One More Day,” “Beautiful Mess,” “Unbelievable,” “In A Week or Two,” and more.  They released their first-ever autobiography, Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio on Thomas Nelson in 2009.

The band is known for playing every note on every album recently celebrated their 25th Anniversary, has sold more than 10 million albums, won a Grammy Award, a Dove Award, six Vocal Group of the Year wins (CMA and ACM), released two Greatest Hit albums, a live and Christmas project, earned five multi-week no. 1 singles, 22 Top 10 singles, three certified Platinum and five Gold albums, released an autobiography – and with zero band member changes.  Known for their charity commitments including long-time spokespersons for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the band has raised over $1,000,000.00 for non-profits and received the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award.

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The first performance by Dierks Bentley in August of 2003 is bolstered by the runaway success of his first, self-titled CD.

ABOUT DIERKS BENTLEY:

Seven albums into one of country music’s most-respected and most-unpredictable careers, award-winning singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley continues to grow. His latest evolution comes in the form of RISER, a project due early 2014 that stands as his most personal to date.

Written and recorded in the year following his father’s death, the album draws its title from “I’m A Riser,” a song about resilience and determination. “I’m A Riser” works as a commentary on spiritual, personal and societal recommitment, but it also applies to the competitive battlefield of the music industry. It’s particularly appropriate for an album about rejuvenation delivered by Bentley.

“Life in general has a way of knocking you down,” Bentley says. “It’s different reasons for different folks – could be personal reasons, could be family reasons, your job, drugs, alcohol. That song really applies to anybody that’s lived. There have always been those moments when we have to get back up and get on our feet. They are defining moments…breakthrough moments.”

Accepting change – and growing from it – is a key theme in RISER, and it’s reflected by the tone of the album, which demonstrates a new artistic depth and an extra level of intensity for Bentley. It evolves from track to track, exuding a range of emotions, all the while impressing upon the listener that Bentley’s instinct for a hit is stronger than ever. Bentley made significant reconfigurations in his creative team to shake up his sonic texture without sacrificing his commercial drive. He re-enlisted executive producer Arturo Buenahora Jr., who worked on Bentley’s first two albums; and utilized producer Ross Copperman, who co-wrote “Tip It On Back” for Bentley’s current album Home.

The new atmosphere yielded the most focused and intense vocals of Bentley’s career. Some were recorded live with the band as the musicians laid down the tracks, but others were captured in less-than-obvious locales. One track’s vocal was recorded on Bentley’s tour bus. Still others were cut at Copperman’s house with the producer literally at Bentley’s side, pushing him to some of his most emotional, and seasoned, performances.

“It’s not even really a studio,” Bentley says of Copperman’s set-up. “It’s just kind of a corner of the house he’s taken over, so there was a kind of intimacy to the vocal process. It was important to get out of the studio and sing in different places, and to do it with other people in the room. That way, you have an audience and you get a sense of what’s working, what’s not working, when it’s feeling good, not feeling good. It brings a little more emotion and energy out of your voice.”

Since making a life-altering drive with his father from Phoenix to Nashville when he was 19 years old, Bentley has forged his own path in an industry built predominantly on formula. He has mixed elements of modern country, classic country, bluegrass and rock, maintaining an unmistakable identity while constantly reinventing his sound. His album Home debuted at No. 1 and spawned three consecutive chart-topping hits, marking 12 career No. 1 songs for Bentley as a singer and songwriter. His five previous studio albums have sold more than five million copies, garnered 11 GRAMMY nominations and earned him an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 23, 2001 Don Williams cemented himself into the “Wall of Fame” here at Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT DON WILLIAMS:

Scoring at least one major hit every year between 1974 and 1991, Williams had an impressive fifty-six chart records. Fifty of these reached the country Top Twenty, and forty-five made the Top Ten; seventeen went to #1. In 1978 he was the Country Music Association’s (CMA) Male Vocalist of the Year, and his recording of “Tulsa Time” was the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Single of the Year. In 1980, readers of London’s Country Music People magazine named him Artist of the Decade.

Born May 27, 1939, in Floydada, Texas, Don Williams learned guitar from his mother and performed in various country, folk, and rock & roll bands as a teenager. He first found success in the 1960s as a member of folk-pop trio the Pozo-Seco Singers. The group had six pop chart-making records during 1966-67, the best known being the hauntingly nostalgic “Time.” The act broke up in 1969, and Williams tried several nonmusical jobs before traveling to Nashville to make another stab at music.

There Williams found an ally in Jack Clement, who signed the lanky Texan to his Jack Music publishing company as a writer. Working with Clement and songwriter-producer Allen Reynolds, then new to Nashville, Williams recorded publisher’s demo recordings. When other artists proved reluctant to record his songs, the three men decided that Williams should record them himself.

Don Williams, Volume One, his first album, appeared in 1972 on Clement’s JMI Records. It contained several chart singles, including Williams’s self-penned “The Shelter of Your Eyes” (#14, 1972) and Bob McDill’s “Come Early Morning” (#12, 1973) and “Amanda” (#33, 1973). Don Williams, Volume Two included Williams’s own “Atta Way to Go” (#13, 1973-74) and Reynolds’s “We Should Be Together” (1974), the singer’s first Top Five hit. Recordings like these established his style, noted for its mellow yet masculine vocals and often pensive song material.

In 1974, Williams scored his first chart-topping record, Al Turney’s “I Wouldn’t Want to Live If You Didn’t Love Me.” It launched a string of fifteen straight Top Ten hits, including songs by numerous top-tier writers: Wayland Holyfield’s “You’re My Best Friend” and “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend”; McDill’s “(Turn Out the Light and) Love Me Tonight,” “Say It Again,” and “It Must Be Love”; and Danny Flowers’s “Tulsa Time.” The singer’s winning streak also included the Holyfield-Williams composition “Till the Rivers All Run Dry” and the Williams originals “Lay Down Beside Me” and “Love Me Over Again.”

During the eighties and early nineties, Bob McDill continued to supply Williams with first-rate material, most notably the literary and evocative “Good Ole Boys Like Me.” Other hits came from leading songwriters such as Roger Cook (“I Believe in You” with Sam Hogin; “Love Is on a Roll” with John Prine), Dave Loggins (“We Got a Good Fire Goin’”), Rory Bourke and Mike Reid (“I Wouldn’t Be a Man”), and Dennis Linde (“Then It’s Love”; “Heartbeat in the Darkness” with Russell Smith).

Williams’s hits helped establish Allen Reynolds not only as a songwriter but also as a producer who would go on to guide talents such as Crystal Gayle and Garth Brooks. Williams eventually co-produced his own albums with Garth Fundis, also destined for success with a wide range of artists.

As of 2010 the prolific Williams had released more than thirty-five albums. The Best of Don Williams, Volume II and The Best of Don Williams Vol. III have been certified gold, and I Believe in You has been certified platinum. His video collection Don Williams Live has attained gold status. After switching from JMI to ABC-Dot (1974-78), Williams moved in succession to MCA (1979-85), Capitol (1985-89), and RCA (1989-92). Later releases appeared on American Harvest, Giant, RMG, and Intersound/Compendia. Williams was one of the first country artists to make a music video, for 1973’s “Come Early Morning.”

From the outset, country radio embraced Williams warmly. Former MCA Nashville president Jim Foglesong vividly remembered his promotion director calling to say, “You know, we have an artist that we almost don’t even have to promote to radio. We just shipped Don Williams’s new single, and we’re calling stations this morning to make sure they received it. . . . Everybody is already playing it! It’s that way with all of his releases!”

Onstage, Williams steadily built a large and loyal following. In addition to his domestic audience, he won fans worldwide, selling records in the British Isles, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. He is one of the few country stars who has toured in Africa; his DVD Into Africa draws upon his performances on that continent.

Among country’s major acts, Don Williams was perhaps the least enamored of his success. Commenting on his reputation as a superstar, he said, “The only way that I would be comfortable with that sort of title is when people tell me that my music has helped them through some stage in their life. . . . But as far as that whole approach to special treatment and people carrying on over you, I never have been too big on that.” Avoiding music industry parties, he gave few interviews and deliberately limited his tour schedule so he could spend time on his farm with his family. Williams was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010. He died in Mobile, Alabama, on September 8, 2017, from emphysema. — John Lomax III and John Rumble.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 3, 1989, Dottie West put her hands in concrete for us to add her to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT DOTTIE WEST:

Dottie West was one of the most successful, and controversial, performers to rise to popularity during the Nashville sound era; like her friend and mentor Patsy Cline, West’s battles for identity and respect within the male-dominated country music hierarchy were instrumental in enabling other female artists to gain control over the directions of their careers.

Born Dorothy Marie Marsh outside McMinnville, TN, on October 11, 1932, she was the oldest of ten children; after her abusive, alcoholic father left the family, her mother opened a small cafe. Dottie began appearing on local radio just shy of her 13th birthday and went on to study music at Tennessee Tech, where she also sang in a band; the group’s steel guitar player, Bill West, became her first husband in 1953. After graduation, the Wests and their two children moved to Cleveland, OH; there, Dottie began appearing on the television program Landmark Jamboree as one half of a country-pop vocal duo called the Kay-Dots alongside partner Kathy Dee. At the same time, West made numerous trips to Nashville in the hopes of landing a recording deal; in 1959, she and Bill auditioned for Starday’s Don Pierce and were immediately offered a contract. Although the resulting singles West cut for the label proved unsuccessful, she nonetheless moved to Nashville in 1961. There, she and her husband fell in with a group of aspiring songwriters like Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Hank Cochran, and Harlan Howard; they also became close friends with Cline and her husband Charlie Dick.

Here Comes My BabyWest earned her first Top 40 hit in 1963 with “Let Me Off at the Corner,” followed a year later by the Top Ten “Love Is No Excuse,” a duet with Jim Reeves (who had scored a major success with her “Is This Me?”). Also in 1964, she auditioned for producer Chet Atkins, the architect of the Nashville sound, who agreed to produce her composition “Here Comes My Baby”; the single made West the first female country artist to win a Grammy Award, leading to an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry. In Atkins, West found the perfect producer for her plaintive vocals and heart-wrenching songs; after releasing the Here Comes My Baby LP in 1965, they reunited for the following year’s Suffer Time, which generated her biggest hit yet in “Would You Hold It Against Me.” In 1967, the West/Atkins pairing issued three separate albums — With All My Heart and Soul (featuring the smash “Paper Mansions”), Dottie West Sings Sacred Ballads, and I’ll Help You Forget Her; she also appeared in a pair of films, Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar and There’s a Still on the Hill.

Dottie and Don

After the 1968 LP Country Girl, West teamed with Don Gibson for a record of duets, 1969’s Dottie and Don, featuring the number two hit “Rings of Gold.” The album was her last with Atkins, and she followed it with two 1970 releases, Forever Yours and Country Boy and Country Girl, a collection of pairings with Jimmy Dean. Around the time of 1971’s Have You Heard…Dottie West, she left Bill and in 1972 married drummer Bryan Metcalf, who was a dozen years her junior. Suddenly, West’s image underwent a huge metamorphosis; the woman who once performed dressed in conservative gingham dresses and refused to record Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night” because it was “too sexy” began appearing in skin-tight stage attire. As the sexual revolution peaked, so did West’s career; after the 1973 success of the crossover smash “Country Sunshine,” written for Coca-Cola, her material became far more provocative and, much to the chagrin of country purists, more commercially successful as well.

After the release of House of Love in 1974, West notched a number of Top 40 hits like “Last Time I Saw Him,” “When It’s Just You and Me,” and “Tonight You Belong to Me.” In 1977, she was recording the song “Every Time Two Fools Collide” when, according to legend, Kenny Rogers suddenly entered the studio and began singing along. Released as a duet, the single hit number one, West’s first; the duo’s 1979 “All I Ever Need Is You” and 1981 “What Are We Doin’ in Love” topped the charts as well, and a 1979 duets album titled Classics also proved successful. As a solo artist, West notched a pair of number ones in 1980 — “A Lesson in Leavin'” and “Are You Happy Baby?”.

As the 1980s progressed, West’s popularity began to slip; she appeared in a revealing photo spread in the men’s magazine Oui and toured with a production of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. In 1983, she married for the third time, to soundman Al Winters, who was some 23 years younger than she was; a year later, she appeared in the play Bring It on Home. Her last chart hit, “We Know Better Now,” reached only number 53 in 1985. Although she remained a popular touring act, West’s financial problems mounted, and in 1990, after divorcing Winters, she declared bankruptcy, culminating in the foreclosure of her Nashville mansion. After a car accident and a public auction of her possessions, she began making plans for a comeback, including an album of duets and autobiography. But en-route to a September 4, 1991, appearance at Opryland, the car she was riding in flipped, and a few days later West died of her injuries. A made-for-television biography followed a few years later.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Platinum-selling artist Doug Stone is so moved by images of the 1992 North Texas flood that along with Billy Minick, he presents a check to the American Red Cross for relief.

Former Billy Bob’s Texas Production Manager, Martin “Dirt” Stinnett, played lead guitar on Stone’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” album.

ABOUT DOUG STONE:

Doug Stone found his mark in music as a lonesome baritone balladeer, although he was very adept at hard-up-tempo country. Doug began at age five learning guitar from his mother an avid singer and guitarist. At age seven he was given the opportunity, by his mother, to open for Loretta Lynn. Life presented Doug a drastic change with the divorce of his mother and father. Doug, as result, moved in with his dad. As his youthful years past, Doug played at skating rinks, local bars or any money making project to help his father make ends meet. In the daytime Doug worked as a mechanic, something else that came to him naturally.

Doug had already past the age of 30 when a Nashville manager paired him up with Epic, his first record label. He debuted in 1990 with the single, “I’d Be Better Off (In a Pine Box),” the first release from his 1990 self-titled debuted album “Doug Stone” for Epic records. This album produced a handful of chart-topping singles. Following these songs was his first number one, “In a Different Light”. In addition, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Both this album and its successor, 1991’s I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from The Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of one million copies. Two more albums for Epic, 1992’s From The Heart and 1994’s More Love, were each certified gold. Stone has charted –twenty-two singles on Hot Country Songs, with his greatest chart success coming between 1990 and 1995. In this time span, he charted eight Number Ones including: “In a Different Light”, “A Jukebox and a Country Song”, “Too Busy Being in Love”, “Addicted to a Dollar, and “Why Didn’t I think of That” to name a few, plus fifteen more Top Five singles.

In early 1992, Stone found that one of the arteries in his heart was almost entirely blocked. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery and took time off to recover, just as his third album, “From the Heart,” was released. With a gold certification for shipments of 500,000 copies, “From the Heart” included two Number Ones among its four singles: “Too Busy Being in Love” and “Why Didn’t I Think of That.” The other two singles were “Warning Labels” and “Made for Lovin’ You,” at No. 4 and No.6 respectively. One month later Stone released an album titled “The First Christmas.”

In June 1994 Stone discovered that he was having breathing problems, which were affecting his singing. Doctors at Vanderbilt University’s medical center failed to find any problems in his throat. A second consultation revealed a lump in his nostril but amazingly it was not cancerous. While Stone was undergoing treatment, his Greatest Hits, Vol.1 compilation was released in late 1994.This album included the new song “Little Houses, “which debuted on the charts in October 1994 and peaked at No. 7 in early 1995.

Stone made his acting debut in the 1995 film “Gordy.” “Gordy,” a heartwarming story featured Doug as Luke McAllister, a struggling musician. Gordy paved the way for stone’s acting career and as well featured several of his songs. In 2011 Doug moved on to another movie role, “When the Storm God Rides,” a Thomas E. Kelly film.

Always the adventurer, in 2000 Doug suffered a broken ankle and a cracked rib after crashing his ultra-light plane in Robertson County, TN. An experience that would put him back in the studio recording the self-inspired single “Caught Dead Living”, based off of Doug’s “larger than life personality”, and love for living life to its fullest.

In April 2012 Doug Stone hit the road again bringing this hits to venues and fans around the country. It also inspired him to go back and pull out all the demo sessions he had recorded over the previous 20 years and in 2014 he released the album “Doug Stone ‘The Demo’s’: 20 Years of Life”.

Now in 2021, 30 years, 8 #1 singles, 11 Top 10 singles, and over 10 million albums sold – the singer of timeless country hits like “A Jukebox with a Country Song” and “In a Different Light” is still running the roads hard performing to dedicated fans all across the nation. With a new record slated for release in the Fall of 2021, Doug Stone continues to produce pure country gold.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In the early ’90s, Doug Supernaw once rode his horse into Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT DOUG SUPERNAW:

Written by Reed Nielsen, the relatable narrative of “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” is sung from the perspective of a divorced father who calls his young son to check-in. From the other end of the line, the boy tells him that his mother’s new love is taking care of things, yet reassures him that “I don’t call him daddy.” The single spent two weeks at No. 1 in 1993.

Supernaw was born on September 26, 1960, in Bryan, Texas, and was signed to BNA Records, a label tied to Arista Nashville and RCA Nashville. He referenced his Texas roots with the title of his first album, Red and Rio Grande, produced by Richard Landis.

After the dismal reception of his 1993 debut single “Honky Tonkin’ Fool,” Supernaw broke out nationally with his second release, “Reno,” which he co-wrote. A showcase for his rich baritone and arranged with reverence for traditional country, it rose to No. 4.

Supernaw received 1993 ACM nominations for Top New Male Vocalist, and for Song of the Year for “I Don’t Call Him Daddy.” His time on BNA was short-lived, however, as the singles from 1994’s Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind gained little traction. 1995 single, “What’ll You Do About Me,” rustled up some controversy as it was perceived to be sung from the point-of-view of a stalker, and peaked at No. 16.

Supernaw exited that label and subsequently signed to Giant Records, but placed only one hit, “Not Enough Hours in the Night,” which rose to No. 3 in 1996. His last charting single was a collaboration with the Beach Boys later that year.

In the 2000s, Supernaw faced a number of legal and personal battles, though he began to resume live performances within the last few years, including appearances at CMA Music Festival in Nashville.

Doug Supernaw, the ’90s country singer best known for his No. 1 single “I Don’t Call Him Daddy,” died peacefully at home in Texas on Friday (November 13) of cancer. He was 60.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

ABOUT DRAKE MILLIGAN: 

Drake Milligan burst onto the national music stage last month entering the Billboard Emerging Artists Chart at #5 after dominating iTunes. The Fort Worth native charted back-to-back #1 hits on the iTunes Country Songs Chart, #1 on iTunes All-Genre Chart and reclaimed the #1 spot on iTunes Country Albums Chart, all while simultaneously holding positions #1, #2, #3 and #5 on iTunes Country Video Chart. Milligan is a student of classic Country music with the swagger of early Rock ‘n’ Roll.  He’s an electrifying entertainer who is packing Country fans into clubs night after night on tour. Milligan cites George Strait and Elvis Presley – the King of Country and the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll – as musical heroes. His unique style of traditional yet timely Country has been embraced by fans, peers and the media alike. Milligan has already earned high praise from People, USA Today, Parade, American Songwriter, CMT.com, Billboard, KTLA, Hollywood Life, Fort Worth Weekly, Sounds Like Nashville, and Taste of Country.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On New Year’s Eve of 1986, Dwight Yoakam solidified his reputation as a “Honky Tonk Man” with a stellar performance.

ABOUT DWIGHT YOAKUM:

Dwight Yoakam has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, and he is a 21-time nominated, multiple GRAMMY Award winner. He has 12 gold albums and 9 platinum or multi-platinum albums, with five of those albums topping Billboard’s Country Albums chart and another 14 landing in the Top 10. Nearly 40 of Yoakam’s singles have charted on Billboard, with 14 peaking in the Top 10. Yoakam is a recipient of the Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, the most prestigious award offered by the organization, he will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the Songwriter/Artist category at the 49th anniversary Gala on October 14, 2019, in Nashville, TN.

Yoakam’s self-curated SiriusXM channel, titled Dwight Yoakam and The Bakersfield Beat ‘Where Country Went Mod’ launched in April of 2018. The channel celebrates the Bakersfield sound and those whom it has inspired. Guests have boasted the likes of Post Malone, Lukas Nelson, Beck, Chris Hillman, Jakob Dylan, Mike Nesmith, and Mickey Dolans, Dave Alvin, and Jackie DeShannon, among others.

In 2016, Yoakam released his bluegrass album Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars… on Sugar Hill Records. Featuring a band of bluegrass luminaries, this album boasts a collection of reinterpreted favorites from his catalog, as well as a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain”. Produced by nine-time GRAMMY winner Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton), Jon Randall (songwriter of “Whiskey Lullaby”), and Yoakam himself, and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, this album reflects the love for bluegrass music that Yoakam developed at an early age in Kentucky and that has inspired him for many years thereafter.  In 2018, Yoakam released two songs, “Pretty Horses” and “Then Came Monday” (the latter written with Chris Stapleton).

In addition to his musical career, Yoakam is a formidable film and television actor who has appeared in over 40 feature films, including Sling Blade and Panic Room. In 2016, he recurred in David E. Kelley’s Amazon series Goliath. Recently, he appeared in director Steven Soderbergh’s film Logan Lucky with Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig. Yoakam is capable of seamlessly melting into his roles and impressively standing toe-to-toe with some of the world’s top thespians over the course of his storied and successful acting career, including Jodie Foster, Tommy Lee Jones, Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, and Matthew McConaughey.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

February 22, 2005, Earl Thomas Conley’s “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” was released.

On March 21, 2003, Earl Thomas Conley recorded his album exactly two decades after playing the main stage for the first time.

ABOUT EARL THOMAS CONLEY:

Early in his career, Earl Thomas Conley’s music picked up the label “thinking man’s country.” An accurate description — Conley looks into the heart and soul of his characters, finding the motivations for their actions and beliefs. In the process, the astute listener can find fragments of himself/herself in nearly any Conley creation. Born into poverty in Portsmouth, OH, Conley struggled with the limits of his social class. He aspired to be a painter or actor, but found that his aspirations for music lingered after the other interests died down. Influenced by everyone from Hank Williams to the Eagles, Conley delved into the details of writing, trying to learn the craft by following the rules and regulations of the Music Row songwriting community. Eventually, torn by the limits of the “law,” he found his own niche by breaking many of those same rules. His public self-analysis — in both his songs and his interviews — has proven inspirational to some, bothersome to others, but Conley has evolved stylistically, even though the “thinking man” label continues to follow him. He’s admittedly chased a more commercial sound, with a certain degree of success, but the run for the dollars also put him into a financial bind. He spent part of the late ’80s and early ’90s overworking himself to pay off his debts. Although he has been a hitmaker for more than a decade, his contributions to country have often gone almost unnoticed.

The son a railroad man, Conley left his Portsmouth home at the age of 14, once his father lost his job. After living with his older sister in Ohio, he rejected a scholarship to art school, deciding to join the Army instead. While he was in the military, he fell in love with country music. Following his discharge, he worked a number of blue-collar jobs while he played Nashville clubs at night. Conley wasn’t making any headway, so he relocated to Huntsville, AL, where he worked in a steel mill. While in Huntsville, he met Nelson Larkin, a producer who helped the fledgling singer sign to the independent label GRT in 1974. Over the next two years, he released four singles on the label — which were all credited to “Earl Conley” — and each one scraped the lower regions of the country charts. While his chart success was respectable for a developing artist, he was soon eclipsed by other artists who were having hits with his songs. Nelson Larkin gave his brother Billy “Leave It Up to Me,” which became the first Earl Thomas Conley song to reach the Top 20. It was followed shortly afterward by Mel Street’s number 13 hit “Smokey Mountain Memories” and Conway Twitty’s version of “This Time I’ve Hurt Her More (Than She Loves Me),” which reached number one in early 1976. By that time, he had moved to Nashville, where he was writing for Nelson Larkin’s publishing house.

In 1977, Conley signed with Warner Bros., and in early 1979 he had his first Top 40 hit, “Dreamin’s All I Do.” By the end of the year, he had begun performing and releasing records under his full name, Earl Thomas Conley. None of his Warner singles became big hits, and he left the label at the end of 1979. After spending six months reassessing his career and musical direction, he signed to Sunbird Records and began working with Nelson Larkin again. Conley’s first single for Sunbird, “Silent Treatment,” was an immediate Top Ten hit late in 1980, and it was quickly followed by the number one “Fire and Smoke” early in 1981. Following his breakthrough success, RCA signed Conley to a long-term deal. “Tell Me Why,” his first single for the label, reached number ten in late 1981, followed shortly afterward by the number 16 “After the Love Slips Away.” In the summer of 1982, “Heavenly Bodies” kicked off a string of 21 straight Top Ten hits that ran for seven years. During that time, he had a remarkable 17 number one hits, including a record-setting four number one singles from 1984’s Don’t Make It Easy for Me — it was the first time any artist in any genre had four number one hits from the same album. Though he had some financial and vocal problems during the mid-’80s, the hits never stopped coming during the entire decade.

Yours Truly

By the end of the ’80s, he had stopped working with Nelson Larkin, preferring to collaborate with Randy Scruggs, which brought his music back to his country and R&B roots. His sales took a dramatic dip during 1990 due to the rise of contemporary country, but he had two new Top Ten hits, “Shadow of a Doubt” and the Keith Whitley duet “Brotherly Love.” The singles set the stage for the harder-edged country of his 1991 album, Yours Truly. Despite receiving some of the best reviews of Conley’s career, the record was a commercial failure, and RCA dropped him shortly after its release. For much of the ’90s, he was without a record label, yet he continued to give concerts and to tour, finally landing on Intersound for 1998’s Perpetual Emotion.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In May of 2010, Easton Corbin made his Billy Bob’s debut and said “it was a dream come true.”

ABOUT EASTON CORBIN:

With two No. 1 singles, multiple awards and nominations, plus performances on some of the biggest stages in the world, Mercury Nashville’s Easton Corbin has made a lasting impression on the country music landscape. He is lauded for his traditional country sound, authentic lyrics, and mastery of understatement. American Songwriter says, “Easton Corbin has one of those rare, glorious voices that was made—just made—for singing country music.” His self-titled debut album was released in 2010 and spawned back-to-back hits “A Little More Country Than That” and “Roll With It;” making him the first country male artist in 17 years to have his first two consecutive singles reach No. 1.  In 2012 the Gilchrist County Florida native released his sophomore album, All Over The Road, which included the Top 5 hits “Lovin’ You Is Fun” and “All Over The Road.”  Corbin set a career-best debut on Country Airplay with his top 5 hit single, “Baby Be My Love Song,” from his No. 1 debuting album About To Get Real.  His new single, “Are You With Me,” is already making an impact on the charts and was the most added song on country radio the day it was released.  “Are You With Me” first appeared on All Over The Road and was such a special song to Corbin he carried it over to About To Get Real in hopes it would be a radio single.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Eddy Raven’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” album included most of his hits with 6 singles that went to #1.

ABOUT EDDY RAVEN:

Eddy Raven’s style of music is rich in lyrical imagery and strong in roots. He has been writing and playing a mixture of rock, country, Cajun and blues since he was a Louisiana teenager. In fact, his first single release for the Georgia-based Cosmo label “Once A Fool” was one of his own compositions.

He gained a huge all-around music biz knowledge at Lafayette’s La Louisianne label, selling records and working in the facility’s sound studios. It was there that Raven first met and worked with great regional stars such as Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Dale, and Grace (“I’m Leaving It All Up To You”) and John Fred and the Playboy band. The great Bobby Charles (“Walking to New Orleans” and “See You Later Alligator”) lived only a few miles away. He cut one of Eddy’s songs and became something of a writing mentor to the writer/artist.

La Louisanne added Eddy to its roster and released his “That Cajun Country Sound.” This release led Opry star Jimmy C. Newman to invite Raven to Nashville. Acuff Rose signed the young man as a staff writer and he went back to Louisiana determined to write a hit song. He met that goal by writing “Country Green” and “Touch The Morning” for Don Gibson and “Good Morning Country Rain” for Jeannie C. Riley. With the encouragement of Acuff Rose’s Don Grant, Eddy made the move to Nashville to pursue his music career full-time.

Once in Nashville, Eddy continued writing songs for other artists such as Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Tanya Tucker, George Jones, Kenny Chesney, Chris LeDoux, Lorrie Morgan, Gene Watson, Johnny Cash, Lynn Anderson, Connie Smith, Faron Young, Moe Bandy, Brenda Lee, and many more.

When Don Gant moved to ABC Records he signed Raven as an artist. What followed was a string of charted songs that didn’t just bring him stardom, but made him an interesting prospect to fans and labels alike. Five years later he signed with Elektra Records cut the breakthrough song “I Should’ve Called.” Just to prove that was no fluke, Raven followed with “Who Do You Know In California,” which established him as a stylist of note.

Eddy started his own publishing company and kept writing songs for himself as well as others. In 1982 his “Thank God For Kids” became a monumental hit for the Oak Ridge Boys, giving him financial breathing room and the opportunity to stretch a little in his own work.

The following year, after signing with RCA, Eddy wrote and co-produced his first #1, “I’ve Got Mexico.” It was the first in a long line of hits!

Eddy’s attention to quality has consistently paid off. He’s been at the top of the charts with music that has often defied classification and was never run-of-the-mill. This is an artist who, without sacrificing any musical integrity, has had 8 No. 1 songs a “Bayou Boys,” “I’ve Got Mexico,” “Shine, Shine, Shine,” “I’m Gonna Get You,” “Joe Knows How To Live,” “Till You Cry,” “In A Letter To You,” and “She’s Gonna Win Your Heart.” Even his Songs that did not hit No. 1 went on to become country classics. Take, for example, the top-10 cuts, “Sooner Or Later,” “Island,” “You’re Playing Hard To Forget,” “I Could Use Another You,” “Right Hand Man,” “You’re Never To Old For Young Love,” “I Should’ve Called,” “Who Do You Know In California,” and “A Little Bit Crazy.” In short, he has 30 ASCAP songwriting awards, 8 No. 1’s, 14 Top 10’s, 23 Top 100’s, and 24 Albums to his credit.

Raven keeps a busy schedule writing, recording, and touring year-round. He has recently recorded and released a CD of his songs with the bluegrass group “Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road”. The title is “All Grassed Up”.

Sammy Kershaw recorded a song of Eddy’s for his “Swamp Poppin” C.D. and asked Eddy to sing it with him. The song called “Alligator Bayou” was a single from the early Louisiana recordings of Eddys.

Raven still writes and does song-writer shows with his long-time friend and guitar player Frank Myers.

Raven has always said writing was his first love and how great a gift he was given.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Eli Young Band perform for the first time on the main stage in 2005.

ABOUT ELI YOUNG BAND:

With momentum still high following their fourth career #1, MULTI-PLATINUM hitmakers ELI YOUNG BAND are releasing an introspective new single with “ Break It In ” via The Valory Music Co. Under producer Dann Huff, the tune explores lessons in life and love that are only learned over time well spent. As showcased through vivid Benjy Davis, Brandon Day, Daniel Ross, and Michael Whitworth-penned lyrics, EYB further delivers a booming chorus: “Like these dusty boots that walked me through / The work that got me here / And these faded jeans with Skoal can rings / I’ve worn out all these years / When the shine wears off when you lose that gloss / There’s so much more underneath it all / You think that good is good as it can get / Then you break it in.”

“We definitely didn’t just start a band and have instant success. We’ve continued to build it up over the years — we broke it in,” shares EYB. “We’ve been blessed to have had our moments of being able to sit back and soak it all in. ‘Break It In’ carries a message you learn with time, and we’re so excited for these lyrics to be heard far and wide!”

“Break It In” closely follows THIS IS ELI YOUNG BAND: GREATEST HITS, which features chart-toppers – “Love Ain’t,” PLATINUM “Drunk Last Night,” 2X PLATINUM Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” and 3X PLATINUM “Crazy Girl.” EYB has always been unique in modern Country music as a true band of brothers who cling fast to their Texas roots and has maintained an impressive trajectory with singles earning Billboard’s #1 Country Song of the Year and ACM Awards Song of the Year. They have previously earned multiple nominations from GRAMMY, CMA, CMT, ACA, and Teen Choice Awards.

While selling out venues as a headliner from coast to coast, EYB has toured with Jason Aldean, Dave Matthews Band, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, and Darius Rucker. They will continue to bring these fan-favorites and more on the road this summer with several festival appearances.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2015, Emilio and his sons put on a small acoustic concert backstage before taking the main stage later that night.

ABOUT EMILIO:

With the exception of Selena, Emilio Navaira did more than anyone to popularize tejano music during the early to mid-’90s, and though his popularity waned in the wake of his 1995 crossover into the country music market with the English-language album Life Is Good (1995), he remained influential and was rightfully regarded as a tejano legend. Navaira first established himself as the lead singer of David Lee Garza y los Musicales. During his tenure with the group from 1984 until 1988, Garza y los Musicales regularly took home Tejano Music Awards, winning Album of the Year honors in 1985, 1987, and 1989. Following the group’s most popular album to date, Tour ’88 (1988), Navaira split from los Musicales and formed his own band, Rio, with his brother Raúl. Navaira and Rio debuted in 1989 and, over the next five years, enjoyed remarkable success, commercially as well as critically. His 1995 country crossover album, Life Is Good, was perhaps his greatest success, but his popularity began to wane in its wake. In subsequent years, Navaira continued to perform and record new albums, and though they didn’t rival the popularity of his earlier efforts, they were critically acclaimed, regularly being nominated for Grammy Awards (and, in the case of Acuérdate [2002], winning one). After years of fading stardom, a 2008 tour bus crash in which Navaira was driving thrust him back into the spotlight and triggered a reevaluation of his illustrious career and his role as a tejano trailblazer.

Born Emilio Navaira III on August 23, 1962, in San Antonio, Texas, he was of Mexican heritage, the son of Emilio Navaira, Jr., and Mary Navaira, the latter a bilingual teacher’s assistant. Growing up on the south side of San Antonio, Navaira found early influence in not only tejano legends such as Little Joe y la Familia, Ramón Ayala, and Pedro Infante, but also Lone Star country music heroes such as Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, and George Strait. There was no market for Hispanic country music singers, however, so he focused on performing regional Mexican music in order to get club gigs. As a student, he graduated from McCollum High School in 1980, received a music scholarship to Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, and majored in music with plans to become a teacher. He also performed as an actor, starring as the character Fredrick in a revival of The Sound of Music staged at the Fiesta Dinner Theater in San Antonio.

In 1984 Navaira made his recording debut as the lead vocalist of David Lee Garza y los Musicales on their fourth album, Las Canciones Que Te Canto. He was also featured as lead vocalist on subsequent albums by David Lee Garza y los Musicales, namely Cuantas Veces (1984), Totally Yours (1985), Award Winning (1986), Dejame Quererte (1987), and Tour ’88 (1988). Garza y los Musicales were a leading tejano act of the era, winning Tejano Music Awards in 1983 (Most Promising Band of the Year), 1984 (Conjunto Album of the Year), 1985 (Conjunto Album of the Year), 1987 (Conjunto Album of the Year), 1988 (Conjunto Album of the Year), and 1989 (Conjunto Album of the Year; Single of the Year).

La Pistola y el Corazón

In the wake of the Tour ’88 album and its award-winning hit single, “Me Quieres Tu y Te Quiero Yo,” Navaira left Garza y los Musicales at the height of group’s popularity. He formed his own group, Rio, featuring his brother Raúl (aka Raulito), and signed a recording contract with CBS Records. The group’s eponymous 1989 debut album proved popular, breaking into the Top Ten of the regional Mexican chart, and was nominated for a 1989 Grammy Award in the category of Best Mexican-American Performance, ultimately losing to Los Lobos’ La Pistola y el Corazon. At the 1990 Tejano Music Awards, he took home both Conjunto Album of the Year and Most Promising Band of the Year. Navaira’s second album, Sensaciones (1990), also won Album of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards.

Shoot It

In 1991 Navaira switched from CBS Records to EMI for Shoot It!, yet another Tejano Music Award winner for Conjunto Album of the Year. The accolades continued as subsequent albums Unsung Highways (1992), Shuffle Time (1992), Live (1992), Southern Exposure (1993), and SoundLife (1994) kept Navaira firmly lodged on the regional Mexican albums chart: in 1993 he won Tejano Music Awards for Male Entertainer of the Year and Progressive Album of the Year; in 1994 he won Male Vocalist of the Year, Male Entertainer of the Year, and Progressive Album of the Year; and in 1995 he won Male Vocalist of the Year, Male Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Duo of the Year (in conjunction with Roberto Pulido), and Video of the Year.

The release of Life Is Good in 2005 marked a turning point in Navaira’s recording career. Released a half-year after Selena’s tragic death shone a national spotlight on the tejano scene, the English-language Life Is Good was oriented toward the national country music market rather than the regional Mexican scene. The lead single, “It’s Not the End of the World,” was released in both English- and Spanish-language versions and became a Top 30 country hit. The album itself debuted at number 12 on the country albums chart. A series of follow-up singles — “Even If I Tried,” “I Think We’re on to Something,” and “Have I Told You Lately” — also charted (at numbers 41, 56, and 62, respectively). In 1996 Navaira took home the Tejano Music Award for Male Entertainer of the Year for the fourth straight time; he also won Male Vocalist of the Year, Vocal Duo of the Year (in conjunction with his brother Raúl), Progressive Album of the Year, and Tejano Country Song of the Year.

Quedate

In the wake of his country crossover, Navaira’s popularity began to wane, but not immediately: Quédate, his 1996 return to tejano, was a Top Ten hit on the Latin albums chart, spawning two Top 40 hits, “Quédate” and “Hoy Me Siento Feliz.” His pair of 1997 albums — It’s on the House, his English-language country music follow-up, and A Mi Gente, a tejano album — were much less successful, neither breaking into the Top 40 of its respective market and neither spawning a Top 40 hit (“I’d Love You to Love Me” and “She Gives,” from It’s on the House, came closest, at number 56 and 73, respectively). Following the relative disappointment of his 1997 pair of albums, Navaira took a three-year break from recording. A few greatest-hits collections were issued in his absence — Lo Mejor de Lo Mejor: 12 Super Éxitos (1997), Mano a Mano (1998), and Mi Primer Amor: 10 Aniversario (1999) — and he was honored as Humanitarian of the Year at the 1998 Tejano Music Awards.

Lo Dice Tu Mirada

When Navaira returned to the consumer marketplace in 2000 with El Rey del Rodeo, he was on a new record label, having left EMI and switched to BMG. Though El Rey del Rodeo failed to chart, it spawned Navaira’s first hit single in three years, “Esperando Su Llamada,” which broke into the Top 40, and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Tejano Album. His next BMG album, Lo Dice Tu Mirada (2001), met a similar reception, itself failing to chart yet spawning a Top 40 hit, “Lo Dice Tu Mirada,” and receiving a Latin Grammy Award nomination. In 2002 Navaira won his first Grammy Award, taking home the honor of Best Tejano Album for Acuérdate (2002), an album that was also nominated for a Latin Grammy Award; however, despite the critical accolades, Navaira was attracting little recognition commercially. His next album, Entre Amigos (2003), performed similarly, earning a nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards for Best Tejano Album yet failing to do well commercially. In 2007, after another extended period out of the consumer marketplace, Navaira re-emerged with a new album, De Nuevo, on a new record label, Universal Music Group.

Roughly a half-year after the release of De Nuevo, Navaira and his band were touring in support of the album, and on the morning of March 23, 2008, his 26,000-pound tour bus slammed into traffic barrels on a highway southwest of Houston. Navaira, who was driving the bus at the time, was ejected from the vehicle through the windshield and was critically injured. He was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where doctors removed a clot from the surface of his brain and placed him in a medically induced coma. In April Navaira was upgraded to fair condition and began rehabilitative therapy; the following month it was revealed that he had been intoxicated when driving at the time of the crash and, in fact, was not licensed to drive a bus. (He subsequently pleaded guilty to DWI charges.) In September of 2008 Emilio and his wife, Maria, were involved in another crash when their car, driven by Maria and waiting in a turn lane, was hit by a truck. They had been returning home from rehabilitation therapy related to the March crash when the September crash occurred; both Emilio and Maria were released from the hospital the following day. Eight years later, in May 2016, Navaira was found unresponsive by his wife at their Texas home and died at the age of 53.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

Garth, a newcomer from Oklahoma, plays his first show for a $5 ticket to a crowd of 500. He signs autographs from the stage to everyone who wants one and places his hands in concrete. Garth returns in December of 1989 to a sold-out crowd.

Garth Brooks plays his last show at Billy Bob’s to date on Nov. 21, 1990. Brooks was scheduled to play the State Fair of Texas in Dallas in October. Billy Bob’s is unable to promote the November date until Brooks takes the stage at the State Fair. To promote the show, Billy Minick hires an airplane to fly a banner announcing Billy Bob’s date. Garth notices the plane and its message. Enthusiastically, he points up, and he says “Guess you know where I’ll be playing next!” Tickets to the show sell out in 12 minutes the next day. To cap off the event, Brooks even judges a “Garth Brooks Look-Alike” contest.

Garth Brooks returned to Billy Bob’s on August 23, 1992, to promote his release of “Beyond the Seasons,” his Christmas CD benefitting Oklahoma’s Feed the Children Charity. More than 2000 attended the event.

ABOUT GARTH BROOKS:

The youngest of six children, Garth grew up in Yukon, Oklahoma, an oil town near Oklahoma City. He first moved to Nashville in 1985, only to return home 23 hours later. After completing a degree in advertising at Oklahoma State University, he ventured back to Music City in 1987 and within six months signed a recording contract with Capitol Records.

Garth’s first single, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” from his self-titled debut album, hit No. 8 on the charts. More big hits followed: “Not Counting You,” “The Dance,” and “If Tomorrow Never Comes.”

The only male artist to have four albums — No Fences, Ropin’ the Wind, The Hits, and Double Live — each exceeds sales of 10 million, Garth has sold more than 128 million records. That total places Garth second only to The Beatles as the best-selling act of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Garth has received nearly every accolade the recording industry can bestow upon an artist, including two Grammys, 11 Country Music Association Awards and 24 Billboard Music Awards. His TV credits include eight NBC specials, hosting Saturday Night Live twice and executive producing the made-for-TV movie, Call Me Claus. He’s also earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1997, Garth’s Central Park concert in New York drew the largest crowd the park had ever seen. The HBO special Garth Live from Central Park was that year’s most-watched cable television special.

In October 2000, Garth announced a retirement from touring and recording, and he released his Scarecrow album the following year. But even retirement couldn’t keep Garth away from the Opry. He appeared as part of the Opry’s 80th-anniversary celebration — singing with Porter Wagoner, Bill Anderson, Jimmy Dickens, and Steve Wariner — in 2005 (the same year he married fellow Opry star, Trisha Yearwood). He also inducted Carrie Underwood into the Opry cast in 2008.

Garth Brooks just won Entertainer of the Year at the CMA Awards for a sixth time, a first for any artist. He is also the first artist in history to receive 7 Diamond awards for the now seven albums certified by the RIAA at over 10 million album sales each and remains the #1-selling solo artist in U.S. history certified by the RIAA with over 148 million album sales. Garth has been inducted into the International Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and most recently, the Musicians Hall of Fame.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Gary Stewart’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” album is one that Billy Bob’s entertainment director Robert Gallagher, says it’s his favorite! – Gary’s last album.

ABOUT GARY STEWART:

While much of what passes for contemporary country music in the ’90s and 2000s sounds like reheated Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, what’s really annoying is what a youth-driven market it has become, leaving many great country performers of the ’60s and ’70s out in the cold. This is especially irritating when considering the career of Gary Stewart, one of the greatest of the hardcore-honky tonk school who, at his peak in the mid- to late ’70s, could write and sing circles around just about any contemporary country star you could mention. A native of Florida, Stewart escaped a lifetime of working in an airplane factory in the late ’60s by pitching some songs he’d written to soon-to-be RCA country label honcho Jerry Bradley. At the time, Stewart (who was composing with his friend Bill Eldridge) didn’t aspire to more than being an in-demand Nashville songwriter, but after a couple of years writing with some success, and through Bradley’s continued intercession, he was given the opportunity to record on his own. With his huge, vibrato-laden tenor voice (which sounds a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis’), Stewart, with the inestimable help of songwriter Wayne Carson, released 1975’s Out of Hand, one of the finest honky tonk records of all time. Paced by the hit “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles),” Gary Stewart was quickly becoming a country music star.

Your Place or Mine: The Best Of Gary Stewart

Although he composed songs for traditional Grand Ole Opry stars (Cal Smith, Hank Snow), Stewart himself never emulated the traditional values espoused by the Nashville establishment; as one of his song titles stated, he was more of a “flat natural-born good-timin’ man.” He hung out (and caroused plenty) with Southern rock musicians, using them on his albums at a time when this was still considered radical. He was a renegade, unwilling to play the Nashville game, and his increasing success provided him with the autonomy he needed to do his own thing. However, this generally meant conspicuous excess, especially when it came to substance abuse. Still, from 1975 through 1980, Stewart’s recorded work is mostly excellent, with a conspicuous high point coming in 1977 with the release of Your Place or Mine. A hard-driving slice of aggressive honky tonk, it was a rollickingly good piece of work, not the equal to Out Of Hand, but as important an assertion of Stewart’s independence from the machinations of country music’s star-making machinery. There were problems, however: Stewart was too country for rock audiences and too rock for country audiences, and that limited any stab at broader appeal.

Brand New

In 1980, he released Cactus and a Rose, with considerable help from Southern rock vets Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Mike Lawler, and Bonnie Bramlett. It was a fine record, but attracted only Stewart’s core audience, and at this point in his career, that simply wasn’t enough. Suddenly it seemed as if his desire and creativity vanished. He hooked up with Dean Dillon and made a couple of terrible two-good-ol’-boy records that made the redneck rowdiness of Hank Williams, Jr. sound philosophical by comparison. Not long afterwards, Stewart returned to Florida and stopped recording. After his alcoholism and drug use pretty much canceled out a large part of the ’80s, Stewart returned, clean and sober, with a strong comeback record, Brand New, in 1988. It wasn’t the Gary Stewart of old, but it was a respectable record, and it was enough to propel a comeback that continued with I’m a Texan. Stewart released the first live album of his career in 2003 with Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, an album that proved that despite his low profile he was still a formidable honky tonker. Stewart took his own life in December of 2003 following the death of his wife of 43 years in November. He was 59. His heyday was in the ’70s, but Gary Stewart deserved to be celebrated for his considerable talent, tenacity, and influence.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

They were the first band to play here opening night April 1, 1981 and then 40 year later on April 1, 2021 they played again.

ABOUT THE GATLIN BROTHERS:

Larry, Steve, & Rudy, the Gatlin Brothers are a Grammy Award-winning trio who have dazzled audiences for more than sixty years with a lifetime of noteworthy achievements in their storybook career, including a Grammy for Best Country Song (“Broken Lady”), three ACM awards for Single of the Year (“All The Gold In California”), Album of the Year (Straight Ahead) and Male Vocalist of the Year for Larry Gatlin, along with five nominations for CMA Vocal Group of the Year, Single, Album and Male Vocalist of the Year. (DOVE Awards – AMA’s – PEOPLE’S CHOICE info here) The Brothers have accumulated 7 # 1 Singles, 32 Top 40 Records, 22 Studio Albums and 5 BMI “Million-Air” Awards. Larry ranks 4th as Solo Writer’s with the most self-penned top 40 Billboard Hits! His massive song catalog has been recorded by the Who’s Who of entertainers, including Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Kris Kristofferson, Sir Tom Jones, Dottie West, Charlie Rich, Johnny Mathis and dozens of others, securing his legacy as one of BMI’s top solo songwriters of all time.
For more than 62 years now, the Gatlin Brothers have entertained audiences in some of the world’s largest venues and from some of the most iconic stages, including the GRAMMY Awards, the American Music Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Oprah, Hee Haw, Love Boat, the Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack, the Merv Griffin Show, Solid Gold, the Barbara Mandrell Show and their own variety special on ABC – “Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers”.

In 1976, the Gatlin Brothers were on the fast track, thanks to the chart-topping success of the Grammy Award-winning single “Broken Lady”. The hits continued throughout the decade with their signature song “All the Gold In California” followed by “Houston” (Means I’m One Step Closer To You). The next decade brought number one hits with “I Don’t Wanna Cry”, “I Just Wish You Were Someone To Love”, “Statues Without Hearts”, “Love Is Just A Game”, and “Night Time Magic”.

They have performed at famed venues, including the White House, the President Reagan Library, Air Force One, Ford’s Theater, Camp David, President Bush’s 80th Birthday Party, The Lincoln Theater, with the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Houston Symphony, Madison Square Garden Venetian Room, West Point, Dollywood, The Mall in D.C. for July 4th, the Greek Theater, Billy Bob’s, Radio City Music Hall, Disney World and Wembley Music Festival. In addition, they have graced the stage with legendary entertainers, from all over the world, like Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Vince Gill and Gospels acts, including the Oak Ridge Boys, the Gaither Vocal Band, the Isaacs and many others.

The brothers have also proudly entertained our U.S. Troops in Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Germany, & at many military bases in the United States as well. They have appeared at famed sporting events performing the National Anthem for the ’85 and ’89 World Series, the US Open Tennis Tournament, at Yankee Stadium, the Astrodome, Nissan Titans Stadium, Candlestick Park, Chicago White Sox Ballpark, NHL All Star Hockey Game, Darlington NASCAR Speedway, the Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, Giants Stadium, New Orleans Saints Superdome, Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Houston Texans’ Reliant Stadium and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. They continued performing throughout the USA for the next 10 years & in 2015 the brothers celebrated 60 years of making music together and released a new album, The Gospel According To Gatlin. Larry wrote & produced a musical, “Quanah” which was performed in April 2017 to rave reviews.

It all began in Abilene, Texas in 1955 when Larry was seven, Steve four and Rudy two. The brothers grew up singing gospel music after listening to James Blackwood and the Blackwood Brothers, Hovie Lister and The Stateman Quartet as well other accomplished gospel artists. As children the brothers would sing for anyone that would listen. Soon they were singing from coast to coast and appeared at the World’s Fair in 1964 in New York City. They recorded four Gospel records early in their career. In 1966 Larry went to college where he studied English and Law at the University of Houston. In 1971, he auditioned for the legendary group, the Imperials, Elvis’ backup group. While he did not get the job, he met Dottie West, who was the opening act for Jimmy Dean. Dean would later become one of Larry’s oldest and best friends. Dottie was initially taken with Larry’s resemblance to Nashville songwriter Mickey Newbury. Dottie told him one night in their backstage dressing room at the Landmark Hotel in Las Vegas that he looked so much like Mickey Newbury, that he had to be able to write great songs. Larry returned to Houston and wrote eight songs. He sent them to Dottie and she liked them so much she sent him a plane ticket to Nashville.

Through Dottie, he met Kris Kristofferson, who championed Gatlin’s talent as a writer and singer. Kristofferson introduced Larry to Fred Foster at Monument Records which resulted in a recording contract with the label. Larry’s first album, The Pilgrim, was released later that year. Johnny Cash wrote the liner notes for the album and dubbed him “The Pilgrim” a name Cash called Larry his entire life. Steve and Rudy were still in college at Texas Tech University and in 1975 they moved to Nashville to sing backup with Tammy Wynette. The two later joined Larry in 1976 to form Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 10, 1989, we added Gene Watson to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT GENE WATSON:

One of the most masterful voices in Country Music today, Gene Watson still sings in the same key as 30 years ago and continues to prove why he is rightly referred to as “The Singer’s Singer”. His powerful voice and multi-octave range allows him to sing some of the most challenging songs with an ease that comes from pure, natural talent as well as from his many years performing onstage.

On his most recent album release, Real.Country.Music., the 72 year- old Watson once again proves he’s the master of classic country music. He remains defiantly country in the face of today’s more pop oriented offerings and is proud his legions of fans rely on him to keep traditional country music alive and well. With that in mind, Gene delved back into history to pull out some overlooked gems in other artist’s catalogs as well as a few of his own songs that are fan favorites but are no longer available. As Gene noted, “Today’s songwriters are not really writing the kind of songs fans of serious classic country are wanting. Traditional country is about life, heartaches, loves and family. I’ve got to relate to the words as something that either happened to me or happened to someone I know. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around a song that’s simply about riding a tractor or just drinking beer with friends. I want more out of a song. So I went back to some classic songwriters like Kris Kristofferson, Larry Gatlin, Bill Anderson, Keith Whitley, Dean Dillon, Hank Cochran and Dave Kirby – just to name a few of the greats.”

Watson talks about his song choices here track by track:

“ENOUGH FOR YOU” (Kris Kristofferson) “This song was written by Kris Kristofferson and recorded by him but it was an album cut by Billie Jo Spears when I first heard it and I’ve wanted to record for years,” says Watson. “I used to have this song on a Billie Jo Spears 8 track tape. At a crucial point in the lyrics, the 8 track would change over and I never could quite get the words down. By the time I reached out to Billie Jo, even she couldn’t recall the words to the song. So it has taken me awhile to find the lyrics but now seemed like just the right time to record it and it came off so well we made it the first single from the album.”

“WHEN A MAN CAN’T GET A WOMAN OFF HIS MIND” – (Bill Anderson and Sharon Vaughn)

“This is a song I loved and recorded for Compendia Records and unfortunately, the company shut down its country division before I could release it. I then sang it on a TV tribute show for Bill Anderson and the fans have been asking me how they could buy it for years now. This seemed like the perfect time to record it for my fans.”

“HELP ME” ( Larry Gatlin) “This was written and released by the great Larry Gatlin, then a little known singer named Elvis recorded it and the rest is history,” says Watson. “I’ve always loved the words and the melody and knew I would eventually record it. I took it back more to the original version but put my own spin to it and I hope my fans love it as much as I do. I wanted to make it so that the true message of the words would shine through and I hope I captured that. We all have a time in our life when we need to be inspired by words of faith. While I was recording, it was such a special moment when Larry Gatlin surprised us all by stopping by, literally, as I was just about to sing. I guess it was his presence that made me sing it the way I did at that moment because we didn’t change a single thing to it. What you hear is what I sang with Larry listening in the studio. No pressure there!”

“COULDN’T LOVE HAVE PICKED A BETTER PLACE TO DIE” – (Bucky Jones/Curly Putman) “I had this song out in 1997 on Step One Records. It was a song the fans loved but once again, when Step One Records folded, it was impossible to get this song so I re-cut it due to the demand of my fans. It’s a terrific song by Buck Jones and Curly Putman – two great songwriters back in the day.”

“A GIRL I USED TO KNOW” – (David Ball) “Normally well before I get to the studio I know what songs I’d like to do and I’ve got the lyrics and the music in my mind. But on this song, all that went out the window. This David Ball song was actually pitched to me by a great A&R man, the fantastic singer, T. Graham Brown. On the recording day, I had people tracking down David Ball for the lyrics and T’s wife, Shelia, actually personally delivered a copy of the song to the studio. I loved the song but I wasn’t 100% sure it was a song that fit what I typically do but after I had a good listen and ran through it, I knew it was a song I could do and I really, really like how it turned out.”

“BITTER THEY ARE, HARDER THEY FALL” – (Larry Gatlin) “Back when I was on Capitol Records many years ago, I was asked to pick a song to record that I considered one of my favorites and I immediately chose this song written and released by Larry Gatlin. It’s one of my favorites of all time – just an amazing song by a master singer /songwriter. Fast forward many years later and I was at a TV taping for a Country’s Family Reunion show with Larry Gatlin. Larry had often teased that he wanted me to sing this song for him at his birthday party so, lo and behold, unplanned and unrehearsed, Larry called me up to sing this song as a duet with him, rather than do the song he had prepared for himself. I hadn’t sung the song in ten years but fortunately, the words all came back to me as we sang it together while the cameras rolled. What you see now on YouTube and those Country Family Reunion shows is the one take wonder! So from that, fans were constantly asking me for a copy of this song and I thought this was the perfect time to record it again for them. A great song never goes out of style.”

“RAMBLING ROSE” – (Joe Sherman/Noel Sherman) “This came about in a most interesting way. I was booked to do the Larry’s Country Diner TV show and the night before I was at the Grand Ole Opry with Jimmy Capps, who provides the acoustic guitar work for that show. We were just talking about great old songs backstage at the Opry and I sang that with him picking. Everyone around us loved it so much it was decided I should do that song on the TV show. As it always happens, the fans then wanted to buy a copy of it. So once again, this song was recorded by the request of my fans.”

“A BRIDGE THAT JUST WON’T BURN” – (Jim McBride, Roger Murrah) “Many people know that Conway Twitty was something of a mentor to me in the music business and I loved his version of this song but I hadn’t really thought about covering it until the songwriter, Jim McBride, suggested it. I love the lyrics and truly enjoyed recording this one. I was and always will be a fan of Conway, both personally and professionally, so I hope the fans will feel I’ve done this song justice in honor of the man they used to say was “the best friend a song ever had” – Mr. Conway Twitty.”

“ASHES TO ASHES” – (Joe Chambers, Larry Jenkins, Mark Sherrill) “This is another song the fans have requested over the years. It’s one I’ve always loved and so I was happy to re-record just as a personal favor to the best fans in the world.”

“OLD LOVES NEVER DIE” – (Dave Kirby, Warren Robb) “This is just a great little country song. I never had the chance to release it as a single but it could have done well I think. It’s one that like so many others is out of circulation and deserves to be back in the spotlight.”

“SHE NEVER GOT ME OVER YOU” – (Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, Keith Whitley) “This song was a single for one of the true country greats, Mark Chesnutt. When it was pitched to me, I didn’t know if I was the right person to sing it or not but I knew it was a tremendous song and wanted to try it. This one is actually much harder to sing than you’d think but I think we got it and I’m proud of it.”

“ALL MY TOMORROWS” – (Nat Stuckey) “I always loved this song, written by the great Nat Stuckey. It was one I was working on for Step One Records but when that label went out of business, the song was never finished. It irked me when a company bought the masters from Step One and released this track with no backing vocals, not mixed or anything. I wanted to finish this one as it was meant to be done so I recorded it and it’s still one of my favorites – just finally done right.”

“I’LL FIND IT WHERE I CAN” – (Michael Clark, Zack Van Arsdale) “This is a great up-tempo song that I heard recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis. I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to record it for years and years but this was finally the right time for it.”

Gene Watson, has endured the ups and downs of the music business to become a country music legend himself. After releasing his very first single in 1962, Watson is still touring constantly in the USA and abroad and remains proud to be known as an icon for “real country”.

Reflecting back on his early life, singing with his seven siblings and parents in Paris, Texas, Watson noted, “I can remember singing as far back as I can remember talking. Singing was something that was not out of the ordinary for me. It wasn’t unique. My whole family sang.”

Even in a musical genre noted for its hard-luck stories, Gene Watson’s stands out. The family drifted from job to job as his itinerant father took logging and crop-picking jobs. “Home” eventually became a converted school bus which his father retrofitted himself and he made the stove that was strapped to the outside of the bus. Gene recalls his first real home was one they moved into when he was around 10 – one that his Dad purchased for $900 and spent many years paying off – but Gene also recalls they had to first remove the hay stored in the home before they moved in. As difficult as this may seem to some, Gene is quick to point out that while they didn’t have money for Christmas gifts and extravagant birthday presents, he never felt poor because no one around him had anything more. He said his childhood was extremely happy and for that he’s grateful to his loving parents and close-knit siblings.

Gene’s love for all things about cars and trucks developed early on as did his love for music. He said “I dreamed more about cars than music. I used to draw pictures of cars when I was at school. When I was about 11 or 12, I got a job picking up scrap metal at a car junkyard and I just thought it was wonderful. I’d get off the school bus at this place and work til late, finding hubcaps and car bumpers. I always thought my life’s work would revolve around cars somehow. Then along about my early teen years, my brother and I were asked to perform for a local show. We got paid some minimum amount but we got a standing ovation and I was hooked on the notion I could get paid for doing a little singing to help pay for a car.”

As a young adult, Gene settled in Houston, TX and began performing in the big Houston nightclubs while working as a paint and body man during the day. He developed a strong local following with his stage act and it was in Houston where he released his debut single on Sun Valley Records. That single, titled “If It Was That Easy” didn’t make any charts but as Gene states “it was just exciting to see my name on a record release and to believe that I was really in the business”. In 1964, the Grand Ole Opry duo, The Wilburn Brothers, took Gene on the road briefly. It was The Wilburn Brothers who brought Gene to Nashville for the very first time and allowed him to sing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Gene notes “I sang the Hank Williams song ‘I Can’t Help It if I’m Still in Love With You’ and got a standing ovation so not knowing what to follow with I just went out and did a gospel standard ‘It Is No Secret What God Can Do’. After that, they carried me down to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and I got on stage and broadcast on The Midnight Jamboree.”

Then it was back to the Texas honky-tonks and a string of local singles throughout the ‘60s.

In 1974, one of Gene Watson’s small-label singles caught the ear of Capitol Records. He was an auto-body repairman and the featured performer at Houston’s Dynasty nightclub when the label picked up the steamy, sexual waltz “Love in the Hot Afternoon” for national distribution. It became the first of Gene Watson’s two-dozen top-10 hits in early 1975.

“Seems like my career just kind of happened accidentally,” says Gene. “It was purely unintentional. Music was just a sideline. I was going to be playing and singing no matter what line of work I was going to do. I never did really have any high expectations out of the music business. Even today, I never know what to expect from one day to the next.

“But there is one thing: As far as I know, I do have an honest reputation in the music business, and I wouldn’t take nothing for that. If anything in the world means ‘success’ to me, that right there does.”

Gene took no songwriting credit when he re-wrote the lyrics of 1979’s “Pick the Wildwood Flower” to make it an autobiographical song. Songwriter Lawton Williams was so grateful for Gene’s bravura performance of “Farewell Party” that he gave the singer his 1980 BMI Award for it.

Gene Watson quit drinking in 1980 and quit smoking not long after that. He underwent surgery and survived colon cancer in 2000-01. Through it all, he continued to record one critically applauded collection after another. He was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2002 and into the inaugural class of the Houston, Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

Asked why he is still in such high demand after all these years, Watson reflected “I think a lot of it is because there’s not too much of what I do around anymore. I think there is still a hunger out there for traditional country music. So I’d like to stay out there as long as I’m able to do the job and do it well.

“Every time I step out on that stage and see that audience, it’s a new beginning. Even though I’ve sung these songs millions of times, I look at each one like it’s brand new to me. Every night, I try to deliver that song the best that I can.

“Being called a ‘Singer’s Singer’ humbles me. It’s flattering, but what I do is just what I do. The good Lord just gave me the voice.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S TEXAS: 

In the ’70s and early ’80s, George Jones garners a reputation in the music industry as an unpredictable live performer who is susceptible to cancelling shows at the last minute. The habit earns him the nickname “No Show Jones,” a song on “Yesterday’s Wine,” his 1992 collaboration with another 1981 Billy Bob’s debut, Merle Haggard. True to his moniker, Jones cancels a June 1981 appearance at the club.

He makes up the show a few days later and begins a friendship with Billy Bob Barnett, a longtime fan who offers to manage Jones and take over his troubled financial affairs. Barnett sets about straightening up up Jones’ obligations from his many cancelled dates, and Jones plays at Billy Bob’s and even lives in Fort Worth for a time. Just as quickly as it was struck, the partnership dissolves after Jones phones from Alabama to call off their deal.

Jones went on to play at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk 27 times before his death in 2013.

ABOUT GEORGE JONES:

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992, George won the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award that same year. In 2002, he was presented with the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence, in a ceremony at the White House.

People who keep track of numbers say that George charted more singles in his extraordinary career than any other artists in any music format. George’s 2004, three-CD compilation George Jones: Fifty Years of Hits showcases his hit records from every year of the second half of the 20th century.

Born in southeast Texas near Beaumont, George was the eighth child in a poor family. George was introduced to music by his mother, a church pianist, and his truck-driving, pipefitter father, who played guitar. He was singing at age 9, playing guitar at 11, writing his songs at 12 – and had a regular spot on a Jasper, Texas, radio station by 15.

The first of his long list of hits was “Why, Baby, Why,” recorded at Starday Records in 1955. Two years later, he moved to Mercury, where he recorded “White Lightning,” (his first No. 1), and such enduring classics as “The Window Up Above,” “She Thinks I Still Care,” “The Race is On,” and “Walk Through This World With Me.”

In the tumultuous years George was married to Tammy Wynette, they both recorded with Billy Sherrill at Epic Records. Their duets included “Golden Ring,” “We’re Gonna Hold On,” and “Two Store House.” George’s solo hits there included “The Grand Tour,” “The Door” – and in 1980, the indelible “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” From “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes” to “Choices” on 1999’s Grammy-winning Cold Hard Truth album, great George Jones records just kept coming.

Through every twist and turn in country music fashion, his pre-eminent gifts remained clear. In 2013, Jones died at age 81. His memorial service was held at the Grand Ole Opry House and the all-star tributes and eulogies were broadcast live on multiple TV and radio stations.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

George Thorogood and the Destroyers rocked the house five times to date, including the show pictured in March of 2004.

ABOUT GEORGE THOROGOOD:

Since 1976, they’ve sold over 15 million albums, built a catalog of classic hits, and played more than 8,000 ferocious live shows. They broke records with their 50 Dates/50 States Tour, delivered landmark performances at Live Aid and on SNL, and became mainstays of radio, MTV, and stages worldwide for more than two generations. Through it all, they’ve remained one of the most consistent – and consistently passionate – progenitors of blues-based rock in pop culture history.

For the past 45 years, it’s been very good to be George Thorogood & The Destroyers. And in 2021, their Good To Be Bad Tour: 45 Years Of Rock will prove why to like never before.

“If you’re content, you may as well be dead,” George says. “I think everyone has thoughts about retiring, but the phone keeps ringing. ‘You want me and The Destroyers to come to your town, set up our gear, wear some cool threads and play ‘Who Do You Love?’ End of conversation. Let’s rock!”

For Thorogood and his longtime band – Jeff Simon (drums, percussion), Bill Blough (bass guitar), Jim Suhler (rhythm guitar), and Buddy Leach (saxophone) – the power to rock audiences has been both battle cry and creed from the beginning. “Since I was 17,” George says, “all I wanted to do was see how far I could go with my guitar, putting my own spin on music I loved.” After a few hard years as a solo acoustic performer – a period he would revisit with his acclaimed 2017 album Party Of One – George added a drummer and bass player to form the electric trio he called The Destroyers. Built around Thorogood’s fiery guitar skills, explosive performance style, and a blistering take on blues rarities, the band began to gain a devout following at college parties around their native Wilmington, Delaware. It was at one of their earliest shows that Thorogood had his live performance epiphany. “It wasn’t about the number of people we drew, but rather the impression we made,” he explains. “I asked myself, ‘Are we reaching them? Do they want more?’ And from the very first set we knew that we had something special.”

“George had that drive and charisma when we were 11 years old,” laughs childhood pal and 45-year Destroyer drummer Jeff Simon. “At first, we just enjoyed playing music. Then we had the thought of maybe making a living at it. We always believed that if we played great songs and stayed true to ourselves, people would keep coming back.” The band soon became a sensation throughout the Delaware Valley and New England club circuit, and in 1976 signed with Cambridge-based label Rounder Records. Over the course of 16 studio albums – including two Platinum and six Gold discs on Rounder, EMI, and Capitol – Thorogood and The Destroyers toured the globe, as Rolling Stone once raved, “playing rock & roll hot enough to melt the polar ice caps and flood the world’s major population centers.” “We’re on a very short list of bands that are still

having fun doing this,” Jeff says. “And we’re still looking over our shoulders thinking that somebody will catch us at it.”

Thorogood & The Destroyers indeed remain unstoppable. In the past few years alone, the band released a top-selling limited edition 7” single for Record Store Day and saw the re-issues of their legendary Bad To The Bone, Born To Be Bad, and Greatest Hits: 30 Years Of Rock albums on 180-gram colored vinyl. Thorogood himself received the 2018 B.B. King Award from The Montreal International Jazz Festival, and his solo debut Party Of One – which critics called “brilliant” (Spin), “electrifying” (Guitar Player), and “chock full of classics” (Music Connection) – became George’s fastest-selling disc in over 20 years. And in 2020, Epiphone created the George Thorogood ‘White Fang’ ES-125TDC premier signature model guitar, while Craft Recordings released George Thorogood & The Destroyers Live In Boston 1982: The Complete Concert that Classic Rock says “may well be one of the great live albums, entirely superb and a master class in live performance.”

It’s live on tour that George & The Destroyers continues to flip the switch nightly, delivering what The Toledo Blade calls “a gut-bustin’, guitar-wailin’, face-meltin’, fiery-tempered, take-no-prisoners, good old-fashioned lunch-bucket rock & roll show” that includes their signature hits “Get A Haircut”, “I Drink Alone”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Move It On Over”, “Who Do You Love” and the definitive badass anthem “Bad To The Bone”, along with several surprises. “George has been honing the set list since our bar band days,” explains 43-year Destroyer bassist Bill Blough. “It’s been a constant evolution to make it all killer, no filler. We hear our walk-on song, the lights go down, and something still inherently clicks the second we step on stage. We feel the audience’s energy and the show just explodes.”

And as in past years, a portion of proceeds from every date on the Good To Be Bad Tour will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. “Now we’re talking about something that’s really important,” George says. “When I was a kid I remember Robert F. Kennedy saying, ‘Some people see things as they are and ask why. I dream things that never were and ask why not?’ That still gives me the chills today. Don’t tell me to slow down or turn down, but if The Destroyers and I can help make a difference in any way, shape, or form, we’re there.”

But after 45 years of rock – and no signs of stopping – can Thorogood point to what continues to make it all matter? “My highlight is every night when I walk on that stage and play our hits for those happy people,” he says. “At the end of the show, the audience is smiling, I don’t see any police and everyone got their money’s worth.”

More importantly, is it still good to be bad? George Thorogood instantly flashes that huge grin. “You bet it is,” he says. ”We’ll always be the saddest band in the land. Expect our best on this tour, because that’s what you’re gonna get.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On October 1, 2005, Glen Campbell cemented his hands into Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT GLEN CAMPBELL:

Glen Campbell has always felt a divine touch in his life as if he were given a gift he didn’t earn but was allowed to use to make people happy and forget their worries for a time.

How else do you explain his life, one of the most extraordinary rags to riches stories in popular music history? The 12th child and seventh son of a dirt poor sharecropper born in the depths of the depression on April 22, 1936, Campbell drowned when he was a toddler in the Little Missouri River near his family’s Arkansas home. His lips were blue when he was pulled from the river and those who rescued him believed he was gone. But he lived miraculously after his brother Lyndell resuscitated him, and Campbell always suspected it was because of this gift.

It wasn’t long after this that Campbell’s father recognized his talent and bought him a $5 guitar from Sears & Roebuck at the age of four. He quickly showed himself to be a prodigy under the tutelage of his Uncle Boo. How could the two not be related? For it was clear Campbell was a special talent, so much so that he broke the poverty cycle and began to earn a living with his guitar as a teenager and went on to become one of the most respected, revered, and popular performers of the rock ‘n’ roll era.

From his time as a groundbreaking musician for Elvis, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and many others in the archetypical backing band The Wrecking Crew to his decade atop the charts to the grace he showed as he closed his career while fighting Alzheimer’s disease, there are few artists who have touched as many lives as the Rhinestone Cowboy. And left them smiling.

By the time Campbell won his sixth Grammy Award in 2014 for his final recording, “I’m Not Going to Miss You,” he had won almost every award and achieved every milestone available to musicians. One of the best-selling solo male artists in U.S. chart history, Campbell released more than 70 albums, selling 50 million copies with more than 80 songs charting. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year, twice won the Academy of Country Music’s Album of the Year award, and was named Male Vocalist of the Year by both. In 2012, he was bestowed the Grammy’s most prestigious honor, a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Campbell made history in 1967 with his first Grammy wins by sweeping the song and performance awards in both the pop and country and western categories. “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” won the pop accolades and “Gentle on My Mind” took the two country and western trophies. Those two songs and “Wichita Lineman” are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The inability to define his sound marks Campbell’s career. Campbell was the rare artist whose success had no fences. He grew up loving country music, but Campbell made sophisticated music that connected with Americans making the physical and cultural transition from a rural agrarian society to a modern urban one. He also brought that love for the genre to new fans, who embraced it and helped move what was once a regional sound into the pop-cultural conversation, sparking an interest in all things rural to an adoring international audience.

Campbell had little interest in the rural experience, however, growing up in Billstown, Arkansas, a community so small it didn’t merit inclusion on any map. He began to see a way out of the hard-scrabble sharecropper’s life when he brought his guitar to school in kindergarten. At recess, he noticed how his classmates – and especially the girls – would gather around when he played. Could picking the guitar be more lucrative than the endless toil of picking cotton and corn?

His love of music – all kinds of music – drove him. When he heard the gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, he was entranced. His father loaned out his services to an elderly neighbor woman who needed his help with chores and milking cows. Young Glen was not to accept payment, but once in a while, the woman would slip him a few coins. When Glen was eight, he used that money on Django records and played along with them until he could mimic Django’s virtuosic style. It was like this with record after record.

With family resources sparse and opportunities non-existent, he left Arkansas at fourteen years old and joined a migrant labor crew to pick tomatoes with the mostly Mexican laborers. He was in Indiana when he got the call to join his Uncle Boo and travel out west to chase the dream of a musician’s life. The two eventually settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early 1950s where Campbell appeared on local television and radio and eventually formed his own band. A bustling regional hub that was a stopover between the popular Texas and California markets, Campbell quickly got noticed in Albuquerque as a bandleader and fill-in sideman and didn’t take a lot of convincing when those passing through said he should make the long drive to Los Angeles.

He arrived in 1960 at a glorious time in pop music history and within a year got a publishing company job writing songs and recording demos. His demo work led him to his job as a guitarist in The Wrecking Crew, the group of studio musicians who worked with Phil Spector to create his influential Wall of Sound production style. His work during this period would have been enough to secure his place in rock history. Alongside musicians like Leon Russell and drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, he played on an astounding 586 sessions in 1963 alone. That’s him creating unforgettable guitar parts on the Beach Boys’ landmark Pet Sounds album, Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer,” not to mention hits by Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Lou Rawls, Ricky Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Bobby Vee. And you’ll also find him among backing a who’s who list of artists with the Crew as the house band on the legendary “T.A.M.I. Show.”

After working with the Beach Boys on Pet Sounds, he was asked to join the band as a touring artist in 1964, playing bass and singing harmony for Brian Wilson after the legend temporarily retired from touring. These times were some of the best of Campbell’s life, with the happy memories surviving even the ravages of Alzheimer’s five decades later.

At the same time, Campbell also was recording as a solo artist. His single, “Turn Around Look At Me,” released on a regional label, caught the attention of Capitol Records, which signed him in 1962. He soon released his first modest hit, “Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry.” His first album, Big Bluegrass Special, recorded under the name The Green River Boys featuring Glen Campbell, yielded the Top 20 hit “Kentucky Means Paradise.” In another important development, he began making appearances on musical variety shows such as “Star Route,” “Shindig!” and “Hollywood Jamboree.”

Capitol paired him with producer Al De Lory in 1967 after a few years of sagging sales and the singer soon went on a run of hits that would announce his presence to the wider world. “Gentle on My Mind,” released later that year, and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” were instant successes, and the album, By the Time I Get to Phoenix became the first country album to win top honor Album of the Year at the 10th Annual Grammy ceremony in 1968. “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston,” which like “Phoenix” were composed by Campbell’s spiritual brother Jimmy Webb, also were huge multi-genre hits in the late 1960s.

Campbell’s success helped him cross over into a new arena – television host. “The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour” ran from 1969-72. The episodes were aired in Great Britain, Australia, and Singapore by the BBC along with five specials for the network, giving Campbell a truly international presence and catapulting the singer to worldwide stardom. Using his industry connections, Campbell landed some of music’s biggest stars – from The Beatles to Johnny Cash – and introduced the world to country music in a respectful way that highlighted lesser-known musicians who would go on to wider acclaim. He also moved into the film world as the hand-picked co-star of John Wayne in the film “True Grit,” and his song for the soundtrack was nominated for an Academy Award. Campbell was also nominated for Most Promising Newcomer at the Golden Globes.

Campbell would conquer pop music again in the mid-1970s when he released his best-selling single, “Rhinestone Cowboy,” a signature song that became his theme in many ways. The 1975 single, which has sold more than five million copies, remains a standard of the era. And in 1977 he released “Southern Nights,” a remake of Allen Toussaint’s classic. The song reached No. 1 in three categories and was the most-played jukebox track of 1977.

As with most pop stars, Campbell remained a popular figure, continuously touring around the world, but would drop from the top of the charts. Over the ensuing years, he publicly overcame alcohol and cocaine addiction – outlined in his 1994 autobiography “Rhinestone Cowboy” – while raising three young children with his fourth wife, Kim, who introduced him to Christianity in the early ’80s and helped get him sober. Throughout the next two decades, he released a resounding 20 albums in the 1980s and ‘90s, occasionally rising to the top of the country charts with songs like “Still Within the Sound of My Voice” in 1987 and “She’s Gone Gone Gone” in 1990. During this period Campbell began to release albums of Gospel music, adding three prestigious GMA Dove Awards to his treasure chest.

Campbell returned to the spotlight with 2008’s Meet Glen Campbell and released the extremely personal song cycle Ghost on the Canvas in 2011 at age 75. A short time after recording that album, Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating brain disorder that slowly robbed Campbell of his memories and abilities.

He nevertheless launched “The Glen Campbell Goodbye Tour,” with his children becoming key members of his band. A film crew led by filmmaker James Keach followed Campbell for a portion of the 151 sold-out shows as he navigated the disease. The resulting documentary, “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” was hailed by critics and yielded the singer one last Grammy, Best Country Song for his final release, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” and a second Academy Award nomination.

It was a fitting coda to a career that spanned six decades, touched tens of millions of lives and felt blessed every step of the way.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In the May of 1982, Grand Funk Railroad performs with the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

ABOUT GRAND FUNK RAILROAD:

Originating from Flint, Michigan in 1969, this top selling American rock group of the 70’s is “COMIN’ TO YOUR TOWN TO HELP YOU PARTY IT DOWN”. Grand Funk Railroad is extremely excited to be touring in 2020 marking a 51 year milestone. After playing to millions of fans on the band’s tours from 1996 to 2019, Grand Funk’s 2020 SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL TOUR will continue to reach both new and long-time fans.

Known as “The American Band”, the high-energy five-piece group will play forty shows all over the USA this year. Grand Funk Railroad includes original founding members Don Brewer (vocals and drums, writer and singer of the multi-million selling hit, We’re An American Band) and bassist Mel Schacher, “The God Of Thunder”. Joining Don and Mel are true “All Stars”. Singer Max Carl is a rock veteran from 38 Special. Max penned and sang 38’s biggest hit “Second Chance” and was co-founder of California’s legendary Jack Mack and the Heart Attack. Don refers to Max as “the best blue-eyed soul singer on the planet”. Lead guitarist Bruce Kulick is best known for his 12 years with KISS and has credits with Michael Bolton, Meatloaf and Billy Squier. (KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were influenced early on by Grand Funk.) Keyboardist Tim Cashion has a master’s degree in music from the University of Miami. Affectionately called “Dr. Tim”, his credits include stints with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and English soul man Robert Palmer.

Grand Funk laid the groundwork for such bands as Foreigner, Journey, Van Halen and Bon Jovi with its signature hard driving sound, soulful vocals, muscular instrumentation and forceful pop melodies. The fact that Grand Funk’s legacy still reigns over the Classic Rock landscape fifty years after its 1969 birth in Flint, Michigan is a testament to the group’s influence and staying power. Mega-hits We’re An American Band, I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home, Locomotion, and Some Kind Of Wonderful still receive continuous airplay on Classic Rock radio. We’re An American Band has received notoriety in recent years being used in movie sound tracks and in television/radio advertising. The huge hit was featured in a General Motors national TV ad campaign and in Disney’s animated feature film The Country Bears. We’re An American Band was featured in the Cuba Gooding Jr. film RADIO, and also in the swash buckler SAHARA starring Matthew McConaughey.

Internationally acclaimed Grand Funk has toured the world, selling out in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and South America. A 1971 performance at New York’s Shea Stadium sold out faster than the Beatles. The group’s widespread appeal is also evident in its prestigious recording achievements. Over their career, Grand Funk has had 19 charted singles, 8 Top 40 hits and two Number One singles (We’re An American Band and Locomotion, both selling more than one million each). The group has now accumulated 13 gold and 10 platinum records with record sales exceeding 25 million copies sold worldwide. The most recent gold CD award was presented to the band for their greatest hits package Grand Funk Railroad the Collectors Series.

The multi-talented band carries on the tradition of Grand Funk hits and creates a new chapter in the legacy of Grand Funk Railroad. GFR drew 25,000 people to their Molson Canal Series Concert outside Buffalo, 20,000 in Albany, New York, and 20,000 fans to downtown Orlando, Florida. EMI/Capitol (Universal Music) released a new Grand Funk Greatest Hits package that includes a bonus DVD of rare concert footage. Grand Funk Railroad’s 2019 50 YEARS OF FUNK TOUR was a huge success and now, with the group’s 2020 SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL TOUR, seasoned Grand Funk lovers and contemporary rock fans discovering the group for the first time will be able to celebrate 50 Years of Funk with GRAND FUNK RAILROAD!

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

ABOUT GRANGER SMITH:

The power of music has always been in Granger Smith’s hands, even when he didn’t know it. When people need hope, his songs inspires it. When people are in a tough spot, he shows them a way out. When people are looking for purpose, he is proof that sometimes purpose finds you.

That’s what country music has done for Smith. And that’s the true measure of a bona fide artist: when you can share a little bit of yourself with every story you tell and every picture you paint.

After the kind of year Smith had — we all had — he decided to let his music do the healing. Not just for himself, but for anyone who needs to hear songs that let them know they’re not alone on whatever road they’re taking.

And it’s been a long time coming.

This new batch of music from the born-and-bred Texan initially started back in early 2019. Smith was writing and creating and prepping for his 10^th studio album, when all of those plans abruptly came to a halt.

“The vision for this music collection was just starting to come together. I had about six songs ready to record, and had booked a Nashville studio for June 5, 2019. And then we lost Riv the night of June 4,” Smith recalls of the tragic night he and his wife Amber lost their 3-year-old son River in a drowning accident at their Texas home. “Everything stopped. The album wasn’t just on hold. It didn’t even cross my mind.”

But after several months of mourning, he was visiting his parents, sitting on their front porch just outside of Waco, and listening to the song he’d written earlier that year with Chris DeStefano, Bradley Rempel and Jon Nite. “That’s Why I Love Dirt Roads” was one of the songs he’d been planning to record on June 5.

“It started hitting me in a different way. It had taken on new meaning,” he says. So he sat down to rework the song’s bridge to reflect that sometimes dirt roads are beat up and broken, scattered and tossed in the breeze. But no matter their scars, it doesn’t change what they are. That sounds a little like me.

His team warned him against any kind of re-entry into the music world. But Smith was insistent that if the song helped him cope, it could do the same for others.

“That was what I wanted people to hear me say. So when we started playing shows again, I was using that song to recalibrate my life,” he says. “You can relate life to a dirt road in a lot of ways: sometimes it’s beat up, broken, scattered and washed out, and you don’t always know what’s around the next curve, but you take that road anyway. That’s what makes it beautiful.”

That one song was enough to get Smith ready to make music again. And just as he was taking stock of the songs he’d prepped for that June session after one last stop on his tour, he came back home. And so did COVID-19.

At first, the quarantine’s arrival seemed like a blessing for Smith. He sat down with the unexpected downtime and penned “Heroes” and “I Kill Spiders.” That’s when, Smith says, the album started taking a turn.

“I’ve never been the artist who creates a theme before we start. I’m the guy where the theme starts happening halfway through the process. When you start narrowing down the list, you see that you’re creating a story with the songs. So if you listen all the way down, you’re not gonna get stuck in one emotion,” he says. “It’s gonna take you different places.”

Two of the songs Smith ultimately recorded were brand new to him. They’re songs about fatherhood. In his previous nine albums, he’d never addressed his own family in his music. “There was never an entire song about my father-son or father-daughter relationships,” he says of “I Kill Spiders” and another soon to be announced song.

Smith, his wife, their son Lincoln and their daughter London have started revealing more of themselves in their YouTube series The Smiths. Songwise, exposing your family is something Smith says only happens in country. “It’s what separates country from rock and pop. We all overlap on love songs, loss songs, mad songs and happy songs.  But where we don’t intersect with those other genres is family.”

Keeping the stories and the lyrics genuine meant the music would have to follow that lead. “So there are no synth loops here. All the instruments are played by human hands,” he says.

And the title track is notable for one simple reason: simplicity. “After Riv, I really wanted to simplify a lot of things. We moved twice: first to get to a landing spot, and then second to a piece of land where we’re building a new house. So until then, we’re literally living in an RV parked in the barn on the property. ‘Country Things’ speaks to that simplicity of boiling everything down to the basics of what we need not what we want. We are so much closer now: to the elements, to nature, and to each other.” That’s how the banjo-heavy track led the way for this next chapter in Smith’s career.

Smith made the decision to release his new songs in two parts because of the current state of the world. It’s impossible to imagine that someone could digest 16 songs in one sitting, and truly feel the complete ride he’s trying to give them. The 16 songs, once you do hear them in their entirety, have Smith all over the map. But it is, and always will be, a country map. And rest assured, Earl Dibbles Jr. is along for the ride on three songs.

Earl brings Smith something of a creative release, and he compares Earl songs to the dessert you crave after a good meal. “Those songs seem to happen amidst the writing of all the other songs, but are always just on the back burner. They never take up real estate in my mind. They never overshadow the other music,” Smith says of leaving room for a little Earl. “I don’t want people to take my albums too seriously. I love that there can be a light-hearted stroke. It took time for me to realize that I could write an impactful, heartfelt, moving song that gives you goosebumps. But what equally affects people is a genuine smile from an Earl song.”

Another part of Smith’s life that forever tethers him to his fans is the Yee Yee brand he started with his brothers Tyler and Parker. It is not merely Smith merchandise. It has a life of its own. “It is no longer a reflection of the music,” Smith says, “now the music is kind of the soundtrack to those Yee Yee people. And that’s a huge blessing.”

With the new music, the YouTube series, the Yee Yee brand, and the dependability of Earl Dibbles Jr., Smith says it all works together to reveal the truth. “We are normal, very vulnerable humans. Now when I meet people, they feel like they really know me. They genuinely feel closer to me and more comfortable around me,” he says. And that is the proof that there’s a little bit of Granger Smith in everything Granger Smith does.

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On July 17, 1998, The Great Divide made their debut on the main stage and added their hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT THE GREAT  DIVIDE:

The Great Divide formed in Oklahoma in 1992. Comprised of vocalist/lead guitarist Mike McClure, bassist Kelley Green, rhythm guitarist Scotte Lester and drummer J.J. Lester, the group honed its chops opening for artists including Chris LeDoux, Tracy Lawrence and the Bellamy Brothers before issuing their independent label debut Goin’ for Broke in 1994. In 1998, the Great Divide released their second LP, Break in the Storm and their third album, Revolutions, followed in 1999. Recorded in the historic Will Rogers Theater in Oklahoma, Afterglow was released in 2000.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Gretchen Wilson, whose debut CD Here for the Party would reach Number 2 on the Billboard album charts, makes her Billy Bob’s debut in June 2004. The show draws about 6,000 people, and Wilson performs a set featuring her songs and cover tunes like Charlie Daniels’ “Long Haired Country Boy,” “Straight On” by Heart, and John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery.”

ABOUT GRETCHEN WILSON:

Gretchen Wilson took the country music world by storm when she released her #1 hit song “Redneck Woman” in 2005. She immediately Landed an opening slot with Brooks & Dunn and would go on to tour with Kenny Chesney the following year. Since the days of being an opening act, Wilson has been fortunate enough to have been able to host artists like Trace Atkins and Van Zandt. 2012 was a prolific year for Gretchen as she would embark on one of the year’s hottest tour packages “The Outlaw Tour with ZZ Top and 3 Doors Down”.

In 2014 Gretchen took some time off to be a full-time mom to her daughter but recently returned with an album and a tour that picks up right where she left off! Her live show is promising to be a trip back to the old days featuring familiar titles and a band that rocks as hard as the Redneck Woman does.

Gretchen will be featuring the next “redneck woman” on her label during her shows this summer. Jessie G has recently signed with Gretchen’s label Redneck Records and will be giving fans a preview of what they are working on.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

ABOUT FLATLAND CAVALRY:

Flatland Cavalry is breaking out into a gallop. After years of hot trotting across their native Texas, the country outfit is primed for a breakout with the release of their third full-length album, the sonically sprawling and wistfully written Welcome to Countryland.

The Texas sextet–bandleader and chief lyricist Cleto Cordero, guitarist Reid Dillon, bassist Jonathan Saenz, drummer Jason Albers, fiddle player Wesley Hall, and recent newcomer utility instrumentalist Adam Gallegos–continue to embrace their trademark sound while further pushing into the wild unknown. When it was time to embark on recording a new album, resting on their laurels was simply out of the realm of possibilities.

After the release of 2019’s critically-acclaimed Homeland Insecurity and their 2016 full-length debut Humble Folks, they’ve been on a healthy trajectory rising through the country ranks. After years of working with Lubbock stalwart Scott Faris in the friendly confines of Amusement Park Studios, Flatland decided a change of scenery was necessary. Despite some hesitation and a mix of emotions, they instantly knew recording at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio A with rising producer Jake Gear was the right move. 

“With our last two projects, we knew that room and setup. There’s comfort in working with Scott,” says Albers. “I think it was important to try and further expand with this album. Sonically, this album is definitely something bigger.”

“I think everyone kind of experienced this bit of nervousness going from Scott’s studio to Sound Emporium,” adds Dillon. “That first day, everyone was a little fidgety and shy. You eventually fall into this comfort zone.”

While the roster of collaborative confidants and colleagues (Spencer Cullum, Jim Hoke, Billy Justineau, Hailey Whitters, and Kaitlin Butts) has continued to expand with Flatland’s sound stride for stride, Countryland isn’t a cut and paste effort with Nashville studio musicians. Rather, it finds the rootsy Texans delivering their A-game due to countless tour runs zig-zagging across the country and becoming seasoned performers and musicians.

Since their humble beginnings out in the Panhandle town of Lubbock, Texas, Flatland Cavalry has embraced their surroundings and rural West Texas roots. Formed in 2014 while attending Texas Tech University, Cordero and company made their presence felt within the Hub City’s songwriting circles and dancehall circuits. Banking on Cordero’s earnest pen and the band’s blend of country instrumentation, toe-tapping grooves, and earworm choruses, Flatland quickly became a regional sensation.  

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 17, 1991, Hal Ketchum cemented his hands on to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT HAL KETCHUM:

Reared in the village of Greenwich in the gorgeously verdant countryside of upstate New York, Ketchum hails from a family where singing and playing music was part of the daily (and nightly) diet for generations. He was exposed to country music (his father was a fan) as well as the symphonic classics and, one year, even the Newport Jazz Festival at the nearby Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

“It was just a natural thing to be intrigued with music,” explains Ketchum, who started playing drums at age nine and by 14 was gigging at local bars and taverns. Anyone looking for a reason why “Small Town Saturday Night” immediately struck a chord with music lovers – and the roots of Ketchum’s innate knack for connecting with an audience in live performance – can find the origins in his years of making music for regular people seeking to transcend the everyday on weekend nights.

“It was a great lesson in sociology because the bars would move the pool table over in the corner and put a three-quarter-inch piece of plywood on top, and that would be my drum riser. At 15 years old I’d get to sit up in the corner of these joints and just watch the evening progress. Friday night everybody would get paid from one of the local pulp mills, and they would wander in and be very generous during the first set. Then by halfway through the second set they’re dancing with one of the girls. And by the third set they’re fighting. I learned never to stop playing during a fight. That was an important part of my education.” So it’s no wonder that the scene depicted in his very first hit “is tattooed onto my soul.”

Ketchum eventually traded one of his two drum kits for a five-string banjo and then traded another banjo for a Martin acoustic guitar, forming a duo with his singing and guitar-playing brother to also entertain at local nightspots. A move to Texas landed him in a house on the edge of New Braunfels in the very heart of the Lone Star State, just a stone’s throw from historic Gruene Hall, an old dancehall that is the virtual mother church of the Texas music scene where talents like George Strait, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen and many others began their rise to fame.

“The house was a fixer-upper, and I had just dried it in and put windows in, and I was moving in one Saturday night and heard music playing from up on the hill,” Ketchum recalls. “I had come in from the San Antonio side and didn’t even know Gruene Hall existed. I got in my truck and rolled the windows down and just followed this sound. I crossed the Guadalupe River and came up the hill and to the right, and there was Gruene Hall on a Saturday night in all its glory, with Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel playing for 600 drunken stomps and their dates. I was like, what the hell is this? It was like a movie.”

He began spending every Sunday afternoon drinking beer and playing horseshoes with the locals at the dancehall, and “listening to Townes Van Zandt or Lyle Lovett staring at his boots playing to nine people or Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore with this guy named Spider on the musical saw,” remembers Ketchum. “It was my songwriter school.” With the encouragement of Lovett and Gilmore, he honed his craft as a writer, singer and performer and eventually landed the coveted Sunday afternoon slot at Gruene Hall. He then put together a band to propel his story songs with danceable rhythms and rose to become an opener and later headliner at Gruene and other Central Texas venues.

An album he recorded on his own dime and released on a small Austin indie label, Threadbare Alibis, caught the ear of Curb Records, which signed Ketchum and brought him to Nashville to record his major label debut, Past the Point of Rescue. “The label dropped ‘Small Town . . .’ in early 1991 as the first single. And it went to #1 on August 16th of that year. And suddenly I was a genuine hillbilly singer,” he says with a chuckle. His success prompted Curb to shift its base of operations from Los Angeles to Nashville, and CEO and owner Mike Curb refers to Hal as the label’s “cornerstone artist.”

Since then Ketchum has distinguished himself as a hitmaker with 15 Top 10 singles and five million albums sold as well as a true singing and songwriting artist with a capital ‘A’ and one of the most engaging performers on the American live music circuit, also winning a devoted following in Great Britain – a natural outgrowth of his Celtic family and musical roots. He has forged his own singular presence in popular music thanks to such qualities as his vibrant talent and creativity, artistic integrity and natural soulfulness.

He has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1994 and often hosts the “Opry Live” show on GAC. In addition to being a master woodworker – which is how he made his living before music – Ketchum is also an accomplished painter who sold out his first show at the distinguished Penna Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

​
In 2008, Ketchum released an unusual album he calls “Father Time.” Unusual was the way it was recorded. No over-dubs, just head on recording direct to 2 tracks. He captured that authenticity of old style recording and revisited one of the first songs that he ever wrote, “The Preacher and Me.” Then he took a break. His split with Curb Records was followed by a split with his wife and mother of his three youngest girls, and culminated with the death of his long time bass player, Keith Carper, who passed away at 50 years old in 2009. His own health deteriorated as he struggled with the pain. He had been paralyzed for a period of time in 1998 from Acute Transverse Myelitis, a sister disease to Muscular Sclerosis of which his mother died from, and had to learn how to do basic tasks for a second time, including relearning how to play the guitar. In 2010, the fear of the disease and the pain of reality drove Ketchum to retire to the Texas Hill Country which he now calls home.

Hal Ketchum is not done though. Not by a long shot. Three years of “clearing the cobwebs” out has brought forth a new and better man. He’s come to grip with the sad things in life and learned to be grateful for all of the things that matter the most….family, good friends, and life. Songs are flowing from his pen like a mountain creek in the spring, leaving in it’s flow a new CD with all new songs, slated for release in the summer of 2014. His voice is back and stronger than ever, that voice made of gold. He’s also finished writing his memoirs, a finished book that is ready to go to press.

Armed with new stories, new songs, and a strong fan base that have stuck with him throughout the years, Hal Michael Ketchum is back to stay. His old friend and guitar player, Kenny Grimes joins him on most of his public appearances. “There’s no time for resentment.” Ketchum says. “All it does is eat you up inside.” “I am extremely blessed . I am alive and happy and have another chance to do what I love to most of all….make music with my friends.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Fort Worth Legend Hank Thompson plays the main stage in June of 1997.

ABOUT HANK THOMPSON

Hank Thompson was perhaps the most popular Western swing musician of the ’50s and ’60s, keeping the style alive with a top-notch band, tremendous showmanship, and a versatility that allowed him to expand his repertoire into romantic ballads and hardcore honky tonk numbers. Born September 3, 1925, in Waco, TX, Henry William Thompson was the son of immigrants from Bohemia and grew up idolizing Western swing and country musicians like Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, and Gene Autry. He began learning harmonica and guitar as a child, and appeared in local talent shows as a teenager, which eventually led to his own local radio program (billed as Hank the Hired Hand). After graduating from high school in 1943, Thompson joined the Navy as a radio technician and often wrote songs to entertain his fellow soldiers. Following his discharge, Thompson studied electrical engineering at Princeton through the G.I. Bill, but eventually decided to pursue music as a career. He returned to Waco and to the radio business, and set about putting together a band he dubbed the Brazos Valley Boys. They quickly became a popular live act around the area and recorded their first single, “Whoa Sailor” (a song Thompson had written in the Navy) for the Globe label in 1946. A few more singles followed for Bluebonnet, by which time Tex Ritter had become a Thompson admirer. Ritter helped Thompson land a record deal with Capitol in 1947, an association that would last for the next 18 years.

Dance Ranch

Thompson scored his first major hit for Capitol in 1949 with the smash “Humpty Dumpty Heart,” the biggest of his six charting singles that year. In 1951, he hooked up with producer Ken Nelson, who would helm many of his most successful records. Those records included “The Wild Side of Life,” a monster hit from 1952 (over three months at number one) that became Thompson’s signature song. Its cynical attitude inspired an answer record by Kitty Wells called “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which made her the first female artist in country music history with a million-selling record. Thompson continued to score hit after hit during the ’50s, including 21 songs that reached the Top 20 on the country charts and five Top Tens in the year 1954 alone. A savvy promoter, Thompson devised a number of ways to make himself stand out from the crowd (even past his suave cowboy wardrobe): his early-’50s television show in Oklahoma City was the first variety show broadcast in color and he was the first country artist to tour with a sound and lighting system (put together using his Navy and collegiate experience), the first to receive corporate sponsorship, and the first to record in high-fidelity stereo. He also gave early breaks to musicians like guitar legend Merle Travis and female rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson. Toward the end of the ’50s, Thompson began to create LPs that were more cohesive than just mere collections of singles plus filler; 1958’s Dance Ranch and 1959’s Songs for Rounders were Western swing/honky tonk masterpieces, especially the latter, which stirred up controversy with its groundbreakingly adult (some said decadent) lyrical content. In 1961, Thompson recorded the first live album ever released in the history of country music, the classic At the Golden Nugget.

After that burst of inspired creativity, Thompson’s luck began to change: the public’s taste was moving toward slick country-pop and the electrified Bakersfield sound and despite several more fine records, Thompson’s relationship with Capitol ended in 1965. He first moved to Warner Bros., then ABC/Dot in 1968 (which became part of MCA in 1970). Thompson continued to record and tour and his singles charted regularly during the ’70s all the way up to 1983, though he never matched the level of success he’d enjoyed in the ’50s and early ’60s. Even after the hits dried up, Thompson maintained a demanding concert tour schedule, playing all over the world. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On November 19, 1999, Hank Williams III rocked out the main stage for his debut.

ABOUT HANK WILLIAMS III:

Somewhere outside Nashville, Tennessee sits a place where the ghosts of country music legends don’t have to weep into their beers over the despicable current state of Music Row, where the spectres of Joey and Dee Dee Ramone can comfortably have a drink with John Bonham and Jimi Hendrix and know that someone still doesn’t give a good goddamn for the rules. All those old boys can sit back, enjoy some new music being made, and let the weight of innovation slide off their shoulders for a minute, because there are still a few true originals left, and one of them, Hank 3, is working non-stop in his Haunted Ranch studio abode doing the hard work, creating the real deal-rebel music for rebel fans. This time it’s a triple threat – a double country album called “Brothers of the 4×4′ and a blazing punk rock record titled “A Fiendish Threat”.

It’s easier to understand the unique music of Shelton Hank Williams III (known to fans worldwide as Hank 3, or even simpler, just “3”), if you know a little bit about the dude, and the very first thing you should know is that he is entirely and completely his own man. Yes, he is the son and grandson of those Hanks, and when you have inherited a name like Hank Williams and have the balls enough to pick up a guitar, the re are bound to be expectations and pre-conceived notions of what and how you should play music. The weight of that name (not to mention an eerie resemblance to the original – the late Minnie Pearl, upon meeting Hank 3 was said to have thought she saw a ghost for a second) would have easily crushed a lesser man into a lifetime of novelty-act nostalgia cover band status, but Hank 3 has managed to honor his namesakes in the best way possible – by doing his own thing, just as he has from the very start. Indeed, when asked what kind of country he first wanted to make his fast response is “Well, I knew I didn’t want to be Hank Williams or Hank Jr, that’s for sure.”

But to simplify Hank 3 as a privileged reactionary kicking muddied cowboy boots against his legacy would being doing him a great disservice. Williams was not raised in a studio or a mansion, but in a regular working class home by his mother, educating himself musically in the grimy rock clubs of Nashville, paying dues and earning a few spare dollars bashing the drums for local punk and metal bands. In the mid1990’s, Hank 3 entered into a infamous and tumultuous relationship with Curb Records in order to pay some bills. When he finally picked up a guitar and raised that rich voice singing country, it was in order to make child support payments after the long lost mother of his son reappeared in the form of a court order. But out of economic hardship and heartbreak a new country outlaw arose from a distinguished bloodline, and while Williams acknowledges and honors his roots (“I show respect and play a few old songs here and there”), he remains fiercely true to his own uncompromising vision. This has contributed to him rejecting the party line musically, and not only just because he does what he damn well likes – his original approach to playing is partially a matter of necessity, not choice alone. “With my learning disabilities, straight up music theory was difficult for me. I took a few guitar lessons when I was younger, but the teacher kept on yelling at me like a damn Marine Corps drill instructor, saying ‘Do it this way! Do it that way!’ I couldn’t understand that, that’s not the way my mind works. I figured I had a pretty good ear, so I learned to play guitar by listening to records – ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ was one of the first licks I picked up, and I just took it  from there, figuring it out myself. I just did my own thing, man.”

To say that Hank 3’s “pretty good ear” for music has worked out for him is a vast understatement, as his packed shows tour after tour attest, and the crowd ain’t there to hear “Your Cheatin’ Heart” either. Having earned respect and a loyal fan base for his music the old school way, slugging it out in the clubs and honky-tonks night after night and mile after mile, a Hank 3 show is nothing if it ain’t a beer drinkin’, hell raisin’, sing-a-long damn good time. It’s singing the words of Hank 3 that leaves everyone hoarse and the infectious good time vibe that ensures everyone will be hung-over at work the next day. You may not be able to talk and your head may feel like shit, but your gonna be smiling for a few days after a Hank 3 show, because you’ll remember a night where everyone from band to audience left it all on the floor in a puddle of blood, sweat, and beers. When you listen to a Hank 3 song, you know you are hearing the words of a man who actually lived them, felt them in his gut like a rabbit punch at the beginning of a bar fight, or the burn of a lover’s last look as she walks out the door for another man. Sometimes his words can feel like a dying man’s hard fought last gasp, ringing out hot and sticky like a freshly skinned buck’s blood on the blade of a hunting knife. And unlike the vast majority of the fairy tale pop masquerading as country currently emitting from Nashville, Hank 3’s music grows from strong roots – his roots, and reflects reality – his reality. “All those radio country songs aren’t really country. Most producers in Nashville won’t use a stand-up bass in the studio because it’s too hard for them to make it sound good. Country music to me has a stand up bass, brother – and the fiddle, banjo, and steel guitar. Plus all those damn songs are happy songs. Life ain’t always happy.”

Hank 3’s latest country record is just that – country, and the realness of it shines throughout the record like moonlight hitting a mason jar of corn liquor – it ain’t always the smoothest, and it doesn’t come wrapped in a fancy package, but it’s 100% pure whoop-ass in a bottle that gets the job done quicker and better and reminds you where you originally came from once you figure out what just hit you. On “Outdoor Plan” he sings of fishing and hunting as a way of life, and it’s a fact that more than one deer and turkey has met its maker at the end of his gun’s barrel. The title track, “Brothers of the 4×4” celebrates the wide open full throttle love of off roadin’ and rootin’ in a four wheel drive – the cover of the record shows Williams mud bogging in a custom 4×4, and it’s not some redneck rental – that’s his ride. And because life ain’t always happy, when the heartbreak and hard times cracks through the sonic celebration on songs like “Loners 4 Life” and “Ain’t Broken Down”, it’s because Hank 3 is well acquainted with the darker side of life, and not as some tourist. The album is a rich and gritty sounding mixture of sadness, pride, hope – in other words, it’s a great country record.

Besides living the songs subject matter first, Williams sang and played both guitar and drums on the records. As if pulling triple duty wasn’t enough, he engineered, produced, mixed and mastered all the tunes as well. Not bad for someone who in his own words is dyslexic and has ADD – as Williams says, “My mind is all over the place”… But even a man talented and driven enough to do (count ’em) seven jobs at once has his limits, so Hank 3 has once again assembled a top-notch ensemble of pickers and pluckers for “Brothers Of The 4×4” and “A Fiendish Threat”. The aforementioned required stand up bass holds the low end down at the deft hands of Zach Shedd, with David McElfresh and Billy Contreras whipping razor sharp bows across the fiddle. Daniel Mason handles banjo, with a special guest appearance on “Possum In A Tree” by former National Old-Time Banjo Champion Leroy Troy working his banjo in the old school clawhammer style, while Andy Gibson wrings the sweetest of notes out his stand up steel guitar. Finally, long-time collaborator and fellow multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Johnny Hiland rips his chicken pickin’ guitar to feathers and shreds.

These boys don’t play around when they play, and that’s evident in the precision of this record. Hank3 runs a tight ship, by choice and necessity -in an era where digital editing is so standard that players barely have to be able to, well, actually play anymore, Williams records tracks on his trusty Korg D1600, a piece of hardware that doesn’t allow for the questionable tech wizardry and post-production “performance enhancement” that make most records today sound so mechanically sterile. The songs sound like they were actually recorded, not programmed (a critical difference these days), and the music is nailed together tighter than Dick’s hatband, but that’s because the players brought the hammer down hard on their instruments, not a producer’s finger clicking down on a mouse. “There’s very little editing on this record. Almost all of the tracks are single takes. It can take a long, long time to get it right, but what you hear is what was really played.” Hank says with justified pride.

Recording in his own home and releasing music on his own label, the Megaforce distributed Hank 3 Records, allowed Williams complete creative control during the four month period it took to make both records. The visually mind-blowing environs of the Haunted Ranch have certainly seeped into Hank 3’s music as well – every square inch of the house is covered in fliers from his past, notes from friends, memorabilia from various musicians, and miles of strung lights and enough skulls to build an ossuary. The place looks like a grenade exploded during a Halloween punk show held at the greatest honky-tonk in Dixie. “Yeah man, I’m eatin’ it, breathin’ it, livin’ it here, and I can record whenever I want without having to worry about anyone else” he says, “My story is on those walls. My son, Coleman, says that one day I’m gonna have to paint the house red and turn it into a Hank 3 museum.” Is it haunted? “Let’s just say many, many people, and I’m not talking two or three, I’m talking well over a dozen have all felt something here – there’s been lots of strange happenings. I had one tour manager try to sleep here one time and he came to me and said ‘Take me to a hotel, there’s no way I’m sleeping in this damn place!’ Sometimes things will happen and I’ll talk to it, like ‘Haha, that was a good one, ya got me!” I’ve never had the house on any of those paranormal shows, because I never wanted to disrespect it, whatever it is. In light of all that, when decided to call the place The Haunted Ranch it just felt like the most natural name for the home and studio.”

With “Brothers of the 4×4” and “A Fiendish Threat” set for release October 1st, Williams is ready to hit the road, and when he hits the road, he hits it much harder than most. Hank 3 shows are legendary for their length and intensity, averaging three hours a night, starting with a country set and ending with whatever his latest musical experiment happens to be. For this touring cycle, fans will get to taste the hardcore punk horror rock of “A Fiendish Threat”, a rippingly fast blast of sounds reminiscent of The Misfits, Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, The Ramones and other punk rock greats that are as much a part of Hank 3’s musical identity as his country roots. But “A Fiendish Threat”, like all of the man’s musical output, is anything but a formulaic, by-the-numbers rehash of what has been previously done by others. Stand up bass, fiddle, and banjo are not exactly standard instruments in punk rock, but they are on this record, riding beneath 3’s howling distorted vocals. Perhaps this is the birth of rebelcore punk? Whatever you want to call it, Williams has left his own touch on the genre, even utilizing a bizarrely beautiful Hula-music-on-acid sounding Hawaiian guitar at times. Some of the songs can make the listener feel like someone dropped LSD in their cheap draft beer ata CBGB matinee show headlined by a ghoulish Hawaiian punk band. “A Fiendish Threat” is yet another of Williams already numerous signature sounds, and he’s excited to put it in front of the audience for the first time. “You know when you do a new record, you just want to play it for all your friends. That’s what I’m excited for with this punk record, I get use a voice that doesn’t get used that often, and pay respects to some of my influences at the same time. Doing this record made feel like I was growing stronger – it took some of the years off me, to tell you the truth. Playing it makes me feel young again,” he laughs, “How long I will be able to pull it off all depends on the voice, man.” The voice is a valid concern for Hank 3, who once played a five hour show, in the middle of some very real chaos. “There was some heavy stuff going on with everybody at that show; man, I’m talking about the real heavy shit. I figured that if everyone was going to jail that night, then I was gonna make damn sure I was gonna be the last man standing.”

With these dual releases, “Brothers Of The 4×4” and “A Fiendish Threat” added to his already huge and varied arsenal of music, Hank 3 will be raising all sorts of hell on stage while the fans raise their glasses in  the audience once again, and you can bet your last dollar a damn good time will be had by all. The man goes full throttle all the time, every time, as anyone who has ever been to one of his innumerable shows will attest. How long can he keep it up? “Man, I’m just out here doing my thing, doing the best I can” Williams says with typical modesty “Making these records takes it out of me, and I realize as I get older that I don’t bounce back like I used to after recording one. But I haven’t been on the road in ten months, and I’m ready and raring to go.”

For a man who just simultaneously recorded not one but three albums, those sound like the words of a man who is still pretty damn determined to be the last man standing. Listen to “Brothers of the 4×4” and “A Fiendish Threat”, go to a show, and find out for yourself. Just remember the next day, after a few aspirins, a dinner at your own table, and a sleep in your own bed that Hank 3 will be down the road doing his thing again, and for that rebel, “doing the best I can” means something a little different than it does for the average man.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In October of 2005, it was a packed month with The Beach Boys one week, followed by Heart the next.

ABOUT HEART:

History favors strong women.

When women stand up for themselves, show up, and speak out, change occurs time and time again, whether in politics, culture, entertainment, or music. There might be no women stronger–and louder–than the legendary ladies of HEART. Formed by sisters ANN and NANCY WILSON, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame®-inducted group not only pioneered the female-fronted rock band, for all intents and purposes, but they also soundtracked four decades and counting. Throughout this time, the band sold over 35 million records, garnered four GRAMMY® Award nominations, landed ten Top 10 albums, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and achieved “the longest span of top-10 albums on the Billboard charts by a female-led band.”

ANN and NANCY were both born in California and raised in Washington state and even early on, it was obvious that music would be their destiny. By ten-years-old, NANCY positioned herself as a future guitar virtuoso as ANN developed a bold, bluesy alto voice informed by an intense passion for the likes of Led Zeppelin. They formally become HEART in 1974 and transformed into a Pacific Northwest favorite in the process.

By 1975, they had recorded their seminal debut Dreamboat Annie. Bordering rock and heavy metal fastened with folk songcraft, the platinum breakthrough spent 100 weeks on the charts and spawned a string of smashes such as “Magic Man,” “Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy Child),” and “Crazy On You.” Signature hit “Barracuda” bared its teeth on the triple-platinum 1977 epic Little Queen. As the musicians sold out shows worldwide and continued their multiplatinum reign on Magazine, Dog & Butterfly, and Greatest Hits Live, they recorded the definitive self-titled Heart in 1985–ten years removed from Dreamboat Annie. Vaulting to superstar status, Heart bowed at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, went quintuple-platinum, earned a GRAMMY® Award nomination, and yielded “If Looks Could Kill,” “What About Love,” “Never,” and “These Dreams,” which captured the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, which features NANCY on lead vocals.

Maintaining this unparalleled momentum, Bad Animals followed in 1987, featuring the #1 hit “Alone,” and reaching triple-platinum status in addition to notching a pair of GRAMMY® Award nods. The double-platinum GRAMMY®-nominated Brigade ignited the nineties and served up the gold-certified “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You.” In 1993, Desire Walks On illuminated their shadow over the grunge explosion with a guest appearance from none other than Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley. 1995’s The Road Home represented a full circle moment as Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones helmed the gold-selling live disc. In between a handful of intermittent breaks, Greatest Hits 1985-2000 [2000] and Essential Heart [2002] would both also be minted platinum over the next decade.

The aughts represented another watershed era for HEART. They revved back up to the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 with Red Velvet Car in 2010 as Fanatic soared to the Top 25 two years later. 2012 saw their first-ever memoir Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Soul arrive as a New York Times bestseller. Meanwhile, they brought the house down at that year’s Kennedy Center Honors, moving Robert Plant to tears during an historic rendition of “Stairway to Heaven.” HEART commemorated the 40th Anniversary of Dreamboat Annie with a 2016 festival and hosted a full celebration in the UK at the hallowed Royal Albert Hall. 2016 saw the release of BEAUTIFUL BROKEN, HEART’s sixteenth album and their first on Concord Records, the album saw the group “cherry picking” songs from their catalog and rerecording and rethinking them. Following the album’s release, HEART launched a summer headlining run with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and Cheap Trick.

A new era has commenced in 2019. ANN and NANCY welcome a bevy of female powerhouses to join them on their biggest package tour to date–the “Love Alive” Summer Tour. HEART headlines a bill that includes Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, Elle King, and Lucie Silvas and rolls through major markets everywhere.

The group’s impact resounds far beyond the stage. ANN lent her voice to classic motion picture themes, spanning “Almost Paradise” from “Footloose,” “Best Man in the World” from “The Golden Child,” and “Surrender To Me” from “Tequila Sunrise.” In 2018, ANN released the critically acclaimed IMMORTAL album. It features 10 musically diverse tracks that pay tribute to some of ANN’s influences and friends who’ve recently passed and whose music poignantly lives on. She also performed solo dates and hit the road with Jeff Beck and Paul Rodgers for the “Stars Align Tour.”

NANCY has also built a successful career as a film composer. Her composing credits include scores for the Cameron Crowe films: “Say Anything (1989),” “Almost Famous” (2000), “Vanilla Sky” (2001), “Elizabethtown” (2005), and “Jerry Maguire”(1995) [main theme]. Most recently, in 2017, NANCY teamed up with former Prince’s New Power Generation band member and R&B singer Liv Warfield to form the soulful, rock super group, Roadcase Royale. They released First Things First in September and the group went on to open for Bob Seger on his 2017 farewell tour.

Additionally, ANN and NANCY penned a 2015 children’s book, Dog & Butterfly, named after their smash of the same name. Giving back whenever possible, they stand out as committed philanthropists supporting nearly one-hundred charitable causes.

HEART’s influence can be palpably felt everywhere from rock and heavy metal to hip-hop and pop. Eminem, Lil Wayne, G-Eazy, Nas, and more have famously sampled the band’s catalog, while Céline Dion, Fergie, Halestorm and many others have covered them in the studio and on stage. As a result, their music resonates in nearly every corner of pop culture.

As time goes on, the sound, spirit, and soul of HEART only gets louder with each passing year. In the end, they ultimately opened doors for countless musicians to follow, and their place in rock’s pantheon as pioneers stands solidified forever.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Highway 101, made their debut on the Billy Bob’s Texas main stage and added their hands on to the “Wall of Fame” all in the same night.

ABOUT HIGHWAY 101:

One of the most popular country bands of the late ’80s, Highway 101 boasted an influential country-rock sound that helped pave the way for the blockbuster superstars of the ’90s. The group was fronted by singer/guitarist Paulette Carlson, a Minnesota native, and assembled by manager Chuck Morris in Los Angeles in 1986. Morris pulled together Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass, guitar, mandolin), and drummer Cactus Moser, all of whom were seasoned session pros; Daniels and Stone had also worked together as the Lizards. Highway 101 signed with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut in 1987. It was an immediate success, as the first two singles — “The Bed You Made for Me” and “Whiskey, if You Were a Woman” — shot into the country Top Five. The next two, “Somewhere Tonight” and “Cry, Cry, Cry,” both went to number one, and seemingly overnight, the group members had become stars. Their 1988 follow-up, Highway 101, Vol. 2, spawned another chart-topper in “(Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes,” and three more Top Tens in “All the Reasons Why,” “Setting Me Up,” and “Honky Tonk Heart.” Following 1989’s Paint the Town, which contained one further chart-topper in “Who’s Lonely Now,” Carlson left the band for a solo career in 1990. She was replaced by Nikki Nelson, who debuted on 1991’s Bing Bang Boom; however, despite some decent-sized hits, the new version of Highway 101 wasn’t quite as commercially successful, and the band soon parted ways with Warner. They signed with Liberty for 1993’s The New Frontier, but the album flopped, and Daniels subsequently left the group. He and Carlson temporarily returned to the fold for 1996’s Reunited, released on the smaller Intersound label. Curtis Stone and Cactus Moser later formed a new version of Highway 101 with vocalist Chrislynn Lee and guitarist Charlie White, and recorded Big Sky for FreeFalls in 2000. White left in 2002 and was replaced by Justin Weaver.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On March 10, 1990, Holly Dunn cemented her hands on to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT HOLLY DUNN:

One of the most popular female country singers of the late ’80s, Holly Dunn was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1957 and was the sister of future country songwriting pro Chris Waters. In high school, she performed with a group called the Freedom Folk, which toured the South and performed at the White House bicentennial celebration. While attending Abilene Christian University, she sang with the school’s Hilltop Singers touring choir, and also co-wrote a song with her brother called “Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind.” It was recorded by Cristy Lane, which convinced Dunn to try her luck in Nashville after graduation.

While in Nashville, Dunn worked as a demo singer for a time before joining her brother as a staff songwriter at CBS. In 1984, she moved over to MTM and penned material for several different singers, including Louise Mandrell, who made “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet” a Top Ten hit. In the wake of its success, Dunn landed a record contract in her own right, and released her first single in 1985. Her self-titled debut album appeared the following year and produced her first Top Ten hit, “Daddy’s Hands.” Arriving in 1987, Cornerstone contained two Top Five singles in “Love Someone Like Me” and “Only When I Love,” and Dunn produced its 1988 follow-up, Across the Rio Grande, herself, resulting in the hits “Strangers Again” and “(It’s Always Gonna Be) Someday.” MTM subsequently went bankrupt, and Dunn signed with Warner Bros. for 1989’s The Blue Rose of Texas, which produced her first-ever number one single, “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me,” as well as the Top Five “There Goes My Heart Again.”

Milestones: Greatest Hits

Released in 1990, Heart Full of Love spawned another chart-topper, “You Really Had Me Going,” and Warner followed it with the hits compilation Milestones in 1991. (One of the new tracks, “Maybe I Mean Yes,” sparked controversy over its lyrical content, which some interpreted as an apology for date rape.) Dunn’s popularity took a hit with 1992’s Getting It Dunn, and she subsequently parted ways with Warner. She resurfaced in 1995 on the smaller River North label with Life and Love and All the Stages, and was back on a major (A&M) for 1997’s Leave One Bridge Standing. She retired from commercial music in 2003, citing changing times and an interest in painting, releasing only the gospel album Full Circle before leaving music. She died of ovarian cancer in Albuquerque, New Mexico in November 2016 at the age of 59.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2006, the first time Hootie and The Blowfish came to play Billy Bob’s we couldn’t let me leave without getting them to add their hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH:

With the rich, bluesy vocals of Darius Rucker and gleeful harmonies of guitarist Mark Bryan, bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim “Soni” Sonefeld, Hootie & the Blowfish sold over 25 million records worldwide after their infectious melodies hit the airwaves in 1994 with hits such as “Hold My Hand”, “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You.”

One of the biggest misconceptions to most people is that Hootie & The Blowfish became an overnight success in 1994 when their debut album Cracked Rear View, moved over 16 million copies (and counting) in the U. S. alone. What most people don’t know was that the album’s triumph came after a decade of hard work.

The quartet met while attending the University of South Carolina in Columbia in the late 1980s. New freshman Mark Bryan heard Darius Rucker singing in the showers of the dorm they shared and was impressed by his vocal ability. Bryan and Rucker began playing cover tunes as The Wolf Brothers and eventually hooked up with Dean Felber, a former high school bandmate of Bryan’s, and Brantley Smith as Hootie & The Blowfish. (The unlikely moniker was borrowed from the nicknames of two college friends.) When Smith’s true passion called him home to Greenville, SC in 1989, Bryan reached out to classmate Jim (Soni) Sonefeld to join the band and the immediate chemistry was undeniable!

By the time they graduated, endless gigs at frat parties and local bars had built a major local buzz. “We’d started adding original material to our repertoire,” Bryan recalled. “Our songs went over well, so we decided to see if we could make a career out of it. Even if we hadn’t had a hit, I know we’d still be making music today, because it’s exactly what we want to be doing.”

The band’s secret weapon, and the force that pulls all of its diverse influences together, is the voice of Darius Rucker, an expressive instrument brimming with gritty soul and subtle wit. When he sings, the songs are imbued with a buoyant good humor and an openhearted joy that connects on an almost spiritual level with audiences all over the world. “Having Darius in the band is a wonderful luxury,” Mark Bryan explained. “We can try something funky, or bluegrassy or a ballad; we can run the gamut stylistically, but never stray too far from our sound because once Darius starts singing, it’s Hootie and the Blowfish.

In the next five years, Hootie & The Blowfish worked their way up the food chain from local draw to gigs all over the Carolinas and finally, the entire East Coast. Their blend of pop, folk, blues, soul and rock made them hard to pigeonhole, but easily accessible to anyone who loved good music. Atlantic Records, impressed by the tens of thousands of Kootchypop copies already sold without the help of a label, signed them and released Cracked Rear View in 1994. The album had been out for six months before the band played on the Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman told his audience “If you don’t have this album, there’s something wrong with you.” The day after the show aired, sales went from four or five thousand a week to 17,000 a week, and eventually Number One on the Billboard charts the following spring. It remains a strong seller today. “It became dream-like,” Rucker recalled. “I’d wished for it, but I’m not sure I believed it, even as it was happening. We were on tour constantly; the whole thing is still kind of a blur.”

At the end of the year, Cracked Rear View and the band won two Grammy’s – Best New Artist and Song of the Year by duo or group for “Let Her Cry.” They also took home an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist for “Hold My Hand,” a Billboard Music Award for album of the year, a People’s Choice Award for Album of the Year and a People’s Choice Award for Best Selling Artist, a feat they duplicated in 1996.

Cracked Rear View went on to earn the band Billboard’s Band of the Year Award in 1996 and the RIAA’s Diamond Award for sales of 10 million units. Cracked Rear View remains the 9th best selling album in music business history, and all albums combined, have moved over 25 million worldwide.

The band kept touring, remaining a top draw nationwide and released five more albums for Atlantic: Fairweather Johnson, Musical Chairs, Scattered, Smothered & Covered, Hootie & The Blowfish and The Best of Hootie & The Blowfish. The band left Atlantic by mutual agreement in 2004; Looking For Lucky released in 2005 was their first album on their own Sneaky Long Records, manufactured and distributed by Vanguard. LIVE in Charleston, The Homegrown Concert Event DVD and CD was released in August of 2006.

Hootie & the Blowfish wrapped a summer of touring in 2008 and members entered the studio to record solo albums. Since then, Soni has released 4 albums including a trilogy called Found (2012), In (2014) and Love (2015). Mark has released 3 albums with his most recent release, Songs of the Fortnight in Summer 2017 and Darius released his fifth country album, When Was The Last Time in Fall 2017.

In December of 2018, the band appeared on the Today Show to announce a return to full-time touring along with news of a forthcoming album. The 2019 Group Therapy Tour saw the band play to sold-out crowds across the U.S. and Canada, including two nights at the iconic Madison Square Garden, as well as a run of shows throughout the U.K. and Ireland. The triumphant return to the road earned Hootie & the Blowfish several prominent profiles recognizing their important musical legacy, including the cover story of the New York Times Arts & Leisure section. On November 1, 2019, they released their first new music in nearly 15 years with Imperfect Circle, named one of the “biggest albums to hear this season” by Entertainment Weekly and featuring radio single “Hold On.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Huey Lewis made his debut at Billy Bob’s and got to add his hands to the “Wall of Fame” on May 22, 2004.

ABOUT HUEY LEWIS:

Huey Lewis & the News were a bar band who made good. With their simple, straightforward rock & roll, the San Francisco-based group became one of America’s most popular pop/rock bands of the mid-’80s. Inspired equally by British pub rock and ’60s R&B and rock & roll, the News had a driving, party-hearty spirit that made songs like “Workin’ for a Livin’,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” “Hip to Be Square,” and “The Power of Love” huge hits. At its core, the group was a working band, and the bandmembers knew how to target their audience, connecting squarely with odes to nine-to-five jobs and sports. As the decade progressed, they smoothed out their sound and by the mid-’90s took time off from recording. Nevertheless, the News remained a popular and perennial concert draw, essentially carrying on in bar band fashion, reappearing every so often with solid albums like 2001’s Plan B and the 2010 Stax Records tribute Soulsville. Following a 2018 announcement that Lewis was losing his hearing due to Ménière’s disease, the band’s future seemed uncertain, though they made a comeback in 2020 with their tenth album, Weather.

My Aim Is True

The roots of Huey Lewis & the News lay in Clover, an early-’70s country-rock band from San Francisco that featured Lewis (vocals, harmonica) and keyboardist Sean Hopper. Clover moved to England in 1976 upon the urging of Nick Lowe, who believed they could fit into the U.K.’s pub rock scene. In a short time, the group cultivated a small following. Lowe produced the group’s first single, “Chicken Funk,” which featured lead vocals by Lewis and, the following year, the band, minus Lewis, supported Elvis Costello on his debut album, My Aim Is True. PolyGram released two Clover albums that failed to find an audience and when their leader, John McFee, left the group to join the Doobie Brothers, the band broke up and returned to California. Before returning to the States, Lewis played harmonica on Lowe’s Labour of Lust and Dave Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary, which also featured Lewis’ song “Bad Is Bad.”

Upon their return to America, Lewis and Hopper began jamming at a Marin County bar called Uncle Charlies, which is where they formed American Express with Mario Cipollina (bass), Johnny Colla (saxophone, guitar) and Bill Gibson (drums), who had all played in Soundhole, one of Van Morrison’s backing bands in the late ’70s. American Express recorded a disco version of “Theme From Exodus,” calling it “Exodisco.” Mercury released the single, which was ignored. In 1980, the group added lead guitarist Chris Hayes and were offered a contract by Chrysalis, which requested that the band change their name. The members chose Huey Lewis & the News and the band’s eponymous debut was released later that year to little attention.

Picture This

Picture This, the group’s second album, was released early in 1982 and the record became a hit on the strength of the Top Ten single “Do You Believe in Love,” which was written by former Clover producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. A couple other minor hits, “Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do” and “Workin’ for a Livin'” were released, and the band began building a strong following by touring heavily. Sports, the group’s third album, was released in the fall of 1983 and it slowly became a multi-platinum success, thanks to touring and a series of clever, funny videos that received heavy MTV airplay. “Heart and Soul” (number eight, 1983), “I Want a New Drug” (number six, 1984), “The Heart of Rock & Roll” (number six, 1984) and “If This Is It” (number six, 1984) all became Top Ten hits, and Sports climbed to number one in 1984; it would eventually sell over seven million copies. Late in 1984, Lewis sued Ray Parker, Jr., claiming that his song “Ghostbusters” plagiarized “I Want a New Drug.” The suit was settled out of court. The News had their first number one single in 1985 with “The Power of Love,” taken from the soundtrack to Back to the Future.

Fore!

Huey Lewis & the News returned with their fourth album, Fore!, in 1986. The record sailed to number one on the strength of five Top Ten singles: “Stuck with You” (number one, 1986), “Hip to Be Square” (number three, 1986), “Jacob’s Ladder” (number one, 1987), “I Know What I Like” (number nine, 1987), and “Doing It All for My Baby” (number six, 1987). The band was riding high on the charts when they decided to expand their musical reach with 1988’s Small World, dipping tentatively into various American roots musics. While the record produced the Top Ten hit “Perfect World,” it was a commercial disappointment after two chart-topping, multi-platinum albums, stalling at number 11 on the charts and only going platinum.

Hard at Play

The News took three years to follow up Small World with Hard at Play, which was released on their new label, EMI. Hard at Play failed to break the Top 20 and only produced one hit, “Couple Days Off.” The group’s commercial heyday had clearly passed, and they took the remainder of the ’90s rather easy, touring sporadically and releasing the covers album Four Chords & Several Years Ago in 1994. Their first release for Elektra Records, the album generated one adult contemporary radio hit, “But It’s Alright,” and failed to go gold. It would be over six years before their next album appeared, Plan B, which was released by Silvertone Records in 2001. A Stax Records/Memphis soul tribute album, Soulsville, appeared nine years later in 2010. As the group prepped an album of original material, they decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sports! in 2013, releasing a deluxe double-disc edition of the album and supporting the reissue with a tour and a sizeable press campaign. In 2018, the News were forced to cancel all future live dates when it was revealed the Lewis was suffering from major hearing loss due to an inner ear disorder called Ménière’s disease. In spite of the setback, the band signed with BMG Rights Management to release their tenth album, Weather, in early 2020, featuring material recorded prior to Lewis’ diagnosis.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Ian Munsick made his Billy Bob’s Texas debut on 6/3/2022. Ian has since returned in 2023 and 2024; both shows were sold out!

ABOUT IAN MUNSICK:

A native son of Wyoming, Ian Munsick is painting a stampeding, spirited portrait of the American West with his sophomore album White Buffalo, due April 7. The 18-track album spans unfiltered tales of romance and ranch life, hard-working anthems with honkytonk hooks and mountain-time odes to family and forever-young fun. It builds upon the spacious, roots-pop beauty he introduced on his major label debut, Coyote Cry. Over the past three years, Munsick has accumulated nearly 400 MILLION global streams and a host of accolades.

The 29-year-old has been named an “Artist to Watch” by Spotify, CMT, Fender, MusicRow and more. A seasoned entertainer, having grown up tending cattle by day and playing music in a family band each night, Munsick toured recently alongside country music superstars Morgan Wallen and Cody Johnson. Beyond his noteworthy professional accomplishments, he has also become a husband and a father.

Now the Warner Music Nashville recording artist and multi-instrumentalist is representing his home, and its special cast of people, like never before. The first release from White Buffalo, the standout duet “Long Live Cowgirls” (with Cody Johnson), hit No. 1 on SiriusXM’s The Highway Hot 30 Countdown and was named one of Amazon Music’s Best Country Songs of 2022. Fans of Ian Munsick will always find an open heart, natural awe, and plainspoken honesty as he rides on… bringing the West to the rest.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2002 Trace Adkins is booked to play in October, but he suffers an accident on his farm. Jack Ingram was home from his tour awaiting the birth of his first child and graciously fills in for Adkins.

Jack Ingram’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” recording performance was unanimously said to be the best performance in his decade-long career.

ABOUT JACK INGRAM:

Throughout a recording career that has spanned more than 20 years, Jack Ingram has maintained a reputation for uncompromising, personally charged song craft and energetic, charismatic performances, earning him prominent stature in a prestigious tradition of iconoclastic singer-songwriters. Ingram’s prior work has won him a fiercely devoted fan base as well as reams of critical acclaim, and now Midnight Motel marks a creative milestone for the veteran artist, his sound ever evolving while showcasing some of his most expressive, emotionally raw songwriting to date.

Ingram made Midnight Motel independently to avoid outside influences and have creative freedom to write and record. “It was really important to me at this point in my life to avoid thinking about any commercial decisions about the music,” explains Ingram. “Every night after my kids went to bed, I’d go into my music room and stay in there until about three or four, just working out the songs like I did at the beginning of my career. Or while on the road, sit up late at night writing in motel rooms. I wanted to bring people into that space with me.”

And so Midnight Motel turned into an album that is as real and honest as it could be. “Signing with Rounder Records to release this album was a perfect fit because of their expertise and love for good music, no matter the genre,” Ingram says.

His eighth studio album and his first since his 2009 smash Big Dreams & High Hopes, Midnight Motel features spare, stripped-down instrumental arrangements that highlight the intimacy and urgency of such new originals as “I’m Drinking Through It,” “Nothing to Fix,” “Can’t Get Any Better Than This,” and “All Over Again.” The album’s organic late-night vibe is perfectly suited to the material and brings out the emotional edge in Ingram’s deeply felt vocals.

Midnight Motel was cut with Ingram and the musicians recording live in the same room, with minimum overdubbing or sonic trickery. With understated audio-verite production by fellow Texas singer-songwriter Jon Randall and a stellar studio band including guitarist Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan, Arc Angels) and drummer Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Dire Straits), along with bassist Robert Kearns and keyboardist Bukka Allen from Ingram’s longstanding Beat Up Ford Band, the 11-song set demonstrates how Ingram’s artistry has widened and deepened over time.

“I couldn’t have made this record when I was 25, because I just didn’t have the experience then,” he asserts, adding, “It’s kind of a concept record, but it’s a loose concept. There’s the late-night thing, and the travel, and then there’s the concept about not letting go of the important relationships, even if they’re not working. These songs are all about loving, troubled long-term relationships, whether it’s with the music business or my wife or my family.”

The road to Midnight Motel has been a long and sometimes rocky one for Ingram, who was named Best New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 2008, despite the fact that he’d already been rocking honky tonks, theaters, and stadiums for a decade and a half by then. He began writing songs and playing gigs while studying psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and quickly earned a rabidly devoted audience while performing high-energy live shows in bars and roadhouses throughout his home state.

Ingram’s remarkably loyal fans enthusiastically embraced his early, independently released albums Jack Ingram, Lonesome Questions, and Live At Adair’s. His indie success helped to win him acceptance within the Nashville major-label mainstream, and he expanded his constituency with such acclaimed national releases as Livin’ or Dyin’, Hey You, Electric, Young Man as well as the live albums Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, Live at Gruene Hall: Happy Happy, and Acoustic Motel.

Ingram moved to the Big Machine label with 2006’s Wherever You Are, which spawned a pair of major country hits in the title track, which became his first Number One single, and its Top 20 follow-up, “Love You.” His next studio effort, 2007’s This Is It, hit the Top Five on the U.S. country charts and produced a trio of hits in “Lips of An Angel,” “Measure of A Man,” and “Maybe She’ll Get Lonely.” Big Dreams & High Hopes followed two years later, spawning five chart singles, including the Top 10 “Barefoot and Crazy” and the Top 20 “That’s A Man.”

For Midnight Motel, Ingram was looking to create something different. “Something inside me was itching to do this,” he recalls. “The pressure in my chest was just so heavy that the only way I could get it off was to write these songs. Frank Liddell, who produced my record Electric in 2001, gave me some great advice: he said, ‘Go away and do something great while no one’s looking.’ That became my motto for this project. I just decided that I was just gonna do the best work I could do, and have it take as long as it takes. I didn’t care about trying to be technically perfect; I just wanted to be emotionally available. I can honestly say it was the best recording experience I’ve ever had. The waters got rough, but I really had a ball and enjoyed navigating that course.”

Rather than shooting conventional music videos to promote Midnight Motel, Ingram and noted filmmaker Michael Tully (Ping Pong Summer, Septien) have created a short companion-piece film incorporating the album’s songs and featuring Ingram as a troubled troubadour. The short film was screened at both the Dallas International Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Jamey Johnson, who received three Grammy Awards in 2009, hosted 50 U.S. troops who were shipping out to Iraq during his May debut at the club.

He was joined by his good friend, Cody Jinks, on stage during a show in 2018.

ABOUT JAMEY JOHNSON:

Singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson is just as comfortable mopping up the tears on the barroom floor with an old Hank Williams-style ballad as he is tearing the roof off with a honky tonk juggernaut. The Alabama native and former Marine rose to the top of the Nashville food chain through blood, sweat, and tears. Being raised in a devout and deeply musical family helped the new traditionalist find his voice, but it wasn’t until he moved to Music City that the world began to take notice. After laying low for nearly a year, he began appearing at songwriter nights, where he met other writers. As his peers began securing publishing deals, they would ask Johnson to sing on their demos.

In 2002, a mutual friend and songwriter Randy Hardison turned producer/songwriter Buddy Cannon on to Johnson; the two became close friends and allies after Hardison’s death later in the year. Johnson’s next convert was publisher Gary Overton, who signed the budding songwriter to EMI. In April of 2005, Johnson signed a record contract with BNA and released his debut, The Dollar, in January of 2006. After a tour supporting the album, he was dropped from the label. He and his wife separated, then divorced, sending Johnson into seclusion for a year before he re-emerged, renewed, and was ready to begin work on a new album. Two major labels showed interest, but it was the Universal imprint Mercury that signed the artist and released his album That Lonesome Song in August of 2008. The first single off the album, “In Color,” reached number nine on the Billboard country chart, followed by “The High Cost of Living,” which peaked at number 34. The album was certified gold. At the 2009 Country Music Association Awards, Johnson won Song of the Year for “In Color,” and was nominated for various other honors.

Johnson followed up his success in the fall of 2010 with an ambitious double album called The Guitar Song, preceded by the single “Playing the Part.” The album and its singles and videos gained nearly universal critical acclaim and sold exceptionally well, particularly for a double album. Johnson followed it in the fall of 2012 with Livin’ for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran, which featured a slew of guests including Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard, Leon Russell, and Kris Kristofferson. In December of 2014, Johnson released a five-track holiday EP entitled Christmas Song that featured collaborations with Lily Meola and the Secret Sisters. It also included “South Alabam Christmas,” his first self-recorded new song in four years. A conflict with his publisher was apparently keeping Johnson from being more active with his material, although the formation of his own label, Big Gassed Records, appeared promising. Johnson independently released a few singles during 2015, but the songs had apparently been recorded years earlier. He kept busy playing live, though, and also wrote for others, including a pair of songs with George Strait that Strait recorded for 2015’s Cold Beer Conversation.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Janie Fricke played the World’s Largest Honky Tonk during its grand opening week in April of 1981. She returned many times since then. Even recording a “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” album!

ABOUT JANIE FRICKE:

“All I ever wanted to do was sing.” Janie Fricke has gone from Indiana farm girl to internationally acclaimed recording artist throughout her career. She was born in South Whitley, Indiana, and raised on a 400-acre farm where her father taught her how to play guitar. From county fairs to corporate trade shows, live concerts, in recording studios, or before millions on television, Fricke’s individual sound and performance personality has captivated audiences around the world.
Fricke began her career singing in a “little church up the road” where her mother played piano. She sang at local coffeehouses, high school events, as well as her way through college where she obtained her degree from Indiana University in elementary education. Fricke then chose a musical career, working in Memphis, Dallas and Los Angeles. There, as one of the marketing industry’s most successful jingle singers, her voice became known to millions as the voice for such advertising giants as United Airlines, Coca-Cola, 7-Up, and Red Lobster. Her voice led her to singing sessions for Country artists such as Loretta Lynn, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Mel Tillis, Johnny Duncan and others. She has also been given the privilege to sing on albums for Charlie Rich and Elvis Presley, after their deaths. It was a line in Johnny Duncan’s single Stranger that ultimately gained the most attention for Fricke. When it hit the top of the charts in 1977, fans wanted to know who sang the line, “Shut out the light and lead me…” The music industry took notice as her voice was heard on duets with Merle Haggard, Moe Bandy and others, leading her to her first major recording contract.

Fricke soon began to dominate the country charts with smash hits such as Don’t Worry ‘ Bout Me Baby, He’s a Heartache and You’re Heart’s Not In It. It was only a matter of time before she started winning awards. Included among them are: Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year, Music City News Female Vocalist of the Year, “Billboard” Top Country Female Vocalist, “Cash Bed’ Top Country Female Vocalist, Academy of Country Music Female Vocalist of the Year, British-based Country Music Round Up Most Popular International Female Solo Act, and she was chosen to the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars. Twice she has been nominated for the coveted (Grammy Award, once for her It ain’t Easy Being Easy In her recording career, Janie has released 23 albums and 36 hit singles.

When she relaxes she spends time with her Husband Jeff and her animals. She attends church near her home. Remembering from childhood the importance of her confirmation. Thankful for her blessings, Janie feels these values have helped her become the woman she is today. From an Indiana farm girl to an internationally acclaimed recording artist, she has never lost the pure heart and love of music that launched her career. And today, Janie Fricke sings on.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Jason Boland and the Stragglers recorded their “Live at Billy Bob’s” album on the same night as Kevin Fowler.

ABOUT JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS:

Our favorite songs are like one-night stands: passionate or sad, capable of recalling moments with Proustian power. Our favorite artists are lifelong companions: fixtures we turn to for comfort and highs.

Over the last two decades, Jason Boland and the Stragglers have delivered and become both.

“We’ve always just wanted to entertain ourselves and put out music that would be a part of people’s lives, not just something passing to them,” says Boland. “We want to be something more monolithic.” He pauses and grins as he adds, “We’re just a social experiment at this point.”

Boland is talking about the deep body of work he’s created with his band of jangly honky-tonk aces, the Stragglers––Grant Tracy on bass; drummer and background vocalist Brad Rice; Nick Worley on fiddle, mandolin, and harmonies; and Cody Angel on guitar and pedal steel. Fronted and co-founded by Boland with Tracy and Rice, the band has featured only a handful of other members over the last 20 years, all of whom––whether they’re currently Stragglers or not––are like brothers. As they’ve independently sold more than half a million albums, the outfit has packed iconic dancehalls, theaters, and other big rooms across the country.

With their new record Hard Times are Relative, Boland and the Stragglers stack the smart, road-ready outlaw country longtime fans have come to expect alongside creative risks that flirt with punk and psychedelic sounds. The 10-song collection is a rare blend of instantly gratifying and rewarding closer listens––a definitively Stragglers accomplishment. “It’s an upbeat album––a lot of fast songs, but it doesn’t try to be fast,” Boland says with characteristic insight. “It just sits in the pocket.”

No one has combined Woody Guthrie’s conscience with Waylon Jenning’s panache quite like Boland and the Stragglers. Since debuting in 1999 with the Lloyd Maines-produced Pearl Snaps, the band has matured without taming their refreshing irreverence. “We always joke that we try to take as much as we can from Lloyd and apply it to producing our own records,” Boland says. “We’ve worked with him so many times. The most obvious thing he taught us is: just be musical. Don’t hammer through the songs like a garage band all the time.”

That mix of subtle musical sophistication and unruly Oklahoma junkyard pedigree has resulted in some of the best independent honky-tonks in recent memory. “You just have to be where you are––keep plugging away and doing the best you can at any moment,” Boland says, reflecting on their career thus far. “For a bunch of slackers [like us], that’s not too terribly tough.”

Co-produced by the Stragglers, David Percefull, and Adam Odor, Hard Times are Relative is the band’s ninth studio record. All songs were recorded live to tape and without the use of any computers––now a Stragglers’ hallmark. Upbeat steel guitar kicks off album opener “I Don’t Deserve You” before Boland’s signature baritone thunders in, smooth and stronger than ever. When fellow sly honky-tonk champ Sunny Sweeney joins him in out-front harmonies, the two become the rootsy dream team you never knew you always wanted.

The album’s title track is a masterpiece: an epic story song about a young orphaned brother and sister depending on the land and one another. Rich details layered over strings paint a scene that’s compelling and lush. The song has become one of Boland’s favorites. “Folk music is hard to write. Country music is hard to write,” he says, reflecting on the difficulty of spinning a long tale while keeping it simple and engaging. “When you hit your own little tuning fork in your head, that one is a hard sell, even to me. But I enjoy that song.”

“Right Where I Began” sounds like vintage Stragglers: clever wordplay and muscly guitars ready for two-steppers. Fiddle and vocal showcase “Searching for You” shows off Rice’s and Worley’s harmonies that are downright divine. Crunchy guitars drive “Dee Dee OD’d” as Boland offers another round of wry observations. Easy gem “Going Going Gone” makes a solid argument for fiddle in rock-and-roll as Boland deftly turns a baseball metaphor into a classic leaving song.

Gorgeous waltz “Do You Remember When” bemoans some of modern life’s emphasis on the dismissal of heritage. Rollicking “Tattoo of a Bruise” picks up the same idea, and is tongue-in-cheek country doo-wop, fueled by fiddle, steel, and drums. “I’m not judging anybody,” Boland clarifies. “Our music has always called it like we see it, right or wrong, smarter or dumber.”

Praise for the past but the acknowledgment of nostalgia’s limitations is a career-long theme for Boland, and one that this record continues to carry. “We don’t want to lose the chili recipes and the Schroeder Halls because people are moving on to faster, louder, and newer,” he says. “But instead of just hemming and hawing, remembering what’s old and gone, we want to have new experiences within those frameworks––make memories with what’s left of the good stuff.”

With lines like “Empty pockets don’t mean you need money / It’s just another place to put your hands / And focus on that rock you’ve been kicking / One day it’s going to be a grain of sand,” “Predestined” challenges listeners as it soothes. The song is a lyrical victory for Boland, who’s long since become a master of distilling heady ideas into digestible nuggets.

Penned by Oklahoma music godfather Randy Crouch, “Grandfather’s Theme” serves as the album’s climactic closer. Attacked with psychedelic ferocity by the band, the song picks up the record’s recurring concepts of the ground’s insistence on shifting, inevitability, and our complex relationship with the past. Stripped down as Boland sings, the song soars off into a trippy, robust jam-band send-off––a serious triumph especially considering it’s a defiantly analog recording. “We’re fighting the digital world because they can make it so huge,” Boland says, discussing the balancing act of filling out songs while letting them breathe. “I’m really proud of what we did.”

As he mulls over where the Stragglers have been and where they’re headed, Boland comes back to one idea over and over again: he and his band are who they are, and with that genuineness comes grit, beauty, and staying power. “We’re fortunate that we’re not trying to fool anybody,” he says. “That’s what it comes down to. We’re all loners but somehow a team. Now that I can look at it all, I can see: it’s been fun.”

Here’s to the next 20 years.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 25, 1995, Jeff Carson came to play on the main stage but we couldn’t let him leave without getting his hands in concrete to add to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT JEFF CARSON:

Jeff Carson has come full circle with careers that have allowed him to do the two things that he loves – music and police work.
As a youngster, he and his family would sing three-part harmony on trips. One of those trips was to Branson, Missouri, where he saw a show that inspired him to tell his high school counselor that he wanted to get into music. The counselor didn’t discourage Carson; instead, he picked up the phone and made some phone calls and that encouraged Carson to pursue a career in music.

After high school graduation Carson entered a talent contest sponsored by Ozark Mountain Music in Northwest Arkansas and came in second place. He won the brass key, however, because the singer from the winning band asked him to join their band as a lead guitar player. Although he really didn’t consider himself a lead guitar player, luck stayed with him and that band’s bass player quit right after he joined the band.

“I stepped right into that role, and I played with them for two or three years,” Carson says. “The band broke up and I decided to move to Branson. Luck stayed with me, as I learned right away that a bass player had just quit one of the bands that played there. I auditioned and was hired. I couldn’t have been happier, and I played with them for a couple of years.”

Carson was content in Branson, but his wife Kim convinced him to move to Nashville, which they did in 1989. In Nashville, his luck stayed with him, because a friend of his wife had a duo that was working at Opryland Hotel and their bass player had just quit. They hired him and he was fortunate to not have to take on another job outside of music. In addition to playing with them, he also persuaded the hotel to hire him as a solo act.

Carson quickly learned the places to meet other music business folks were the songwriter nights at local Nashville clubs. He also volunteered to do demos for songwriters for free so he could get his foot in the door to sing demos. He sang demos on songs that turned into hits for Tracy Byrd (“Walkin’ To Jerusalem”), Tracy Lawrence (“I See it Now”), Reba McEntire (“The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”), and Tim McGraw (“I Wouldn’t Want it Any Other Way”), Faith Hill (“It Matters To Me”).”

Singing demos turned into a lucky decision for Carson when he met record producer and publisher Chuck Howard, who cut three or four songs on him that were good enough to pitch to labels. Howard was instrumental in getting him his label deal at Curb Records, and soon a single, “Yeah Buddy,” released to radio.

“It was my first charting single, and it set me up for the next one, ‘Not On Your Love,’ which became my first number-one single. The following single, ‘The Car,’ became a top-five hit, topping out at number two. That song brought in many stories from people about their father. I remember one that really touched me – we were in California and playing the song on the radio and one guy called in and said, ‘I haven’t talked to my dad in 20 years, and when I heard that song I had to pull over and call him.”

Carson had several other singles, including “Real Life (Was Never The Same Again)” from his album “Real Life.” An album release party was planned for “Real Life” on September 11, 2001. That morning terrorists hijacked two planes to attack the Twin Towers in New York City and one that attacked the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth plane was hijacked from the terrorists and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Its destination was unknown.

“The song made it into the Top 20 but it all changed after that,” Carson explains. “I had to make a tough decision on whether to continue in music or make a career change.”

For some people, this would have been one of the worst decisions of their lives, but once again, luck intervened. Carson had always said that if he had not pursued music, he would have looked at a career in law enforcement.

“I was always very pro-law enforcement,” he explains. “If we had time after a show, I’d go ride with officers on patrol. I always said if music went away the only other thing I’d like to do would be a cop. So in 2007, when we went to a family dinner for Thanksgiving, Kim told me she was scared, but if I still wanted to be a policeman, it was okay.”

Carson went through the Police Academy in Franklin, Tennessee, and was hired to the department in May of 2008. “I went through Police Academy, where I stayed on base for five days a week, and that lasted 12 weeks. Then Franklin had a 16-week Academy and three months of ride-a-longs before I was released out on my own. I was one of the older applicants for the Academy at 44.”

The singer admits that for about eight years he didn’t pick up his guitar, and then about three years ago someone called him and asked if he would do a show at a casino in Michigan. “I told him I’d see if I could remember the words to my songs, but really the words and chord progressions and playing guitar came back to me right away.”

After that, a person who books shows for the Fraternal Order of Police contacted him to see if he would like to do a few Fraternal Order of Police shows. “I liked that idea, so I did a Merle Haggard tribute and one to George Jones and played some of the older stuff and the audiences really liked that. After that, I started to get other bookings and I’ve been back out on the road doing my music again.”

All that has led to two recent musical projects. Before Father’s Day this year, Carson sent out word via social media that he was going to do a video for his hit, “The Car,” and was looking for pictures of people and their fathers. He asked for photos of them doing something with their dad, or just a picture of them with him. “The song is about spending time with your dad and appreciating the times you had with him. A lot of pictures were submitted, and the video turned out really great.”

More recently, Carson has re-recorded “God Save The World,” a song he had recorded previously with Lisa Brokop that was not a hit. “Without a doubt, this song is more relatable to today’s society than when I cut it years ago,” he admits. “This year has been bad and I think people will appreciate its message. It just felt like the right time to re-record it since it was not a hit previously.”

While all the new music opportunities are great, Carson plans to keep his job with the Franklin Police Department. “I’m not giving up police work. I get enough vacation throughout the year so I can go out and do shows. Like other entertainers, I had dates booked and then Covid-19 came along and they all had to be canceled. I never wanted to leave music, but I love my job as a cop as well.

“I’m grateful that people remember me and when I play shows. They bring old pictures they had taken with me from Fan Fair or a show I did near them. It is touching to see these pictures from the fans and know they still remembered me and loved my music.”

Carson says there have been no regrets with either of his career decisions. “I have had the best of both worlds and feel very fortunate that I have had the opportunity of doing two things that I continue to love.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Jerry Jeff Walker once joined an up-and-coming Texas country star-Pat Green- on stage.

Jerry Jeff Walker begins a holiday tradition by performing on Christmas Day. Except for a few times when he performs on New Year’s Eve, Walker continues playing the date well into the next decade.

ABOUT JERRY JEFF WALKER:

Somehow, one gets the idea that that is how Jerry Jeff has always pictured himself. Even when he was playing screaming cowboy rock ‘n’ roll to thousands of people in the 70s and 80s, the solitary troubadour was always on the inside, looking out.

And that all happened before he became a star. Most folks know that story – how Jerry Jeff moved to Austin, Texas in the early Seventies and reinvented himself as a Lone Star country-rocker. He became, along with Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel, one of the arbiters of the internationally famous Austin musical community. Since then, he has celebrated the music of peers such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, and served as a fountainhead and inspiration to younger musicians such as Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green, Jack Ingram and a moderately successful country tunesmith named Garth Brooks….

A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed before Jerry Jeff gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label, Tried & True Music, in 1986. Another series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. The latest, Moon Child, brings Jerry Jeff’s album catalog to the grand total to 33.

He’s played for four or five presidents, toured in Lear Jets and bought a second home in Belize (the fruits, in part, of having penned an American pop standard, “Mr. Bojangles”).

But even with all that, Jerry Jeff still sees the world with a troubadour’s eyes. His songs are the way he makes the world make sense, how he passes on stories of the people he meets, the way he feels on a given morning. He has come full circle, back to his singer-songwriter roots. You might say he was heading this way all along.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

“The Killer,” Jerry Lee Lewis performs in December of 1981.

ABOUT JERRY LEE LEWIS:

Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29th, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana. He began playing the piano at age 9, copying the styles of preachers and black musicians that traveled through the area. He signed with Sun Records in 1956 and quickly became a star. He was the first person inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Early Life

With his innovative and flamboyant piano playing style, Jerry Lee Lewis emerged as one of rock music’s early showman in the 1950s. His musical talents became apparent early on in life. He taught himself to play piano and sang in church growing up. Lewis listened to such radio shows as the Grand Ole Opry and Louisiana Hayride. Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Al Jolson were some of his early influences.

When he was 10, Lewis’ father mortgaged the family farm to buy Jerry Lee his first piano. He gave his first public performance at the age of 14, wowing the crowd gathered for the opening of a local car dealership with his piano prowess. With little formal education, he basically gave up on school around this time to focus on his music.

Rise To The Top

Lewis eventually ended up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he found work as a studio musician for Sun Studios. In 1956, he recorded his first single, a cover of Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms,” which did well locally. Lewis also worked on some recording sessions with Carl Perkins. While working at Sun, he and Perkins jammed with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. This session by the “Million Dollar Quartet” was recorded at the time, but it was not released until much later.

In 1957, Lewis became a star with his unique piano-driven sound. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” became a hit on the pop, country and R&B charts. By this time, Lewis had also developed some of his famous stage antics, such as playing standing up and even lighting the occasional piano on fire. He had such energy and enthusiasm in his performances that he earned the nickname “The Killer” for the way he knocked out his audiences.

Lewis was on a roll with his next single, “Great Balls of Fire,” proving to be another big hit in December 1957. The following March, Lewis struck again with “Breathless,” which made into the Top 10 of the pop charts.

Later Albums

In the 1960s, Lewis returned to the music of his youth. He found a new career as a country artist, scoring a hit with 1968’s “Another Place, Another Time.” Lewis recorded several country albums over the next few years, including 1970’s Olde Tyme Country Music and 1975’s Boogie Woogie Country Man.

Lewis never left the rock world completely. In 1973, he did well on the album charts with “The Session”. He revisited some of his older songs as well as the works of Chuck Berry and John Fogerty on this popular recording.

When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first class in 1986, there was a strong resurgence in his rock & roll career and music. A new generation of listeners got introduced to Lewis through the 1989 biopic “Great Balls of Fire”, when Lewis was played by actor Dennis Quaid.

Recent Projects

This nearly lifelong musician and singer continues to record new music and perform around the world. For 2006’s “Last Man Standing”, Lewis sang a number of rock, blues and country classics with some help from such famous admirers as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Buddy Guy. Collaborator Kristofferson described Lewis as “one of the few who can do rock ‘n’ roll, country or soul, and every song is authentic.” He told USA Today that Lewis is “one of the best American voices ever.”

Lewis and Kristofferson worked together again on Lewis’s next effort, 2010’s “Mean Old Man”. The all-star guests on this release included Eric Clapton, Tim McGraw, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and John Fogerty among others.

In April of 2013 Lewis opened Jerry Lee Lewis’ Café & Honky Tonk on historic Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. It is filled with one of the Killer’s pianos, a motorcycle, photos, and memorabilia, along with great food and live music.

2014 kicked off Jerry Lee’s “80th Birthday Tour” with shows across the country, from California to Tennessee to New York. The Killer is also traveling to Europe.

In October of 2014 The Killer released his first ever biography with Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg. “Jerry Lee Lewis – His Own Story” came out to critical acclaim. His new CD “Rock & Roll Time” also came out in October. He told Rolling Stone magazine “This is a rock & roll record…That’s just the way it came out”. As he looks back on six decades of music and what the future holds, Lewis says he’s grateful. “I just think it’s a blessing from God that I’m still living… and I’m still rocking.”

Personal Life

Lewis spends most of his time-off at The Lewis Ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi, where he is happily married to his wife Judith, since March 9th, 2012.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On May 20, 1989, Jerry Reed cemented his hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT JERRY REED:

Known throughout country music as “the Guitar Man,” singer/songwriter Jerry Reed gained recognition not only for a successful solo career but also as an actor and ace session player. Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in Atlanta, GA, on March 20, 1937; after picking up the guitar as a child, he was signed by publisher and producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, “If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creeks Don’t Rise,” at the age of 18. He continued releasing both country and rockabilly singles to little notice until rocker Gene Vincent covered his “Crazy Legs” in 1958.

After a two-year tenure in the military, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam even as he was in the armed forces, thanks to Brenda Lee’s 1960 cover of his “That’s All You Got to Do.” He also became a popular session and tour guitarist. In 1962, he scored some success with the singles “Goodnight Irene” and “Hully Gully Guitar,” which found their way to Chet Atkins, who produced Reed’s 1965 “If I Don’t Live Up to It.” In 1967, he notched his first chart hit with “Guitar Man,” which Elvis Presley soon covered. After Presley recorded another of Reed’s songs, “U.S. Male,” the songwriter recorded an Elvis tribute, “Tupelo Mississippi Flash,” which proved to be his first Top 20 hit.

Me & Jerry

After releasing the 1970 crossover hit “Amos Moses,” a hybrid of rock, country, and Cajun styles, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me and Jerry. During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” which was also the title track of that year’s album. A second collaboration with Atkins, Me and Chet, followed in 1972, as did a series of Top 40 singles, which alternated between frenetic, straightforward country offerings and more pop-flavored countrypolitan material. A year later, he scored his second number one, “Lord, Mr. Ford,” from the album The Uptown Poker Club.

In the mid-’70s, Reed’s recording career began to take a back seat to his acting aspirations, and in 1974, he co-starred with his close friend Burt Reynolds in the film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds; after 1976’s Gator, Reed appeared in 1978’s High Ballin’ and 1979’s Hot Stuff. He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films; the first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a number two hit with the soundtrack’s “East Bound and Down.”

Half Singin’ & Half Pickin’

In 1979 he released a record comprised of both vocal and instrumental selections titled, appropriately enough, Half & Half. It was followed two years later by Jerry Reed Sings Jim Croce, a tribute to the late singer/songwriter. In 1982 Reed’s career as a singles artist was revitalized by the chart-topping novelty hit “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft),” followed by “The Bird,” which peaked at number two. His last chart hit, “I’m a Slave,” appeared in 1983. After an unsuccessful 1986 LP, Lookin’ at You, Reed focused on touring until 1992, when he and Atkins reunited for the album Sneakin’ Around before he again returned to the road. He recorded sparingly during the ’90s, earning a higher profile via a film appearance in the Adam Sandler vehicle The Waterboy. Inactive during much of the 2000s, he died in 2008 due to emphysema.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Jim Belushi and his brother John Belushi made their main stage debut with their band called The Blues Brothers.

ABOUT JIM BELUSHI:

James Adam Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. The third of four children – his brother was comedian John Belushi – he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by his improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced him to be in a school play. After that, he joined the school’s drama club. Today, if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say, “Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir – more girls!”. He attended the College of DuPage and Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.

In 1977, he joined Chicago’s Second City improv troupe and remained for three years. In 1979, Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for Second City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV pilot Who’s Watching the Kids (1978) for Paramount and, then, for a role in the series Working Stiffs (1979) (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) for two years. Jim came to national attention in About Last Night (1986), playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre’s production of David Mamet’s Obie-award-winning play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer Sloan, their daughter Jamison and a son, Robert Belushi, from his first marriage.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On Joe Diffie’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” recording, his dad sang  the Johnny Cash classic, “Folsom Prison Blues.”

ABOUT JOE DIFFIE:

The beauty of country music is its ability to reflect the lives of its listeners, and few artists have celebrated life’s challenges and triumphs with more heartfelt eloquence than Joe Diffie. Whether singing about untarnished love in the enduring hit “John Deere Green,” the perennial appeal of “Pickup Man” or the heartbreak of dreams unrealized in “Ships That Don’t Come In,” Diffie’s songs have continually painted a portrait of real life with all its joy and angst.

“I’ve always loved well-written songs,” says the Grammy winner, who is just as skilled at writing hits as he is singing them. “There’s really no magic formula. I’ve just always drawn on my own experience whether it’s falling in love or hanging out in a bar. I feel like if I relate to it, other people will too.”

That simple barometer has served Diffie well throughout his career and continues to do so today with.the title track of his forthcoming album I Got This. The uptempo number proclaims what every man wants to say and every woman wants to hear: “Ain’t no load gonna get too heavy/Ain’t no bolt on this old Chevy I can’t twist/I can run the blade on a D8 ‘dozer//With the same hand I can pull you closer/Girl, if all you need’s a long, slow kiss, I got this.” Part mechanic and all romantic, Diffie exudes the good-natured charm that has made him one of country music’s most revered statesmen.

A native of Tulsa, OK, Diffie is a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame and has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for 25 years. A star athlete in high school, he originally set his sights on a medical career, but his love for music won out and he began performing in a gospel group. He paid the bills by working in a foundry and later joined a bluegrass band before deciding to give Nashville a try. He got a job working in the warehouse at Gibson Guitars, but felt like he wasn’t any closer to making his dreams come true.

He was on the verge of moving home when a conversation with his dad changed his destiny. “The best advice I ever got was from my dad,” Diffie recalls with a smile. “He said, ‘If you don’t have a goal, you don’t have anything to shoot at. Do something every day towards your music. Write a song or play your guitar.’ I took that to heart and made sure I did something every day whether it was big or little. I remember getting out of bed one time because I had forgotten to do something towards my music. I actually got up, got my guitar and played for a few minutes and then went back to bed. I feel like that had something to do with the success that I’ve managed to achieve. I think it would apply in anything. I lived, breathed, ate and slept music all the time. I was so obsessed with it.”

That passion and dedication to his dream paid off. His first break came when Holly Dunn recorded “There Goes My Heart Again” and asked him to sing harmony. “I remember going to the mailbox one time and getting the first check from that song and was like, holy crap! I need to write some more songs! I hadn’t seen that much money in my whole life,” he laughs.

By 1990, Diffie had signed with Epic Records and released his debut album A Thousand Winding Roads. His very first single, “Home,” hit No. 1. He continued to dominate the charts throughout the 90s with such hits as “New Way (To Light Up an Old Flame),” “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets),” “Is It Cold in Here,” “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die),” “So Help Me Girl,” “Bigger than the Beatles” and “Third Rock from the Sun.” Jason Aldean paid tribute to Diffie and name-checked many of the veteran entertainer’s classics in his hit “1994.” The video featured Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Little Big Town, Jake Owen and others paying homage to the man who influenced them.

“It was a nice shot in the arm and it’s amazing to me the impact that it’s had. A lot of fans are coming to my shows now to see who the dude is that Jason and Thomas are talking about,” Diffie says, noting that Thomas Rhett co-wrote the song and often plays it in his shows. “The really amazing thing is the fans know every song that I sing. We’ll go to a place and they’ll be a bunch of younger people and they’ll know every single word. Obviously, they’ve gone back and done some research or downloaded something. It’s pretty cool.”

Nevertheless, Diffie has trouble seeing himself as an elder statement because he’s just as active as ever. Most recently Diffie has teamed with producer Phil O’Donnell a.k.a. “Phillbilly” to craft I Got This. “Phil’s very inventive and is such a pleasure to work with. He has some unique ideas. He’s kind of laid back like me.” Diffie says. “He did a great job.”

With nearly 30 years in the spotlight, Diffie has no plans to slow down. “I love music. It’s just a part of me,” he says. “Retiring would be like cutting off my arm or something. I enjoy everything about it. The travel part gets old once in a while admittedly, but I love the fans. It beats working any day.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Joe Ely played the main stage in the September of 2003.

ABOUT JOE ELY:

From the moment he made his debut in the 1970s, Joe Ely has blended rock-and-roll sensibilities to hardcore honky tonk and become one of the most recognizable and respected artists to hail from the Lonestar state. Growing up on the vast and empty plains of West Texas, his legend was forged onstage with relentlessly riveting live performances, hammered out over thousands of shows and countless touring miles from Lubbock to London and back again the long way around. He has been embraced as a kindred spirit by artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty and The Clash. Over his four-decade career, he’s been at the forefront of Outlaw Country, Alt-Country, Texas Country and Americana, and has been recognized as one of the best songwriters of his generation.
“There’s no mistaking a Joe Ely album,” wrote noted Dallas Morning News critic Mario Tarradell. “His stinging, road-hued voice commands lyrics about life, love and the wandering spirit. When you listen to his music, you’re enjoying the essence of Joe Ely. That’s the essence of Texas Music.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On March 1, 2003, Joe Nichols made his main stage debut and even got his hands added to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT JOE NICHOLS:

As Joe Nichols began work on a brand new batch of old-school country music, he found himself looking back for inspiration. Back to his early career, back to true friends and the simple perfection of pure country music … back to things that never get old.

“Full circle is the term I would use,” the Arkansas native says about his new project, fittingly titled Never Gets Old. “The whole theme of the record is ‘Let’s get back to where it all began for me. Let’s get back to where my passion for music began.’”

From 2002’s Man With a Memory on, Nichols harnessed that passion as a steady hit maker, racking up six Number Ones and eight Top 10s, including chart-topping modern classics like “Brokenheartsville” and “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.” He’s a four-time Grammy nominee, an ACM, Billboard, CMA, and CMT Award winner, and his last album offering, Crickets, kept the success going, sending both “Yeah” and “Sunny and 75” to
Platinum-certified Number One status.

But then four years went by – the longest span between releases of his career – as Nichols dug in to reconnect with his calling. In Never Gets Old, he’s done just that.

“Instead of us making something that’s built for instant success, the idea was ‘Let’s make something we’re gonna be proud of 30 years from now,’” Nichols explains. “I’m thinking less about what will work, and more about what I love.”

What Nichols loves has always been obvious. Growing up around friends who were into anything but country, he was different. Nichols was pulled in by the realness of singers like Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins, Don Williams, Keith Whitley, and George Strait, and that connection would inform his whole career. Even now with Never Gets Old, he’s happy to go against the grain.

“Hopefully the stuff we’re doing lasts a lot longer than today’s typical country record,” he says. “But I think the irony is that retro sounds are actually what’s fresh and new right now. All we had to do was what felt natural.”

Doing what felt natural has never been easier, as Nichols returned to the approach of his early albums. Working with Crickets producer Mickey Jack Cones and longtime collaborator and friend Brent Rowan– fiddles and steel guitar tempered tasteful modern sounds on nearly every mix, while that understated (but unmistakeable) baritone felt “better than it’s been in 10 years.”

Saying his goal was to sing with the most feeling possible and let whatever came out of his soul land on the record, Nichols ended up with 12 tracks that bound between spirit and sentiment, courage and cleverness, romance and rowdy fun, all wrapped in the throwback style he’s spent a lifetime pursuing.

Lead single and title track “Never Gets Old” points the way. Written by Connie Harrington and Steve Moakler, Nichols says it reminds him of the mid-’80s country era, a song that “wasn’t necessarily deep, but it was meaningful.”

With a swaying front-porch groove, it features laid-back acoustic guitars and accordions that waft in with the breeze, as Nichols ponders the moments that keep love fresh – like watching his wife laugh, holding her hand, and ending each day in a tender embrace. Nichols says he knew it was special when all three of his kids started singing along the first time they heard it.

Tracks like “This Side of the River,” “Billy Graham’s Bible,” and “We All Carry Something” are charged with soul-stirring power, while “Diamonds Make Babies” and “So You’re Saying” inject the project with heartwarming fun.

But it’s a bit of carefree craziness adapted from his live show which is sure to leave listeners with the biggest smile – an honest-to-goodness country cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s hip-hop favorite, “Baby Got Back.”

What began as a joke between Nichols and his band years ago went on to become a beloved moment onstage, and now it caps off Never Gets Old, proving that whatever this veteran song stylist sings, it’s gonna sound country. Nichols and his team invited comedian Darren Knight and his “Southern Momma” character to revamp the iconic spoken-word parts, and what came out in the studio was so much fun it had to be included on the album.

“Everybody was laughing that day,” he says. “It was out-of-the-blue and we never thought we’d put it on a record. But when it was done I was like ‘This is nuts, but this actually kind of feels like it should have been a country record … a goofy one, but still.’”

When Joe Nichols released his debut album, he was barely 20 years old and trying to put his youth behind him. Looking back now, he laughs at that thought, but some things never change. Back then he was scrappy and defiant about his quest to revive traditional country, and that drive remains. In fact, he says it’s one of those things that never gets old.

“I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” he says. “With my first album, there was this apprehension of ‘Is country music ready for a traditional country record?’ It was a little bit scary, but we went for it, and with Never Gets Old I still feel the exact same passion – it’s like ‘Let’s give it to them anyway.’ Now, I think country music is ready.”

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Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley each played their own short set before reuniting on the stage to sing their string of duet hits.

ABOUT JOE STAMPLEY:

One of the first artists to build a bridge between Rock n’ Roll, Rhythm n’ Blues, and Country Music, Joe Stampley pioneered what came to be known as “new country” a decade or more before that marketing niche had been given a name.

In the 60’s, Joe was the lead singer for the pop/rock group The Uniques. They began performing in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, soon finding themselves in great demand. In 1965, The Uniques recorded “Not Too Long Ago”, the first national hit for Paula Records. One year later, they followed with the classic “All These Things”, which is still one of Rock’s sentimental favorites in the Deep South; it’s considered part of the essence of the 60’s.

In 1971, Joe signed with ABC-Dot Records and recorded seven albums that produced such hits as “Soul Song”, “Too Far Gone”, “If You Touch Me (you’ve got to love me)”, “I’m Still Loving You”, and the remake of “All These Things”, as a two-step, which skyrocketed to #1 across the charts.

In 1975, Joe moved to Epic Records where he turned out 13 albums which included hits such as “Roll On Big Mama”, “Red Wine and Blue Memories”, “If You’ve Got Ten Minutes”, “Do You Ever Fool Around”, and ”I’m Gonna Love You Back To Lovin’ Me Again”. Joe also had a stringof hits with labelmate Moe Bandy consisting of chart-toppers such as “Just Good Ol’ Boys”, “Holdin’ The Bag”, “Hey Joe, Hey Moe”, and the take-off on Boy George -“Where’s The Dress”, which won the American Video Association’s award for Video Of The Year in 1984.

Joe Stampley has over 60 charted records to his credit, which ranks him 30th in R&R’s (Radio & Records) Twenty Years of Excellence magazine. Joel Whitburn’s Billboard Top Country Singles rank Joe 52nd among all country artists from 1944-1993 for charted singles. In 1976, Joe had eight singles chart in Billboard Magazine and was awarded “Billboard’s Single Artist Of The Year” for that accomplishment. Joe and his friend, Moe Bandy, were recognized as the Country Music Association’s (CMA) 1980 Vocal Duo Of The Year as Moe and Joe. They also received the Academy of Country Music’s (ACM) Vocal Duo Award for two consecutive years.

A versatile entertainer and singer, Joe Stampley can liven up any crowd with a rowdy, honky-tonk number or move an audience with the feeling he puts into a love song. His high-energy concert style often involves the audience in his performances with sing-a-longs, hand-clapping, and dancing in the aisles. Joe is currently on tour playing concert halls, casinos, clubs and festivals, giving his fans a taste of the hits that have made him a household name for over four decades.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and Razzy Bailey all perform at the first annual New Year’s Eve show at Billy Bob’s, starting a tradition that has lasted 30 years.

ABOUT JOHNNY CASH:

Johnny Cash is one of the most important, influential and respected artists in the history of recorded music. From his monumental live prison albums, to his extraordinary series of commentaries on the American spirit and the human condition, to a mesmerizing canon of gospel recordings, to his remarkable and unprecedented late-life artistic triumphs of will and wisdom, his impact on our culture is profound and continuing.

John R. Cash was born into a family of Arkansas sharecroppers in the middle of the Great Depression, and that hardscrabble life instilled in him a reverence for family, the earth, God and truth that informed his incredible life and vision over a half-century career. After a stint in the United States Air Force, where he distinguished himself as a radio intercept operator, and less-successful efforts as an automobile factory worker and door-to-door home goods salesman, Johnny broke onto the music scene in 1955 on Memphis’ fabled Sun Records. It was here, at the “birthplace of rock and roll,” where the world was introduced to his singular voice and compelling songwriting, through such eternal classics as “I Walk the Line,” “Big River” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”

As Johnny matured as an artist, he took his disciples on soaring adventures of the mind and soul, including Ride This Train, a travelogue of the sights and sounds of his beloved country; Blood, Sweat and Tears, the Cash canon of working man blues; Bitter Tears, a searing examination of the treatment of Native Americans; The Holy Land, Hymns from the Heart and other deeply personal statements of faith and devotion; and, of course, the historic concerts at Folsom Prison and San Quentin, where he demonstrated that compassion and healing are more integral to humanity than retribution and disdain.

In 1969, The Johnny Cash Show was a groundbreaking fusion of musical styles, fresh voices and enduring legends that elevated him to the pinnacle of his craft, taking him to stages such as the White House, Carnegie Hall, behind the Iron Curtain and even Northern Ireland, where the combatants in the Troubles temporarily ceased the hostilities to gather together in a Belfast church to hear him sing—albeit from opposite sides of the aisle. When he became the biggest selling recording artist on earth, it was an affirmation of his universality.

While most artists follow Neil Young’s adage, and either burn out or fade away, Johnny did neither. In his later years, new audiences flocked to hear his consideration of what it means to be human. His powerful statements on love, forgiveness and life and death spoke across time and generations, and still do today. At the end of his life, Johnny Cash had become not only the champion and the conscience of the American Experience, but a portal through which mortals glimpse immortality, an exemplar of overcoming adversity through honesty, and a role model in the everlasting pursuit of Redemption and the promise of the unclouded day.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

John Conlee recorded his “Live at Billy Bob’s’ album on January 15, 1999.

ABOUT JOHN CONLEE:

One of the most respected vocalists to emerge during the urban cowboy era, John Conlee was known for his superb taste in material and his distinctively melancholy voice. Conlee was born and raised on a tobacco farm in Versailles, KY, in 1946, and took up the guitar as a child, performing on local radio at age ten. He went on to sing with the town barbershop chorus, but didn’t initially pursue music as a career, instead becoming a licensed mortician. He also worked as a disc jockey at numerous area radio stations, and made important industry connections via that area when he moved to Nashville in 1971. Five years later, Conlee’s demo tape got him a contract with ABC. He released a few singles, but didn’t find acceptance until 1978’s “Rose Colored Glasses,” a song he’d co-written with a newsman at his radio station, rocketed into the country Top Five. Conlee spent the next decade or so scoring hit after hit, nearly all of them helmed by producer Bud Logan. He had two number ones in 1979 alone — “Lady Lay Down” and “Backside of Thirty” — and four number two hits through 1981, which included “Before My Time,” “Friday Night Blues,” “She Can’t Say That Anymore,” and “Miss Emily’s Picture.” Conlee returned to the top of the charts three times over 1983-1984 with “Common Man,” “I’m Only in It for the Love,” and “In My Eyes,” and had his last number one in 1986 with “Got My Heart Set on You.” All told, Conlee made the Top Ten 19 times through 1987, when he moved from MCA to Columbia and reached the Top Five with “Domestic Life.” Never much for touring, Conlee subsequently curtailed his recording activities as well, instead devoting his time to charity work (often on behalf of American farmers), raising his family, and running his own farm outside Nashville.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

In November of 1998, John Michael Montgomery is scheduled to play a rare Thanksgiving night concert at Billy Bob’s. An ice storm hits the area, and cuts the attendance drastically. Before the show, however, the Billy Bob’s crew and Montgomery’s club watch the infamous Dallas Cowboys vs. Miami Dolphins game, lost by Leon Lett’s slip on the ice at the end of the game.

ABOUT JOHN MICHAEL MONTGOMERY:

John Michael Montgomery has turned an uncanny ability to relate to fans into one of country music’s most storied careers. Behind the string of hit records, the roomful of awards and the critical and fan accolades that have defined his phenomenal success lies a connection that goes beyond his undeniable talent and his proven knack for picking hits. Since the days when “Life’s A Dance” turned him from an unknown artist into a national star, John Michael’s rich baritone has carried that most important of assets—believability. Few artists in any genre sing with more heart than this handsome Kentucky-born artist.

It is readily apparent in love songs that have helped set the standard for a generation. Songs like “I Swear,” “I Love the Way You Love Me” and “I Can Love You Like That” still resonate across the landscape—pop icon and country newcomer Jessica Simpson cited “I Love The Way You Love Me” as an influence in a recent interview. It is apparent in the 2004 hit “Letters From Home,” one of the most moving tributes to the connection between soldiers and their families ever recorded, and in “The Little Girl,” a tale of redemption that plumbs both the harrowing and the uplifting. It is apparent even in the pure fun that has always found its way into John Michael’s repertoire—songs like “Be My Baby Tonight” and “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident),” where John Michael’s vocal earnestness takes musical whimsy to another level.

John Michael’s origins lie in deceptively modest beginnings. He was born in Danville, Kentucky, to parents who imparted a lifelong love of music.

“Where most people have chairs and sofas in their living rooms,” laughs John Michael, “we had amplifiers and drum kits.”

The family band played on weekends throughout the area, and John Michael and his brother Eddie eagerly soaked up everything about it.

“To a certain extent,” he says, “my dad always had a natural ability to draw fans and entertain people; I don’t care if it was on the front porch, the living room, or on a stage. I think that transitioned to me and my brother being able to do that on stage.”

John Michael took over lead singing chores after his parents divorced, and he performed for a while in a band called Early Tymz with Eddie and their friend Troy Gentry. Nashville talent scouts began hearing about and then seeing John Michael perform and by the early ‘90s he had a record deal.

The hits followed steadily, with songs like “Rope The Moon,” “If You’ve Got Love,” “No Man’s Land,” “Cowboy Love,” “As Long As I Live,” “Friends” and “How Was I To Know” establishing him as one of the elite acts of the era. He received the CMA Horizon award and was named the ACM’s Top New Vocalist, setting off a long series of awards that included the CMA’s Single and Song of the Year, Billboard’s Top Country Artist, and a Grammy nomination. Heavy touring meant he kept the close touch with fans he had begun in the clubs back home.

“You get to know your fans and what they like more and more through the years,” he says, “and you kind of gravitate towards one another.”

Indeed, he has always had an extraordinarily close relationship with his fans, and they have stayed with him through good and bad times.

Asked what he thinks gave him the edge in a career that calls millions but gives stardom to just a few, he pauses, then thinks back to the legacy of his parents.

“I reckon it was good genes and good blood,” he says with a smile. Few who know the depth and breadth of his own growing legacy would disagree.

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ABOUT JOHNNY COOPER:

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Fort Worth favorite Johnny Paycheck performs in June of 1997.

ABOUT JOHNNY PAYCHECK:

The first time that many people ever heard of Johnny Paycheck was in 1977, when his “Take This Job and Shove It” inspired one-man wildcat strikes all over America. The next time was in 1985, when he was arrested for shooting a man at a bar in Hillsboro, OH. That Paycheck is remembered for a fairly a musical novelty song and a violent crime (for which he spent two years in prison) is a shame, for it just so happens that he is one of the mightiest honky tonkers of his time. Born and raised in Greenfield, OH, Paycheck was performing in talent contests by the age of nine and riding the rails as a drifter by the time he turned 15. After a Navy stint landed him in the brig for two years, he arrived in Nashville, where he performed in the bands of Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, Ray Price, and George Jones. He recorded several singles under the name Donny Young, then, in 1965, cut his first sides as Johnny Paycheck for the Hilltop label. A year later, he and gadfly producer Aubrey Mayhew started the Little Darlin’ label, for which Paycheck recorded his greatest work. Marked by Lloyd Green’s knockout steel guitar and Paycheck’s broad, resonant vocals (not to mention his rounder’s sense of humor) his Little Darlin’ records of the 1960s have since become cult favorites. After splitting with Mayhew (and after running his life into the gutter) Paycheck made a celebrated comeback on Epic in the 1970s. “Take This Job and Shove It” was the most famous result, though ballads like “She’s All I Got” and “Someone to Give My Love To” are far more indicative of his stylistic range.

Born Donald Lytle, Paycheck began playing guitar when he was six, and within three years, he was performing talent contests across the state. When he was 15, he ran away from home, hitchhiking, and hoboing his away across the country, singing in honky tonks and clubs along the way. By his late teens, he had joined the Navy, but while he was serving, he assaulted a superior officer and was convicted of court martial. As a result, he spent two years in the brig. Upon his release, he moved to Nashville, where made the acquaintance of Buddy Killen at Decca Records, who offered him a contract. At Decca, Paycheck released two rockabilly singles on the label under the name Donny Young; neither were hits. Shortly afterward, he moved to Mercury, where he released two country singles, which were also failures. By that time, he had begun supporting other musicians, playing bass and occasionally steel guitar with Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, and Ray Price. He frequently moved between employers because of his short-fused temper. Paycheck finally found his match in George Jones. He stayed with Jones for four years, fronting the Jones Boys between 1962 and 1966, and singing backup on George’s hits “I’m a People,” “The Race Is On,” and “Love Bug.”

Toward the end of his stint with Jones, Donald Lytle refashioned himself as Johnny Paycheck, taking his name from a Chicago heavyweight boxer. Late in 1965, he relaunched his solo career with the assistance of producer Aubrey Mayhew, who produced a pair of singles — “A-11” and “Heartbreak Tennessee” — for Hilltop Records. Though it only charted at number 26, “A-11” caused a sensation within the country community, earning several Grammy nominations as well as reviews that compared Paycheck to his mentor, Jones. In 1966, he and Mayhew formed Little Darlin’ Records, primarily designing the label to promote Paycheck, but also recording Jeannie C. Riley, Bobby Helms, and Lloyd Green. That summer, “The Lovin’ Machine” became Paycheck’s first Top Ten hit. Also that year, he wrote Tammy Wynette’s first hit, “Apartment #9,” with Bobby Austin and Fuzzy Owen; Paycheck also wrote Ray Price’s number three hit “Touch My Heart.”

All of Paycheck’s recordings for Little Darlin’ Records rank among his grittiest, hardest country, but they weren’t necessarily big hits. Between 1967 and 1969, Paycheck had eight more hit singles, with each record progressively charting at a lower position than its predecessor — “Motel Time Again” reached number 13 in early 1967, while “If I’m Gonna Sink” climbed to number 73 in late 1968. Though “Wherever You Are” showed signs of a comeback in the summer of 1969, peaking at number 31, the label went bankrupt shortly after its release, partially due to Paycheck’s declining commercial performance, partially due to his heavy drinking and erratic behavior. Over the course of the next year, he moved to California and sunk deeply into substance abuse. Meanwhile, Billy Sherrill at Epic Records had been searching for Paycheck with the hopes of producing his records. The label finally tracked him down in 1971 and offered him a contract, provided that he cleaned himself up. Paycheck accepted the offer and, with Sherrill’s assistance, kicked his addictions.

Like many of Sherrill’s records of the early ’70s, his Paycheck recordings were heavily produced and often layered with stings. Though this was a shift from the hardcore country that Paycheck made on Little Darlin’, the new approach was a hit — his debut single for the label, “She’s All I Got,” became a number two hit upon its fall 1971 release. It was quickly followed by another Top Ten hit, “Someone to Give My Love To,” and Paycheck was finally becoming a star. During the next four years, he had 12 additional hit singles — including 1973’s Top Ten singles “Something About You I Love” and “Mr. Lovemaker,” and 1974’s “For a Minute There” — with the more accessible, pop-oriented songs Sherrill crafted for him, but Paycheck’s wild ways hadn’t changed all that much. In 1972, he was convicted of check forgery and, in 1976, was saddled with a paternity suit, tax problems, and bankruptcy. Accordingly, he shifted his musical style in the mid-’70s to put him in step with the renegade outlaw country movement.

11 Months and 29 Days

Paycheck’s first outlaw album, 1976’s 11 Months and 29 Days (which happened to be the length of his suspended sentence for passing a bad check), featured a photo of him in a jail cell on the cover, signalling his change of direction. Initially, his outlaw records weren’t hits, but early in 1977 he returned to the Top Ten with a pair of Top Ten singles, “Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets” and “I’m the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised).” Later that year, he released his cover of David Allan Coe’s “Take This Job and Shove It,” which became his biggest hit, spending two weeks at number one; its B-side, “Colorado Kool-Aid,” also charted at number 50. Soon, Paycheck’s records were becoming near-parodies of his lifestyle, as the title “Me and the I.R.S.” and “D.O.A. (Drunk on Arrival)” indicated. Nevertheless, he stayed at the top of the charts, with “Friend, Lover, Wife” and “Mabellene” both reaching number seven in late 1978 and early 1979.

Shortly after the twin success of those singles, his career began to crumble due to his excessive, violent behavior. In 1979, his former manager Glenn Ferguson began a prolonged and difficult legal battle. In 1981, a flight attendant for Frontier Airlines sued him for slander after he began a fight on a plane. The following year, he was arrested for alleged rape. The charges were later reduced and he was fined, but by that point, Epic had had enough and dropped him from the label. Paycheck moved over to AMI, where he had a number of small hit singles between 1984 and 1985. Later in 1985, he had a barroom brawl with a stranger in Hillsboro, OH, that ended with Paycheck shooting and injuring his opponent. The singer was arrested for aggravated assault and spent the next four years appealing the sentence while he recorded for Mercury Records. None of his singles for the label reached the Top 40, and he was dropped from the label in 1987. He spent 1988 at Desperado Records before signing with Damascus the following year, after his conversion to Christianity.

In 1989, Paycheck’s appeals had expired and he was sentenced to the Chillicothe Correctional Institute. He spent two years at the prison, even performing a concert with Merle Haggard at the jail during his stint, before being released on parole in January 1991. Following his release, Paycheck kept a low profile, playing shows in Branson, MO, and recording for the small label Playback Records. After battling diabetes and emphysema for a number of years, Paycheck passed away in February 2003. He was 64.

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Johnny Lee’s well known song “Looking for Love” is featured as #4 on his “Live at Billy Bob’s” recorded album.

ABOUT JOHNNY LEE:

Johnny Lee was born in Texas City, Texas, and is a member of the “Texas Country Music Hall of Fame”.

In 1968, he began a 10-year working relationship with Mickey Gilley, at the World Famous Nightclub “Gilley’s” in Pasadena, Texas. In 1979, Lee’s first screen role was in a 1979 TV Movie, “The Girls in the Office”, starring Barbara Eden and Susan St. James. He was then asked to perform in the film, “Urban Cowboy”, which starred: John Travolta and Deborah Winger, “Lookin’ For Love”, Was from that Movie soundtrack, and became Lee’s 1st “Gold Record”.

The song spent 3 weeks as, #1 on the Billboard Country Music Charts, and #2 on the Pop Music Charts. Later becoming one of the Top 100 best Country Songs of all Time. When not traveling and Performing, Johnny can be seen on many Celebrity hunting and fishing shows. As well as on RFD TV’s: “Larrys’ Diner” & “The Homecoming”. With a string of Top 10 hits such as: “One In A Million” – “Bet Your Heart On Me” – “Cherokee Fiddle,” “Sounds Like Love,” – “Hey Bartender” – “You Could’ve Heard a Heart Break.” And Many, Many More.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2019, Dennis Quaid was joined on stage for his encore with his friends Johnny Rodriguez and Tanya Tucker.

ABOUT JOHNNY RODRIGUEZ:

Almost 40 years after he first arrived in Nashville, Johnny Rodriguez is right back where he started coming full circle back to making the kind of honest country music that he and his fans always enjoyed.

Born December 10, 1951, Johnny Rodriguez was the second youngest of 10 children living in a four room house in Sabinal, Texas, a small town about 90 miles from the Mexico Border.

Growing up in Sabinal, Johnny was an A/B student, captain of his Junior High School Football team, a high school letterman and an altar boy at church. But it wasn’t all innocent. In 1969, caught with friends stealing and barbecuing a goat, Rodriguez took the rap. It was this jail visit that gave Johnny his first break.

His jail house singing enthralled Texas Ranger, Joaquin Jackson, who told a promoter about Rodriguez. The promoter, Happy Shahan, hired Johnny to perform at the Alamo Village, a popular south Texas tourist attraction and location of many well know movie sets. It was here that Johnny was heard by Nashville artists Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare who both encouraged Johnny to fly to Nashville in 1971. 20-year old Rodriguez found himself stepping off the plane with nothing more than his guitar in hand and $14 in his pocket. Soon he was fronting Tom T. Hall’s Band and writing songs.

Less than year later, Hall took Johnny over to the office of Roy Dea and Jerry Kennedy, then record producers of Mercury’s Nashville operation, for an in person audition. Dea offered a contract on the spot after hearing “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “If I’d Left It Up To You”.

Fifteen of his singles rose to top ten, six of which were #1 hits. The first of the singles to reach number one was You Always come Back to Hurting Me”. The song raced through the country charts and put Johnny in the fast lane of the country music world. “You Always Come Back To Hurting Me” didn’t stop until it hit the top the first of 11 consecutive #1 records, some of which he wrote or co-wrote.

His debut album, Introducing Johnny Rodriguez, went to #1 on all three major trade charts and by 1973 he was nominated by the Country Music Association for “Male Vocalist of the Year” and won the Billboard Trend Setter Award for first Mexican-American to capture a national audience. Some of Johnny’s classic hits during this period included “Pass Me By”, “You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)”, “Riding My Thumb To Mexico”, “That’s The Way Love Goes” and “Just Get Up And Close The Door”.

In addition to the hits came the industry Accolade Awards, and television film roles including a role on the TV show “Adam 12” and a guest appearance on “The Dating Game”. Since 1974, when Rodriguez made his debut as a TV actor, he has been a favorite on national talk shows and performance format shows. His emphasis, however, was still music; country music.

In 1979, Johnny moved from Mercury to Epic Records, where he worked with producer Billy Sherrill. His debut album with Epic, “Rodriguez”, contained with one exception, songs written by Johnny. His successes included: “What’ll I Tell Virginia”, “Love Look At Us Now”, “North Of The Border”, “Foolin”, “How Could I Love Her So Much”, and “Rose Of My Heart”.

The union of producer Tom Collins and Capitol Records in 1987 resulted in Rodriguez’ album titled “Gracias”, which contained such hits as “I Didn’t (Every Chance I Had)”, “I Want To Wake Up With You” and “You Might Want To Use Me Again”.

In 1993, Johnny recorded “Run For The Border” on Intersound and in 1996 he reunited with the Dea/Kennedy team to truly capture the fire and magic of their past collaborations with the creation of “You Can Say That Again”.

In the past 40 years, Johnny has released 35 albums and charted 45 singles. He has beat the pavement touring in every state in the U.S. and enjoys an enormous response when touring overseas in countries such as Switzerland, England, S. Korea, France, Spain, East & West Germany, Japan, Belgium, Guam, Poland, Canada and Mexico.

This favored son of Texas has received standing ovations by audiences ranging from Ryman Auditorium to Carnegie Hall. He has been honored with the presence of Presidents of the United States including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and playing the Inaugural Ball for George Bush.

Rodriguez has been high-lighted for his contributions and place in music’s traditions and history. This artist brings the Hispanic communities and country music together with his bilingual songs.

This favored son of Texas has received standing ovations by audiences ranging from Ryman Auditorium to Carnegie Hall. He has been honored with the presence of Presidents of the United States including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and playing the Inaugural Ball for George Bush.

Johnny was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, TX in 2007, an honor well deserved for his contribution to country music. In 2010, Johnny received the Pioneer Award from the Institute of Hispanic Culture. Johnny received the Living Legend Award from CMA of Texas in 2019.

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ABOUT JOHN ANDERSON:

Jon Anderson is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable voices in progressive rock as the lead vocalist and creative force behind Yes. Anderson was the author and a major creative influence behind the ground-breaking album Fragile as well as the series of epic, complex pieces such as “Awaken”, “Gates of Delirium” and especially “Close to the Edge” which were central to the band’s success. Additionally, Anderson co-authored the group’s biggest hits, including “I’ve Seen All Good People”, “Roundabout”, and “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”.

Never to stand still musically, he is getting ready to release an album he started 28 years ago through Blue Élan Records. The album’s title, 1,000 Hands is a reference to the fact that numerous guest musicians perform on the album, including Ian Anderson, Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Morse, Chick Corea, Zap Mama, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and many more. This album, produced by his friend Michael Franklin, really speaks to the power of a musical life still in the throes of a fervent artistic endeavor, always wanting new experiences in music, always wanting to surprise the listener. The album comes out on July 31, 2020 and will be offered on deluxe double gatefold vinyl, CD, and through all digital platforms.

If you asked Jon, he would say that he loves the adventure in making music, as evidenced in 50 years of success in the music business, working not only with many variations of Yes, but also with very successful collaborations with Vangelis and Kitaro, and more recently with Roine Stolt and Jean-Luc Ponty. His collaboration with Vangelis produced a number of hit records, including Friends of Mr Cairo which was groundbreaking in its use of narrative voiceover, creating a phenomenon that was copied by many artists and producers, most notably Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones with “Thriller”. As Jon would say, “We all copy each-others musical dreams, it’s the cross-pollenization of music that keeps the world spinning around”.

In the mid 70’s he created a pure solo album, in every sense of the word: performing all the music, playing every instrument, writing a storyline, and of course singing all the vocals in the critically acclaimed Olias of Sunhillow… a milestone in recording and adventurous creativity. You only need to look at his output of solo albums over the years to see how inventive his life in music has been, from Animation to Song of Seven, Three Ships to Toltec, City of Angels to The More You Know, to name just a few. All of these albums marked his own progression and adventure through music…leading up to 2009 following his near death, the release of the life affirming album Survival and Other Stories.

In 2015, Jon partnered with his dear friend, world renowned jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, creating a wonderful fusion of jazz and progressive rock in the album Better Late than Never. In 2016, Jon joined forces with well-known prog rock guitarist and producer Roine Stolt, to create Invention of Knowledge, an album that garnered great acclaim with critics and fans alike. In 2017 Jon reformed YES with former band members Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman … YES Featuring ARW has toured the world to rave reviews and released the Live At The Apollo CD/DVD in September 2018.

Finally, in Jon’s words: “Music is our spiritual connection to the soul, that’s why people all over the world connect to Music and to each other through Music.”

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In 2010, 99.5 The Wolf hosted “The 12 Man Jam” where John Rich was joined on stage with 11 other artists to each play a little acoustic set.

ABOUT JOHN RICH: 

John Rich is an American country music singer-songwriter. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country music band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After departing from the band in 1998, he embarked on a solo career on BNA Records in the late 1990s, releasing two singles for the label and recording Underneath the Same Moon, which was not released until 2006. In 2001, he self-released Rescue Me, an album he was inspired to record by a cancer patient named Katie Darnell. By 2003, he joined Big Kenny to form the duo Big & Rich, who released three albums on Warner Bros.

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On October 21, 2017, Jon Pardi sold out his debut and cemented his hands onto the “Wall of Fame.”

On October 9 & 10, 2021, Pardi played two back-to-back SOLD OUT shows on the mainstage. On the first night, he unexpectedly brought out legendary western singer Randy Travis onto the stage. On the second night, he paid homage to the Lone Star State by opening the night with ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas’.

ABOUT JON PARDI:

Jon Pardi is a traditional country singer, bred in the West Coast honky-tonks, and he won’t apologize for chasing the dream on his own terms. It might be considered contemporary cool to inject country songs with programmed drums, rap phrasing, and poppy melodies. But Pardi isn’t worried about what’s trendy. He’s more concerned with making country music that will last. His music is stocked with classic Nashville melody, blue-collar lyrical themes, and authentic country instrumentation – real drums, loud-and-proud fiddles, and tangy steel guitar.

Ushered into the world on the same label that launched Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, Pardi has found a whole chain of believers in his mission: the dedicated band behind him, the foot-stomping fans with cold beers at the foot of the stage, and a label that knows Pardi’s “throwback” sound is really made for these times.

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During their first sold-out show at Billy Bob’s Texas, Kacey Musgraves joins Josh Abbott Band on stage to perform their hit duet “Oh, Tonight”.

ABOUT JOSH ABBOTT BAND:

Let the good times roll.

When fans of Texas-bred Josh Abbott Band hear the four-track EP Catching Fire, they’re likely to reconnect with a sound from the not-so-distant past. They’re songs of positivity, built on solid country textures and unified by Abbott’s congenial-but-experienced voice.

The seven-piece group cut its teeth as a hard-touring act with hooky melodies that deliver real-world stories. Led by the true-to-life cycles in Abbott’s life, JAB explored new territory with its last two albums – documenting the dissolution of a marriage in Front Row and adding strings and a horn section to Until My Voice Goes Out – but Catching Fire captures a sense of personal renewal.

“My embers are startin’ to glow again,” Abbott sings in the opening line of the title track. Indeed, the entire Catching Fire project is bright, spry, and optimistic. From the limber lines of Preston Wait’s fiddle to the decisive crack of Edward Villanueva’s snare and the animated scratch of Abbott’s acoustic guitar, there’s relaxed energy to the project, a sense of hard-won spirit that can only be developed by confronting – and conquering – emotional hurdles.

“We have a whole new refocused attitude on what we’re gonna do now moving forward,” Abbott says. “Catching Fire is a reflection of what’s happened over the last year and a half of my life.”

“Surprise Surprise” – a jaunty, driving bit of autobiography – details the rise and fall and rise again, namechecking banjo player Austin Davis in the opening line as it follows JAB’s 2006 inception and ascent to one of country music’s most dynamic live acts. Likewise, verse two loosely documents Abbott’s own relationship travails, from love to broken heart to a marriage that resulted in his first child.

While Catching Fire captures the band’s current heartbeat, the songs fit so neatly into the JAB live set that fans experienced them as if they were already part of the band’s canon.

“Half the time, I don’t even introduce them as new songs,” Abbott notes. “We just roll in and play them and watch the fans just bounce around and jam and have fun. Sometimes you’ll see fans look around like, ‘Do you know this song?’ But by the end of the song, they’re singing it.”

Country fans have been singing JAB songs for more than a decade already. The band got its start when Abbott and Davis, frat brothers at Lubbock’s Texas Tech University, braved the stage on open-mic nights at Blue Light Live. Davis managed to make the bluegrass-based banjo fit in a contemporary country setting, establishing a blueprint as additional members joined JAB. Villanueva brought a rock-band spirit on drums and Wait hardened the group’s country stance with his flagship fiddle when they signed on 18 months later. Lead guitarist Caleb Keeter joined in 2010, amping up the group’s power quotient, while keyboard player David Fralin took his place in 2015, bringing an additional layer of texture. The newest member – bass player Jimmy Hartman – added his name to the lineup in 2018, solidifying JAB’s signature tough undercurrent.

The band’s relentless on-stage attitude quickly made it a successful touring act, building out from a Texas band to a regional act to a national crew with a devoted following from coast to coast.

Concurrently, JAB developed its own label, Pretty Damn Tough Records, before that was an accepted practice in country circles. Two of their projects, Small Town Family Dream and Front Row Seat, scored top 10 debuts on the Billboard country albums chart, while five titles cracked the Billboard country singles lists, including a pair – “Oh, Tonight” with Kacey Musgraves; and “Wasn’t That Drunk,” with Carly Pearce – that represented the first chart appearance for current female country stars.

All that music established JAB as a band of renown: a good-timin’ cast with a plethora of sing-along songs that raised concert-goers’ spirits whether your date was a fellow college student or a series of longnecks from the bar.

“When you’re a young band, you wouldn’t know this, but those first couple albums you put out, that is who you are,” Abbott notes. “That is your sound.”

As any reasonable rebel does, the band tested its parameters once it was on solid footing. They signed for a short time with a major label, experimenting by mixing their raw tone with a more commercial edge. As they returned to indie status, Abbott ambitiously documented his first marriage in Front Row Seat. And the expansive Until My Voice Goes Out, recorded as Abbott tended to an ailing father, mixed elegant strings and a Memphis-tipped horn sound. His dad passed away just weeks before they finished the album, and it created a rite of passage that was particularly difficult to process in such a public occupation.

“There were nights in that first year after my dad died, I was bawling five minutes before we went on stage, and I’d have to wipe the tears away and throw on a smile and sing ‘My Texas,’” Abbott recalls. “A good time is what they come for, and I didn’t want to rob them of their experience because of a hardship that I’m going through in my life. I could mourn my father when I was in the back of the bus. The time for it wasn’t when I was on stage.”

Those concerts, in fact, planted some of the first seeds of renewal in Abbott’s life.

“When you’re able to have fun with a crowd of people and sing and dance around on stage, it’s definitely therapeutic,” he says.

As he put the pieces back together and felt a personal sense of renewal, the band as a whole felt a need to get back to its own roots. They took the four new songs – the Abbott/Wait compositions and the two outside pieces – and teamed with accomplished producer Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Frankie Ballard, Aaron Watson) for sessions at the Sonic Ranch on the outskirts of El Paso.

The multi-studio facility, nestled in a working pecan orchard, is appointed with bright tapestries and cozy casitas – residences that provide uncanny flexibility. Billy Gibbons, Third Eye Blind, Midland, and Portugal. The Man are among the acts who’ve found inspiration at the Ranch. JAB typically recorded into the wee hours of the morning, hitting their creative stride around the hours when their biological clocks reach their live-performance peak.

“Generally when you record in the studio, you’re working daytime hours,” Abbott says. “But out here in this place, it’s your studio basically; you can do what you want. There were nights that we were recording till 2 or 3 a.m., and then the next day we just wouldn’t start until noon. That’s musician time. We’re so wired to really get our brains going at 10 p.m.”

The band’s musical renewal is perhaps timely. Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Aaron Watson, Midland, and Cody Johnson are successfully blending the Texas mindset – a country framework with unique, multi-genre flavors – into commercial country music, and the JAB tradition fits neatly into that trend.

“If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought Jon Pardi or Luke Combs could have been from Texas,” Abbott says. “I just look at what’s going on in music – not only with the Texas people but with some of the others that are succeeding from other states – and I just hear similarities.”

Catching Fire brings a sense of similarity back to JAB’s own foundation. It’s a return to the band’s sonic past, a revival of its bar-bred optimism and fiery individualism. And it’s a reflection of the group’s off-stage cycles as old chapters are closed and a renewed, upbeat storyline comes to life.

“It’s not about being sad, it’s not about losing a father or going through a divorce,” Abbott says, elaborating on its current emotional position. “We have a great career, we have a great fan base, we’re still making music for a living. I have a beautiful wife and little daughter that brings me to join every day. So there’s a whole lot of personal renewal, and Catching Fire represents all of that. There’s nothing slow, nothing sad.”

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In 1996 the Miami-based band The Mavericks perform with Junior Brown on April 19.

ABOUT JUNIOR BROWN

With his unique voice, more unique songwriting, and even more unique double-necked “Guit-Steel” guitar, there has absolutely never been ANYONE like Junior Brown. He’s an American Original. Born in 1952 in Cottonwood, Arizona, Junior Brown showed an affinity for music at an early age when the family moved to a rural area of Indiana near Kirksville. In the following years, Junior began to experience Country music and remembers it as “growing up out of the ground like the crops – it was everywhere; coming out of cars, houses, gas stations and stores like the soundtrack of a story, but Country music programs on TV hadn’t really come along much yet; not until the late fifties.” Discovering a guitar in his grandparent’s attic, he spent the next several years woodshedding with records and the radio. Junior was also able to tap into music he couldn’t hear at home which older, college-aged kids were listening to. This was possible due to his father’s employment at small campuses throughout the next decade as the family moved twice again. As a young boy, he was able to experience the thrill of performing before live audiences, at parties, school functions even singing and playing guitar for five thousand Boy Scouts at an Andrews Air Force Base jamboree; then while still a teenager, getting the chance to sit in with Rock and Roll pioneer, Bo Diddley. Armed with this broad spectrum of influences, he began to develop a storehouse of musical chops.

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Justin McBride is a two-time world champion bill rider with more than $5 million in earnings. He met Billy Minick and the two ex-bullriders struck up a deal to record Justin’s “Live at Billy Bob’s”

ABOUT JUSTIN MCBRIDE:

Justin Travis McBride is a former professional bull rider on the PBR’s Built Ford Tough Series Tour. He is a two-time PBR World Champion, has a record 32 career wins, and was the first professional bull rider to earn more than $5 million in the course of his career.

He is a country music singer and is also one of the color commentators of the Built Ford Tough Series telecasts on CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Network. He is also the co-host of PBR Now every Thursday night on RFD-TV.

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As part of Billy Bob’s Texas yearlong 40th anniversary celebration, Justin Moore wraps up the month on March 27th with a mixture of twang and southern rock influence that has his fans on their feet.

ABOUT JUSTIN MOORE:

Justin Moore has built a loyal fanbase over the past decade with his traditional Country sound and captivating live shows. He most recently released his fourth studio album KINDA DON’T CARE earning the singer his third consecutive No. 1 album debut and featuring his chart-topping singles “You Look Like I Need A Drink” and “Somebody Else Will.” The 16-track project skyrocketed to No. 1 on the iTunes Country chart upon release. The Arkansas native spent three years putting the project together, which serves as a follow up to his second No. 1 album release, the GOLD-certified OFF THE BEATEN PATH. Moore holds seven No. 1’s under his signature white cowboy hat including “Point at You” and “Lettin’ The Night Roll” as well as seven Top 10 hits and PLATINUM-certified albums JUSTIN MOORE and OUTLAWS LIKE ME. The Valory Music Co. recording artist has earned multiple ACM, ACA and ACC Awards nominations as well as an ACM Award win. He has shared the stage with Hank Williams Jr., Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert and Brantley Gilbert and is currently traversing the country on his fourth headline trek, HELL ON A HIGHWAY TOUR. Moore is currently working on his fifth full-length album, due out in 2019. The first track from the LP, “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” will be released to all digital partners on October 12, 2018 and was co-written alongside Paul DiGiovanni, Chase McGill and producer Jeremy Stover.

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Kacey Musgraves made her Billy Bob’s debut on May 1st of 2015.

It was a very special night in Cowtown when Kacey Musgraves returned bringing her A Very Kacey Christmas show and Leon Bridges to Billy Bob’s in 2016.

ABOUT KACEY MUSGRAVES:

At the outset of her career, Kacey Musgraves bent country tradition to her will, writing songs that evoked the sound of classic country but were infused with progressive ideas reflecting her millennial perspective. “Merry Go Round” and “Follow Your Arrow,” the big singles from her 2013 major-label debut, Same Trailer Different Park, crystallized this gift and established Musgraves as a major voice in country music: she was the rare country singer who could cross over to a rock audience without playing pop. By the end of the decade, she expanded her musical horizons so they mirrored her expansive lyrical stance, a shift showcased on the critically acclaimed 2018 album Golden Hour, which helped her win four Grammys the following year.

Movin’ On

Born and raised in the East Texas town of Golden, Kacey Musgraves began writing songs when she was just eight years old, not long after she picked up a mandolin. By 12, she knew how to play guitar and began to write her own songs, teaming with Alina Tatum as Texas Two Bits for a self-released album called Little Bit of Texas in 2000. Throughout her adolescence, she’d write, sing, and play, performing at local festivals on occasion and releasing a series of independent albums — Movin’ On (2002), Wanted: One Good Cowboy (2003), and Kacey Musgraves (2007) — along the way.

After graduating high school, Musgraves moved to Austin, where she would sing on songwriting demos while working on music of her own. She also took a stab at the televised musical competition Nashville Star, appearing on the fifth installment of the CMT series; she was eliminated four weeks into the season, placing seventh overall. Her appearance, along with her independent recordings, eventually attracted the attention of major labels, and she signed with Mercury Nashville in 2012. By the end of the year, she had supported Lady Antebellum on tour and released a debut single, “Merry Go ‘Round.” In March 2013, the song peaked at number ten on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, setting up the release of her full-length debut, Same Trailer Different Park — which also arrived that March — quite nicely.

Produced by Shane McAnally, Luke Laird, and Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park debuted at number two on Billboard’s Top 200, earned positive reviews, and spawned two additional hit singles (“Blowin’ Smoke,” “Follow Your Arrow”) on its way to a gold certification. The album snagged the Academy of Country Music Award for Album of the Year, and Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and Best Country Song (“Merry Go ‘Round”).

Pageant Material

The success of Same Trailer Different Park helped position Musgraves as one of the hottest stars in country music, raising expectations for her second album, Pageant Material. Arriving in June 2013, the album debuted at number three on the Top 200, but the record stalled out on the country charts; its lead single, “Biscuits,” peaked at number 41 on the Country Airplay chart, and “Dime Store Cowgirl” never made that chart.

A Very Kacey Christmas

Musgraves released the cheerfully retro A Very Kacey Christmas in October 2016, then set to work on her third album of original material in 2017. Produced by Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, 2018’s Golden Hour boasted a sleek, modern sheen that sounded more contemporary than either of its predecessors, capturing fans in the pop and indie realms. The critically acclaimed crossover set went on to top numerous year-end lists and, in early 2019, won Album of the Year at the 61st Grammy Awards. In addition to that top honor, she also won for Best Country Album, Best Country Song (“Space Cowboy”), and Best Country Solo Performance (“Butterflies”). In the wake of her wins, “Rainbow” was pulled as the fifth single from Golden Hour; it made it to 33 on Country Airplay and 98 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show

At the end of 2019, Musgraves celebrated the holiday season with The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show, a tongue-in-cheek television special for Amazon Prime that also had its audio track released as an album. As an album, The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show peaked at 120 on Billboard.

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Kane Brown played on the Billy Bob’s Texas main stage to help raise money for the Academy of Country Music Lifting Lives program.

ABOUT KANE BROWN:

A multiracial singer with a genre-bending approach to country music, Kane Brown helped shift the sound of modern country in the late 2010s. Initially attracted to R&B, he later embraced country, and his first single, “Don’t Go City on Me,” went viral upon release in 2014. By 2016, Brown had signed with RCA and issued his full-length debut Kane Brown. He began crossing over to the pop charts with “What Ifs” (featuring Lauren Alaina) and “Heaven,” both of which landed in the Top 40. Brown’s, second album 2018’s Experiment, topped the Billboard 200 and spawned a trio of country hits with “Lose It,” “Good as You,” and “Homesick.” In keeping with his boundary-breaking approach, Brown has also collaborated with DJ Marshmello and singer Khalid.

Kane Allen Brown was born in 1993 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to a white mother and African-American father. He spent much of his youth living with his mother in Redbank, Tennessee, where he first became interested in music while in high school. Initially attracted to R&B, Brown decided to focus on country after winning an 11th grade talent contest with his rendition of Chris Young’s “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song).” Buoyed by that success, Brown began posting videos online of covers of songs by Brantley Gilbert, Alan Jackson, and others. He quickly developed a loyal following, a fan base that helped his own single, “Don’t Go City on Me,” go viral upon its release in 2014. In 2015, Brown released his debut EP, Closer, which reached the Top Ten of the Billboard Country Albums chart. Following Closer, he also released the stand-alone single “Used to Love You Sober.”

In early 2016, Brown signed a recording contract with RCA/Sony Music Nashville. That December, he returned with his eponymous full-length debut, Kane Brown, featuring the singles “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” and “Thunder in the Rain.” The album debuted at number one on the country charts and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. Two more singles, “What Ifs,” featuring Lauren Alaina, and “Heaven” appeared in 2017.

“Lose It,” the first single from Kane Brown’s second album, appeared in June 2018. It climbed to number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart prior to Experiment’s release in November. Experiment debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 and spawned two more number one Country Airplay singles with “Good as You” and “Homesick” arriving in January and August of 2019, respectively. Also in 2019, he joined DJ Marshmello for the single “One Right Thing” and cracked the Top 20 of the Billboard Country chart with his song “For My Daughter.”

As Experiment wound down its album cycle in 2020, Brown released Mixtape, Vol. 1 in August of that year. The EP was highlighted by the hit single “Cool Again.”

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On Friday July 13, 2001, Kansas cemented all 5 of their band members hands onto the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT KANSAS:

Fusing the complexity of British prog-rock with an American heartland sound representative of their name, multi-platinum-selling Kansas is among the most popular bands of the late ’70s. Their singles during the period — “Dust in the Wind,” “Carry on Wayward Son,” and their cover of J.J. Cale’s “Bringing It Back” became staples of AOR radio and still receive airplay at classic rock radio. During the ’70s, the band sold tens of millions of records, and the commercial success of Leftoverture (1976), Point of Know Return (1977), and Monolith (1979) propelled them to superstar status and sold-out concerts across the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia. While their popular fortunes diminished in the ’90s, they continued to record and tour. Despite key personnel changes — the departure of founding guitarist Kerry Livgren and the eventual retirement of lead vocalist Steve Walsh among them — the band continued to work across the globe and record regularly. The latter stopped for 15 years after 2000’s Somewhere to Elsewhere, a release that featured all the original members of Kansas, with all songs composed by Livgren. Kansas resumed recording with The Prelude Implicit in 2016, featuring new lead vocalist and keyboardist Ronnie Platt. It registered commanding spots on the charts of 14 countries, including the Billboard 200 and Top Rock Albums charts at home.

Formed in Topeka in 1970, the founding members of the group — guitarist Kerry Livgren, bassist Dave Hope, and drummer Phil Ehart — first played together while in high school; with the 1971 addition of classically trained violinist Robbie Steinhardt, they changed their name to White Clover, reverting back to the Kansas moniker for good upon the 1972 arrivals of vocalist/keyboardist Steve Walsh and guitarist Richard Williams. The group spent the early part of the decade touring relentlessly and struggling to gain recognition; initially, their mix of boogie and prog rock baffled club patrons, but in due time they established a strong enough following to win a record deal with the Kirshner label.

Kansas’ self-titled debut LP appeared in 1974; while only mildly successful, the group toured behind it tirelessly, and their fan base grew to the point that their third effort, 1975’s Masque, sold a quarter of a million copies. In 1976, Leftoverture truly catapulted Kansas to stardom. On the strength of the smash hit “Carry on Wayward Son,” the album reached the Top Five and sold over three million copies. Released in 1977, Point of Know Return was even more successful, spawning the monster hit “Dust in the Wind.” While the 1978 live LP Two for the Show struggled to break the Top 40, its studio follow-up, Monolith, the band’s first self-produced effort, reached the Top Ten. That same year, Walsh issued a solo record, Schemer-Dreamer.

In the wake of 1980’s Audio-Visions, Kansas began to splinter; both Hope and Livgren became born-again Christians, the latter issued the solo venture Seeds of Change, and their newfound spirituality caused divisions within the band’s ranks. Walsh soon quit to form a new band, Streets, and the remaining members forged on without him, tapping vocalist John Elefante as his replacement. The first Kansas LP without Walsh, 1982’s Vinyl Confessions, launched the hit “Play the Game Tonight,” but after only one more album, 1983’s Drastic Measures, they disbanded.

In 1986, however, Kansas re-formed around Ehart, Williams, and Walsh; adding the famed guitarist Steve Morse as well as bassist Billy Greer, the refurbished band debuted with the album Power, scoring a Top 20 hit with “All I Wanted.” When the follow-up, 1988’s In the Spirit of Things, failed to hit, seven years passed before the release of their next effort, Freaks of Nature. The London Symphony-assisted Always Never the Same followed in 1998, and in 2000 Kansas issued Somewhere to Elsewhere, their 14th studio album, which saw the return of founder singer/songwriter Kerry Livgren. The next decade found Kansas continuing to tour heavily and release compilations and live albums, culminating in their 2014 induction into the Kansas Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which coincided with the group’s 40th anniversary. Miracles Out of Nowhere, a DVD/CD career retrospective, followed in early 2015. After signing with Century Media’s InsideOut label, Kansas released The Prelude Implicit in 2016. Their 15th studio effort overall, the prog-heavy LP also marked the band’s first new album in 16 years. The following year saw the release of Leftoverture Live & Beyond, a collection of concert performances culled from their 40th anniversary tour.

In March of 2020, Kansas released a three-and-a-half-minute video trailer hosted by Platt to announce the June release of Absence of Presence. Co-produced by drummer Phil Ehart, guitarist Rich Williams, and guitarist Zak Rizvi, it marked the studio debut of keyboardist Tom Brislin (Yes, Camel, Debbie Harry) who had come aboard in late 2018. After releasing three advance cuts — “Throwing Mountains”, “Memories Down the Line, and “Jets Overhead” — the album was delayed until July due to production delays.

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On December 19, 1992, Kathy Mattea cemented her hands for us to add her to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT KATHY MATTEA:

Kathy Mattea is one of the most respected female country stars of her era, a commercially successful hitmaker who was able to bring elements of folk, bluegrass, gospel, and singer/songwriter intimacy to her music. She offers the same commitment to country pop as she does to mining songs, honky tonk, and Celtic ballads as displayed buy her stellar Willow in the Wind from 1989. As her repertoire expanded in the ’90s, so did her grasp on the country charts. Single after single and album after album landed inside the Top 20. Her 1993 album Walking Away a Winner became her most successful of the decade.

From My Heart

Mattea was born in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, in 1959 and received classical voice training starting in junior high; she also took up the guitar when she discovered folk music. In 1976, while in college, she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. She worked odd jobs and perfected her songwriting, and in 1983 she landed a deal with Mercury on the strength of her demo tape. Her self-titled debut was released in 1984, and the follow-up, From My Heart, appeared the following year; none of the singles from either record managed to breach the Top 20. While her 21st century albums didn’t reach the same commercial peaks, they were nonetheless critically acclaimed and sold better in the United Kingdom than they did back home, including 2012’s Calling Me Home. After a six-year hiatus she re-emerged in 2018 with Pretty Bird.

Walk the Way the Wind Blows

However, Mattea’s third effort, 1986’s folky Walk the Way the Wind Blows, proved to be her breakthrough both critically and commercially. Her cover of Nanci Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime” was her first Top Five hit, and the record produced three other Top Tens in the title track, “Train of Memories,” and “You’re the Power.” 1987’s follow-up album, Untasted Honey, confirmed Mattea’s newfound stardom, featuring two number one country hits in “Goin’ Gone” and “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses”; “Untold Stories” and “Life as We Knew It” also made the Top Five. Released in 1989, Willow in the Wind boasted an even stronger folk influence, and it became her first album to go gold on the strength of the number one hits “Burnin’ Old Memories” and “Come from the Heart,” and the number two “She Came from Fort Worth.” Additionally, the album’s Top Ten hit “Where’ve You Been,” co-written by her new husband Jon Vezner, won her a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal.

Time Passes By

Seeking to keep her music fresh by returning to its roots, Mattea made several trips to Scotland in the early ’90s, studying the links between country music and traditional Scottish folk. Her own music kept getting rootsier and more eclectic, and 1991’s ambitious Time Passes By featured guest spots by Emmylou Harris, folkies the Roches, and Scottish singer/songwriter Dougie MacLean. The album’s title track and “A Few Good Things Remain” both hit the Top Ten, but overall the album’s singles didn’t chart as well as was usual. Mattea subsequently had throat surgery, but recovered fully to record 1992’s Lonesome Standard Time, a less ambitious but still eclectic album whose title track was a near-Top Ten hit.

Good News

Mattea backed off her critically acclaimed sounds for 1993’s more commercial Walking Away a Winner, whose title track became yet another Top Five hit; however, the same year, she also issued the gospel-oriented Christmas record Good News, which won a Grammy for Best Southern/Country/Bluegrass Gospel Album. After a hiatus of several years, Mattea returned in 1997 with Love Travels, which balanced her folk and mainstream country leanings; it sold well enough, but failed to produce any major singles. Mattea subsequently moved to MCA for 2000’s ballad-heavy The Innocent Years, a heartfelt tribute to her ailing father. Wanting to explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea hopped labels to Narada, for whom she debuted in 2002 with the eclectic Roses. The holiday album Joy for Christmas Day arrived in 2003, followed by Right Out of Nowhere in 2005. In 2008, Mattea released the bluegrass-centric Coal for the Captain Potato label. Mattea followed it with another collection of songs from mining country entitled Calling Me Home in 2012 for Sugar Hill. Mattea soon took note of a change in her voice. There were certain notes she could no longer hit cleanly. She had the same vocal coach, Phoebe Binkley, who’d also been like a second mother to her. While she wanted to turn to her for help, Binkley’s health began to decline and she was unable to work. Mattea had to seek out someone else. She found Judi Vinar, a jazz singer from Minnesota who gave lessons via Skype. Discovering that the sweet spot in her voice had moved to a lower range, Mattea had to unlearn and relearn to sing, which she did over a painstaking three-year process. The end result was 2018’s Pretty Bird, whose tracks ranged from the jazz-inflected “October Song” to an a cappella rendition of the title tune, written and recorded by one of her musical heroes, the late Hazel Dickens.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Keith Urban began his debut show at Billy Bob’s coming to the stage from the back of the crowd. He stayed and played video games until closing.

ABOUT KEITH URBAN:

Keith Urban, in full Keith Lionel Urban, (born October 26, 1967, Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand), New Zealand-born Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist who earned recognition both inside and outside the country music sphere for his pop-rock influences and honest lyrics.

Urban moved with his family from New Zealand to Queensland, Australia, when he was two years old. Expressing an early interest in music, he was at four given a ukulele, and at six he took up the guitar. From an early age, Urban’s influences reflected the tastes of his parents, who enjoyed country music. At about age eight Urban began entering and winning talent competitions, and as a teenager, he played steady guitar gigs in pubs and clubs. He quit school at 15 to pursue his musical interests. In 1988 Urban formed a band that went on to tour throughout Australia. Two years later he won an award at an Australian country music festival, which led to a record contract with EMI Music Australia. His first album, Keith Urban, was released in 1991 and fared well on music charts.

Following his Australian success, Urban realized his dream of relocating to Nashville, Tennessee—viewed by some as the heart of American country music—in 1992. There he formed a band, eventually known as the Ranch. The band’s self-titled debut album was released in 1997 to moderate critical acclaim, but it suffered from poor sales. Shortly thereafter Urban developed a medical condition that prevented him from singing, and the Ranch disbanded. While his voice was healing, Urban turned more toward guitar work, playing on albums for artists such as the Dixie Chicks and Garth Brooks. In 1999, voice again intact, he released his first American solo album, also titled Keith Urban, and scored a number-one hit on the Billboard country singles chart with “But for the Grace of God.” The albums Golden Road (2002) and Be Here (2004) generated more number-one country singles, earning fans and critical acclaim.

In 2006 Urban began to gain attention for his personal life, marrying actress Nicole Kidman and voluntarily entering rehabilitation for drug and alcohol abuse. His next album, Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing, was released that same year and sold well despite his initial inability to tour to promote it. In 2009 Urban returned with the crossover hit album Defying Gravity. Its pop and rock influences and universal messages of love made it popular with both country and mainstream pop audiences and pushed it to number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. He followed it with Get Closer (2010), Fuse (2013), Ripcord (2016), Graffiti U (2018), and The Speed of Now Part 1 (2020). Urban’s cross-genre appeal was further solidified when he joined the cast (2013–16) of the reality singing competition show American Idol as one of its judges.

Urban was the recipient of many awards for his music, especially within the country music arena. Among them were Grammy Awards for best male country vocal performance (2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010). In 2012 he was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, one of country music’s highest honors.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2010, Kellie Pickler made her main stage debut. We also got the opportunity to add her hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT KELLIE PICKLER: 

Kellie Pickler grew up immersed in country music in the small town of Albemarle, North Carolina with the words of Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton shaping her musical footing. At the age of 19, she gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of “American Idol.” In 2006, she signed with 19 Recordings/BNA Records and released her debut album, Small Town Girl, which has gone on to sell more than 900,000 copies worldwide and produce three hit singles: “Red High Heels,” “I Wonder,” and “Things That Never Cross a Man’s Mind.” She followed that in 2008 with her self- titled sophomore record, featuring country radio hits “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful,” “Best Days of Your Life” (co-written with Taylor Swift and her first Top 10), and “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You.” Having established herself as not only a powerful vocalist but also a songwriter, Pickler released her third studio album, 100 Proof, in 2011 to huge critical acclaim. The album was named the No. 1 Country Album of The Year by Rolling Stone and was listed on “Best of 2012” lists by Washington Post, Rhapsody, AOL’s The Boot and more.

In spring of 2013, Pickler partnered with dance coach Derek Hough and won the Mirror Ball Trophy on “Dancing with the Stars.” That same year, she also released her fourth album, The Woman I Am, with Black River Entertainment, which featured three songs co-written by Pickler including the title cut. She voiced the lead character, a sweet potato named Mirabelle, in the Veggie Tales animated movie “Beauty and the Beet” in 2014, and launched her home goods line, “Selma Drye by Kellie Pickler” in cooperation with the Opry Stores (shop.opry.com) in 2015. She returned to “American Idol” twice in 2016: in February she mentored two of the Top 24 finalists, and in April she performed on the series finale.

Her CMT docu-comedy series “I Love Kellie Pickler” which co-stars her husband, songwriter/producer Kyle Jacobs, debuted in November 2015, propelling the network to its highest premiere with adults since 2012 and women since 2008. The hit television series returned for a second season in August 2016. The lively and unpredictable Pickler is a television favorite, having made guest appearances on shows such as “Celebrity Family Feud,” “Ellen,” “FOX & Friends,” “Good Morning America,” “Meredith,” “Queen Latifah,” “Rachel Ray,” “The Real,” “Steve Harvey Show,” “Today,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and more.

Pickler is an avid supporter of the U.S. military, having recently completed eleven USO Tours thus far. For more information, please visit www.kelliepickler.com.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

In February 2000, Kenny Chesney sold out Billy Bob’s for his first time.

ABOUT KENNY CHESNEY:

Hailing from tiny Gibbs, Tennessee (near Knoxville), country heartthrob Kenny Chesney first made his mark in 1994 with his debut album, but it was a few more years before he started scoring major hits and making himself a household name. His straightforward, emotionally honest way with a romantic ballad is his trademark, distancing him from many of the country-pop acts so plentiful in contemporary Nashville. Among his many accomplishments (number one albums and singles, touring awards, association awards), the most impressive are his four consecutive CMA Awards for Entertainer of the Year, the annual pinnacle for country performers everywhere.

Chesney was born in Knoxville in 1968 and raised in the nearby small town of Luttrell, best known as the home of Chet Atkins. He grew up listening to both country and rock & roll but didn’t get serious about music until college when he studied marketing at East Tennessee State University. He received a guitar as a Christmas present and set about practicing, and was soon performing with the college bluegrass band. Chesney soon started writing songs as well and played for tips in local venues — most often a Mexican restaurant — every night he could; additionally, he managed to sell 1,000 copies of a self-released demo album. After graduation in 1991, he moved to Nashville and became the resident performer at The Turf, a rough honky tonk in the city’s historic district. Although he gained experience, it wasn’t the sort of place where he’d be discovered, and in 1992 he moved on to a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose. From there he landed a record contract with Capricorn and released his debut album, In My Wildest Dreams, in late 1993.

Unfortunately for Chesney, Capricorn wasn’t much of a country label; not only was the album underpromoted, but the label’s country division shut down completely not long after its release. Still, it sold 100,000 copies and caught the attention of several major labels. Chesney ended up signing with RCA subsidiary BNA, which released All I Need to Know in 1995. The album gave him his first two Top Ten hits in the title track and “Fall in Love.” His follow-up, 1996’s Me and You, became his first album to go gold, thanks to two number two singles in the title track and “When I Close My Eyes.” Released in 1997, I Will Stand was another gold-selling effort that gave Chesney his first-ever number one hit in “She’s Got It All,” plus another number two with “That’s Why I’m Here.”

His big-time breakthrough, however, came with 1999’s Everywhere We Go, which sold over two million copies and spawned two number one hits with “You Had Me from Hello” and “How Forever Feels”; it also featured another Top Ten single in “What I Need to Do,” and another, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” that just missed. In 2000, Chesney issued his first Greatest Hits compilation, and two newly recorded songs — “I Lost It” and “Don’t Happen Twice” — which went to number three and number one, respectively.

Greatest Hits became Chesney’s second straight double-platinum release and topped the country LP chart. He followed it with the all-new No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem in early 2002, which gave him his strongest commercial performance yet. It, too, hit number one on the country album chart and spun off four Top Ten singles in “Young,” the number one “The Good Stuff,” the Bill Anderson co-write “A Lot of Things Different,” and “Big Star.” A Christmas album plugged the gap for 2003, and he had a strong return with 2004’s When the Sun Goes Down, which won in the Album of the Year category at the Country Music Awards. He repeated the win, this time as Entertainer of the Year, with Be as You Are (Songs from an Old Blue Chair).

Chesney found himself the subject of much tabloid fodder in 2005 with his surprise marriage to actress Renée Zellweger (he had composed 1999’s “You Had Me from Hello” after watching Zellweger in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire). The pair split that same year, citing irreconcilable differences, and Chesney released the chart-topping The Road and the Radio in November. In the years that followed, Chesney kept busy, releasing Live: Live Those Songs Again in 2006 and Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates in 2007. In April 2010, Chesney and director Joe Thomas released the 3-D concert film Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D. Taken from his 2009 Sun City Carnival Tour, the film included 23 songs from six stadium shows, shot in 3-D, interspersed with interviews and home movies. A completely new studio album, Hemingway’s Whiskey, named after a Guy Clark song, also appeared in 2010. His 13th studio album, Welcome to the Fishbowl, arrived in 2012.

Welcome to the Fishbowl performed respectably, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and generating the number one country single “Come Over,” along with the Top 20 hits “Feel Like a Rock Star” and “El Cerrito Place.” Following its release, Chesney’s label BNA shuttered and he jumped over to Columbia Nashville, which released Life on a Rock in April 2013. The album hit number one, and the single “Pirate Flag” reached the country Top Ten. Chesney quickly followed Life on a Rock with The Big Revival. A conscious shift toward a brighter sound, The Big Revival was Chesney’s liveliest work of the decade, as evidenced by its first single, “American Kids,” a singalong that peaked at number two on the country chart.

Upon its September 2014 release, The Big Revival debuted at number two on Billboard’s Top 200 and number one on the country chart, and it spawned three additional country Top Ten singles: “Til It’s Gone,” the Grace Potter duet “Wild Child,” and “Save It for a Rainy Day.” In the spring of 2016, Chesney returned with “Noise,” the first single from Cosmic Hallelujah, the full-length album that was originally called Some Town Somewhere and scheduled for July release, but was retitled and rescheduled for October that same year. Chesney followed Cosmic Hallelujah in October 2017 with the double-disc Live in No Shoes Nation, his first live album in a decade.

Ending his contract with Sony Music Nashville, Chesney announced a move to Warner Bros. in early 2018 and in the spring of that year, issued the optimistic single “Get Along.” It was the first single from Songs for the Saints, an album written as a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Irma. The album landed at number two on the Billboard 200 and topped the country chart. In July 2019, Chesney released the song “Tip of My Tongue,” which he co-wrote with Ross Copperman and Ed Sheeran. The track served as the first single off his studio effort Here and Now, which arrived in 2020 and became his ninth album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. An expanded version of the LP arrived the following year and featured four new tracks, including the hit single “Streets.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Kevin Fowler recorded his “Live at Billy Bob’s” album the same night as Jason Boland and the Stragglers. In 2015, he played his 2000th show and we were lucky enough to be the stage he played on for it.

ABOUT KEVIN FOWLER:

Kevin Fowler has a found way to live the dream – by earning it. It’s never been an easy or short road, but it’s a path he wouldn’t trade and has positioned him as one of the most consistent artists, in any genre, of the last two decades. His musical journey began playing in rock bands before finding his footing as a solo act in the early 2000s in his home state of Texas, where he burst onto the scene with the celebrated album Beer Bait and Ammo – a mainstay for fans to this day. And while his songs have been covered by Country Music mainstays such as George Jones, Mark Chesnutt, Montgomery Gentry, Sammy Kershaw, and others – Kevin’s versions of these songs are feel good classics that rival the most well-known and memorable songs of any of his contemporaries. Fowler released seven additional albums over the following 14 years after Beer Bait and Ammo, including his most recent effort 2016’s Coming To A Honkytonk Near You produced by Trent Wilmon. Now he readies his latest effort, Barstool Stories for an August 23rd release. The understated title is a nod to what he does best – entertain. The album is filled with songs that invoke the quintessential sound that Fowler has spent his career fine-tuning and reinforcing. The set kicks off with the up-tempo rocker, “Neon” providing the listener a tone-setting compass for what’s to come. He seamlessly weaves back and forth and through the eleven songs to highlight everything that is Kevin Fowler – the upbeat, tongue-in-cheek master (“Beach Please,” “Fake ID”), the live show veteran (“Livin’ These Songs I Write, “Better With Beer”), and the sentimental dreamer (“She’s Growing on Me”, “Heaven”). The album doesn’t strictly rest of the laurels of the familiar, it pushes the listener to consider where Fowler is going, as well as where he’s been. Fowler once again turned to Willmon for producer duties, noting, “it was awesome to work with Trent Willmon again. This is the second album he has produced for me. He did a great job on this record. We have some great songs on this project. It makes it really hard to choose one for the single. I love all of ‘em. I also got my buddies Cody Johnson and Roger Creager to sing one with me. We all sang on one called “A Drinkin’ Song”. It turned out amazing! This record is very well-rounded with plenty of good ol’ Fowler fun songs and a few more heartfelt, serious ones. I love this record and I’m sure our fans will too. “ Barstool Stories confirms the dream Kevin Fowler keeps living – repeatedly making great music, having a lot of fun doing it, and inviting the audience to do the same and this album proudly claims its’ place as his current “snapshot in time.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Koe Wetzel solidified his place here at The Worlds Largest Honky Tonk on July 20^th of 2018.

ABOUT KOE WETZEL:

Some artists break one or two rules. Koe Wetzel breaks pretty much all of them.

The Texas-born singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer kicks out hard rock hooks with a twang bred in rough and tumble dives, yet meant for stadium stages. For as much as he unapologetically trailblazes between grunge, country, Americana, and damn near everything else under the sun, this maverick broke through the old-fashioned way—he busted his ass. Since 2015, he has quietly sold over 200,000 units independently, cranked out 100 million streams and views, and went from playing bars with chicken wire in front of the stage to hosting and headlining his own packed-to-the-gills Koe Wetzel’s Incredible Music Festival surrounded by fireworks and thousands of screaming fans.

On his third album and debut for Columbia Records, Koe continues to set the rulebook on fire by simply being himself…

“We live what we write, man,” he exclaims. “I don’t make anything up. Everything I’m singing is true. Authenticity is the most important thing to me. All of the music is me.”

He began “living” music as a kid. Hailing from Pittsburg, TX, he accompanied mom as she performed on the Opry circuit. As they went town-to-town, he watched his mother belt out country classics from the side of the stage. Grandpa introduced him to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Meanwhile, dad bumped hip-hop gems from The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, and 50 Cent. In addition to listening to Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Willie Nelson, he developed a passion for alternative rock. In eighth grade, a cousin shared an iPod playlist and opened Koe’s eyes to Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. “I turned into a rock head,” he smiles.

He dusted off an old guitar received as a Christmas gift after a key realization. “I figured out you could get girls easier,” he recalls. In between performing, he played football as a linebacker for his high school and eventually Tarleton State University. Even with 5 am practices, he spent all night writing, jamming, and recording. After an ankle injury and subsequent six month-hiatus, he dropped out of college in sophomore year and went all-in for his career. Within eighteen months of throwing down four-nights-a-week around Texas and Oklahoma, shows began to sell out. Koe’s 2017 debut Noise Complaint became a phenomenon powered by “February 28, 2016” [19.2 million Spotify streams], “Something To Talk About” [15 million Spotify streams], “Love” [12.9 million Spotify streams], “Fuss & Fight” [11.9 million Spotify streams], and more.

Mind you, he managed to pull this off without a label, agent, or traditional structure to speak of.

“We did everything on our own,” he goes on. “We also like to get drunk and have a good time, so me getting arrested a couple of times probably helped out a bit,” he laughs.

The momentum continued with 2019’s Harold Saul High and its singles “Ragweed” and “Forever” as more sold-out shows ensued. Following a tireless grind, he surprise-released the 2020 anthem “Kuntry & Wistern,” which exploded right out of the gate trending on Apple Music and garnering praise from The Boot who wrote, “Wetzel has earned a reputation as one of the Lone Star State’s most high-energy and engaging performers.” Soon after, Koe inked a deal with Columbia Records.

As usual, he pulls no punches with the hook, “I think I’ve lost my fuckin’ mind, at least that’s what you told me,” over a palm-muted clean guitar.

“I’ve always listened to a big variety of artists, and that inspires me to this day,” he continues. “I might be crafting lyrics in a hip-hop sense, chords in a rock sense, and melodies in a country way. All of those elements combine within the process of making music.”

That inimitable style shines on the single “Sundy or Mundy.” A bass groan gives way to vivid verses before the chorus climbs over a wall of distortion and a guitar lead rings out.

“It’s about losing your mind,” he explains. “When you’re sitting there in the studio, you can forget what day it is. It was written from the same perspective. You get delirious and numb to the whole situation. It’s got a gritty and heavy sound, but the choruses go down smooth and steady.”

As he smashes more rules, Koe Wetzel emerges as the outlaw the 21^st century needed all along.

“Whatever you’re going through, I want to help you go through it,” he leaves off. “I know I’m not the only one who feels the way I do. I hope maybe this helps you build a better life. When I’m on stage, it’s carefree. There’s not a worry in the world. I don’t think about my troubles or what’s going on in my life. It’s just about the music and the fans. You don’t need anything else.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Lainey first appeared at Billy Bob’s Texas for the SOLD OUT  Texas Independence Day Jam February 26th 2023. Her acoustic duet that evening with Hardy  “Wait In The Truck” received a lengthy Standing Ovation.

Her full band Debuted at The World’s Largest Honky Tonk on Friday, September 8, 2023 and also Sold Out (4500 tickets) in just 40 minute the morning it went on sale. 10 minutes into the show a lightning strike nearby caused a power outage to the sound system. Lainey quickly retrieved a megaphone from her bus and continued to sing solo until the power came back up a few minutes later.

ABOUT LAINEY WILSON:

Multi-award-winning singer songwriter and actress, Lainey Wilson has earned the enthusiasm in the music industry. As the leading female nominee and winner at the 2023 ACM awards with, Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of The Year, Visual Media and Musical Event of the Year the reigning CMA 2022 Female Vocalist and New Artist of the Year has proved to be quite the “artist to watch.” Beginning her journey to stardom 12 years ago in a camper trailer, after leaving her small-town farming community in Baskin, Louisiana, Wilson has redefined the genre and amplified the Country music scene as we know it. Blending the traditional Country sound with a modern retro flare, Wilson’s signature Bell Bottom Country style has led her to being crowned the most nominated artist at the 2023 CMT Music

Awards and bestowed the Billboard Women in Music’s “Rulebreaker” award.

A prolific and sought-after songwriter to her core, (having co-writer credits on songs by artists including Luke Combs, Flatland Calvary, Ashley McBryde, and more), Wilson is a fresh, fierce voice in Nashville, delivering CMA-nominated album of the year with her label debut, Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’. She landed her first No. 1 radio hit with PLATINUM Certified ACM Song of the Year, “Things A Man Oughta Know.” After topping the country radio charts, Wilson scored her second No. 1 hit, “Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell and recently achieved her third and fourth No. 1 songs with “Heart Like a Truck” and her HARDY collaboration “wait in the truck”. Her current radio single “Watermelon Moonshine” just cracked the Top 5, making it her 5th song to do so, while becoming the fastest solo female song to reach the Top 10 since 2018. Wilson’s sophomore and critically-acclaimed album, Bell Bottom Country, reached No. 15 on Billboard’s Top Albums Chart and No. 9 on Billboard’s Country Albums Chart after quickly rising to

No. 1 on iTunes charts, amassing over 500 million streams to date.

Making her acting debut in Season 5 of Paramount’s revered hit series “Yellowstone”, Wilson played a musician character named Abby, where she premiered her original song “Smell Like Smoke” as well as showcasing other hits off her recent album including “Watermelon Moonshine” and “Hold My Halo.” With a rockstar stage presence, Wilson’s artistry has taken her across the globe, performing in front of sold-out crowds throughout the US, UK, and Germany. Captivating audiences around the world, 2023 has supported her spectacular rise to stardom with sold-out shows across the board drawing in the masses with career milestone sets during highly coveted music festivals, Stagecoach, Lollapalooza, and Watershed. Her “Rulebreaker” year also kicked off her first-ever sold-out headlining tour, lent support for Luke Combs on his stadium tour, and brought Wilson her first ever sold-out headlining arena performance. Later this fall, she will join HARDY on “the mockingbird and THE CROW” tour.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On December 27, 1996 LeAnn Rimes sells out the club.

ABOUT LEANN RIMES:

LeAnn Rimes is an international multi-platinum selling acclaimed singer and ASCAP award-winning songwriter who has sold more than 44 million units globally, won 2 Grammy® Awards; 12 Billboard Music Awards; 2 World Music Awards; 3 Academy of Country Music Awards; one Country Music Association Award and one Dove Award. At 14, Rimes won “Best New Artist” making her the youngest recipient to take home a Grammy® Award. LeAnn has been honored with the Ally of Equality Award by the Human Rights Campaign for over 20 years of equal rights support, the 2019 HOPE Award for Depression Advocacy, and 2009 ACM Humanitarian Award, among other recognitions, solidifying her dedication to making the world a better place.

The powerhouse vocalist lit up television screens throughout the 2018 holiday season as she starred and served as an Executive Producer in Hallmark’s “It’s Christmas, Eve,” which earned the highest TV original movie debut to-date for the channel premiering to over 4.3 million viewers.

Passionate about using her voice to help heal the world, LeAnn released a chant record in November of 2020 called CHANT: The Human and The Holy (Soul of EverLe / Thirty Tigers). On November 30, Rimes will continue her wellness journey with the launch of an iHeartRadio podcast, Wholly Human, which will bring her lifestyle blog, Soul of EverLe, to life and introduce fans to the teachers and wise souls that have made a positive impact on her life. Next up, LeAnn will celebrate her 25th anniversary as a recording artist in 2021 with the release of her next studio album.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Lee Ann Womack had this to say about Billy Bob’s, “Billy Bob’s is somewhat scared ground for those of us who are from Texas. I’m very excited about the country music scene in Texas and Billy Bob’s plays a central part in that. I hear industry people down in Nashville talk about artists in Texas who don’t have major label deals and they can sell out Billy Bob’s. If you are a country artist in Texas, you grow up thinking about playing there. You go see other acts there and think about someday being on that stage. I know I did.”

ABOUT LEE ANN WOMACK:

Artists don’t really make albums like Lee Ann Womack’s THE LONELY, THE LONESOME AND THE GONE anymore. Albums that seem to exist separate and apart from any external pressures. Albums that possess both a profound sense of history and a clear-eyed vision for the future. Albums that transcend genres while embracing their roots. Albums that evoke a sense of place and of personality so vivid they make listeners feel more like participants in the songs than simply admirers of them.

Anybody who has paid attention to Womack for the past decade or so could see she was headed in this direction. THE LONELY, THE LONESOME AND THE GONE (ATO Records) — a breathtaking hybrid of country, soul, gospel and blues —comes from Womack’s core. “I could never shake my center of who I was,” says the East Texas native. “I’m drawn to rootsy music. It’s what moves me.”

Recorded at Houston’s historic SugarHill Recording Studios and produced by Womack’s husband and fellow Texan, Frank Liddell (fresh off a 2017 ACM Album of the Year win for Miranda Lambert’s ‘The Weight of These Wings’), THE LONELY, THE LONESOME AND THE GONE marks the culmination of a journey that began with Womack’s 2005 CMA Album of the Year ‘There’s More Where That Come From,’ moving her toward an authentic American music that celebrates her roots and adds to the canon. It also underscores the emergence of Womack’s songwriting voice: She has more writing credits among this album’s 14 tracks than on all her previous albums combined.

Womack had made the majority of her previous albums in Nashville, where the studio system is so entrenched it’s almost impossible to avoid. Seeking to free herself of that mindset, Womack says, “I wanted to get out of Nashville and tap into what deep East Texas offers musically and vibe-wise.”

So Womack and Liddell took a band to SugarHill, one of the country’s oldest continually operating studio spaces. In an earlier incarnation, the studio had given birth to George Jones’ earliest hits, as well as Roy Head’s mid-‘60s smash “Treat Her Right”; Freddy Fender’s ‘70s chart-topping crossovers “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”; and recordings from Lightnin’ Hopkins, the Sir Douglas Quintet, the 13th Floor Elevators and Willie Nelson.

Womack found the lure of East Texas irresistible. “I love local things, and I missed local music,” she says. “I grew up in Jacksonville. It was small, so I spent a lot of time dreaming, and about getting out.” It required only a short leap of logic to view Houston, and specifically SugarHill, as the place to record.

Womack and Liddell found a perfect complement of musicians, players who clicked right away and became a one-headed band. Bassist Glenn Worf (Alan Jackson, Bob Seger, Tammy Wynette, Mark Knopfler and others),drummer Jerry Roe (numerous Nashville sessions and his band Friendship Commanders), guitarists Ethan Ballinger, Adam Wright (Alan Jackson, Solomon Burke and others),and Waylon Payne (son of singer Sammi Smith and Willie Nelson’s longtime guitarist Jody Payne)formed the SugarHill gang. Engineer and co-producer Michael McCarthy, known for his production work with Spoon, brought vintage gear from his Austin studio and help capture a sharper sound for sessions recorded entirely to analog tape.

“I got everybody out of their comfort zone and into a new element,” says Womack. “And it was funky there. This place was not in the least bit slick. Everybody there, all they think about is making music for the love of making music. Everyone comes in with huge smiles and positive attitudes. It was much different than what we were used to.”

Womack had brought a handful of songs to record, including the gospel-inspired original “All the Trouble”; the poignant “Mama Lost Her Smile,” in which a daughter sorts through her family’s photographic history looking for clues to a long-secret sorrow; and the love-triangle conversation “Talking Behind Your Back,” which she penned with Dale Dodson and Dean Dillon, the writer of several George Strait classics. To make the final cut, Womack and the band had to be able to get to the heart of the songs and shine their light from the inside out.

A trio of long-time favorites found their way onto the album, too. Womack joined a long list of legendary voices irresistibly drawn to Harlan Howard’s “He Called Me Baby,” putting a sultry Southern groove underneath its mix of sensuality and sorrow. On “Long Black Veil,” a tale of betrayal and closely held secrets that became a ‘50s classic as recorded by Lefty Frizzell, she taps into a ballad tradition that runs centuries deep. Womack recorded the album’s final track, a haunting version of George Jones’ “Please Take the Devil Out of Me,” standing on the same gold-star linoleum floor where Jones cut the 1959 original.

Capturing the reality of East Texas music isn’t always easy. Being in Houston and at SugarHill helped make that happen, inspiring an approach to the recording process that everyone embraced from the first note played. “Music down there — including Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and all the way through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama —is this huge melting pot,” Womack says. “I love that, and I wanted that in this record. I wanted to make sure it had a lot of soul in it, because real country music has soul, and I wanted to remind people of that.”

“When you make albums, and aren’t just going for singles, you really have to treat them with respect,” Liddell adds. “We did that at SugarHill, taking a bunch of like-minded lunatics and seeing what happened.”

In Houston — with all its history, its eccentricity, its diversity and its lack of pretense — those like-minded lunatics found a place where they could flourish.

“We all felt we weren’t going someplace just to make a record,” Womack says. “We were going someplace to make a great record.” Don’t just take her word for it, though. Listen. And when Womack and the music take you there, you’ll find you want to stay.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

February 6^th of 2020, Lee Brice took the stage here at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk in front of a sold-out crowd.

ABOUT LEE BRICE:

When Lee Brice isn’t selling out arenas, writing and recording songs, or building a new brand like American Born whiskey—you’ll find him with his wife Sara, two young boys Takoda(10) and Ryker (4), and new daughter Trulee Nanette, who was born on June 2, 2017. With more than 12million in RIAA certified sales, Lee has achieved Gold and Platinum on every album and single released, with“A Woman LikeYou” reaching double Platinum status. Gold album certifications include Love Like Crazy, Hard 2 Love and I Don’tDance.Single certifications include “I Don’t Dance” and “A Woman LikeYou,” with “That Don’t Sound Like You” reaching double Platinum. With well over 2 billion spins on Pandora, Lee Brice was inducted into the streaming service’s ‘Billionaires Club’ on June 8, 2018. The “Rumor” singer, who is now among the Top 25 most-streamed country artists of all time on Pandora, is only the second country artist behind KeithUrban to receive the Pandora Billionaire plaque and puts Lee in company with not only Urban, but legends including Johnny Cash and Fleetwood Mac, and pop phenoms such as John Legend. Lee is a GRAMMY nominee, a CMA nominee, and a double ACM award winner, and he’s taken five radio singles to #1: “A Woman Like You, “Hard To Love,” “I Drive Your Truck,” “I Don’t Dance,” and “Drinking Class.” Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, and others have recorded his songs and he’s performed on TV shows including NBC’s Today, ABC’s The Bachelor, NBC’s Voice, and FOX’s Miss USA 2018 (May 21). Lee’s new single “Rumor” is out now and follows “Boy,” the debut song from his fourth studio album, Lee Brice(November 3, 2017).

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Lee Greenwood cemented his hands to add to the “Wall of Fame” on February 24, 1989.

ABOUT LEE GREENWOOD:

Music has always been a part of Lee Greenwood’s life. He started playing the piano when he was seven and the saxophone at 12. In junior high, he started his first group called the Moonbeams. His sister Patricia was the piano player in the band. By the time, he finished High School he played most all the instruments in the orchestra and was the Drum Major for the marching band.

Greenwood was born in Los Angeles California & finished high school in Sacramento in June 1960. He passed on track & music scholarships to the College of the Pacific along with a professional baseball career to pursue his passion for music. He also elected to skip his high school graduation ceremony to begin work at the Golden Hotel & Casino in Reno Nevada with his own band, the “Apollos”. That turned out to be a great choice.

The California native was discovered in 1979 by Larry McFaden, who saw him performing in a show at the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada. Larry was the bass player and bandleader for Mel Tillis. He brought the singer to Nashville and got him signed to the Halsey Agency, who booked The Oak Ridge Boys. He began working with producer Jerry Crutchfield who would record with Lee for the next 20 years.

“Choosing songs to record is always exciting,” says Greenwood. “I’m a songwriter as well and I love lyrics that have depth and emotion. I’m thankful for the many writers & artists who have contributed to my career”.

With seven #1 songs & 25 charted singles to his credit, choosing songs proved to be a success for Greenwood. His country hits include: “It Turns Me Inside Out”, “Ring On Her Finger Time On Her Hands”, ”She’s Lying”, “I Don’t Mind the Thorns If You’re The Rose”, “Dixie Road”, “Somebody’s Gonna Love You”, “Going Going Gone”, “You Got A Good Love Comin”, “Fools Gold”, and “Mornin Ride” while he already garnered several crossover hits such as “Touch & Go Crazy”, “IOU” and the duet with Barbara Mandrell, “To Me”.

Lee Greenwood has won numerous industry awards including, Male Vocalist of the Year from the Academy of Country Music in 1983, two Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Association in 1983 & 1984 and a Grammy for Top Male Vocal Performance in 1985 for “I.O.U.”. The CMA also named “God Bless The U.S.A.” its Song of the Year in 1985.

“God Bless the USA” went far beyond what Greenwood expected when he wrote it in the back of his tour bus in 1983. The song has been in the top five on the country singles charts three times (1991, 2001 and 2003), giving it the distinction of being the only song in any genre of music to achieve that feat. It was also #1 on the pop charts after 9/11/01. In addition, CBS News voted “God Bless The U.S.A.” the most recognizable patriotic song in America.

In 2011, Beyonce offered her version of “God Bless the U.S.A.” as a download, with the proceeds going to the 9/11 firefighters fund in NYC. It has been performed by contestants on “American Idol” twice & was the winning song in the 2011 “Dancing with the Stars” competition on ABC. It is performed at all military and patriotic events throughout the year all across America. “USA” has also been in several movies and is now part of the film shown by The Department of Homeland Security when new citizens are sworn in to the United States.

Greenwood says; “USA is the song I always felt the need to write. I wanted to have something that would unite Americans from coast to coast and to instill pride back in the United States. The song represents my family, my community and those men and women who have paid the price for the freedoms we all love and enjoy.”

President George W. Bush appointed Greenwood to serve on the National Endowment of the Arts Council and his appointment was U.S. Senate approved. That Presidential Appointment continued under President Obama and still continues under President Trump.

In 2012, Greenwood released a children’s illustrated book, “Does God Still Bless the U.S.A.,” and ranked #1 on many of the notable Best Sellers Lists. It features a 30 day calendar, “Prayers of a Patriot” and includes two songs, written by Greenwood, free for download in the back of the book. One is a new version of “God Bless the U.S.A.,” and the other is a Praise & Worship song, “Show Me The Way”.

Lee and his wife, Kimberly, a former Miss Tennessee, fell in love on his 1989 USO/DOD tour. They were married in Nashville in 1992 and have two sons, Dalton and Parker.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On September 11, 1992, Lee Roy Parnell made his Billy Bob’s Texas debut and got to add his hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT LEE ROY PARNELL:

Part of a long line of Texas roots music eclectics, Lee Roy Parnell’s music was a blend of hardcore honky tonk, barroom rock & roll, blues, boogie, Western swing, blue-eyed soul, and occasional gospel. Unlike many other hard-to-pigeonhole artists, Parnell actually enjoyed a run of success on the country charts in the early ’90s. He was born in Abilene, Texas, on December 21, 1956, and grew up on his parents’ ranch; his father had toured with a teenage Bob Wills in traveling medicine shows, and his first public performance came on Wills’ radio show at age six. As a teenager, he played drums in a local band and soon picked up guitar as well, eventually concentrating on slide playing. He joined Kinky Friedman’s Texas Jewboys in his late teens and moved to Austin in 1974 to join the city’s budding music scene.

Love Without MercyParnell spent over a decade playing clubs in Austin, Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth, honing his style and songwriting; he also married and held down a day job in radio. He moved to Nashville in 1987 and quickly landed a publishing contract and a regular spot at the famed Bluebird Café. He signed to Arista’s Nashville division in 1989 and the next year released his self-titled debut album, a collection of horn-driven country-soul. It received good reviews but didn’t break him commercially; that would happen with 1992’s Love Without Mercy, which mostly dispensed with the horns and emphasized Parnell’s slide guitar. “What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am” and “Tender Moment” both went to number two on the country charts, and the title track also made the Top Ten. Released in 1993, On the Road produced two more Top Tens in its title track and “I’m Holding My Own,” and his duet with Ronnie Dunn (of Brooks & Dunn) on Hank Williams’ “Take These Chains from My Heart” made the Top 20.

We All Get Lucky SometimesArriving in 1995, We All Get Lucky Sometimes found Parnell tailoring his sound to country radio a bit more and featured duets with Trisha Yearwood, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez. It also spawned two Top Five hits in “A Little Bit of You” and “Heart’s Desire.” However, 1997’s commercially disappointing Every Night’s a Saturday Night proved to be Parnell’s last new album for Arista, which issued the compilation Hits and Highways Ahead in 1999 to coincide with his departure. Parnell next wound up on the rootsy Vanguard label, debuting for them with 2001’s Tell the Truth. He returned to the studio in 2006 with Back to the Well, which hit number ten on Billboard’s blues chart. Parnell took a decade-plus hiatus after Back to the Well, finally returning to action in August 2017 with Midnight Believer.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Leon Rausch was a dear friend to our Entertainment Director, Robert Gallagher, and to Billy Bob’s. Leon wanted to make his cemented hands a celebration of Billy Bob’s 10^th birthday.

ABOUT LEON RAUSCH:

Known as “the voice” of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Leon Rausch was born October 2, 1927, in Missouri. Edgar Leon Rausch was raised in a musical family and began playing guitar with his father at local dances as a child and continued through his high-school years. Upon graduation, Rausch joined the military and played off and on with local bands until he moved to Tulsa in 1955. Rausch received his first big break with an appearance on the Louisiana Hayride the following year, and on St. Patrick’s Day 1958 he was asked to join Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, replacing vocalist Glynn Duncan. Rausch’s stint with Wills lasted into the early ’60s. He then briefly joined Johnnie Lee Wills’ band before forming his own group, the New Texas Playboys, in Fort Worth, TX. By the late ’60s the band had appeared on Cowtown Jamboree and released a few singles without much fanfare. In 1973, an ailing Wills contacted Rausch about rejoining his Texas Playboys on what would be Wills’ final record, For the Last Time. Following Wills’ death in 1975, Rausch and the original Texas Playboys continued to record and play gigs, including a high-profile appearance on Austin City Limits. In 1983 Rausch had slowed down his working pace but continued to take part in projects that interested him, including Asleep at the Wheel’s Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills with the group that became the Playboys II. Since then, Rausch has written a book co-authored by Dr. John E. Perkins Jr. titled Leon Rausch…The Voice of the Texas Playboys about his time with Wills.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 24, 2014 Little Joe y La Familia rocked it out on the main stage.

ABOUT LITTLE JOE:

The traditional Tex-Mex style of norteño was fused by Little Joe (born Jose Maria DeLeon Hernandez) with influences of country music, blues, and rock to create the uptempo hybrid known as tejano. Together with his band, Y la Familia Borrachera, Little Joe has enabled his music to reach far beyond the Texas and Mexico borders. In 1992, their album Diez y Seis de Septiembre received a Grammy Award as Best Mexican American Performance.

The seventh of 13 children, Little Joe began playing music in 1953 with his cousin David Coronado’s band, David Coronado & the Latinaires. Two years later, he performed his first paid gig with the band at a high-school sock hop in Cameron, Texas. In 1958, Little Joe made his recording debut with the song “Safari,” released by Torrero Records in Corpus Christi, Texas. The following year, Little Joe’s brother Jesse joined the band on bass and vocals. When Coronado left shortly afterwards, Little Joe assumed leadership of the group. Throughout the early ’60s, Little Joe led the band through a series of recordings on small independent labels. He underwent a personal transformation after Jesse died in an automobile accident in 1964. Determined to achieve commercial success, he altered his musical approach to include more rock and blues influences.

In 1968, Little Joe formed two labels of his own: Buena Suerte for recordings in Spanish, and Good Luck for recordings in English. He later added a third label, Leona Records. His musical approach shifted again in 1970. After performing in the San Francisco Bay Area, he became enchanted by “Latinismo” and changed the name of his band again. In 1985, Little Joe y la Familia signed their first major-label recording deal with WEA International. Two years later, Little Joe formed his fourth label — Redneck — and released the double live album 25th Silver Anniversary. After releasing two albums for WEA, Little Joe switched to Sony International, where he remained until 1983, when he launched his fifth label, Tejano Discos. His first release on the label, “Que Paso,” earned him his third Grammy nomination. In 1996, Little Joe performed on the Frankie Yankovic album Songs of the Polka King, Vol.1, singing a duet with Yankovic of “Just Because/Si Porque.” Little Joe has appeared in two films: Proposition 187, a Deadly Law and Down for the Barrio.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On November 8, 1991, Little Texas made their Billy Bob’s Texas debut and added their hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT LITTLE TEXAS:

As part of the Young Country movement of the early ‘90s, Little Texas were responsible for shaking up the country music world with a new, energetic sound that fused the look and attitude of modern rock music with traditional country themes and styles, bringing a much appreciated bolt of life into the genre. For their efforts, country fans the world over richly rewarded the band, buying up over 7 million of their albums, while critics showered them with 3 Grammy nominations plus honors from both the Academy of Country Music (Vocal Group Of The Year) and the Country Music Association (Album Of The Year).
Their first radio release in 1991, “Some Guys Have All The Love,” became a Top-10 hit, as did their next single, “First Time For Everything.” After the album First Time For Everything was released, five singles reached the top of the charts. The second album, Big Time, truly was the big time for Little Texas.

The sophomore release, which has sold more than three million copies to date, spawned three No. 1 singles -“What Might Have Been,” “God Blessed Texas” and “My Love” -and captured the group’s first CMT Award, a Billboard award, a Radio & Records award and their first Grammy nomination.

Early in their career, Little Texas was designated as an arena act. They first signed on as an opener on an arena tour headlined by Clint Black. Later, they traveled with Travis Tritt and Trisha Yearwood on a tour sponsored by Budweiser. After that, they were on their own, with Crown Royal, singing to packed arenas across the United States and Canada. During this time, the band played a part in Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles, which later earned their first Country Music Association trophy for “Album Of The Year.”

The group’s cover of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” charted well; albeit, without an official release, and with that, Little Texas broke another record in country music history: three different songs on three different charts with three different lead singers, all at the same time. It is a feat that has never been repeated since by any band. The year 1994 also brought the lineup an Academy of Country Music Award for “Vocal Group of the Year.”

Little Texas released their Kick A Little album, and their first true arena-headlining tour began, supported by Keebler and newcomer Tim McGraw with opening act BlackHawk. The tour and the album were huge successes, highlighted by shows in Detroit and Minneapolis, where they sold out the arenas just days after their heroes, The Eagles, had played the same venues. The tour continued on through 1995, finishing as the fifth largest-grossing tour of the year, and over the course of ’94 and ’95, the band received two more Grammy nominations and released Little Texas–Greatest Hits.

After the self-titled Little Texas album was released, Little Texas, the players, needed a break following years of performing a relentless concert schedule. Thus, at the end of 1997, each member went his separate way, opting to spend time with family and friends, and work on individual projects.

Says bassist-vocalist Duane Propes: “At that point it was time for our loved ones to have us back for a while. It all happened for a reason.”

In 2004, the multi-platinum band’s four original members—Propes, Porter Howell (lead vocals and lead guitar), Dwayne O’Brien (vocals and rhythm guitars) and Del Gray (drums) rebuilt the franchise with a completely new sound and they couldn’t have been happier to be back on tour and bringing fans what they do best.

“Everybody still has a ‘What Might Have Been,’ there’s always a ‘First Time For Everything,’ and folks still want to ‘Kick A Little,’ so we decided to take the party back on the road,” shares Propes, referring to the group’s continued rotation at radio and generations of both old and new fans that keep the band playing their classics and putting out new music.

In summer 2007, Little Texas returned to the airwaves, country charts and music video playlists with an album titled Missing Years. In typical Little Texas style, the band broke the rules yet again, choosing to unleash TWO new albums within the span of a month, including the band’s first live album, The Very Best of Little Texas: Live & Loud.

Currently, the lineup’s on the concert circuit celebrating its official 24th year on the radio since their first single, “Some Guys Have All The Love,” hit the airwaves in 1991. The music the band has generated over the years is timeless, and has been featured on hundreds of television programs and sporting events including Good Morning America, American Idol, Don’t Forget The Words, America’s Got Talent & HBO’s “True Blood,” while “God Blessed Texas” has been the theme music for the Texas Ford Dealers commercials since 1998.

This year, Little Texas is breaking new sonic ground with the release of their 8th album, Young For A Long Time. Undoubtedly the band has never sounded more confident, as the chorus of the titular lead off track proudly declares, “Don’t you know by now we’ve got this down / That Friday night fire still hasn’t gone out / We got a rock solid life and a rock n’ roll state of mind / We were born to run / So sit down, son / We’ll show you just how it’s done / ‘Cause we’ve been young for a long time.” The musicianship has only improved with age as well with Porter Howell truly coming into his own as the band’s lead vocalist in addition to his dazzling lead guitar work, and backed by the always solid playing of drummer Del Gray. “Young For A Long Time pretty much runs the gamut of everything we’ve ever done, plus takes us down some new roads as well,” Propes continues, “the vocals are there, the guitar work is there, the party songs are there, the ‘make you cry’ love songs, the songs about Texas. We even dive off into swamp rock and torch music, so each song has a totally different fuel behind it.”

“The four of us appreciate each other and still have a ball on stage,” says drummer Gray of the band’s chemistry on stage after all this time. “There is a comfort level that happens to us when we play together that can only happen with 20-something years of experience.”

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On March 15, 1996, Lonestar took over the main stage for the night. Lucky, for us we got to add them to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT LONESTAR:

Lonestar is known for merging their country roots with strong melodies and rich vocals. For more than 20 years they’ve logged countless miles touring throughout the world, released several Platinum-selling albums and ten No. 1 singles. They’ve earned ACM and CMA awards and inspired rave reviews proclaiming them exemplars of “country’s greatest strength: picture-painting, story-based, tear-your-heart-out lyrics that are the most direct and lucid in popular music.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Lyle Lovett unexpectedly joined Loretta Lynn on stage for an impromptu performance.

ABOUT LORETTA LYNN:

“To make it in this business, you either have to be first, great or different,” says living legend Loretta Lynn. “And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin’ it like the women lived it.”

Loretta first arrived in Nashville 55 years ago, signing her first recording contract on February 1, 1960, and within a matter of weeks, she was at her first recording session. A self-taught guitarist and songwriter, Lynn became one of the most distinctive performers in Nashville in the 1960s and 1970s, shaking things up by writing her own songs, many of which tackled boundary-pushing topics drawn from her own life experiences as a wife and mother.

In addition to being “first,” she was also “great” and “different.” Loretta Lynn’s instantly recognizable delivery is one of the greatest voices in music history. As for “different,” no songwriter has a more distinctive body of work. In lyrics such as “Don’t Come Home A- Drinkin’” and “Your Squaw Is on the War Path” she refused to be any man’s doormat. She challenged female rivals in “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and “Fist City.” She showed tremendous blue-collar pride in “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “You’re Lookin’ at Country.” She is unafraid of controversy, whether the topic is sex (“Wings Upon Your Horns”), divorce (“Rated X”), alcohol (“Wouldn’t It Be Great”) or war (“Dear Uncle Sam”). “The Pill,” her celebration of sexual liberation, was banned by many radio stations. Like the lady herself, Loretta Lynn’s songs shoot from the hip.

As millions who read her 1976 autobiography or saw its Oscar winning 1980 film treatment are aware, Loretta is a Coal Miner’s Daughter who was raised in dire poverty in a remote Appalachian Kentucky hamlet. Living in a mountain cabin with seven brothers and sisters, she was surrounded by music as a child.

“I thought everybody sang, because everybody up there in Butcher Holler did,” she recalls. “Everybody in my family sang. So I really didn’t understand until I left Butcher Holler that there were some people who couldn’t. And it was kind of a shock.” She famously married Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn when she was a barely schooled child of 13. “Doo” was a 21-year-old war veteran with a reputation as a hell raiser. When she was seven months pregnant with her first child, they moved far away from Appalachia to Custer, Washington. By age 18, she had four children (two more, twins, came along in 1964). Isolated from her native culture and burdened with domestic work, she turned to music for solace.

“Before I was singing, I cleaned house; I took in laundry; I picked berries. I worked seven days a week. I was a housewife and mother for 15 years before I was an entertainer. And it wasn’t like being a housewife today. It was doing hand laundry on a board and cooking on an old coal stove. I grew a garden and canned what I grew. That’s what’s real. I know how to survive.”

Doo heard her singing at her chores and declared that she sounded just as good as anyone he heard on the radio. He bought her a guitar and told her to learn how to play it and write songs with it. Loretta says her songs were so forthright because she didn’t know any better.

“After he got me the guitar, I went out and bought a Country Song Roundup. I looked at the songs in there and thought, ‘Well, this ain’t nothing. Anybody can do this.’ I just wrote about things that happened. I was writing about things that nobody talked about in public, and I didn’t realize that they didn’t. I was having babies and staying at home. I was writing about life. That’s why I had songs banned.”

Doo began pushing her to perform in area nightclubs. Executives from Zero Records heard her in a nightspot across the border in Vancouver, Canada. She soon recorded her debut single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” for the little label. Loretta made herself a fringed cowgirl outfit, and she and Doo drove across the country in his old Mercury sedan promoting the single at station after station.

Astonishingly, it worked. The disc hit the popularity charts in the summer of 1960 and brought the couple to Music City. She began singing regularly on the Grand Ole Opry after her debut on Oct. 15, 1960. The show’s Wilburn Brothers took her under their wings. Teddy Wilburn helped to polish Loretta’s startlingly original songwriting style. Brother Doyle Wilburn took a tape of her singing “Fool #1” to producer Owen Bradley at Decca Records. Owen liked the song, but was already working with Kitty Wells, Goldie Hill, Brenda Lee and Patsy Cline and said he didn’t need another female singer. Teddy told him that he couldn’t have the song if he didn’t sign its singer. As a result, Brenda had a smash pop hit with “Fool #1,” and Loretta got a Decca Records contract.

Like everyone else who encountered her, Owen Bradley was smitten with Loretta’s innocence, individualism, infectious wit, independent spirit, humorous candor, refreshing frankness and immense talent. In fact, he came to regard her as “the female Hank Williams.”

Loretta’s Decca chart debut came with 1962’s “Success.” It became the first of her 51 top-10 hits and led to an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry cast later that year. Her fellow Opry cast member Patsy Cline taught her how to dress, style her hair and wear make-up. The Wilburns began featuring her on their nationally syndicated TV series. She sang a series of sassy domestic ditties with her childhood hero, Ernest Tubb. As a solo, she hit her stride with “Wine, Women and Song” (1964) and “Happy Birthday” (1965), both of them feisty, don’t-step-on-me numbers.

“She’s the spokesman for the ladies,” observed the late Owen Bradley. “Loretta had a lot of different ideas, and they were very fresh. Women’s lib was also coming on at that time. You have to be in the right place at the right time. And I think Loretta was standing right there.”

“Most of my songs were from the women’s point of view,” Loretta wrote in her best- selling autobiography. “That’s who I’m singing about and singing to during my shows. And the girls know it….Most of my fan club is women, which is how I want it.”

Among Loretta’s finest moments on disc are such empowering female statements as “You Wanna Give Me Lift” (1970), “I Wanna Be Free” (1971), “We’ve Come a Long Way Baby” (1978), “Hey Loretta” (1973), “Love Is the Foundation” (1973) and the hilarious “One’s on the Way” (1972). She memorably romanced and sassed Conway Twitty in a number of hugely popular duet performances in 1970-1982.

In 1967, she began picking up various Female Vocalist of the Year trophies. She and Conway also won a long string of Duet of the Year awards beginning in 1971, The industry showered her with BMI songwriting honors, Gold Record plaques, a Grammy Award and other accolades. In 1972, she became the first woman in history to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year trophy.

By the mid-1970s, Loretta Lynn was an undeniable superstar. She was featured on the covers of Newsweek (1973), Redbook (1974) and many other mainstream national publications. With her kookie humor, scrambled grammar and unpretentious manner, she became a TV talk-show favorite.

Loretta continued to dominate the charts as the ‘70s drew to a close, scoring major hits with 1976’s “Somebody Somewhere,” 1977’s “Out of My Head and Back in My Bed” and 1979’s “I’ve Got a Picture of Us on My Mind.” Her 1982 smash hits “I Lie” and “Making Love From Memory” carried her into the new decade.

One of the most remarkable things about Loretta Lynn is how she renews her creativity time and again. Two years after she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, she was back on the charts with the hit, “Heart Don’t Do This to Me.” In 1988, the year she entered the Country Music Hall of Fame, Loretta recorded with K.D. Lang. She earned a Gold Record in 1994 with Honky Tonk Angels, a trio CD with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.

Lynn’s husband Doo died in 1996. Numb with grief, Loretta admits that she was lost in a fog for more than a year. But she came back again with a 2000 CD titled Still Country. She also returned to the concert trail.

“It’s a good thing, too,” she says. “Because if I hadn’t, I would have been nuts by now. I would have been completely nuts.”

Loretta published a second memoir, Still Woman Enough, in 2002. She was honored at The Kennedy Center in 2003, yet pushed forward again the following year by winning two Grammy Awards for Van Leer Rose, a collaboration with rocker Jack White. Also in 2004, she published a book of recipes and anecdotes titled You’re Cookin’ It Country.

Lynn is also one of the most awarded musicians of all time. She has been inducted into more music Halls of Fame than any female recording artist, including The Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was the first woman to be named the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year in 1972. Lynn received Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She has won four Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010) and sold more than 45 million records worldwide.

In March 2016, Legacy Recordings released FULL CIRCLE, Loretta’s first new studio album in over ten years. Produced by Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, and recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, FULL CIRCLE took listeners on a journey through Loretta’s musical story, from the Appalachian folk songs and gospel music she learned as a child, to new interpretations of her classic hits and country standards, to songs newly-written for the project.

One of the most deeply personal albums of Loretta Lynn’s career, Wouldn’t It Be Great communicates in song the hard truths and spiritual insights Loretta has gathered throughout her life and reflects the resilience that sustains her still. Comprised entirely of songs written (or co-written) by Loretta, the album premieres new compositions alongside soulful reinterpretations of enduring classics from her catalog.

“This new record means so much to me, but this last year I had to focus on my health and I decided to hold up the release,” said Loretta. “I’m feelin’ good and look forward to it comin’ out. It was really important to me to be a part of it being released and I’m excited to celebrate with everybody!”

Wouldn’t It Be Great is available for pre-order now in digital, CD and 12″ vinyl formats: https://lorettalynn.lnk.to/WIBGAW. Exclusive Wouldn’t It Be Great album packages including limited edition, autographed, numbered photo prints and Loretta Lynn merchandise are also available (while supplies last): https://lorettalynn.lnk.to/WIBGAW/artiststore

Loretta Lynn’s life is still a work in progress. She’s still out there on the road, still writing songs and still recording them as only she can. “I ain’t a star – a star is something up in the night sky,” says Loretta Lynn. “People say to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I’m not a legend. I’m just a woman.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On December 16, 1989, Lorrie Morgan made her Billy Bob’s Texas debut and even got add her hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT LORRIE MORGAN:

One of the most eloquently emotive country vocalists of modern times is launching her first new solo album in five years.

Lorrie Morgan, the first woman in her genre to begin her career with three consecutive Platinum albums, re-emerges on Shanachie Entertainment with Letting Go….Slow. It is a collection that showcases a rainbow of emotions, from darkest heartache to bright, shiny humor.

“Where I am in my life right now, I’m not afraid to express what I feel, or what I don’t feel,” she comments about the collection’s varied moods. “I’m not afraid to express my views on anything, especially on being a woman.

“I have been a daughter, a bride, a mother, a divorcee, a widow, a single mother, a breadwinner and, ultimately, a survivor. In many ways, I am a living, breathing country song, and I know what I sing.

“I didn’t want this to be just another album. I wanted it to be something that really moved me. When I listened to songs for it, I’d think, ‘No, not that one. I’m not going to be able to sing that one, because I’m not going to be able to feel it.’ It was very important to me for this album to reflect the things that I am feeling today.”

Morgan has long been the envy of her peers for her lustrous vocal phrasing and the down-to-earth believability of her torchy performances. On records such as “A Picture of Me Without You” and “I Guess You Had to Be There,” she ached with pain. She was feisty and sassy in “Watch Me,” “What Part of No” “Five Minutes” and “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength.” She has kicked up her stiletto heels in fun on her hits “Except for Monday” and “Go Away.” On her epic “Something in Red” she was an anguished, struggling everywoman.

Her performances on Letting Go….Slow can match any of her earlier efforts, for they are among the most vibrant of her career. The collection is divided equally between new songs and her reinventions of country classics.

This peerless song interpreter brings a soprano lilt and a cha-cha retro tempo to the Patsy Cline favorite “Strange.” Bobbie Gentry’s Southern-gothic saga “Ode to Billie Jo” is taken at a slow, swampy pace with Morgan dipping into her deep alto register. She brings enormous tenderness to Vern Gosdin’s “Is It Raining at Your House.”

On Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady Lay,” Morgan is pert and jaunty, riding a reggae groove. She resonates sadness in her version of Larry Gatlin’s “I’ve Done Enough Dying Today,” but rises resiliently in her reworking of Earl Thomas Conley’s “What I’d Say.”

Each of the new songs she has chosen for Letting Go…Slow is a small revelation. “Something About Trains” is a highly inventive arrangement and a contemplative lyric, both of which fit this singing stylist like fine couture. “Slow” is a power ballad that she gives a torrid, emotional undertow. “Jesus and Hairspray is “one for the girls,” a humorous, upbeat and highly entertaining ditty incorporating the old aphorism, “the higher the hair, the closer to heaven.”

Morgan co-wrote “How Does It Feel” in response to her divorce from singer Sammy Kershaw several years ago. The sublimely country “Lonely Whiskey” is the penultimate barroom weeper. The stunning “Spilt Milk,” on the other hand, finds the singer exploring a jazzier tone as she adopts an after-hours cabaret mood.

To record this remarkable return to disc, Lorrie Morgan reunited with producer Richard Landis. He has helped craft many of her prior hits, as well as acclaimed recordings for Vince Gill, Neil Diamond, Ronnie Milsap, Juice Newton, Eddie Rabbitt, Poco, Kenny Rogers, Dionne Warwick, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and dozens more.

“Richard is so creative,” says Morgan. “It sounds like a cliche, but he really is a musical genius. And he believes in what he produces so passionately that it scares people. He’s very intense. We feed off of each other in the studio. We push each other to be better. He has a way of making me try harder.

“We recorded in a former church that has been turned into a recording studio on Music Row. It had a great vibe. We had all the musicians in there with me. I wanted it to sound like me and the guys just sitting and playing. It’s a very warm sounding record, with the steel, the harmonica and the dobro ‘answering’ my vocals. I like to sing ‘live’ with the musicians. A lot of the vocals on this album were done in one take, because I feed off the musicians. And Richard encourages that.

“I have been living with some of these songs for more than a year. ‘I’ve Done Enough Dyring Today’ and ‘Is It Raining at Your House’ are songs I have wanted to record for 10 years. I sang ‘Ode to Billie Jo’ in my live shows for a long time.”

“Slow” is co-written by Ashlee Hewitt, who is Lorrie Morgan’s daughter-in-law and former backup singer. Hewitt now performs in the up-and-coming Nashville trio Post Monroe. “How Does It Feel” is even closer to home, since Morgan co-wrote it herself.

“I have always written songs, and I do love to write,” she comments. “But I don’t like to pair up with a lot of people. It’s more of a personal thing with me. It usually bothers me to co-write, and I don’t like appointment writing, at all. Plus, I’m not one of those people who says, ‘If I didn’t write it, I’m not going to record it.’ If somebody else’s song is better, I’m going to record it and not mine.”

Lorrie Morgan has been around great songs all her life. She is a Nashville native who is the daughter of Country Music Hall of Fame member George Morgan. She made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage at age 13, singing “Paper Roses.” Her father died suddenly of a heart attack at age 51. She was l6 at the time and just beginning her musical career. Lorrie Morgan began making records shortly thereafter. She was honored with induction into the Opry cast when she was just 24.

Morgan married fellow country singer Keith Whitley in 1986. She was signed to RCA Records in 1987, and her onslaught of hits began the following year. Whitley’s tragic death of an alcohol overdose in 1989 left her a widowed working mother. Their duet “Til a Tear Becomes a Rose” earned her a 1990 CMA award.

Her first three albums, Leave the Light On (1989), Something in Red (1991) and Watch Me (1992), all earned Platinum Record awards. Her Greatest Hits collection (1999) is also Platinum. War Paint (1994), Greater Need (1996) and Shakin’ Things Up (1997) are all Gold Record winners.

She sang “The Sad Cafe” on Common Threads: Songs of the Eagles, which was named the CMA Album of the Year in 1994. Country fans voted Lorrie Morgan their TNN/Music City News Female Vocalist of the Year in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Lorrie Morgan maintained her recording pace in the new millennium, releasing collections in 2002, 2004, 2009 and 2010. In 2012 and 2013, Morgan starred and sparkled in the lavish Enchanted Christmas productions at the opulent Opryland Resort in Nashville. She took that show on the road in 2014.

In 2013, she teamed with fellow Opry star Pam Tillis for the duet CD Dos Divas. The two hit makers then embarked on a two-year joint tour that sold out every appearance.

“We had a blast,” says Morgan with a chuckle. “It wasn’t until the Grits & Glamor tour that we really connected. We connected as working mothers, as businesswomen, as second-generation performers.” Pam is the daughter of Country Music Hall of Fame member Mel Tillis, who co-wrote “Strange” on Morgan’s new CD. Both women also share a finely honed sense of humor.

“I pride myself on my humor. My dad used to say, ‘You should never take yourself too seriously,’ and I got my sense of humor from my dad. I love to have fun. I’ve reached the age where I feel that I deserve good company around me, people who can make me laugh, who love music and who love to have a good time.

“On the outside, I’m very lighthearted. But on the inside, I have a lot of pain that I deal with. Singing is my therapy, and that is what this album is all about. ‘Lonely Whiskey’ says it all. Like I said, I’m at the point where I’m not afraid to sing about what I want to sing and to be creative. And this record gave me that chance.

“I didn’t want to record just another nice little album that gets put away on a shelf. I wanted to record a Grammy Award winning album. That was my goal.

“But no matter what happens, I think these recording sessions were just magical. It was the most fun I’ve ever had doing an album.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

August 31^st of 2019, the Los Lonely Boys are showing everyone here in Stockyards how they like to party.

ABOUT LOS LONELY BOYS:

Lots of musicians compare their careers to roller-coaster rides, but Los Lonely Boys have had so many close-your-eyes-and-hang-on moments in the 14 years since they recorded their self-titled debut, they should buy an amusement park.

The story of how the Garza brothers – vocalist/guitarist Henry, bassist/vocalist Jojo, and drummer/ vocalist Ringo – rode their bluesy “Texican rock” sound from San Angelo, Texas, to worldwide fame is one of rock’s great Cinderella tales. But the story of how they’ve persevered in the face of subsequent challenges is just as compelling. In 2013, they canceled 43 shows and paused work on their last album, Revelation, after Henry was seriously hurt when he fell from a stage in Los Angeles. A couple of years previously, vocal cord nodules had forced Jojo to stop singing for months. And in 2015, their mother passed away.

Their strong brotherly bond helped them through those rough spots – just as it did when they made the hard decision to step out from under their father’s musical leadership and form their own band after performing with him since childhood. The desire to follow their musical muse still drives them today, according to Jojo.

“There is no rest for those who are chosen to be musicians,” he says. “Ideas for songs are constant. We are being charged with what will be spread through our songs. We want to make music that brings people together.

“We’re all about having a good time, but we also make an effort to write about subjects that matter. Life, death, love, hate, compassion, transgression, light, darkness, truth; they’re what we’ve always been about. We’re not interested in songs about how you look and what kind of car you drive and how much money you have. We want to create music that’s about the love and energy and spirit we all carry. It comes from a bigger source than ourselves.”

That’s why they titled their 2014 release Revelation. Its songs were meant to serve as mirrors of sorts, reflecting aspects of our lives in ways that reveal new insights. “As musicians and artists,” Jojo says, “we’re here to connect with people.”

Released on their LonelyTone imprint under Austin-based indie label Playing in Traffic Records, Revelation maintains the infectiously melodic mix of bluesy rock ’n’ roll and rootsy soul that’s long endeared Los Lonely Boys to their fiercely loyal fans. Flawless harmonies and soaring solos remain trademarks, but in these songs, they explore rhythms from conjunto (“Blame It On Love”) to reggae (“Give A Little More”), along with rustic acoustic textures (“It’s Just My Heart Talkin’”) and baroque pop shadings (“There’s Always Tomorrow”).

“We’re always trying to broaden our horizons musically,” Jojo says. “We’re always looking for new ways to communicate, so we experimented with different sounds and production approaches.”

They also turned to co-writers, including Americana icon Radney Foster, pop tunesmiths Matthew Gerrard and David Quiñones, Black-Eyed Peas collaborators George Pajon Jr. and Keith Harris, and Ozomatli’s Raul Pacheco.

Their scare with Henry caused all three brothers to re-examine not only how they make music, but how they conduct their lives. “The whole experience was a wake-up call,” Jojo admits. “It reminded us of what’s really important.”

Once again, they affirmed that’s family. And music. For this trio, the two are inseparable. In fact, the sons of Enrique “Ringo” Garza Sr. are a second-generation sibling band; their dad and his brothers played conjunto as the Falcones before the elder Garza formed a band with his sons.

They were still teens when he moved them to Nashville, hoping to hit career paydirt. But their big break came after they returned to Texas and began playing Austin clubs in the early 2000s. One day, Willie Nelson’s nephew heard some demos. Next thing they knew, Willie showed up at a gig. Then he showcased them at Farm Aid, fronted recording time at his famed Pedernales Studio and even guested on their album.

Released in 2003 on startup label Or Records, Los Lonely Boys got picked up by Epic and rereleased. Propelled by its No. 1 single, “Heaven,” it wound up selling over 2 million copies, spending 76 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart and earning them a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

Their dream-come-true rise was chronicled in the documentary, Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads, directed by fellow San Angelo native Hector Galán. Another dream came true when Carlos Santana invited them to guest on his 2005 album, All That I Am. They also released Live at the Fillmore that year. Their father and Nelson joined them on 2006’s Sacred, and in 2007, their cover of John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” became the second single from the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Forgiven and Christmas Spirit arrived in 2008, followed in 2009 by 1969, an all-covers EP homage to rock’s most influential era and their first LonelyTone release through Playing in Traffic Records. Then they traveled to Iraq to entertain American troops and embarked on an acoustic tour, documented with the 2010 album, Keep on Giving: Acoustic Live. Rockpango came in 2011. They’re now creating follow-ups to Revelation’s musical outpouring.

If anything, Jojo says, life’s upheavals have tightened their bond even more. “We stick together,” he adds, “and we’re trying to pass on that feeling of brotherhood, of familia, in all the music we make.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Luke Combs sold out his main stage debut at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk in November of 2017.

ABOUT LUKE COMBS: 

Blending a love of classic country and Southern-fried soul — a fusion inspired equally by fellow modern mavericks Eric Church and Chris Stapleton — Luke Combs slyly updates these traditional sounds with a hint of modern R&B. This combination, which flourished on ballads, helped Combs stand apart from both slick country-pop crooners and bro country revelers, a distinction that helped him become a hit right out of the gate. His first single, 2016’s “Hurricane,” launched a series of five number one Billboard Country Airplay hits in a row, also including “When It Rains It Pours,” “One Number Away,” “She Got the Best of Me,” and “Beautiful Crazy.” All were pulled from his 2017 debut album This One’s for You (or its expanded reissue), a period that saw Combs become one of the biggest stars in Nashville, a status cemented by his winning the Country Music Association’s Best New Artist award in 2018.

Luke Combs is from North Carolina, born in Charlotte and raised in Asheville, where he moved when he was eight years old. As a teenager, he played football and sang in vocal groups. While attending college at Appalachian State — the same school Eric Church attended years earlier — he decided to put his studies on the back burner so he could concentrate on country music. Learning how to play guitar, Combs amassed a catalog of original songs as he played shows on a regular basis. When he was just shy of earning his degree, he dropped out of college. After gigging regularly in North Carolina, he headed to Nashville in 2014 to pursue a musical career.

In February 2014, Combs self-released The Way She Rides EP, which was followed in July by Can I Get an Outlaw. The single “Hurricane” arrived in 2015 and generated enough buzz to secure the singer a contract with River House/Columbia Nashville. The label released the This One’s for You EP in November 2015, then reworked “Hurricane” to country radio in 2016, accompanying it with a new EP, also titled This One’s for You.

In November 2016, “Hurricane” entered the Country Airplay charts, reaching number one in early 2017. Its success set the stage for Combs’ full-length debut, This One’s for You, which debuted at number one on Billboard’s Country Albums chart upon its June release. “When It Rains It Pours,” the singer’s second number one on Country Airplay, kept the album on the charts throughout the year, then This One’s for You gained additional momentum in 2018, thanks in part to “One Number Away,” Combs’ third number one single, but also due to the June re-release of an expanded version of the debut. Called This One’s for You Too, this revamped edition of Combs’ debut contained five new songs, including “She Got the Best of Me,” an anthemic single which followed its predecessors to number one Country Airplay, helping the album reach a peak of four on Billboard’s overall Top 200 Albums chart.

Combs continued to gain momentum during the back half of 2018 thanks to the ballad “Beautiful Crazy.” Originally an internet sensation, “Beautiful Crazy” became a smash on radio late in 2018, reaching number one on the Country Airplay chart in March 2019; its success was a factor in Combs receiving a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist in 2019. “Beautiful Crazy” spent seven straight weeks at number one on Country Airplay, breaking the previous records for longevity on the charts. The single also helped Combs earn the distinction of being the first artist to simultaneously hold the top position on all five of Billboard’s main country charts: Top Country Albums, Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, Country Streaming Songs, and Country Digital Song Sales.

Combs teased out music from his second album with the May 2019 release of “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” a single that became his sixth number one Country Airplay hit. “Beer Never Broke My Heart” anchored the June EP The Prequel, which offered five songs from his second album, What You See Is What You Get, which arrived in November 2019 and entered the Billboard 200 at number one. In May 2020, Combs released the song “Six Feet Apart” as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The track landed at number ten on the Hot Country Songs Chart and was included on a deluxe version of What You See Is What You Get, which also topped the Billboard 200.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Lynn Anderson was the first female to record a “Live at Billy Bob’s” in 1999.

Lynn Anderson cast her hands in cement for the Billy Bob’s Handprint Hall of Fame prior to her “Live at Billy Bob’s” recording.

ABOUT LYNN ANDERSON:

Born September 26, 1947, in Grand Forks, ND, Lynn René Anderson will forever be remembered for the worldwide crossover hit that made her an international star, and the song’s title a global catchphrase, making “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden” one of the most popular and memorable songs of all time.

Rose Garden was only one chapter in a career and life marked by a string of artistic and personal achievements that created a lasting impact across decades, placing Lynn Anderson among the most important and beloved female artists of the 20th century.

An iconic role model for an entire generation of women, Lynn Anderson’s brilliance reflected the two great passions of her life: the American Quarter Horse and music. As the daughter of hit country-songwriter Liz Anderson and avid equestrian Casey Anderson, she was raised surrounded by both. A lifelong horsewoman, world-class cutting horse champion, and nationally-ranked American Quarter Horse Association breeder, Lynn was a celebrated star in the horse world years before she ever walked into a Nashville recording studio. Her love of horses and riding was as much a part of her DNA as the voice that made her one of country music’s most honored entertainers. In the span of a five-decade career, Lynn broke nearly as many records as she made: 52 stand-alone LPs and nearly 100 singles. Among those 100 singles, 50 placed within the Top-40 on the national charts, 18 in the Top-10, and 12 captured the No. 1 spot.

A distinctive stylist, Lynn Anderson ranks among the top-10 most successful female country artists for all-time record sales, as well as one of the most awarded country artists of her era. She performed for the Queen of England and for four American Presidents, including a special invitation to appear at a Ronald Reagan birthday celebration at the White House. She was the first female country artist featured weekly on national television, appearing as a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1968-69.  She was the first female country singer to perform on The Tonight Show, first to headline & sell out Madison Square Garden and the first to win an American Music Award for Favorite Female Vocalist during the 1970s.

In 1967, she was named Best Female Vocalist by the ACM — an achievement that was repeated in 1970.  In 1971, NARAS presented her with the GRAMMY® for Best Female Country Performance, and the CMA awarded her the coveted Female Vocalist of the Year honor.  The People’s Choice Award named her Favorite Country Artist in 1975.  She was honored as ‘Artist of the Decade’ (1970- 80) by Record World, a major trade publication.

In 1974, she became the unofficial ambassador for the U.S. Marine Corps when ‘We Don’t Promise You a Rose Garden’ was launched as the Corps’ official recruitment slogan. In 1995, The American Rose Society christened its newest hybrid tea rose, ‘The Lynn Anderson,’ giving Lynn the lasting honor of having one of the world’s most beautiful roses named for her. In 2000, Governor Don Sundquist declared June 15 Lynn Anderson Day annually in the state of Tennessee.

Always seeking new musical inspiration, Lynn was excited over her long-awaited, newly recorded gospel album, ‘Bridges’, released in early June of 2015.  “Bridges” received rave reviews, some critics calling it the best work of her storied career.  Unfortunately, Lynn passed away on July 30, 2015, bringing one of country music’s most legendary careers to an end. Like the rose that bears her name, the music, memory, and legacy of Lynn Anderson continue to bloom in the hearts of fans young and old around the world.

Posthumous accolades and honors continue for Lynn Anderson. In 2017, the Country Music Hall of Fame  & Museum honored the country music icon with a long-running exhibit, “Keep Me in Mind,” named after Lynn’s No.1 hit.  In 2018, she was inducted into the  National Cowboy Museum’s Hall of Great Western Performers, joining former inductees such as John Wayne and Dale Evans.  In 2018, Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville often referred to as “Cemetery of Country Stars,” created “The Lynn Anderson Rose Garden” – consisting of over 100 Lynn Anderson Hybrid Tea Rose Bushes – as a place of reflection and meditation. In November of 2019, the International Western Music Association made Lynn Anderson the newest member of its prestigious Hall of Fame.

Artist, cowgirl, and inspiration, Lynn Anderson was an American original.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On March 3, 1995, Mary Chapin Carpenter came to play on the main stage, we had her put her hands in concrete before she took the stage.

ABOUT MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER:

Five-time Grammy-winner Mary Chapin Carpenter’s 15th studio album, The Dirt And The Stars, finds the singer-songwriter pondering life’s intimate, personal moments and exploring its most universally challenging questions at an unprecedented time. Written at her rural Virginia farmhouse before stay-at-home orders became the “new normal,” the songs celebrate invaluable experiences and irreplaceable wisdom, while also advocating exploration of the best in all of us. As one of just 15 women voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, with over 15 million albums sold, 5 Grammy awards (from 15 nominations) and the recipient of two CMA and ACM awards, Carpenter’s now-classic hits include “I Feel Lucky,” “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “The Hard Way.” Produced by Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon) and recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath, in southwest England, The Dirt And The Stars marks Carpenter’s first collection of all-new material since 2016’s The Things That We Are Made Of. Below she reveals some of the inspiration behind The Dirt And The Stars.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

The trio of Mason Dixon put their hands in concrete so we could add them to our “Wall of Fame” on May 5, 1989.

ABOUT MASON DIXON:

Mason Dixon was a rock-tinged country band from the ’80s that was formed by New York native Frank Gilligan and Texan Rick Henderson, who adopted the band’s name in tribute to their mixed Northern/Southern roots. The two met in college during the mid-’70s and started playing around southern Texas together; in 1979, onetime solo act Jerry Dengler, who was originally from Odessa, TX, joined the group to make it a trio. They hired several supporting musicians and attempted to mount a tour, but a shortage of bookings forced them to shed most of the additional lineup. A self-released single, “Armadillo Country,” caught the ear of promoter/producer Don Schafer, who signed Mason Dixon to his local Texas Records label. Starting with a 1983 cover of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” they scored a few local hits, which also included “I Never Had a Chance With You” and “Gettin’ Over You”; in 1985, they also released an album called The Spirit of Texas, in conjunction with the state sesquicentennial. In 1986, the band moved to another indie, Premier Once, and issued several singles with producer Dan Mitchell. These led to a deal with Capitol, and the band’s major-label debut, Exception to the Rule, was released in 1988. They had limited success with the singles “Dangerous Road” and “When Karen Comes Around,” but Henderson left the group in 1989, to be replaced by Terry “Caz” Casburn. A follow-up album, Reach for It, appeared in 1990, but didn’t sell particularly well, and the group later disbanded.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On October 6, 1990, Michelle Wright made her debut on the main stage and got to add her hands to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT MICHELLE WRIGHT:

Growing up in Merlin, Ontario, a small Canadian farming community near Chatham, Michelle Wright heard the rhythm & blues and Motown hits coming out of Detroit, just forty‐five minutes away. But especially, she heard the strains of country music since her parents were both country performers. “My earliest memories of music are singing in the car or spending the weekend with my father after my parents separated and watching him put on a rhinestone‐studded suit to perform in.” As a young girl, she tagged along to countless shows. “We were never a family band, but I got a lot of inspiration and encouragement from my mother. That’s where my love of country music really began.”

In 1988, she teamed with Savannah Records President Brian Ferriman to release her first CD, Do Right By Me, in Canada and set off to tour North America. Do Right By Me was a major hit in her homeland, with seven chart singles and sales well over 40,000 copies, and it opened many doors in the United States. The American country music world was impressed, and the new Arista/Nashville label made Michelle one of its flagship artists.

The following year she signed with Arista/Nashville and in 1990, Michelle released her first U.S. album, Michelle Wright. American audiences responded immediately and enthusiastically to “that girl singer from up north with the snow in her videos,” and her first single, “New Kind Of Love,” became her first Top Thirty American hit.

In 1992, Arista released Now & Then, which included the song “Take It Like A Man,” “Take It Like A Man,” which was released in February of 1992, the first of seven singles from the project. In less than a year, Michelle became the first Canadian‐born artist in the modern era of country music to have a Top Ten hit in America, a Number One video on CMT‐USA (also for “Take It Like A Man”) and to win a major U.S. music industry award (the Academy of Country Music Top New Female Vocalist award in 1992). The song also catapulted Michelle to superstardom in Canada, receiving a total of twelve music industry awards, including the 1993 Canadian Country Music Association’s Fans’ Choice Entertainer Of The Year award and double platinum honors for Now & Then the same year.

The Reasons Why followed in 1994. After co‐hosting the TNN/Music City News Awards the same year and hosting the CCMA Awards in 1995, her ease in front of the camera led to her guest appearance on the syndicated series “Due South.” For Me It’s You (1996) marked the first time one of Michelle’s own songs, the stirring “What Love Looks Like,” was made available to her American fans. At the 1997 CCMA Awards, she delivered a show‐stopping, gospel‐tinged rendition of the Curtis Mayfield hit, “People Get Ready,” accompanied by a fifty‐voice choir. A personal career highlight for Michelle, she reflects, “I still get goose bumps whenever I hear that version.”

“Your Love,” Michelle’s 1998 collaboration with pianist Jim Brickman, was named the CCMA Vocal/Instrumental Collaboration of the Year, and the video for “Your Love” topped the CMT Canada charts. The success of “Your Love” did not go unnoticed by Brickman’s label, New York based Windham Hill Records. The collaboration was included on Brickman’s CD Destiny and released to U.S. Adult Contemporary radio in October 1999. The song became a Top 20 AC hit in early 2000.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Michelle marked her ten‐year association with Arista/ Nashville with the international release of her latest American album, Michelle Wright: The Greatest Hits Collection. The album contained eleven of the songs that shaped Michelle’s career since she signed with the label. They appeared in near‐chronological order, rolling out the soundtrack of Michelle’s life: “New Kind Of Love,” “All You Really Wanna Do,” “Take It Like a Man,” “He Would Be Sixteen,” “Guitar Talk,” “Now & Then,” “One Good Man,” “Safe In The Arms Of Love,” “Nobody’s Girl,” “What Love Looks Like,” and “The Answer Is Yes.” The album also contained five songs never before found on a Michelle Wright album: two new songs co‐written by Michelle, “When I Found You” and “I Surrender,” plus “Your Love,” her gospel version of “People Get Ready,” and her “Walkin’ After Midnight” duet with Patsy Cline.

Michelle Wright: The Greatest Hits Collection offered listeners a sonic overview of ten magical years punctuated by highlight after memorable highlight. Michelle is proud of the achievement her Greatest Hits Collection represents. “It felt great to be at that point in my career. Very early on, when I first hit the road with a bunch of guys crisscrossing North America in an old van, sleeping in the back on top of a couple of Peavey guitar amps, I could only dream about having enough hits to make a greatest hits package. And then there we were.”

The twenty‐first century saw five more CDs from Michelle generating more sales and more hits: Shut Up and Kiss Me (Sony/BMG 2002); her first Christmas album, A Wright Christmas, released in Canada in 2005 and internationally on Savannah Music at Christmas time, 2008; her first full album of country material in ten years, Everything And More, released in Canada in July 2006, and internationally on Savannah Music in late 2008; the Savannah Music reissue of a remastered and repackaged edition of Do Right By Me across North America in August 2010 and internationally the following October; The Wright Songs: An Acoustic Evening with Michelle Wright, a 17‐song collection of many of her hits performed on acoustic instruments and recorded live in Alberta at select venues during 2009 and 2010, released in Canada in late 2011 and internationally in early 2012 on Savannah Music.

Strong (2013) highlighted Michelle’s remarkable growth as a singer and songwriter ‐ inspired by the perseverance and strength that she has witnessed in friends, family, and strangers over the years. The album was produced by Jason Barry, Eric Silver, and Danick Dupelle and contained 11 songs, 10 of which she co‐wrote.

Michelle continued to divide her time between touring and songwriting, but in late 2016, Michelle knew that it was time to head back into the studio with a new team behind her. “My music is always an extension of me,” says Wright, “And each new song is a chance to push a little harder, to dig a little deeper.” In 2017, she enlisted producer, friend and fellow Canadian Bob Funk to sort through the mountain of songs she had written, co-written, and received from other writers. The results are an intoxicating mix of contemporary country and the R&B roots that have been the foundation of her musical journey since the very beginning.

The partnership has produced the grooving “Attitude Is Everything” (Daryl Burgess/Joanna Cotton), the gospel-tinged ballad, “Lovin’ This Day” (Daryl Burgess, Joanna Cotton/Angie Russell) released on Wright’s new label, Navigator Records. They returned to the studio in 2019 to record Michelle’s rendition of the Christmas Classic, “Silver Bells,” released at the start of her almost three weeks long A Wright Christmas: 2019 Tour.

With the pandemic coming to a close, Michelle Wright is ready for her return to the road and is poised for the next phase of what has already been a stellar international musical career, one that has seen her grace concert stages around the world and earned her twenty‐five Top Ten radio hits, more than forty major awards (including her 2011 induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame). Michelle continues to show her fans that the feisty girl from rural Merlin, Ontario is here to stay. Or, as she says, “What a way to make a living! I plan on making and playing music for a long time to come.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Mickey owned his own honky tonk place that was called Gilley’s and he was upset when Billy Bob’s opened that we called ourselves the worlds largest honky tonk. Well eventually when we got Mickey Gilley to play here, we sold T-Shirts that said “Gilley plays Billy’s.”

ABOUT MICKEY GILLEY:

Singer and pianist Mickey Gilley became one of the biggest names in country music in the ’70s, scoring a string of hit records as well as helping to launch a cultural movement. Born into one of the most famous families in Southern music, Gilley was the cousin of rockabilly legend Jerry Lee Lewis, and he launched his career in the late ’50s with singles that mimicked Lewis’ trademark style. By the early ’60s, Gilley had remade himself as a country artist (years before Jerry Lee would do the same) but didn’t make a major impact nationally until 1974 when “Room Full of Roses,” originally cut as a B-side, began gaining major airplay and was picked up by Playboy Records, who turned it into a number one country hit. Gilley would score 15 more number one country singles between 1974 and 1983 (including “I Overlooked an Orchid,” “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time,” “Stand by Me,” “Lonely Nights,” and “Fool for Your Love”), mastering a style that fused countrypolitan polish with honky tonk atmosphere, giving him a sound that was distinctly his own. Gilley also partnered with Sherwood Cryer in 1971 to open a honky tonk in Pasadena, Texas called Gilley’s; in time, the club became legendary in Texas, and was the setting of the hit movie Urban Cowboy, which not only made Gilley and his club a household name but helped give country music a new visibility in the mainstream music media. The Urban Cowboy craze would run its course, but Gilley would retain a loyal following, and would become a popular attraction in Branson, Missouri after his hit-making days were over.

Mickey Gilley was born in Natchez, Mississippi on March 9, 1936. Gilley spent most of his childhood in Ferriday, Louisiana, where he spent time with his cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Linda Gail Lewis, who would share his enthusiasm for playing the piano. As youngsters, Lewis, Swaggart, and Gilley would sometimes play music together, and Mickey’s parents saved up to buy him a piano, but he wasn’t initially interested in making a career out of performing, especially after he married and settled in Houston, Texas. However, when Jerry Lee’s career began to take off, Gilley reconsidered, and in 1957, he released his first single, “Ooh Wee Baby,” on the local Minor Records label. The following year, he moved up to Dot Records and “Call Me Shorty” was an exercise in rock & roll boasting that, like his debut, bore more than a slight resemblance to Jerry Lee’s style. Neither achieved more than regional success, and through the ’60s Gilley cut singles for a variety of small labels and played night spots in the Lone Star State, as his sound evolved from rockabilly boogie to a mellower honky tonk country approach. In 1968, Gilley hit the national country charts for the first time with “Now I Can Live Again,” which peaked at number 68, but there was no immediate follow-up, and Gilley settled into what seemed like a career as a regional artist.

Gilley was a big enough name in Texas that in 1971 an entrepreneur in Pasadena, Texas, Sherwood Cryer, approached him about going into business together, with the singer lending his name to a nightclub Cryer planned to open. The club was named Gilley’s, and it became a success, with the singer often gracing the stage. In 1974, Gilley launched a small label, Astro Records, to produce singles for jukebox distributors in the Southwest, and one, “She Called Me Baby,” became an unexpected success when a disc jockey heard the flipside, “Room Full of Roses,” and began giving it airplay. As the record gained momentum, Playboy Records picked it up for national distribution, and in April 1974, “Room Full of Roses” became Gilley’s first single to hit the top of the country charts. (It also dented the pop charts, peaking at 50.)

The Songs We Made Love To

Gilley’s career went into high gear after “Room Full of Roses” finally gave him his breakthrough. He scored two more number one country hits, “I Overlooked an Orchid” and “City Lights,” before 1974 was out, and his first album for Playboy, Room Full of Roses, hit number one on the country album charts. Gilley continued to dominate the country charts with hits like “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time,” “Bring It on Home to Me,” and “She’s Pulling Me Back Again,” but Playboy had few others artists who were consistently selling records, and the label folded in 1978. Epic wasted no time in signing Gilley to a record deal, and his first album for the label, The Songs We Made Love To, arrived in 1979.

Urban Cowboy [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

As Gilley’s star rose, the Gilley’s club became increasingly popular, growing into the largest country music bar in the world, and in 1978, journalist Aaron Latham wrote a piece about the scene at Gilley’s for Esquire Magazine, titled “The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America’s Search for True Grit.” Filmmaker James Bridges adapted the story into a film, and 1980’s Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta and Debra Winger and shot largely at Gilley’s, became a major box office hit, as did its soundtrack album, which featured Gilley singing “Stand by Me.” “Stand by Me” became yet another number one country hit for Gilley, and crossed over to the pop charts, rising to number 22. Suddenly Gilley and his nightspot were a nationwide sensation. Between 1980 and 1984, every single Gilley released was a Top Five country hit, with nine of those thirteen songs going to number one, and a chain of Gilley’s Clubs opened around the country. Gilley and Cryer had a falling out that led to the closing of the club in 1989, by which time Mickey’s recording career had begun to cool off. 1987’s “Full Grown Fool” was Gilley’s last song to hit the country Top 20, and after leaving Epic Records, he released an album for Airborne Records, Chasing Rainbows, in 1988.

Invitation Only

However, Gilley was still a popular live act, and in the early ’90s, he was one of several veteran artists who opened their own theaters in Branson, Missouri, a city that became a family-friendly vacation destination. Gilley enjoyed considerable success in Branson, where he would relocate, and concerts became his focus, though he did release a new album, Invitation Only, on Varese Sarabande in 2003, as well as occasional live releases documenting his Branson shows. In July 2009, Gilley was helping a friend move furniture when he tripped and a couch fell on him. The accident left him with four crushed vertebrae, and for a while he was paralyzed from the neck down. Extensive physical therapy helped Gilley regain the ability to walk, and by the end of 2010 he was back on-stage in Branson, though he could no longer play piano. In May 2018, Gilley released Two Old Cats, a collaboration with vocalist Troy Payne; the album appeared just four months after Gilley was temporarily sidelined after an auto accident injured his leg.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Midland filmed their entire music video in one shot on the dance floor.

ABOUT MIDLAND:

Hailing from Dripping Springs, TX lead vocalist Mark Wystrach fronts Midland’s rich sound that is rounded out with lead guitarist Jess Carson and bass player Cameron Duddy. Rooted in tradition in both sound and style, the trio initially garnered attention playing clubs in the region. Their critically-acclaimed freshman album, ON THE ROCKS (Big Machine Records), features 13 tracks with songwriting credits from each member alongside hitmakers Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne. Launching to rave reviews from notable outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone Country, ON THE ROCKS was declared “the year’s best Country album” by Washington Post.  The Dann-Huff produced album earned the No. 1 position on Billboard’s Top Country Album Sales chart upon release. Their debut No. 1 single “Drinkin’ Problem,” which offers an intentional nod to Country music reminiscent of the 1970s and 80s, earned the band their first GRAMMY® Awards nominations for Best Country Song and Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Midland was also named New Vocal Group of the Year at the 2018 ACM Awards and is nominated for three CMA Awards including Vocal Group of the Year, Single of the Year for “Drinkin’ Problem” and New Artist of the Year. Their current single “Burn Out” is Top 20 at Country Radio and the band released a video for the song which was inspired by the vintage style of Urban Cowboy and filmed at the legendary Billy Bob’s Honky Tonk in Fort Worth, TX. This year Country Radio Broadcasters voted the trio as one of the esteemed 2018 CRS New Faces. Midland is currently on the road headlining dates for their ELECTRIC RODEO TOUR. For a full list of tour dates and more, visit MidlandOfficial.com.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

ABOUT MIKE AND THE MOONPIES:

Mike and the Moonpies is an American neotraditional country and Americana band based in Austin, Texas. It was formed by singer-songwriter Mike Harmeier in 2007. Its members are Harmeier and drummer Taylor Englert, guitarist Catlin Rutherford, bassist Omar Oyoque, and steel guitarist Zachary Moulton. ‘One To Grow On,’ the eighth studio album from Mike and the Moonpies, is a musical homecoming that returns the group to its roots as a working man’s country band. Layered with Telecaster twang, honky tonk harmonies and lyrics that highlight the Everyman’s struggle to remain optimistic during a 9-to-5 world, this is organic music for dance halls and car stereos—a soundtrack for the mid-week blues, shot through with weekend energy.

In May 2020, Mike and the Moonpies released Touch of You: The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart, an album of unreleased songs written or co-written by American honky-tonk musician and songwriter Gary Stewart. The band’s version of Stewart’s “Smooth Shot of Whiskey,” featuring Mark Wystrach of the band Midland was released as a single.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Miranda Lambert sold out 5 back-to-back nights. She became the first and only solo artist to do so.

At the end of April, beginning of May of 2021 she came in and sold out 5 consecutive shows.

ABOUT MIRANDA LAMBERT:

Miranda Lambert, in full Miranda Leigh Lambert, (born November 10, 1983, Longview, Texas, U.S.), American country music singer-songwriter who crafted a repertoire in the early 21st century that ranged from rowdy revenge fantasies to sensitive ruminations on domestic life. Her recordings, along with her feisty down-home personality, resonated widely with audiences and made her a favorite of the country music establishment.

Lambert was raised primarily in the northeastern Texas town of Lindale. Surrounded by country music as a child—her father played the guitar at home—she developed an appreciation for both the mainstream country stars of the time and outlaw-style singer-songwriters such as Merle Haggard. At the age of 16, Lambert entered a local talent show, and after committing to learn guitar and write her own songs, she began performing at honky-tonk bars. At the time, her parents worked as private detectives and sometimes sheltered abused women, and her exposure to kitchen-table stories of betrayal and desperation colored her songwriting. With a musical career in sight, she arranged to graduate early from high school, and in 2001 she self-released her first album, Miranda Lambert.

In 2003 Lambert appeared on Nashville Star, a televised talent competition, modeled after American Idol, for aspiring country musicians. Although she did not win, her spirited performances caught the attention of record-company executives, who signed her to a contract. Following the sweetly nostalgic single “Me and Charlie Talking” (2004), Lambert released the album Kerosene in 2005. Although its songs made only a modest impression on country radio, the album eventually found an audience, which consisted largely of young women who admired her artistic self-determination (she had a writing credit on all but one song) and her earthy demeanor. The rollicking title track, on which Lambert inhabited the role of a wronged woman hell-bent on revenge, scored a Grammy Award nomination and secured her a reputation as a charismatic spitfire. She continued to channel unvarnished emotions on the critically acclaimed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2007). Fueled by such hits as the seething “Gunpowder & Lead,” the record sold more than one million copies in the United States and won her the first of several Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for album of the year.

Nevertheless, Lambert did not fully emerge as a major country star until the release of her next album, Revolution (2009). Though she did not entirely abandon the raucous fare for which she was best known, the sprawling collection found ample room for her reflective side. The wistful “The House That Built Me” became Lambert’s first song to top the Billboard country singles chart, and it earned her a Grammy Award (for best female country vocal performance), among numerous other honors.

In 2011 Lambert married fellow country singer Blake Shelton, whose high-profile role as a coach on the TV singing contest The Voice contributed to their tabloid-friendly image as a Nashville power couple. (They divorced in 2015.) That year also saw the debut of Pistol Annies, a group that Lambert had formed with friends Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. The trio’s well-regarded Hell on Heels (2011) was swiftly followed by Lambert’s own Four the Record (2011), which featured the hit single “Over You,” an elegiac ballad she wrote with Shelton. She subsequently contributed to another Pistol Annies album, Annie Up (2013), before releasing her fifth solo album, the Grammy-winning Platinum (2014). In 2017 Lambert collected her eighth consecutive ACM Award for female vocalist of the year as well as her seventh Country Music Association award in that category. In addition, The Weight of These Wings (2016) was her fifth recording to win the ACM album of the year. She also received praise for the country-rock Wildcard (2019), which later was awarded the Grammy for best country album.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In July of 2002, The Monkees rocked the main stage, here at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk.

ABOUT THE MONKEES:

“Hey hey, we are the Monkees/You know we love to please/A manufactured image/With no philosophies.” In 1968, the Monkees addressed their own reputation in the song “Ditty Diego (War Chant),” which summed up the bad rap they’d received in the music press since they first emerged in the summer of 1966. The Monkees were talented singers, musicians, and songwriters who made a handful of the finest pop singles of their day (as well as a few first-rate albums) and delivered exciting, entertaining live shows. But they did so at a time when rock music was becoming more self-conscious and “serious,” and the hipper echelons of the music press often lambasted the Monkees, largely because they didn’t come together organically but through the casting process for a television series, and they initially didn’t write the bulk of their own material or play all the instruments on their records. However, time has ultimately vindicated the Monkees (who did take control of their creative process to create some of their best recordings) and their finest music still sounds fresh and engaging decades after it was recorded. 1966’s The Monkees and 1967’s More of the Monkees contained the superb assembly-line music that first made them stars, while Headquarters (also released in 1967) found them taking full control of their music and creating strong and engaging work. The Monkees brought in session players to help with the sessions for Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. while still calling the shots for what would be their finest album. 1968’s The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees was their last truly satisfying album before the lineup began to splinter, though the soundtrack of their 1968 film Head included some of their most adventurous material amidst a patchwork of dialogue from the movie. A pair of reunion albums, 1987’s Pool It! (without Michael Nesmith) and 1996’s Justus (with the full original lineup) failed to capture the magic of their work of the ’60s, but 2016’s Good Times!, a mixture of old and new recordings that included contributions from songwriters who had grown up loving the Monkees’ music, was an unexpected triumph.

The Monkees story began in the fall of 1965 when Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider — a pair of producers whose Raybert Productions had a deal with Columbia Pictures and their TV branch Screen Gems — came up with an idea for a television series about a rock group. Inspired by Richard Lester’s groundbreaking comedies with the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, Rafelson and Schneider imagined a situation comedy in which a four-piece band had wacky adventures every week and occasionally burst into song. The NBC network liked the idea, and production began on The Monkees in early 1966. Don Kirshner, a music business veteran who was a top executive at Colgems Records (a label affiliated with Columbia/Screen Gems), was appointed music coordinator for the series, and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, a producing and songwriting team, signed on to handle most of the day-to-day chores of creating music for the show’s fictive band. A casting call went out for four young men to play the members of the group, and Rafelson and Schneider’s choices for the roles were truly inspired. Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were musicians with solid performing and recording experience who also had a flair for playing comedy, while Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones were primarily actors but had also dabbled in pop music and had strong vocal abilities. As the show went before the camera, Kirshner had Boyce and Hart take the four leads into the studio to begin recording the songs that would be featured on the show each week. While initially, the cast was only going to provide vocals for material Boyce and Hart had already recorded, the producers were impressed enough with Nesmith’s songwriting skills that they chose to use a few of his tunes and let him produce them. With this, the Monkees took their first step toward evolving into a proper, self-sufficient rock band.

The Monkees debuted on NBC in the fall of 1966 and was an immediate hit in the ratings, while “Last Train to Clarksville,” the group’s first single, had become a number one hit a few weeks earlier (the self-titled debut album would top the chart in October). Rafelson, Schneider, and Kirshner shrewdly allowed the show to promote the records and vice versa, and while the notion that television time could sell pop records was hardly new (Ricky Nelson proved that almost a decade earlier), no one had made it work with quite the success the Monkees achieved almost immediately. Dozens of Monkees-related products flooded the marketplace, from toy guitars and lunch boxes to board games and models of the custom Pontiac the guys drove on the show. In late 1966, someone got the idea of booking a few live shows with the Monkees, and recordings of their early concerts prove that while not all four were virtuoso musicians, they worked well together on-stage and were energetic, rough-and-ready rock band who could work a crowd. As the Monkees gained confidence in their abilities as performers, they began to chafe under the restrictions imposed on them by Kirshner, who had full control over what songs they would record and who would produce and play on the sessions.

The Monkees’ early recordings found them working with a stellar team of songwriters (including Neil Diamond, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and David Gates, along with Boyce and Hart) and musicians (such as Glen Campbell, James Burton, Hal Blaine, and Larry Taylor), but Nesmith and Tork, in particular, were eager to show off their own talents (Nesmith was responsible for some of the Monkees’ most distinctive tunes). All four were stung by the negative publicity they’d received as rock critics declared they weren’t a “real” band and couldn’t play their instruments (Nesmith and Tork certainly could, and Dolenz and Jones would become capable instrumentalists, but they weren’t allowed to play on their earliest recordings). When the Monkees were presented with copies of their second album, More of the Monkees, in January 1967, Nesmith and Tork were furious — it was filled with material recorded for the TV show and the bandmembers had no input into its packaging or sequencing. This led to a standoff between the four Monkees, who demanded autonomy over the music they performed, and Kirshner, who didn’t want to disrupt the hitmaking machine he’d helped create. Eventually, Rafelson and Schneider sided with his stars (who could not be readily replaced), and Kirshner was fired in the spring of 1967. (Kirshner would later coordinate the music for the Archies, who as cartoon characters lacked the power to rebel against their producers.)

Now calling their own musical shots, the Monkees recorded their third album, Headquarters, with Chip Douglas (aka Douglas Farthing Hatlelid) of the Turtles producing and playing bass. Outside of Douglas and a few string and horn players, the Monkees played all the instruments on Headquarters, and the album rose to number one on the charts in May 1967, proving the group members were more than capable of making memorable records on their own (and the closing track, “Randy Scouse Git,” showed that the cultural changes that were making themselves known in America had not escaped the attention of TV’s leading pop group). Another Monkees album appeared in November 1967, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., which is generally regarded as the group’s finest work. While all four Monkees played and sang on the album, they also brought a few session players in for the recordings, hitting a middle ground between the polished studio craft of the first two LPs and the more organic sound of Headquarters. While the Monkees now had the freedom to chart their own path in the recording studio, this also led to the musicians discovering their creative differences, and by the time they recorded The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees (released in April 1968), the foursome were starting to splinter — with each member essentially producing and coordinating 25 percent of the album — and the band’s collaborative energy began to dissipate.

After two successful seasons, the Monkees’ television series was not renewed for the fall 1968 season, as the group hoped to launch a career in the movies. But Head, their first (and last) feature film, was a commercial disaster; it was an often clever and challenging satire of the Monkees’ own curious stardom and the culture that surrounded them, but it also quite literally had no plot and confounded the younger viewers who were the TV show’s strongest fan base. The soundtrack album struggled to a relatively dismal number 45 on the charts, and shortly afterward, Peter Tork opted to leave the band. The Monkees released two albums as a trio in 1969, Instant Replay and The Monkees Present, but while they both contained fine music that showed the group was continuing to mature, neither launched any major hits, and the band’s commercial fortunes were clearly beginning to wane. In late 1969, Nesmith left to pursue a solo career (he’d already released an instrumental solo album, The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, in 1968), and after a final Monkees album featuring just Dolenz and Jones, 1970’s Changes, the group quietly dissolved.

Nesmith went on to a critically respected and modestly successful solo career, cutting several excellent country-rock albums, and he enjoyed considerable success in the entertainment business, producing music videos and feature films as well as running a film and video label, Pacific Arts. Both Dolenz and Jones moved back and forth between acting and music, and in 1975 they teamed up with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to record a new album; the foursome then went out on the road, playing their new material as well as many of the Monkees’ hits. Tork’s music career stayed under the radar through much of the ’70s, though he led a band called Release, operated a music production firm, recorded a Christmas single with Dolenz and Jones in 1976, and was courted for a solo deal with Sire Records.

The Monkees’ television show stayed on the air for years in reruns after the group broke up, and in 1985, MTV presented a day-long marathon of Monkees episodes, tipping their hat to the show and the band that helped bring rock and television together. The marathon was a hit in the ratings and Monkees reruns became a regular feature on the network. That same year, producer and promoter David Fishof put together a Monkees reunion tour; while Nesmith’s business commitments prevented him from joining his bandmates, Dolenz, Jones, and Tork were game, and the tour was a massive commercial success, resulting in much of the group’s back catalog bouncing back into the charts. (Nesmith also made a guest appearance with the Monkees for their sold-out appearance at L.A.’s Greek Theater, and appeared with them on an MTV Christmas video.) In 1986, Dolenz and Tork cut a new single, “That Was Then, This Is Now,” which was tagged onto a Monkees hits compilation and became a hit. The success of the single prompted the Monkees (again minus Nesmith) to record a new album, but 1987’s Pool It! didn’t fare well with critics or fans, and the members soon went their separate ways again, though Dolenz and Jones occasionally worked as a duo.

As the 30th anniversary of the Monkees’ debut loomed in the mid-’90s, Rhino Records (which had reissued the band’s back catalog in the ’80s) assumed full control of the group’s filmed and recorded legacy and began a series of definitive reissues. Another reunion tour was proposed, and the talks led to Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith, and Tork getting together to jam for the fun of it. They enjoyed the process enough that they decided to record a new album, and Justus, released in October 1996, became the first Monkees album written, performed, and produced solely by the four members of the band. The four Monkees appeared in a television special tied into the album’s release (called Hey Hey, We’re the Monkees), and they were set to take part in a world concert tour to promote the record. However, after a string of dates in the United Kingdom in 1997, Nesmith dropped out, and while the tour went on without him, the other three did little to hide their disappointment with Nesmith in the press. Another tour by the three-piece Monkees took place in 2001, but Tork left the show before the final dates; Tork told reporters he’d quit, while Dolenz and Jones said he’d been fired. Dolenz and Jones continued to work together, touring the U.K. and U.S. during 2002. They then went their separate ways and the band was quiet for years, skipping their 40th anniversary and pursuing their individual careers.

When their 45th anniversary rolled around in 2011, the trio of Dolenz, Jones, and Tork decided to re-form and headed out on an extensive tour of North America that lasted throughout the summer. Further plans for touring were scotched by the bandmembers’ reluctance to spend the rest of the year wearing themselves out due to the grueling pace. It was to be their last set of performances with Davy Jones, who passed away at the age of 66 in February of 2012. His death proved to be the inspiration for Nesmith to rejoin the group, and at the end of the year, they headed out for a string of reunion dates that featured a touching tribute to Jones each night. They toured in 2013 and 2014 as well, before Nesmith bowed out again. In the established Monkees tradition, Tork and Dolenz continued without him for a 2015 jaunt. At this point, it may have seemed that the Monkees were finished as a recording act, but in early 2016, Dolenz announced that the band had recorded a new album. Made up of songs that were never finished in the ’60s and songs written for the group by modern artists like Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, and XTC’s Andy Partridge, Good Times! was produced by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and appeared on the band’s longtime label Rhino in May 2016.

The Monkees reunited with Schlesinger in 2018 to make the holiday album Christmas Party. Like Good Times! before it, Christmas Party featured songs by Partridge and Cuomo, along with a song co-written by Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey. Christmas Party unexpectedly proved to be a swan song for Peter Tork; he died on February 21, 2019, after a ten-year struggle with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the salivary glands. While the passing of Jones and Tork meant a proper Monkees tour was no longer a possibility, that didn’t prevent Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith from hitting the road for a number of duo dates in 2019. The Monkees Live: The Mike & Micky Show was assembled from recordings of the March 2019 Dolenz and Nesmith tour and released the following year.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1996, Neal McCoy was joined on stage with Joe Avezzano, old Dallas Cowboys assistant coach.

ABOUT NEAL MCCOY:

Neal McCoy has released fifteen studio albums on various labels and has released 34 singles to country radio. In 1993,  Neal McCoy broke through with the back-to-back number 1 singles No Doubt About It and Wink from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It. His commercial success continued into the late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more Top Ten hits. A seventh Top Ten hit, the number 10 Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On, came in 2005 from his self-released That’s Life.

Music of Your Life, a big band jazz and country amalgam with Les Brown, Jr. recorded for a public television special, appeared in 2011, with a new studio album, XII, finally arriving in 2012. In 2013 he released Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride, Neal’s long-time friend, and mentor. 2015 brought the Big Band Standards CD You Don’t Know Me. Neal has been on 15 USO Tours around the world and continues to say it’s one of the achievements he’s most proud of. He is also the recipient of multiple Humanitarian awards from The Academy of Country Music, The Country Radio Broadcasters, and The Masonic Grand Lodge. In 2016 Neal has again made a move to continue his patriotic values by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance “Live” on his Facebook page every morning. He’s reached millions of viewers all over the country and around the world. Neal still maintains a very busy touring schedule all through the year. Make sure to catch a show when he’s near because as Neal says “No two shows are the same!”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

ABOUT NED LEDOUX: 

Ned LeDoux is an American country music singer and songwriter. He has released two studio albums. He also has his own live show on Instagram with Big Das Lawrence.

LeDoux was born in Kaycee, Wyoming, also the hometown of his father, country music singer Chris LeDoux. The younger LeDoux began playing drums in his father’s road band, Western Underground, in 1998. LeDoux began recording solo material in 2015, working with producer Mac McAnally. His debut EP Forever a Cowboy came out in 2016. LeDoux wrote four of the five songs on it. Sagebrush, his first full-length album, followed in 2017. On November 8, 2019, LeDoux released his 2nd studio album Next in Line.

LeDoux also appears on Chase Rice’s 2017 album Lambs & Lions, as a duet partner on a rendition of Chris LeDoux’s “This Cowboy’s Hat”.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1995, Pam Tillis and Wade Hayes ring in the New Year.

ABOUT PAM TILLIS:

As the child of Country Music Royalty, Pam Tillis was determined from a young age to find her own way in music as a singer and songwriter. After many false starts with her own recording career, including a pop single on Elektra and 1984’s “Above And Beyond The Doll Of Cutey” for Warner Brothers, Tillis came to the attention of Tim Dubois who headed up the Nashville office of Arista records. After much soul searching, Tillis made the commitment to make an honest country record. The album “Put Yourself In My Place” yielded 2 number ones, 2 top five singles, and one top twenty hits and in its first year the album was certified gold. Tillis followed with 3 platinum albums on Arista “Homeward Looking Angel” in 1992, “Sweethearts Dance” in 1994 and an Arista “Greatest Hits” in 1997. Tillis achieved 6 number 1 songs during this time including “Shake the Sugar Tree”, “Mi Vida Loca”, “When You Walk In The Room”, “In Between Dances” “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” and “Maybe It Was Memphis” while 14 of Pam’s other singles landed in the top ten and top twenty.

Pam Tillis fell in love with music at an early age. Band, chorus, talent shows, church and the creative community of Nashville all helped to shape the young singer. Growing up, Pam was in a variety of bands, spanning from jazz and alternative country to top 40. She sang demos and lent her voice to many national jingles including Coke, Country Time Lemonade and a Coors Silver Bullet with country superstar, Alan Jackson. At the same time, Tillis worked as a staff writer for Elektra Asylum Publishing and later took a job writing for Warner Brothers Publishing, which resulted in her songs being recorded by some of the biggest names throughout all genres of music, including artists like Chaka Khan, Juice Newton, Dan Seals, Gloria Gaynor, Conway Twitty and the top ten “Someone Else’s Trouble Now “for Highway 101.

Pam has performed on the stages of Broadway in New York, modeled on the pages of Glamour Magazine and is a proud member of The Grand Ole Opry. Some of Pam’s most memorable award moments are being a 3-time CMA award winner including the prestigious 1994’s Female Vocalist Of The Year Award, and being nominated multiple times for Grammy’s Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1993 for “Maybe It Was Memphis, in 1996 for “Mi Vida Loca” and in 1998 for “All The Good Ones Are Gone”. Pam is also proud to be a 9-time Academy of Country Music Award nominee, a 2-time Grammy award winner and 6-time Grammy nominee, and an American Music Award’s nominee. Most recently, Pam has celebrated an IBMA award win in 2004 for Recorded Event Of The Year “Livin’ Lovin’ Losin’” and most recently a 2012 IBMA Song Of The Year nomination for co-writing, Dale Ann Bradley’s “Somewhere South Of Crazy”.

Though Pam has rolled easily with the tides and has drawn something from every new twist the ever-changing country music world has shown her, Pam Tillis has always insisted on writing and cutting songs that speak from the soul. The results have been records that emanate an almost painful beauty. With more than 30 singles charting on US Billboard charts, 10 studio albums including her favorite, the critically acclaimed 2002 “It’s All Relative” (a tribute to her father, the great Mel Tillis), and 3 other releases “Rhinestoned”, “Recollection” and “Just In Time For Christmas” off her own label, Stellar Cat Records. In 2012 Red River Entertainment released ‘Dos Divas’ a Country Duo album with fellow superstar Lorrie Morgan under the name Grits and Glamour.

Whether it’s on the elaborate stages of the Grand Ole Opry or in the intimate setting of Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, you will experience that feeling of delight that comes from Pam Tillis singing exactly what she is meant to sing at that moment.

Pam Tillis’ star continues to shine brightly in the 3rd decade of her career and is currently touring extensively on her own as well as with her “Grits And Glamour” tour partner, country star, Lorrie Morgan.

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When Parker McCollum played Billy Bob’s in December of 2020, he played 3 nights, the 17th, 18th, and 19th. He sold out the 18th and 19th for his first time selling out back-to-back nights.

ABOUT PARKER MCCOLLUM:

Parker McCollum comes from a no-nonsense, hard-working family. His was the sort of upbringing where “if you’re going to do something and you’re not going to do it one-hundred percent; you shouldn’t do it all.” It’s why this 25-year-old treats each song he writes with a painstaking level of dedication, reverence, and — as he readily admits — even a bit of obsession.

Parker says when a particular melody, lyric, or emotion tugs at him he might stay in his room for days working on it. He can’t help himself.

That’s because, for the Austin-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, the result is worth the painstaking process. Parker — who broke out with the revealing and critically adored 2013 debut The Limestone Kid and returned with the acclaimed, Probably Wrong — says, “its like the songwriting muse takes over. I don’t choose when it hits me, but when it does, I pay attention — and it’s always worth the focus it asks of me.“

Probably Wrong (Nov. 10, 2017), pulls back the curtain to reveal Parker’s depth of artistry. The 10-track LP, written after the dissolution of a long-term relationship, is equal parts self-flagellating and transcendent. It is also the most honest he has ever been in song. There’s an inherent pain that bleeds through in the raw transparency of stunning songs including “I Can’t Breathe” and “Hell of a Year.” For Parker, putting his most intimate thoughts and feelings to song is more of a welcome relief than an act of bloodletting. “I don’t talk about my feelings very often,” he notes. “I keep a lot of things in most of the time, and I don’t want anybody else to have to deal with my stuff. So, I write songs instead.”

In the wake of The Limestone Kid’s release, and its lead single “Meet You in the Middle” finding success at regional radio, McCollum says “in the blink of an eye” his life drastically changed.” The then-22-year-old went from a life goofing off with his buddies and passing his days strumming the guitar to traveling from one gig to the next, not as a “nobody,” but rather a revered traveling musician with a fervent fan-base. McCollum always wanted to be a singer-songwriter, but he admits he was caught a bit off guard by the buzz around Limestone. “I felt like I was playing catch up for two years,” he says.

In speaking with McCollum, it’s easy to detect the sense of wonderment and romance he still attaches to the brutally honest songwriters he first revered during his teenage years. Men like Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, Steve Earle, and James McMurtry — even as a wide-eyed and innocent young man, McCollum sensed these musicians were speaking to a more powerful truth.

“It would jerk my soul out of me,” he says of encountering and quickly becoming enamored with their music and subsequently dedicating his life to molding songs of a similarly revealing bent. “There’s nothing else I’ve ever encountered that has had as much influence on me,” he explains. “That’s all I wanted to listen to. It was my thing.”

To that end, when he began writing the songs that would ultimately comprise Probably Wrong, McCollum felt it necessary to be alone with little more than his emotions and a guitar. “I needed to write this record and be on my own,” he says of what led him to end a two-year relationship and retreat inward. “I felt very misunderstood throughout the entire situation,” he adds. “I broke my own heart for the first time just to write this record.” For six weeks, McCollum did nothing but stare at a piece of paper filled with soul-crushing lyrics and engage with his sadness. “And I’m not a sad person,” he says with a laugh. “But I had done it to myself … intentionally.”

The pain still lingers, but McCollum says accessing it to write his new album allowed him to pen some of his most poignant material to date. “Hell of a Year,” which he calls his “sleeper favorite of the record,” came from McCollum breaking down one night in his truck in a fast-food parking lot. “My heart’s out of love/I fell out of line/I swore I’d never leave again/And I lied,” he sings over a gentle acoustic guitar figure. “When I set out to write this record this was the type of song I was gunning for,” he says of “Hell of a Year.” “It was the hardest song I’ve ever written as far as being that honest. But after doing so, I could go back to being happy for a little bit.” On the slow-rolling “Misunderstood,” the singer throws his hands in the air and makes peace with what he can’t control. “You told me I was no good/It’s alright babe/I’m pretty used to being misunderstood.”

Singing such soul-baring songs is a decidedly therapeutic act for McCollum. “When the melody is so spot-on, and it hooks me, everything that I have been bottling up or not talking about comes out.” It’s why the singer says he lives to perform. “Next to songwriting my live show is most important,” he offers.

Though seeing as many of his gigs are rowdy, upbeat affairs, he says he searches for the right moments to pepper his set with more emotional numbers. “I’m constantly trying to find ways to make our live show better,” he says. “I take cues from the fans who show up night after night — I pay attention to what songs they sing along to, what makes them move, smile, holler or just dance. I work to meet them where they are and take them higher. I have the best job in the world.”

The goal going forward then, Parker insists, is to continue to invest in his craft; to grow. He reveres musicians like John Mayer — who Rolling Stone Country compared him to in its January “New Country Artists You Need To Know” list — whom he says are always redefining their creativity. He intends to do the same. “My goal is to evolve and step into a new version of myself with each record I make,” McCollum says. “It’s about challenging myself to dig deeper. As much as I do this for the fans, it’s also for me, and stepping up into the artist I know I can be.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 9, 2003 Pat Benatar rocked the roof off the Billy Bob’s Texas!

ABOUT PAT BENATAR:

Pat Benatar: she’s always been a rule-breaker and a trail-blazer, she remains a bold and distinctive artist both on stage and on record, and now, after more than three decades in rock ‘n’ roll, she’s a bonafideliving legend.

A four-time Grammy winner, Benatar is a classically trained mezzo-soprano. During the 1980s, Benatarhad two RIAA-certified Multi-Platinum albums, five RIAA-certified Platinum albums, three RIAA-certified Gold albums and 19 Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, “Love Is a Battlefield”, “We Belong” and “Invincible”. During the early days of MTV Benatar was one of the most heavily played artists on the popular music channel.Her hits continue to be as unforgettable now as they were at the dawn of MTV, when Pat emerged, fearless, fighting and forging a path for other female rock stars around the world.

Born Patricia Andrzejewski in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Lindenhurst, Long Island, Pat started singing in elementary school and never stopped, working on her craft throughout her teens. At 19, after one six months in college, she dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar, an army draftee who trained at Fort Jackson, South. The couple would eventually divorce, in 1979.

In 1973, Benatar quit her job as a bank teller to pursue a singing career full time after being inspired by a concert she saw in Richmond, VA. She got a gig singing with a lounge band called Coxon’s Army, who soon became regulars at Sam Millers Basement Club and fairly well known in and around Richmond. In 1975,just as Coxon’s Army was about to break, and against the advice of everyone involved, Benatar quit the band.She packed everything she owned into her car and headed back to NYC alone, with only $2500.00 in her pocket. And she never looked back.

One night in 1975 Benatar decided to try an open mic night at Catch a Rising Star. She was 27th in line to go on and didn’t hit the stage until 2:00am. Benatar’srendition of Judy Garland’s “Rock A Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” sent the crowd reeling. Hearing the room explode, the owner of the club, Rick Newman, rushed in to see who could possibly be commanding such a response from the room. He watched the rest of the performance, and when the band was finished, Newman approached Benatar and demanded ”Who ARE you?”. Thus began their relationship as manager and artist; a working relationship which would continue for nearly 15 years.

Catch a Rising Star was not the only break Benatargot in 1975. She also landed the part of Zephyr in The Zinger, Harry Chapin’s off Broadway, futuristic rock musical. The production, which debuted on March 19, 1976, at the Performing Arts Foundation’s (PAF) Playhouse in Huntington Station, Long Island, ran for one month and also featured Beverly D’Angelo and Christine Lahti.

Halloween, 1977, proved a pivotal night in Benatar’scareer. Earlier in the evening, she’d dressed up as a character from the cult sci-fi movie “Cat Women of the Moon” and headed with friends down to Café Figaro in the Village. She entered the clubs costume contest…and won. To celebrate, the group all went back uptown to their haunt, Catch a Rising Star and performed in costume. Despite performing her usual array of songs, she received a standing ovation.

It was not her first, but she knew that this spandexed stage persona was a hit. So she repeated the look again the next night and received the same reaction from the crowd. As the nights went by, the outfits were tweaked a bit, the spandex was modified, and the signature look that everyone came to know, was born.

In 1978, in between appearances at Catch a Rising Star and recording commercial jingles for Pepsi Cola, Benatar headlined New York City’s Tramps nightclub, where her performance impressed representatives from several record companies. She was signed to Chrysalis Records by co-founder Terry Ellis. In the spring of 1979, producer and writer, Mike Chapman, introduced Benatar to Neil Giraldo, an up and coming guitarist. Giraldo began his career in 1978, as a key member of the Rick Derringer band, after beating out 200 other guitarists for the position. Chapman felt Benatar needed a musical director and partner who could establish a more aggressive sound and thought Giraldo was the perfect choice. In Giraldo, Benatarfound someone as strong as her, someone who could match the same fire-power, someone who could inspire her, while being inspired by her. Their connection was instantaneous……..It was indeed, a perfect fit.

In the Heat of the Night, was recorded in June and July 1979. This was the first time the world was introduced to Giraldo and Benatar’s enduring partnership and their rock ‘n’ roll love affair. In The Heat Of The Night, which included the classic “Heartbreaker”, as well as the Giraldo-penned hit, “We Live For Love”, went platinum.

1980 Grammy winning album, Crimes of Passion, saw Giraldo arranging, playing guitar and keyboards and providing vocals for songs like “Fire and Ice”. The album included her signature song, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and reached quintuple platinum while giving Pat her first Top 10, million selling hit. The following year, Benatar and Giraldo cemented their place in music history forever, by being the first female and first guitarist, respectively, to ever appear on MTV, with the video for “You Better Run”.

The duo continued in 1981 with Precious Time, which had Giraldo officially on board as producer and arranger; as well as guitar, keyboards and vocals. Precious Time delivered a second Grammy for Benatar, for the lead single, “Fire and Ice”, and went double platinum, outdoing its predecessor by hitting #1. These achievements cemented the Giraldo/Benatar partnership as an increasingly unstoppable force in the music industry.

Of the ten Grammy Award ceremonies in the 1980s, Benatar was nominated for Best Female Rock Performance nine times, including for “We Belong” and “Invincible” in 1984, “Sex as a Weapon” in 1986, “All Fired Up” in 1988 and in 1989 for “Let’s Stay Together”. She won an unprecedented four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Performance from 1980 to 1983 for her second LP, Crimes of Passion, and the songs “Fire and Ice”, “Shadows of the Night”, and “Love Is a Battlefield”.

Other platinum albums followed. The team repeated their musical arrangement on Get Nervous in 1982,which featured yet another Top Five hit and Grammy-winner, Shadows of the Night.

1983’s Live From Earth boasted the million selling Gold single, “Love Is A Battlefield”. The single peaked at Number 5 in the US, winning Benatar another Grammy along the way. 1984’s Tropico shined its spotlight on the Top Five as well, charting the Grammy-nominated “We Belong”.

In 1985 Seven The Hard Way would hit the US Top 10 with the #10 single “Invincible” which also became the theme for the movie, The Legend of Billie Jean. “Sex As a Weapon” would climb as high as #28 in January of 1986. The album peaked at #26, earning an RIAA Gold certification (import cd).

In 1988, Benatar released her 8th album, Wide Awake in Dreamland, primarily recorded in Giraldo’s studio,which spun off the Top 20 hit “All Fired Up.” The album earned her yet another Grammy nomination for “Let’s Stay Together” in 1989. In 1991 came the blues/swing-inspired True Love album, followed in 1993 by the critically-acclaimed Gravity’s Rainbow.

In 1997, Pat released Innamorata on the CMC International label. Then in 1998, further celebrating Benatar’s live prowess, 8-18-80, a live recording of a concert at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco, was released.

In 1999, Benatar and Giraldo opened their private vaults and compiled an extensive three-CD collection, Synchronistic Wanderings: Recorded Anthology 1979-1999. This impressive set includes songs from soundtracks (including Speed), contributions to tribute projects and benefits, previously unreleased live recordings, outtakes and demos, B- sides, and rarities never before available on CD.

As if that wasn’t enough, in the summer of 2002, Benatar and Giraldo released a thrilling live CD and DVD. The CD, Summer Vacation Soundtrack Live, and the DVD, Summer Vacation Live, featured a 90-minute concert filmed at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim, California. In addition, they debuted four new songs (“I Won’t,” “Girl,” “Out Of The Ruins,” and “Please Don’t Leave Me”) as well as previously unrecorded acoustic versions of “We Belong” and “Love Is A Battlefield.” Summer Vacation Live DVDalso included behind the scenes footage and exclusive interviews.

In August 2003, Benatar released Go, her first album of new songs in seven years. Benatar described the record as a “contemporary guitar-driven record” and “the natural progression of where we should be”.

After being inducted into the Long Island Hall of Fame in 2008, Benatar released her long-awaited autobiography in 2010, the appropriately-titled Between a Heart and a Rock Place – which allowed the world a fascinating glimpse into the life and times of one of the most beloved female rock ‘n’ roll icons of all time.

Pat Benatar is acknowledged as the leading female rock vocalist of the ‘80s – a feat marked by her unprecedented winning of four consecutive Grammy Awards between

1980 and 1983, as well as three American Music Awards – but Benatar and Giraldo remain a rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse today, selling out concerts and still wowing audiences after over three decades in music together. Theirs is a chemistry that will, undoubtedly, be thrilling music-lovers forever.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Merle Haggard is set to record the first album in the “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” series during a performance scheduled for New Year’s Eve. However, it is determined that a “practice run” is needed in order to test out the recording equipment. Along comes Pat Green, an unsigned Texas singer/songwriter on the rise. The performance combined with the energy of the crowd makes his live recording one of the top-selling albums to date, and the first official “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” album.

ABOUT PAT GREEN:

One of the most influential modern stars in Texas’ long country-music tradition, Pat Green has left a mark on the lives of countless fans and generations of artists, helping to solidify a cultural movement bringing artists from the Lonestar state to the national stage along the way. The problem is, he’s always been too modest to admit it. Now with the release of Dancehall Dreamin’: A Tribute to Pat Green, the legendary troubadour has no choice in the matter. He’s being saluted by those who know him best – artists like Jack Ingram, Randy Rogers Band, and more – with a surprise album meant to highlight some of the icon’s best-loved songs. “I certainly didn’t see it coming,” Green says of the honor. “For my friends to do this for me, I just immediately felt like ‘Wow, what an incredible thing.’ I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude, and I know I would do this for each and every one of them.” Conceived as a heartfelt gift for Green’s 46th birthday, Dancehall Dreamin’ looks back over a career that has put the star at the vanguard of Texas country. Since 1995, Green has released 13 albums (12 recorded in the studio and one live), and sold more than two million records, racking up a staggering 12 Number Ones on the Texas Radio chart (including his most recent single, “Drinkin’ Days”). Green has also released ten Billboard radio hits and has placed songs like “Wave on Wave” in the Top Five of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. He’s been nominated for three Grammy awards and is still regarded as one of the most electrifying entertainers on tour, covering millions of miles and filling venues like the historic Gruene Hall and the massive Houston Astrodome with equal ease. Even mainstream stars like Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, and Dave Matthews have taken Green out on the road, recognizing the mass appeal of his everyday anthems, dedicated to the simple joys and inevitable heartbreaks of the American experience. In short, Green has been instrumental in putting Texas country on the map, paving the way for scores of other artists who share his passion for authenticity. And now it’s time for them to say ‘thank you.’ “I’m really terrible at taking compliments,” Green admits, flattered by his first tribute project. “The funny thing is, all I did was lean as far forward over my skis and take as many chances as I could until something happened, and the end result is this almost 25-year-long career. But if my work made it easier for other people to do theirs, well then, it was my pleasure.” Three years in the making, Dancehall Dreamin’ features 10 of Green’s trailblazing songs performed by peers and protégés alike. Ingram and Rogers are joined by Texas standard-bearers William Clark Green, John Baumann, Josh Abbott Band, Aaron Watson, Walt Wilkins, Cory Morrow, Drew Holcomb, and Kevin Fowler. Each artist chose a track to make their own, and with the help of producers Justin Pollard, Dwight Baker, and Thomas Dulin, showcasing the universal power of Green’s words – and the range of sounds he’s helped inspire.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Patty Loveless made her first appearance at Billy Bob’s Texas as part of a honky tonk angel contest.

Nolan Ryan and John Justin host a fund raiser for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund, which provides financial aid to injured rodeo athletes and their families. The event featured a performance by Patty Loveless.

ABOUT PATTY LOVELESS:

One of the most popular female singers of the new traditionalist movement, Patty Loveless rose to stardom thanks to her blend of honky tonk and country-rock, not to mention a plaintive, emotional ballad style. Her late-’80s records for MCA were generally quite popular, earning her comparisons to Patsy Cline, but most critics agreed that she truly came into her own as an artist when she moved to Epic in the early ’90s.

Loveless was born Patricia Lee Ramey in Pikeville, KY, in 1957 and spent most of her childhood in nearby Elkhorn City, where her father worked in the coal mines. Her immediate family loved music, and two of her distant cousins later found fame as Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. Unfortunately, her father contracted black lung disease, forcing the family to move from their rural home to Louisville for the sake of convenient medical treatment. Patty found escape from the culture shock in music, and her father gave her a guitar when she was 11. Soon she was singing and writing songs with her older brother Roger, and the two started performing at local country jamborees. At one such show, the Wilburn Brothers caught their act and gave them a standing invitation to Nashville. Roger and a 14-year-old Patty made the trip on a weekend when the Wilburns were out of town, but managed to talk their way into Porter Wagoner’s office instead, impressing him with a performance of Patty’s original “Sounds of Loneliness.”

Wagoner took Patty under his wing, inviting her to perform with him and Dolly Parton on the weekends. In 1973, after finishing high school, she became a featured vocalist with the Wilburn Brothers’ band (a post once held by Loretta Lynn) and also signed with their publishing company. She later married the band’s drummer, Terry Lovelace, and moved to his hometown near Charlotte, NC, in 1976. There she sang pop, rock, and R&B material with a local cover band for several years and endured bouts with alcoholism and drug use. In the early ’80s, she returned home, hired her brother Roger as her manager, and altered the spelling of her married name to Loveless. After traveling to Nashville to record demos of country songs, she landed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and moved to Nashville permanently in 1985; she also divorced Lovelace around the same time, and her demo tape impressed MCA exec Tony Brown enough that he offered her a contract later that year.

If My Heart Had Windows

With Roger’s producer friend Emory Gordy, Jr. at the controls, Loveless released her first chart single, “Lonely Days, Lonely Nights,” and her self-titled debut album in 1986. She enjoyed some modest success, but didn’t really make a splash until the 1988 follow-up, If My Heart Had Windows, which gave her two Top Ten hits in the title cut (originally recorded by George Jones) and Steve Earle’s “A Little Bit of Love.” Late in 1988, she released the follow-up album that made her a star, Honky Tonk Angel. “Timber, I’m Falling in Love” became her first number one hit in 1989, and three more singles — “Blue Side of Town,” “Don’t Toss Us Away,” and “The Lonely Side of Love” — reached the Top Ten before year’s end, by which time Loveless had married producer Gordy. In 1990, the album’s fifth single, “Chains,” became her second number one. Her next album, On Down the Line, came out later that year and brought her two Top Five hits in the title cut and “I’m That Kind of Girl.” Following 1991’s Up Against My Heart and its Top Five hit “Hurt Me Bad (In a Real Good Way),” Loveless made some major changes in her career. She parted ways with her brother as manager and switched labels to Epic, taking husband Gordy with her as producer; moreover, she was forced to undergo throat surgery to repair her vocal cords before she was able to complete her label debut.

Only What I Feel

Only What I Feel was released in early 1993 and earned Loveless the best reviews of her career to date, thanks to a newfound level of confidence. The number one smash “Blame It on Your Heart” helped the record go platinum, and “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?” and “You Will” also went Top Ten. The following year’s When Fallen Angels Fly won equal acclaim, not to mention the CMA’s Album of the Year Award; it spun off four Top Ten hits in “I Try to Think About Elvis,” “Halfway Down,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” and “Here I Am.” Released in 1996, The Trouble with the Truth continued Loveless’ renaissance with two more number one smashes, “You Can Feel Bad (If It Makes You Feel Better)” and “Lonely Too Long,” and the Top Five “She Drew a Broken Heart”; that year, she won the ACM’s Female Vocalist of the Year Award. However, 1997’s Long Stretch of Lonesome abruptly halted her commercial momentum; despite a similar level of consistency, none of its singles made the Top Ten. Perhaps a shift toward slick country-pop played a role in Loveless’ sales slump, as 2000s solid Strong Heart met with a similar fate.

Mountain Soul

In response, Loveless turned away from hitmaking and embraced the acoustic Kentucky bluegrass of her youth, which was enjoying a renaissance of its own thanks to O Brother, Where Art Thou? The result, Mountain Soul, was released in 2001 and earned numerous critical plaudits, also selling decently in spite of its lack of concern for commercialism. Loveless kept that acoustic approach for her 2002 holiday album Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, and it also informed her proper follow-up, 2003’s On Your Way Home. The ambitious Dreamin’ My Dreams appeared two years later, followed by Sleepless Nights in 2008. In 2009, Loveless followed up Mountain Soul with Mountain Soul II on the Suguaro Road imprint. Unlike its predecessor, II contained classic country, mountain, and bluegrass songs, as well as original material instead of strictly bluegrass tunes.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On September 22, 1995, Perfect Stranger made their debut and got added to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT PERFECT STRANGER:

Perfect Stranger was formed in Carthage, TX, in 1986. Led by bassist Shayne Morrison and guitarist Richard Raines, the band also included vocalist Steve Murray and drummer Andy Ginn. The band’s formative years were spent fighting for fans at dive bars, honky tonks, and rodeos across Texas. But by 1992, the band had established themselves enough to enter a Nashville recording studio. Their debut LP, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, was released in December 1994, and soon its Vince Gill-penned single, “Ridin’ the Rodeo,” was the number one independent country song in America. The album’s title track became Perfect Stranger’s second single. It hit the airwaves in the spring of 1995 and garnered widespread airplay both on radio and CMT. The exposure didn’t go unnoticed by the major labels, and soon Nashville powerhouse Curb came calling. The label signed Stranger within a week and immediately picked up distribution rights for Right from the indie Pacific. Curb re-released the album with additional tracks, and it spent an additional 26 weeks on the country charts. In 1998, Marty Arbter replaced original drummer Ginn, and the band continued to tour as they readied their follow-up release. The Hits appeared in summer 2001; it included another version of the band’s biggest hit, “You Have the Right to Remain Silent.” 2002 found the band readying another album and continuing to tour the honky tonks and rodeos where they first found their fans.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 17, 1990, Pirates of the Mississippi made their main stage debut and added their hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT PIRATES OF THE MISSISSIPPI:

A group of five session musicians who formed in 1987 in order to have a little fun, the Pirates of the Mississippi were one of a handful of country bands who emerged in the wake of the Kentucky Headhunters’ success in the early ’90s. The Pirates of the Mississippi didn’t blend genres or joke around like the Kentucky Headhunters, yet they weren’t smooth country-rock like Alabama. Instead, they were a straightforward country band, with hints of ragged enthusiasm and exceptional instrumental and vocal skills. Though the band wasn’t able to capitalize on the success of their one big hit single, 1991’s number 15 “Feed Jake,” the group continued to record through the mid-’90s.

All five members of the Pirates of the Mississippi — Bill McCorvey (lead vocals, guitar), Rich Alves (guitar), Dean Townson (bass), Jimmy Lowe (drums), and Pat Severs (steel guitar) — were Nashville session musicians during the ’80s. In 1987, they began playing together regularly, usually in clubs around Nashville. Eventually, an A&R representative at Capitol Nashville signed the group to a deal. In the summer of 1990, their eponymous debut was released, as was their cover of Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonk Blues.” The single reached number 30, yet the follow-up, “Rollin’ Home,” stiffed.

Walk the Plank

Walk the Plank, the band’s second album, appeared in 1991 and proved to be their breakthrough release, thanks to the single “Feed Jake.” A sentimental song about the death of a childhood friend, “Feed Jake” and its video became a big hit, leading to the band being named the Top New Vocal Group by the Academy of Country Music. Though they had two other singles from the album — “Speak of the Devil” and “Fighting for You” — nothing else from the record was a hit. A Street Man Named Desire, the band’s third album, also suffered from poor sales upon its 1992 release, as did their fourth record, 1993’s Dream You.

The Best of the Pirates of the Mississippi

Following the poor sales of Dream You, the compilation Best of the Pirates of the Mississippi appeared in 1994, and the band was dropped from Liberty and Capitol Nashville. Later that year, Pat Severs left the group and was replaced by Greg Trostle. In 1995, the Pirates of the Mississippi signed with Giant Records and released Sure Sign. Also appearing that year from Giant was Paradise. Heaven and a Dixie Night was released in 2006 by Evergreen Records.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

The first time the Pistol Annies took the main stage, was to a sold-out crowd.

ABOUT PISTOL ANNIES: 

When Pistol Annies debuted in 2011, the trio appeared to be a Miranda Lambert project. At the time, her bandmates, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, were known within Nashville as songwriters, not performers, but Pistol Annies wound up elevating the profiles of the two singer/songwriters so they were rightly seen as creative equals to Lambert. Despite having their first album, Hell on Heels, reach the top of Billboard’s Country Albums chart in 2011, the group didn’t function as a commercial powerhouse. By following a distinctly different course than the trio members’ individual albums, Pistol Annies defined themselves as modern outlaws for the 21st century.

RevolutionMiranda Lambert first crossed paths with Ashley Monroe when she was writing songs for her third album, 2009’s Revolution. Monroe landed two credits — “Me and Your Cigarettes” and “Heart Like Mine” — on Revolution, establishing a partnership with Lambert. Monroe’s publisher introduced her to Angaleena Presley, a songwriter from Kentucky who had a contract with the same house. Presley collaborated with Lambert on “Fastest Girl in Town,” a cut on the star’s 2011 album Four the Record — Monroe landed “Better in the Long Run” on the same LP — but before that album arrived in November, the trio revealed that they had formed a band called Pistol Annies.

The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and BeyondMaking their debut on a Girls’ Night Out: Superstar Women of Country television special from the Academy of Country Music in April 2011, Pistol Annies released their first single, “Hell on Heels,” the next month, with the full-length album Hell on Heels appearing in August. Debuting at the top of Billboard’s Country Albums chart, the record also peaked at five on the Top 200 on its way to a gold certification. During the next two years, the group appeared as support on recordings by the Chieftains, Jewel, and Lambert’s then-husband, Blake Shelton. The group also contributed “Run Daddy Run” to The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond, a tie-in to the blockbuster film. The band’s success also secured Ashley Monroe a deal with Warner Nashville, which released Like a Rose in March 2013.

Two months after Like a Rose, Pistol Annies returned with their second album, Annie Up. Debuting at two on the Billboard Country Albums chart, it also saw its lead single, “Hush Hush,” reach 43 on the Country Airplay chart; it was their first single to reach a country chart. The group’s supporting tour for Annie Up was cut short in June 2013 and the band entered an unofficial hiatus. Presley signed a deal with Slate Creek Records, releasing her debut album, American Middle Class, in 2014. That same year, Lambert released her sixth album, Platinum, which contained two credits with Monroe. In 2015, Monroe released The Blade, which featured a Lambert credit on its closing “I’m Good at Leaving.” Lambert’s 2016 double album, The Weight of These Wings, featured two songs co-written with Monroe.

WrangledAll three Pistol Annies collaborated on “Dreams Don’t Come True,” the first song on Presley’s second album, 2017’s Wrangled. It was the first sign of an Annies reunion that slowly came into focus over the next year. The group contributed a version of “Tulsa Time” to the 2017 Don Williams tribute Gentle Giants: The Songs of Don Williams, then Presley co-wrote a song on Monroe’s fourth album, Sparrow, which appeared in April 2018. That November, the trio returned with Interstate Gospel, which earned the group a nomination (their very first) for Best Country Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

January 21, 2005, Randy Rogers Band recorded their “Live at Billy Bob’s” album, this was the last one recorded before they were signed to a major label, Universal Music.

ABOUT RANDY ROGERS BAND:

Authenticity isn’t something that can be manufactured in a studio. It’s not a craft that can be learned or artfully practiced. It comes from living life. It’s the byproduct of blood, sweat, and tears and as the foundation for music, it elevates mere entertainment to compelling art. Every note, every word on the Randy Rogers Band’s new album Nothing Shines Like Neon rings with authenticity that makes each song linger with the listener long after the music fades.

“You’ve just got to be true to yourself and you can’t fool anybody,” Rogers states matter of factly of the band’s philosophy. “As a whole, our body of work is pretty consistent to our live show and the band that plays on the record is the band that you go see.”

The same lineup has been performing together since 2002 and the music has evolved as they’ve soaked up life experience. “As men, we’ve all matured and lived a lot of life together,” Rogers says. “We’ve had a few breakups happen to us. We’ve had babies. We’ve had life changes. We’ve been on the road 200 shows a year. I’ve been in this band for 15 years so a lot has changed.  I still listen to Merle Haggard every night. I mean that hasn’t changed, but a lot has changed for us musically and privately.  We all are in a good spot and we all are just as good friends as when we started.”

Camaraderie and creativity have made Rogers and bandmates Geoffrey Hill (guitar), Johnny “Chops” Richardson (bass guitar), Brady Black (fiddle), Les Lawless (drums), and Todd Stewart (utility player) one of the top bands on the competitive Texas music scene.  Nothing Shines Like Neon continues the momentum established by the band’s four previous albums—Randy Rogers Band, Burning the Day, Trouble, and Homemade Tamales, each of which went to No. 1 on iTunes.  Earlier in 2015, Rogers joined friend Wade Bowen to record the critically acclaimed album Hold My Beer Vol. 1.

Produced by Nashville legend Buddy Cannon (Willie/Merle) at Cedar Creek in Austin, RRB’s news album Nothing Shines Like Neon showcases the band’s taut musicianship as well as Rogers’ earnest vocals and insightful songwriting on such instant classics as the groove-laden “Rain and the Radio,” the heartbreak anthem “Neon Blues” and the playful “Actin’ Crazy,” a duet with Jamey Johnson. “Jamey and I wrote that song together,” Rogers notes.  “I met a movie star a few days before Jamey and I were going to write. I was in LA playing at the House of Blues and he came out to the show. I was thinking about him …and thinking about being a struggling actor living in LA and having to put up with all the bullshit that LA is.  I just wrote that song about him.”

The album opens with the fiddle-driven shuffle “San Antone”. “That is a Keith Gattis song. He wrote by himself. Being from Texas and living so close to San Antonio, I don’t think that song is going to hurt me at all,” Rogers laughs.  “It’s one of those songs when I heard it I was like, ‘Oh hell! Why didn’t I write this song?’”

“Takin’ It As It Comes” features Lone Star legend Jerry Jeff Walker. “I’ve been a big fan of Jerry Jeff’s all my life,” Rogers says.  “He came in the studio with us, got in there with the band, jumped around and played guitar and sang. We had a great time.”

“Rain and the Radio” is Rogers’ homage to Ronnie Milsap. “I wrote that with Sean McConnell.  He and I have written a lot of songs through the years.  I’ve always been a huge Ronnie Milsap fan and to me that song has a little Milsap feel to it, kind of a bluesy country thing, which we haven’t done before.  Any artist that I look up to always tries to create something different and pushes the envelope a little bit.  I think we do with that song in particular. It’s very country. It’s just very different.  As a band, we’re trying to broaden our horizons and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  If we were all just stuck doing the same old thing, we would all be bored. We probably wouldn’t still be here.  It’s just a matter of spreading your wings a little bit.”

“Look Out Yonder” is a poignant tune Rogers recorded in honor of his mentor, the late Kent Finlay. “Kent gave me my start in the music business.  Up until the day that he died, we talked about songs and about music,” Rogers says. “We actually named the record, Nothing Shines Like Neon after a lyric in one of his songs as a tribute to him.  Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski are singing on ‘Look Out Yonder’, which was written by Earl Bud Lee, who is most famous for writing ‘Friends In Low Places’. He and I have been friends for 10 years and he has always wanted me to cut that song. I’ve never had a record where it fit and just thinking about losing Kent and Kent going to heaven and joining his mom, ‘Look out yonder coming down the road’ it just fit. I haven’t performed that song yet live, but I know I’m going to have a hard time getting through it.  The day we started our record, I got a call that Kent passed away so this record is definitely dedicated to Kent.  That song makes me think about all of us musicians and how we are crazy as hell and lead the most unorthodox lives. Most of us return back to our roots, so hopefully, this is an album that glorifies Kent’s life and is also a nod to the traditional sounds that we all grew up loving.”

A native of Cleburne, Texas, Rogers grew up addicted to traditional country music. “I wanted to be George Strait when I was in the sixth grade,” he says with a smile. “And I grew up listening to Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, I’ve listened to them more than anybody else, my whole life.  I always liked songs. I always wanted to find out who wrote the songs and what the songs were about.  I always liked the art and the craft of being a songwriter. My dad’s Beatles records got played a lot and Michael Martin Murphy is another one I listened to a lot as a kid. My dad was a huge fan.”

Like many artists, Rogers got his start performing in church and then expanded to local venues.  “I could write a song when I was pretty little, 11, 12, or 13,” he says. “It’s like a kid who could do calculus or something. It was just something that clicked in my brain for me.  I went and finished college and got a degree in public relations and then started a band.”

Since then the Randy Rogers Band has steadily built a following that has spilled beyond their native Texas. For the past 10 years they’ve recorded for Universal Music Group, but on Nothing Shines Like Neon, Rogers again takes the reins, releasing the album on his own Tommy Jackson Records, named after a song he wrote for their very first album. “It’s a very obscure Randy Rogers Band song and to this day there is always this one drunk kid at a show that says, ‘Play “Tommy Jackson!” Play “Tommy Jackson!”’  It’s kind of a running joke within our band. It’s like, ‘How in the hell did this kid in Iowa City, Iowa remember that stupid song “Tommy Jackson?”’  It’s about a guy who is on the run from the cops, wanted for murder.  It’s a story song and we just felt like it was a unique way to name a record label.”

Nothing Shines Like Neon is a stellar collection in an already impressive body of recorded material that owes a lot to the band’s potent live show. “You come to a show, you know what you’re going to get,” Rogers says. “We’ve worked hard at making ourselves better on stage and we care about our live show. It’s a way to come out and unwind, and we’ve stuck to writing songs that are about real life, about breakups or divorces, falling in love or babies being born, and in the case of this record even death, the ups and downs of life. People can relate. That’s what country music is supposed to be.  Our band has been around for a long time because there’s no bullshit to us. We’re not in it to be rich and famous. We’re in it to make a living, provide for our families and do something that we all love.  You can’t fool people and we haven’t ever tried.  I think that’s the key.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

After a 20 year absence from the Billy Bob’s stage, Randy Travis returns in March of 2007.

ABOUT RANDY TRAVIS:

Very few figures in Country Music stand out as signposts along the way, the trendsetters who fearlessly predict and influence the future of the genre. Randy Travis is one of these performers and his impact still reverberates in the modern-vs.-traditional ebb and flow of popular trends.

Blessed with a voice straight from the church altar, Travis immediately reminded fans of Country Music’s roots when his songs came to popular attention for the first time in the mid- 1980s after years of rejection. A soothing salve in the aftermath of “Urban Cowboy,” Travis’ voice helped launch the corrective Neotraditionalist movement with heartfelt Country and gospel songs that sounded so earnest and honest because it turned out the North Carolina- born singer had lived those hard times and sometimes found the redemption he sang about.

Born Randy Traywick on May 4, 1959, in Marshville, N.C., Travis grew up on a rural farm and began performing as a child with his brother Ricky as The Traywick Brothers. Travis often clashed with his father and dropped out of school, getting into scrapes with the law that continued until he won a Country Music singing contest at a club in Charlotte.

Travis moved to Nashville in 1982 to pursue a recording deal. He was hired at The Nashville Palace to sing and cook. After initial failures in North Carolina and Nashville – Travis says he was turned down by every label in town at least once for being too Country – the singer recorded Live at The Nashville Palace and he got a deal with Warner Bros. Records where he was championed and signed by Martha Sharp.

Travis’ first single, “On the Other Hand,” barely registered on the charts in 1985, but the next, “1982,” rose to the Top 10. Warner Bros. re-released “On the Other Hand” and it quickly became Travis’ first No. 1 single, beginning a run of 10 out of 12 chart-toppers. The subsequent album Storms of Life was the first of six straight Platinum certifications for sales in excess of 1 million units and announced Travis as an exciting new voice. He would win the Horizon Award for best new artist at that year’s CMA Awards.

“Forever and Ever, Amen,” the first single from his 1987 album Always & Forever, also went to No. 1 and helped Travis score the first of seven career Grammy Awards. Always & Forever also took Album of the Year at the 1987 CMA Awards and Travis also won Male Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year.

With his next four albums – Old 8×10, No Holdin’ Back, Heroes & Friends, and High Lonesome –Travis would go on to have 16 No. 1 songs, charting more than 50, and selling more than 24 million albums. The singer pursued an acting career in the 1990s and scored several major motion picture and television roles, including “The Rainmaker” with Matt Damon and a run of several “Touched By an Angel” episodes.

Travis turned primarily to gospel music around the turn of the century, giving his career an unexpected boost with the release of iconic single “Three Wooden Crosses” in 2002. The song went to No. 1 on the Country and Christian charts and was the 2003 CMA Awards Song of the Year. Travis earned eight Platinum certifications and four Gold records in his career and is one of Country’s top-selling artists.

The 56-year-old singer’s public performance career was put on hold in 2013 when Travis, who was then living in Texas, suffered a stroke as a result of a viral infection in his heart. With doctors telling the family that hope was virtually lost, he has fought back harder than ever and is now able to walk. His speech and singing continue to improve with hopes of being back in front of his loyal fans one day soon.

He is currently living on his ranch in Texas with his wife Mary Davis-Travis, where he continues physical rehabilitation and has been making special appearances around the country. In May of 2019 Randy released his memoir, “Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith and Braving the Storms of Life” with Ken Abraham. The long-awaited, deeply personal story of one of American music’s greatest icons, a remarkable tale of the utmost heights of fame and success, the deepest lows of life’s sorrows, and a miraculous return from the brink of death—told as only Randy Travis can.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2000, Rascal Flatts debut in December to a crowd of screaming female fans.

ABOUT RASCALL FLATTS:

Hailed as one of the most influential groups in modern country history, Rascal Flatts are a chart-topping trio created by vocalist Gary LeVox, multi-instrumentalist Jay DeMarcus and guitarist Joe Don Rooney. Since their founding in 2000 and subsequent breakout with the Top 5 hit, “Prayin’ for Daylight,” the band has gone on to infuse country’s traditional mainstream with smooth-pop textures, arena-rocking energy and faithful positivity, impacting countless fans and fellow artists along the way. They’ve racked up 17 Number One hits, over 23.4 million albums sold, 35 million digital downloads, 2.2 billion streams worldwide and 4.4 billion streams solely on Pandora, while also selling over 11 million concert tickets and earning more than 40 trophies from the ACA, ACM, AMA, CMA, People’s Choice and more, making them the most awarded country group of the past decade.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On September 11 of 1998 AND 1999, Ray Price performed at Billy Bob’s Texas!

ABOUT RAY PRICE:

Ray Price covered — and kicked up — as much musical turf as any country singer of the postwar era. He was lionized as the man who saved hard country when Nashville went pop, and vilified as the man who went pop when hard country was starting to call its own name with pride. Actually, he was no more than a musically ambitious singer, always looking for the next challenge for a voice that could bring down roadhouse walls.

Circa 1949, Price cut his first record for Bullet in Dallas. In 1951, he was picked up by Columbia, the label for which he would record for more than 20 years. After knocking around in Lefty Frizzell’s camp for six months or so (his first Columbia single was a Frizzell composition), Price befriended Hank Williams. The connection brought him to the Opry and profoundly affected his singing style. After Hank died, Price started stretching out more as a singer and arranger. His experimentation culminated in the 4/4 bass-driven “Crazy Arms,” the country song of the year for 1956. The intensely rhythmic sound he discovered with “Crazy Arms” would dominate his — and much of country in general — music for the next six years. To this day, people in Nashville refer to a 4/4 country shuffle as the “Ray Price beat.” Heavy on fiddle, steel, and high-tenor harmony, his country work from the late ’50s is as lively as the rock & roll of the same era. Price tired of that sound, however, and started messing around with strings. His lush 1967 version of “Danny Boy” and his 1970 take on Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” were, in their crossover way, landmark records. But few of his old fans appreciated the fact. In the three decades following “For the Good Times,” Price’s career was often an awkward balancing act in which twin Texas fiddles were weighed against orchestras.

Born in tiny Perryville, Texas, Price spent most of his youth in Dallas. It was there where he learned how to play guitar and sing. Following his high-school graduation, he studied veterinary medicine at North Texas Agricultural College in Abilene before he left school to join the Marines in 1942. Price stayed in the service throughout World War II, returning to Texas in 1946. After leaving the Marines, he initially returned to college, yet he began to perform at local clubs and honky tonks, as well as on the local radio station KRBC, where he was dubbed the Cherokee Cowboy. Three years later, he was invited to join the Dallas-based The Big D Jamboree, which convinced him to make music his full-time career. Shortly after joining The Big D Jamboree, the show began to be televised by CBS, which helped him release a single, “Your Wedding Corsage”/”Jealous Lies,” on the independent Dallas label Bullet.

Price moved to Nashville to pursue a major-label record contract in 1951. After auditioning and failing several times, Ray finally signed to Columbia Records, after A&R representative Troy Martin convinced the label’s chief executive, Don Law, that Decca was prepared to give the singer a contract. Previously, Law was uninterested in Price — he turned him down 20 times and told Martin never to mention his name again — but he was unprepared to give a rival company a chance at the vocalist. Just before “Talk to Your Heart” became a number three hit for Price in the spring of 1952, Ray met his idol, Hank Williams, who immediately became a close friend. Over the next year, Hank performed a number of favors for Price, including giving him “Weary Blues” to record and helping him join the Grand Ole Opry. Ray also became the permanent substitute for Hank whenever he was missing or too drunk to perform. Following Williams’ death in 1953, Price inherited the Drifting Cowboys.

Following the success of “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” in the fall of 1952, Price was quiet for much of 1953. It wasn’t until 1954 that he returned to the charts with “I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me),” a number two hit that kicked off a successful year for Price that also included the Top Ten singles “Release Me” and “If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will.” Instead of capitalizing on that success, he disappeared from the charts during 1955, as he spent the year forming the Cherokee Cowboys. Over the course of those previous two years, he had realized that performing with the Drifting Cowboys made him sound too similar to Hank Williams, so he decided to form his own group. Originally, most of the members were lifted from Lefty Frizzell’s Western Cherokees, but over the years a number of gifted musicians began their careers in this band, including Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, Buddy Emmons, Johnny Bush, and Willie Nelson.

Ray returned to the charts in 1956, first with “Run Boy” and then with “Crazy Arms,” a driving honky tonk number that immediately became a country classic. The song was one of the first country records to be recorded with a drum kit, which gave it a relentless, pulsating rhythm. Until Price, most country artists were reluctant to use drums and the instrument was even banned from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. The blockbuster status of the single helped change that situation. Spending an astonishing 20 weeks at the top of the country charts, “Crazy Arms” not only crossed over into the lower reaches of the pop charts, but it also established Price as a star. After the success of the single, he remained at or near the top of the charts for the next ten years, racking up 23 Top Ten singles between 1956 and 1966. During this time, he recorded a remarkable number of country classics, including “I’ve Got a New Heartache” (number two, 1956), “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You” (number one, 1957), “Make the World Go Away” (number two, 1963), and “City Lights,” which spent 13 weeks at the top of the charts in 1958.

The momentum of Price’s career had slowed somewhat by the mid-’60s; though he was still having hits, they weren’t as frequent or as big. His musical inclinations were also shifting, bringing him closer to the crooning styles of traditional pop singers. Ray abandoned the cowboy suits and brought in strings to accompany him, making him one of the first to explore the smooth, orchestrated sounds of late-’60s and early-’70s country-pop. While it alienated some hardcore honky tonk fans, the change in approach resulted in another round of Top Ten hits. However, it took a little while for the country audience to warm to this new sound — it wasn’t until 1970, when his cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” hit number one, that he returned to the top of the charts. Over the next three years, he scored an additional three number one singles (“I Won’t Mention It Again,” “She’s Got to Be a Saint,” and “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”).

San Antonio Rose

By the mid-’70s, the appeal of his string-laden country-pop hits had diminished, and he spent the rest of the decade struggling to get into the charts. In 1974, he left his longtime home of Columbia Records to sign to Myrrh, where he had two Top Ten hits over the next year. By the end of 1975, he had left the label, signing to ABC/Dot. Though he hadn’t changed his style, his records became less popular around the same time he signed to ABC/Dot; only 1977’s “Mansion on the Hill” gained much attention. In 1978, he switched labels again, signing with Monument, which proved to be another unsuccessful venture. In 1980, Price reunited with his old bassist Willie Nelson, recording the duet album San Antonio Rose, which was a major success, spawning the number three hit “Faded Love.” San Antonio Rose reignited Ray’s career, and in 1981 he had two Top Ten singles — “It Don’t Hurt Me Half as Bad” and “Diamonds in the Stars” — for his new label, Dimension. Price left Dimension in 1983, signing with Warner Records. He remained at the label for one year, and by that time, his new spell of popularity had cooled down considerably; by now, he was having trouble reaching the Top 40. That situation didn’t remedy itself for the remainder of the decade, even though he signed with two new labels: Viva (1983-1984) and Step One (1985-1989).

Sometimes a Rose

By the late ’80s, Price had stopped concentrating on recording and had turned his efforts toward a theater he owned in Branson, Missouri. For most of the ’90s, he sang and performed at his theater in Branson, occasionally stopping to record. Of all of his ’90s records, the most notable is the 1992 album Sometimes a Rose, which was produced by Norro Wilson. Among his handful of full-length albums during the 2000s, two were collaborations: 2003’s Run That by Me One More Time with Willie Nelson, and 2007’s Last of the Breed with Nelson and Merle Haggard. Both albums appeared on the alt-country label Lost Highway, and the latter also sparked a tour featuring the trio of country heavyweights. In early 2012, Price announced that he had pancreatic cancer, although chemotherapy appeared to be successful and he hoped to return to the road and record an album of love songs dedicated to his wife. He was briefly hospitalized again in May 2013, however, and in December of that year, he entered hospice care. Ray Price died at his home in Texas on December 16, 2013. The album dedicated to his wife, Beauty Is… The Final Sessions, arrived posthumously in 2014.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

A young Oklahoma singer named Reba McEntire opens for Merle Haggard in August of 1981. McEntire was discovered a few years earlier by another Fort Worth favorite, Red Steagall, singing the national anthem in Oklahoma City.

ABOUT RED STEAGALL:

The entertainment career of Red Steagall has covered a period of over 45 years and has spanned the globe from Australia to the Middle East, to South America and to the Far East.  He has performed for heads of state including a special party for President Reagan at the White House in l983, plus three overseas tours to the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, Australia, and South America. As a native Texan, Red Steagall enjoyed a career in Agricultural Chemistry after graduating from West Texas A&M University with a degree in Animal Science and Agronomy.  He then spent eight years as a music industry executive in Hollywood, California and has spent the last thirty-seven years as a recording artist, songwriter, and television and motion picture personality.  He currently ranches outside of Fort Worth, Texas where in addition to his entertainment activities; he is involved in numerous horse related activities.

Although Red Steagall is best known for his wonderful Texas Swing dance music and such songs as “Here We Go Again”, “Party Dolls and Wine”, “Freckles Brown”, and “Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music”, he also is beloved by Texas cowboys for the quiet times they have spent with him around chuck wagon campfires.  In their opinion, the public has never heard Red Steagall’s best music.  And, if you ask Red where his favorite place to play music is, he might say The White House, some famous stage in Nashville, California, Spain, or Germany – or he might say at some lonesome cow camp in West Texas.

Songwriter – Steagall has had over 200 of his compositions recorded both by him and other artists.

Recording Artist – He has recorded 26 consecutive singles that tracked on the national charts and released a total of twenty two albums. Red’s 24th album, CLASSIC RED STEAGALL was released in September, 2014.

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Personal Appearances –

Red Steagall performs in varied venues all across the United States.  He performs either by himself, with an acoustic band, or with an eight piece western swing band.

Television Personality –

Steagall was a regular on the NBC series, Music Country USA; host of two television pilots, (which he produced); numerous appearances on syndicated television shows such as Hee Haw and Nashville on the Road; four years as host of the national televised National Finals Rodeo; host of the Winston Pro Tour on ESPN for the l985 season; numerous television and radio commercials; co-host of the College National Finals Rodeo for the Freedom Sports Network, l988 through l99l.  He is the host and creator of  SOMEWHERE WEST OF WALL STREET televised on RFD TV.​

Radio Host –

In April of l994, Red launched his one hour syndicated radio show, COWBOY CORNER, currently broadcast on over 160 stations in 34 states. COWBOY CORNER celebrates the lifestyle of the American West through the poems, songs and stories of the American cowboy.  It features guest artists such as Reba McEntire, Charlie Daniels, Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black, Barry Corbin, and Buck Taylor, as well as ranching and agricultural notables.

Motion Pictures –

Steagall had a major role in the Disney motion picture, BENJI THE HUNTED that was released in the summer of l987.  He also had a role in the motion pictures, DARK BEFORE DAWN and ABILENE. Red Steagall produced the motion picture, BIG BAD JOHN, starring Jimmy Dean, Jack Elam, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, and directed by Burt Kennedy.

Organization Affiliations –

Original member of the Board of Trustees of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Champions; Honorary Member of the Cowboy Artists of America; Former Chairman of the Board of The Academy of Country Music; Board member of the National Advisory Board of the Ranching Heritage Association; Member of the Board of Directors of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation

In June, 2012, Red Steagall was presented with the Boss of the Plains Award from The National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas.  The Boss of the Plains Award was created in 1999, named for Stetson’s premier Western hat. It recognizes individuals who are highly regarded in their professions and who have provided noteworthy support of the National Ranching Heritage Center. In January, 2015 Red was named by the Fort Worth Farm & Ranch Club as the 2015 recipient of the W. A. “Bill” King Award for Excellence in Agriculture.   The W. A. “Bill” King Award recognizes a business, individual or family which has significantly contributed to agriculture or to the agribusiness industry.

Honors –

In May 2005 the Texas Commission on the Arts named Red the Poet Laureate for the state of Texas for the year 2006.  He was honored in Austin before both the House and the Senate.  In April of 2003, Red was officially inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The men and women honored within the Hall of Great Westerners, the national museum’s highest honor, represent the heart and spirit of western heritage and include such notables as Will Rogers, Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Goodnight and Charlie Russell. Explorers, Native American leaders, writers, poets, statesmen and others who have revered the land, cherished freedom of individuality, inspired their fellow man and found the strength of character to overcome tremendous adversity, find a home within this unique and enduring national memorial.

In 2009 Red launched his television show, IN THE BUNKHOUSE WITH RED STEAGALL, seen on RFD TV.  It ran for four years. His current show on RFD TV is entitled RED STEAGALL IS SOMEWHERE WEST OF WALL STREET.   In January of 2004, Red was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.  He was the recipient of the prestigious Spirit of Texas award.  The Texas State Legislature named Red Steagall the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas in April of l99l. He is also the official Cowboy Poet Laureate of the City of San Juan Capistrano, California.

In December, 2006 Red was presented with the Charles Goodnight Award.  This award is presented each year to an individual, group or institution that personifies the ideals of the Old West and has made noteworthy contributions to the preservation of the Western heritage that has meant so much to the economy and culture of Fort Worth and all of Texas.  In 2005, Red was inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.  In 2006, Red was inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame. In recognition of Red Steagall’s significant contribution to the western way of life, he was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in October 1999. Bronze inlaid markers have been placed throughout the walkway of the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, where Red’s marker proudly joins other inductees like Gene Autry, Charles Goodnight, Quanah Parker, and Roy Rogers just to name a few.​

Red was inducted into the National Cowboys of Color Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.  In August of 2007, Red was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and Tex Ritter Museum in Carthage, Texas.  On April 30, 2006, Red was presented a membership into the Southern Legends Entertainment and Performing Arts Hall of Fame. In August of 2007, Red was inducted into America’s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in Missouri Valley, Iowa.  In 2003, Red was inducted into the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  In 1999, Red was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame in Austin, Texas. In 2011, Red was the recipient of the Charles M. Russell Heritage Award from the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, and in  January, 2016 , Red was named the WESTERN SWING monthly MAN OF THE YEAR “for his stellar and exemplary western lifestyle, his distinct vocals, and western swing phrasing, and for being the role model our nation has long sought”.

Special Awards –

Red Steagall’s music has been the winner of 8 Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.  The first time, for Best Original Music honoring his l993 Warner Western album, BORN TO THIS LAND. In l995 he received the Best Original Music Wrangler for his Warner Western album, FAITH AND VALUES. In 1997 for Best Original Music, his Warner Western album, DEAR MAMA, I’M A COWBOY was recognized. His 4th project with Warner Western, LOVE OF THE WEST, won the Wrangler for Best Traditional Music for 1999. In the fall of 2002, Red released his 20th album, a Western  Jubilee Recording, entitled WAGON TRACKS. This multi-generational journey from the shores of Ireland across frontier America, as told in story and song, received the Wrangler for Best Traditional Music. In April of 2006, Red was presented with another Wrangler award for best original music for his song, HOW GREEN WAS THE GRAZIN’ BACK THEN from his release, THE WIND, THE WIRE AND THE RAIL, from Wildcatter Records.  In 2008, DAWSON LEGATE, from his Wildcatter Record HERE WE GO AGAIN won a Wrangler Award –  Red’s 7th – and in 2009, A COWBOY’S SPECIAL CHRISTMAS from his Christmas CD COW CAMP CHRISTMAS won an 8th Wrangler Award for Red Steagall.

Publications –

In March of 1993, Texas Christian University Press published Red’s first book, entitled RIDE FOR THE BRAND; a 168-page collection of poetry and songs embracing the western lifestyle that Red loves and lives.  The book includes lead sheets and is illustrated by Cowboy Artists of America members, Bill Owen, Fred Fellows, Joe Beeler and Howard Terpning.  Red released his second book, THE FENCE THAT ME AND SHORTY BUILT, in April of 2001. This book of poetry and songs is a 142-page collection of poems and songs, including lead sheets, all written since his first book was published.   In the fall of 2003, Texas Tech University Press released his third book, BORN TO THIS LAND.  This book is a collection of his poetry combined with black and white photographs from Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Skeeter Hagler.   In 2004, Red released his fourth book titled  COWBOY CORNER CONVERSATIONS, published by State House Press, McMurry University.   This is a collection of interviews from his COWBOY CORNER radio show.   These interviews are with folks who everyday, play or who have played, a major part in preserving and perpetuating the history, traditions, heritage, and values of the western way of life.

Special Event –

Each year since 1991, Red has hosted THE RED STEAGALL COWBOY GATHERING in the Stockyards National Historic District of Fort Worth, Texas. This authentic western event, which draws thousands each year, features a ranch rodeo, chuck wagon cookoff, youth poetry contest, youth fiddle contest, youth chuck wagon cookoff, western swing dances, cowboy music and poetry, a trappings show, and horsemanship clinics.

Cowboy Corner Radio Show –

In April of 1994, Red launched his one hour syndicated radio show, COWBOY CORNER, currently broadcast on over 160 stations in 34 states. COWBOY CORNER celebrates the lifestyle of the American West through the poems, songs and stories of the American cowboy.  It features guest artists such as Reba McEntire, Charlie Daniels, Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black, Barry Corbin, and Buck Taylor, as well as ranching and agricultural notables.

Songwriting –

In the spring of 2005, the Grammy awards were handed out for the year 2004.  There were several Grammys awarded for Ray Charles’ last album, GENIUS LOVES COMPANY.  One of the songs on that album, HERE WE GO AGAIN, co-written by Steagall, won record of the year. Ray Charles and Norah Jones were rewarded for vocal collaboration in the pop category, and the album was recognized as album of the year.  The album has currently sold over 3 million copies.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On January 30, 2004, REO Speedwagon made their debut and added their hands to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT REO SPEEDWAGON:

Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early ’80s — Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon — yet all weren’t overnight success stories (in fact, each group began pursuing different musical styles originally — prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers). REO Speedwagon first formed in 1968 via a pair of University of Illinois students, keyboardist Neal Doughty and drummer Alan Gratzer. After graduation, the group signed on with then-unknown manager Irving Azoff (who would later guide the careers of such multi-platinum acts as the Eagles and Steely Dan), which led to the outfit building a devoted following in the Midwest due to nonstop touring. By the early ’70s, Doughty and Gratzer had welcomed aboard guitarist Gary Richrath, who would soon prove to be the group’s spark plug (and one of rock’s more underrated players), in addition to bassist Gregg Philbin and singer Terry Luttrell. This is the lineup featured on the quintet’s 1971 self-titled debut recording for Epic Records.

T.W.O.

The debut failed to break REO through to the mainstream, and the band’s future was thrust into uncertainty shortly thereafter when Luttrell left the group. Newcomer Kevin Cronin got the gig; he was a folksinger/guitarist beforehand, with little to no experience fronting a loud rock & roll outfit. The Cronin-led lineup appeared to be headed in the right direction though, judging from 1972’s R.E.O. T.W.O., but the other members grew impatient with their slow progress toward a commercial breakthrough, and gave Cronin his walking papers. Up next as REO’s frontman was Mike Murphy, whose debut with the band, 1974’s Ridin’ the Storm Out, was their first album to chart on Billboard and spawned a concert standard with the rocking title track. Murphy stayed onboard for a couple of more releases — 1974’s Lost in a Dream and 1975’s This Time We Mean It — but neither managed to push REO to the next level.

R.E.O.

Once more, a frontman change was required, and instead of searching for a fresh new face, REO welcomed back Cronin. The move paid off almost immediately, as REO found their niche by streamlining their sound and focusing on melodic rockers aimed at radio, as well as power ballads aimed at teenage girls’ hearts. Released in 1976, R.E.O. signaled the beginning of the veteran group’s winning streak, as both 1977’s Live: You Get What You Play For and 1978’s You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish were REO’s first to earn gold and platinum certification. Another live album, Live Again, was also issued in 1978, followed up a year later by another gold-certified hit, Nine Lives. Although REO were slowly inching their way to big-time success, no one (not even the band) could have predicted the massive hit that their next album turned out to be, Hi Infidelity. Issued at the tail end of 1980, it became one of 1981’s biggest albums — spawning one of the best-known power ballads of all time, “Keep on Loving You,” as well as such popular rock radio hits as “Don’t Let Him Go” and “Take It on the Run.” Hi Infidelity would eventually go on to sell more than nine million copies — catapulting REO to arena-headlining status.

Good Trouble

REO Speedwagon continued to score further hit albums (1982’s Good Trouble, 1984’s Wheels Are Turnin’) and singles (“Keep the Fire Burnin’,” the number one hit power ballad “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” etc.), but the hits dried up shortly thereafter. Issued in 1987, Life as We Know It managed to go gold, but their fans’ sudden disinterest coupled with turmoil between certain bandmembers led to the exit of both Richrath and Gratzer by the end of the decade. REO opted to soldier on, however, with replacement members Dave Amato (ex-Ted Nugent, guitar) and Bryan Hitt (ex-Wang Chung, drums) in tow, as their 14-track 1988 compilation The Hits proved to be a steady seller over the years. Further underappreciated studio releases followed, such as 1990’s The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken and 1996’s Building the Bridge. With interest at an all-time low, REO were set to pack it up for good until a sudden wave of renewed interest in classic rock bands of yesteryear began to sweep the U.S. during the late ’90s, resulting in REO launching successful co-headlining tours alongside such acts as Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bad Company, among others.

The Second Decade of Rock and Roll, 1981-1991

The ’90s saw the emergence of countless REO compilations, including such titles as The Second Decade of Rock n’ Roll: 1981 to 1991, Only the Strong Survive, The Ballads, and a specially priced three-disc set of Live: You Get What You Play For, You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish, and Hi Infidelity. Additionally, further in-concert releases cropped up — Live: Plus, Extended Versions, and a 2001 live set, Arch Allies: Live at Riverport, split 50/50 between REO and touring mates Styx. In a 2001 episode of VH1’s Behind the Music series that focused on REO Speedwagon, Cronin and Richrath cleared up any misconceptions of ill will existing between either camp and voiced approval of a possible reunion in the future.

Find Your Own Way Home

When REO returned to the studio later in the 2000s, however, it was without Richrath. Find Your Own Way Home, the band’s first studio album of new songs in more than ten years, featured Cronin along with founding member Neal Doughty on keyboards, longtime bassist Bruce Hall, and ’80s additions Amato and Hitt. This lineup also released an unabashed record of Christmas songs in 2009, titled Not So Silent Night. Richrath died in September 2015 at the age of 65. REO Speedwagon continued to tour in the back half of the 2010s, often teaming up on bills featuring Styx and Chicago. Hi Infidelity received a diamond certification from the RIAA in 2017.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On February 9, 1991, Restless Heart cemented their hands onto the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT RESTLESS HEART:

John Dittrich, Greg Jennings, Paul Gregg, Dave Innis, and Larry Stewart – the men who make up Restless Heart have enjoyed one of the most successful careers in Country Music history, placing over 25 singles on the charts – with six consecutive #1 hits, four of their albums have been certified Gold by the RIAA, and they have won a wide range of awards from many organizations – including the Academy of Country Music’s Top Vocal Group trophy.

Audiences have sung along with their record-shattering string of hits, such as “Wheels,” “I’ll Still Be Loving You,” “Fast Movin’ Train,” “Why Does It Have to be Wrong or Right,” “That Rock Won’t Roll,” “The Bluest Eyes In Texas” and “When She Cries.”

Stewart says it’s humbling to know Restless Heart has made an impact. “I’m proud of the fact that we get to hear stories from young artists and musicians that we might have made an impression or inspiring them to come to town – having number one records and hearing the stories of what they meant to people. To know that you have been a part of something that made a difference, the power of music, the power of a song. To be a part of something that made a mark. However big or small of a mark Restless Heart made, it’s still a mark. To be able to appreciate and feel blessed that we got lucky enough to get together. I feel like it was something that was meant to be.”

Restless Heart – Thirty Five Years and Those Musical “Wheels” are Still Going Strong!

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On September 23, 1995, Rhett Akins made his Billy Bob’s debut and cemented his hands onto the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT RHETT AKINS:

Rhett found his way to a professional music career when Decca Records (which had been reactivated then) heard one of his demos. He dropped his first album, A Thousand Memories, in 1995. The record was critically acclaimed and produced four chart singles including his first No. 1 hit, “That Ain’t My Truck,” which he also co-wrote. The song has since become Rhett’s signature song but his success story was just getting started. The following year he released Somebody New which produced another No. 1 hit, “Don’t Get Me Started.”

Overall Rhett has had an extremely impressive career. He’s not just been a successful solo artist, he’s also written chart-toppers for some big names. Rhett has had 31 No. 1 singles (and counting), which is remarkable! Some of them include, Luke Bryan’s “I Don’t Want This Night to End and Huntin’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day,” Chris Young’s “I Can Take it From There,” Justin Moore’s “Point at You,”, Dustin Lynch’s “Mindreader” and Locash’s “I Know Somebody”. Rhett’s also responsible for Blake Shelton’s “All About Tonight,” “Boys ‘Round Here” and “Honey Bee,” the latter of which spent a total of four weeks at No. 1. His Jason Aldean cuts include “When She Says Baby,” “Just Gettin’ Started” and “Tonight Looks Good on You.” He had another three week No. 1 with Thomas Rhett’s “It Goes Like This.” He also wrote TR’s “Get Me Some of That” and “Star Of The Show” which was co-written with, Thomas Rhett and their first No. 1 together. In 2017, John Pardi’s “Dirt On My Boots” went No.1, and later that year, Dustin Lynch’s “Small Town Boy” spent 4 weeks at #1 on Billboard. Rhett celebrated with Thomas Rhett and fellow co-writers his 29th number one, “Life Changes” in 2018, and his 30th #1 within the summer of 2019, “Look What God Gave Her”. In November of 2019, Rhett celebrated his 31st #1 with Brantley Gilbert’s “What Happens In A Small Town”.

This impressive list hasn’t gone unnoticed in the music industry. Rhett has been the recipient of renowned awards and titles. In 2010, Rhett was named the No. 4 Billboard Country Songwriter. The following year, BMI named him Songwriter of the Year. He won it again in 2014. His song “Honey Bee” became the highest-selling digital debut by a country male solo artist. His biggest accomplishment, though, maybe winning the CMA Triple Play award a total of seven times! The award is presented to a songwriter who penned three No. 1 singles in 12 months and he won it in October 2010, January 2012, February 2014, February 2015, February 2016, February 2017, and again in February 2018! In April 2018 Rhett was named Songwriter of the Year and in September 2019 names the first Songwriter of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music.

Rhett Akins has already achieved so much as both an artist and a songwriter, but he’s not done yet.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On November 4, 2011 Billy Bob’s Texas welcomed a true icon – 2010 NASCAR Hall of Famer “The King” Richard. Mr. Petty was in town for the races at Texas Motor Speedway.

ABOUT RICHARD PETTY:

Petty came from a racing family; his father, Lee Petty, also raced stock cars. The elder Petty was a three-time winner of the Grand National Cup as well as founder of Petty Enterprises racing team. Richard joined NASCAR as a driver in 1958, and in 1959 he accumulated nine top-10 finishes and was named Rookie of the Year. In February 1960 he earned his first victory in Charlotte, North Carolina. He won his first Daytona 500 (NASCAR’s most prestigious event) in 1964 and also claimed his first Grand National Cup. The following year NASCAR introduced new rules that made Petty’s Plymouth 426-inch hemispherical-head engine illegal. Disappointed, Petty left stock-car racing and spent a year on the drag-racing circuit. He returned to NASCAR in 1966 and the following year enjoyed the best single-season performance by any stock-car racer, speeding to a record 27 first-place finishes and earning his second Grand National Cup.

Driving his familiar number 43 blue-and-red car with the STP logo, Petty continued to collect victories in the 1970s, taking Winston Cup titles in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, and 1979. His success could be attributed to his intelligent driving and the mechanical expertise of the entire Petty team (brother Maurice built the engines; cousin Dale Inman built the cars). The team also became known as innovators, credited with introducing roll bars, nylon window screens, cooled helmets, and two-way radios to stock-car racing.

Petty retired in 1992, having raced in 1,184 NASCAR events, winning 200 of them. He took first place in the Daytona 500 in 1964, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, and 1981. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997, and he was part of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010. His son Kyle and grandson Adam also raced in NASCAR series.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Former General Hospital star and “Jessie’s Girl” rocker Rick Springfield debuts at Billy Bob’s and rocks an enthusiastic crowd in the February of 2008.

ABOUT RICK SPRINGFIELD:

Although Rick Springfield’s music was frequently dismissed as vapid teen idol fare, his best moments have actually withstood the test of time far better than most critics would ever have imagined, emerging as some of the most well-crafted mainstream power pop of the 1980s. A singer-turned-soap opera star-turned-singer, Springfield was born Richard Springthorpe on August 23, 1949 in Sydney, Australia to a father in the military; the family moved around Australia and England a great deal during Springfield’s childhood, and he sought his escape from the difficulty of making friends in books and music. He formed a band in high school and eventually joined a ’50s revival group called Rock House, moving on from there to join the teeny bopper band Zoot in 1968. Zoot became one of the most popular groups in Australia until 1971, scoring several hits. Springfield went solo after the breakup and garnered his first U.S. success the following year with a re-recording of his Australian hit “Speak to the Sky”; the song reached number 14 in the U.S. but would prove to be his last major success for quite some time. Subsequent ’70s albums stiffed, and record company difficulties prevented Springfield from recording after 1976.

In the meantime, Springfield had begun taking acting classes. He signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1980 and appeared on several television programs. Although Universal dropped him shortly thereafter, he was able to secure a recording contract with RCA on the strength of his demos; in the midst of recording his debut for the label, he was signed to play the young, eligible Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital in 1981. Springfield’s popularity skyrocketed, setting the stage for the release of Working Class Dog later that year. Powered by the classic single “Jessie’s Girl,” which eventually hit the top of the charts, and the Top Ten follow-up “I’ve Done Everything for You,” Working Class Dog was a smash success, and Springfield eventually returned to his first love, music, when concerts conflicted with his television career. The follow-up, Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, was released in 1982, spawning the Top Ten smash “Don’t Talk to Strangers.” 1983’s Living in Oz offered more of the same, including the Top Ten “Affair of the Heart,” although it betrayed signs that the gears were beginning to wear down on the Springfield machine.

He made the leap to the big screen in 1984 with Hard to Hold, which was much more successful at the box office than with critics; the soundtrack spawned his last Top Ten hit to date, “Love Somebody.” His career seemed to bottom out afterward, although he recorded several more albums in the ’80s, and continued to land television roles into the ’90s. In 1999, Springfield returned with a new album, Karma. Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance and Day After Yesterday followed in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2007, Springfield released the holiday-themed Christmas with You, along with the Early Sound City Sessions collection. The following year, a live DVD documenting his ultra-popular ’80s concerts (Beat of the Live Drum) was issued, as well as an album of all-new material, Venus in Overdrive. A year later, he released the children’s album My Precious Little One: Lullabies for a New Generation. In 2012, he returned to major labels, signing with Universal’s Hip-O for a new album called Songs for the End of the World.

In early 2013, Springfield’s profile got a boost when he appeared in Dave Grohl’s documentary Sound City, in which Springfield spoke of his experiences recording at the California studio that gave the film its name. Springfield also appeared on the film’s companion album, Sound City: Real to Reel, performing the song “The Man That Never Was” with members of Grohl’s band the Foo Fighters. Springfield looked back at his career on an album of songs and stories, 2015’s Stripped Down, but the record was overshadowed by his acclaimed performances in the second season of True Detective and, especially, his role in Jonathan Demme’s Ricki & the Flash, where he held his own with Meryl Streep. Next up was the February 2016 release of Rocket Science, a studio album that featured songwriting collaborations with Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts and Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady. Springfield returned in January 2018 with Snake King, a heavy blues album for Frontiers. In an unconventional move, he turned next to symphonic music, adapting an album’s worth of his best-known songs for strings and brass on 2019’s Orchestrating My Life. Two years later, he released the accompanying concert LP Orchestrating My Life: Live.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

“Learning As You Go” singer Rick Trevino once came in second in a talent contest at Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT RICK TREVINO:

During the mid-’90s, Rick Trevino emerged as one of the first popular Hispanic singers in country music since the mid-’70s, when Freddy Fender and Johnny Rodriguez were having hits. Beginning with “She Can’t Say I Didn’t Cry” in 1994, Trevino racked up several hits over the next few years with his Garth Brooks-inspired blend of new country and album rock.

Trevino was born into a musical family — his father was a member of a local Tejano group. Both of his parents fostered his musical interests, and as a child, he listened to a variety of music, including Tejano, country, classical pianist Van Cliburn, and mainstream pop/rockers like Elton John and Billy Joel. Soon, he was taking classical piano lessons and studying the clarinet. After graduating from high school, he was offered a baseball scholarship to Memphis State University, but he declined the offer to study music.

Dos Mundos

In 1993, he released his first album, the Spanish-language Dos Mundos. It was accompanied by a single release of “Just Enough Rope,” which was released in English, Spanish, and a bilingual version; it was the first traditional country single to be released in both Spanish and English. The English version was a moderate hit, reaching number 44. In 1994, Trevino released an eponymous album, which featured English versions of most of the songs from Dos Mundos, plus a few new cuts. Rick Trevino became a hit, producing the Top 40 “Honky Tonk Crowd” and the Top Ten singles “She Can’t Say I Didn’t Cry” and “Doctor Time.”

Looking for the Light

Trevino’s second album, Looking for the Light, was released in 1995; it was accompanied by a Spanish version. Like its predecessor, Looking for the Light was a hit, albeit not as big as the debut — it only spawned one Top 40 hit, the number six “Bobbie Ann Mason.” Learning as You Go, Trevino’s third album, was released in 1996; Changing in Your Eyes followed two years later, and Mi Son was released in spring 2001.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Alan Jackson performs a free showcase show on the Honky Tonk Stage for his label, Arista Records. Ricky Van Shelton headlined the main stage.

ABOUT RICKY VAN SHELTON:

Ricky Van Shelton was one of country music’s biggest male stars during the late ’80s and early ’90s, prior to the emergence of crossover sensations like Garth Brooks. Van Shelton’s smooth baritone croon made him especially popular as a country-pop ballad stylist, but elsewhere he incorporated elements of rock, gospel, and classic honky tonk. Van Shelton was born in Danville, VA, in 1952 and grew up in the small town of Grit. He learned to sing at church and discovered country music as a teenager, performing at local gatherings whenever he could. After high school, he played the area club circuit and worked a series of day jobs, and in late 1984 he finally made the move to Nashville to make it in the business. He performed in nightclubs until a local newspaper columnist heard his demo and helped arrange a showcase that landed Van Shelton a deal with CBS in 1986.

Wild-Eyed Dream

Van Shelton released his debut album, Wild-Eyed Dream, in 1987, and his first-ever single, “Crime of Passion,” hit the country Top Ten. Its follow-up, “Somebody Lied,” went all the way to number one; so did the album, and so did another single, “Life Turned Her That Way.” Van Shelton quickly recorded a follow-up album, Loving Proof, which appeared in 1988 and also topped the country charts; it spun off three number one hits in “I’ll Leave This World Loving You,” “From a Jack to a King,” and “Living Proof,” while “Hole in My Pocket” made the Top Five. While readying his third proper album, Van Shelton also completed two specialty projects: the 1989 holiday album Ricky Van Shelton Sings Christmas and the 1990 gospel record Don’t Overlook Salvation. Meanwhile, his official follow-up to Loving Proof, RVS III, was released in 1990 and became his third number one album. “I’ve Cried My Last Tear for You” gave him another number one single, while “I Meant Every Word He Said” and “Statue of a Fool” both topped out at number two; “Life’s Little Ups and Downs” also made the Top Five. In 1991, Van Shelton teamed up with Dolly Parton for the chart-topping duet “Rockin’ Years” and subsequently issued another album, Backroads. Though it just missed the top of the country charts, Backroads kept his hit streak going strong, producing two more number ones in “Keep It Between the Lines” and “I Am a Simple Man” (giving him a total of nine) and a number two hit in the title track.

Greatest Hits Plus

Musical tastes can shift quickly, and by the time Van Shelton conquered the alcohol abuse that had begun to take a toll on his personal life, Garth Brooks was completely altering the contemporary country landscape. To hold fans over, he released Greatest Hits Plus in 1992, and its newly recorded track, “Wild Man,” hit the Top Five. He returned in 1993 with A Bridge I Didn’t Burn, but the album didn’t spawn any huge hits, as had been expected; it went gold, but it was the only Van Shelton album to date that ultimately failed to go platinum. 1994’s Love and Honor continued his commercial downturn, and tensions with Columbia led Van Shelton to part ways with his label a couple years later. He busied himself with, among other projects, a series of children’s books centered around the character Quacker the Duck that he’d begun several years earlier. He also formed his own label, RVS, and recorded an album on his own called Making Plans, which he distributed via an exclusive agreement with the Wal-Mart store chain in 1997. The following year, Vanguard stepped in to give the record a wider release. Van Shelton subsequently signed with the Audium label, home to many veteran country artists, and recorded a new album, Fried Green Tomatoes, in 2000.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Ricky Skaggs was one of the first artists to play when Billy Bob’s opened, he made his debut on July 1, 1981. He then cemented his hands on March 11, 1989.

ABOUT RICKY SKAGGS:

A life full of music. That’s the story of Ricky Skaggs. By age 21, he was already considered a “recognized master” of one of America’s most demanding art forms, but his career took him in other directions, catapulting him to popularity and success in the mainstream of country music. His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.

Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 50 years ago, and this 15-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. With 12 consecutive Grammy-nominated classics behind him, all from his own Skaggs Family Records label (Bluegrass Rules! in 1998, Ancient Tones in 1999, History of the Future in 2001, Soldier of the Cross, Live at the Charleston Music Hall, and Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe in 2003, Brand New Strings in 2005, Instrumentals in 2007, Salt of the Earth with The Whites in 2008, Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947 in 2009 and Ricky Skaggs Solo: Songs My Dad Loved along with Mosaic in 2010), the diverse and masterful tones made by the gifted Skaggs come from a life dedicated to playing music that is both fed by the soul and felt by the heart.

Ricky was born on July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, and received his first mandolin at the age of five after his father, Hobert, heard him harmonizing with his mother from across the house as he played with his toys. Two weeks after teaching him the G, C and D chords, Hobert returned from working out of town shocked to see his young son making chord changes and singing along. He soon earned a reputation among the locals in his community. When the legendary Bill Monroe came to Martha, Kentucky for a performance, the crowd wouldn’t let up until “Little Ricky Skaggs” got up to play. The father of bluegrass called six-year-old Skaggs up and placed his own mandolin around his neck, adjusting the strap to fit his small frame. No one could have imagined what a defining moment that would be in the life of the young prodigy. By age seven, Skaggs performed with bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs on their popular syndicated television show, for which he earned his first paycheck for a musical performance.

In 1971, he entered the world of professional music with his friend, the late country singer, Keith Whitley, when the two young musicians were invited to join the band of bluegrass patriarch Ralph Stanley. Ricky soon began to build a reputation for creativity and excitement through live appearances and recordings with acts such as J. D. Crowe & the New South. He performed on the band’s 1975 debut album for Rounder Records, which is widely regarded as one of the most influential bluegrass albums ever made. A stint as a bandleader with Boone Creek followed, bringing the challenges of leadership while giving him further recording and performing experience.

In the late 1970s, Ricky turned his attention to country music. Though still in his 20s, the wealth of experience and talent he possessed served him well, first as a member of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band and later as an individual recording artist on his own. With the release of Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine in 1981, Skaggs reached the top of the country charts and remained there throughout most of the 1980s, resulting in a total of 12 #1 hits. In 1982, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, the youngest to ever be inducted at that time. As his popularity soared, he garnered eight awards from the Country Music Association (CMA), including “Entertainer of the Year” in 1985, four Grammy Awards, and dozens of other honors. These achievements also placed him front and center in the neo-traditionalist movement, bringing renewed vitality and prominence to a sound that had been somewhat subdued by the commercialization of the ‘Urban Cowboy’ fad. Renowned guitarist and producer, Chet Atkins, credited Skaggs with “single-handedly” saving country music.

In 1997, after Ricky’s then-current recording contract was coming to an end, he decided to establish his own record label – Skaggs Family Records. Since then, Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder have released an amazing 12 consecutive Grammy-nominated classics, (8 of which went on to earn the revered award) while also opening the label to a variety of other musical artists, all the time keeping emphasis on bluegrass and other forms of roots music. Ricky and Skaggs Family Records have had the privilege of working with many musical talents including The Del McCoury Band, Jerry and Tammy Sullivan, Blue Highway, The Whites, Mountain Heart, Melonie Cannon, Ryan Holladay, Keith Sewell, Cherryholmes, and Cadillac Sky.

Ricky’s first release for Skaggs Family Records, Bluegrass Rules!, set a new standard for bluegrass, breaking new sales records in the genre, winning Skaggs his sixth Grammy Award, and earning the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Album of the Year Award. In 1999, his second all-bluegrass album, Ancient Tones, won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album – his second consecutive Grammy in that same category. Just one year later, Ricky won his eighth Grammy Award in the Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album category for Soldier of the Cross, his first all-gospel recording project.

Ricky made further progress with the release of his fourth bluegrass album in 2000, Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe, a project which featured an all-star cast of musicians ranging from Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and Travis Tritt to Joan Osborne, John Fogerty and Bruce Hornsby, and celebrated the music and the life of Ricky’s mentor, Bill Monroe. Big Mon received much critical acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The album was re-released by Lyric Street Records in 2002 under a new name, Ricky Skaggs and Friends Sing the Songs of Bill Monroe. His fifth bluegrass album, History of the Future (2001), a timeless collection of both traditional bluegrass standards and newly conceived acoustic gems received rave reviews and industry accolades, including a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album and an IBMA nomination for Album of the Year, once again placing Skaggs among the leading innovators in the genre.

Skaggs’ first all-live album with Kentucky Thunder, Live at the Charleston Music Hall (2003), led to an IBMA Award for Instrumental Group of the Year – an award Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder has taken home 8 times in the last decade. The decision to record a live album was an obvious one for Skaggs. From a string of high-profile tour dates with the Dixie Chicks in 2000, to his position as host of the unprecedented “All*Star Bluegrass Celebration” which aired nationwide on PBS in 2002, to his participation in the wildly successful 41-city ‘Down from the Mountain’ tour – Ricky has become one of bluegrass’ most dynamic and sought-after live performers. Live at the Charleston Music Hall was honored in 2004 with a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group for the Harley Allen-penned track, “A Simple Life.”

He counts the current configuration of Kentucky Thunder among the best group of musicians he has ever worked with. “This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Ricky says. “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show…and that, to me, outweighs any award we could ever win.” The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Paul Brewster (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), Russ Carson (banjo), Jake Workman (lead guitar), Mike Barnett (fiddle), Dennis Parker (baritone vocals, guitar) and Jeff Picker (bass, bass vocals).

In 2005, Ricky earned his 10th career Grammy (Best Bluegrass Album) for Brand New Strings – a beautiful collection of music featuring four Skaggs originals as well as several tunes by some of his most admired contemporaries, including Harley Allen, Guy Clark, and Shawn Camp. In 2006, Skaggs was honored with a Grammy Award – this time in the Best Musical Album for Children category – for his contribution to Songs from the Neighborhood: the Music of Mister Rogers. Greater success followed with the release of Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Instrumentals, an album of all-original, all-instrumental material in Fall 2006. Praised by fans and critics alike as a landmark album for Skaggs, Instrumentals debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s bluegrass album chart and earned Ricky his 12th career Grammy Award (Best Bluegrass Album).

Cross pollination has been a mainstay throughout Ricky’s career, from his weekly collaborations with various artists as host of The Nashville Network’s Monday Night Concerts in the 1990’s to his recent pairings with Bruce Hornsby and The Whites. Released in March of 2007, Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby (Sony/Legacy) drew from the deep roots in mountain music – adding piano and Hornsby’s inimitable songwriting to the core bluegrass lineup of mandolin, guitar, bass, fiddle, and banjo. A major CMT Crossroads special coincided with the album’s release.

His next recorded project, released in September of 2007 on Skaggs Family Records, was a literal family affair. After years of blending their voices from the living room to the stage, Ricky Skaggs and The Whites teamed up for their first collaborative gospel album, Salt of the Earth, which resulted in a 13th career Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album, followed by a Gospel Music Association Dove Award for Bluegrass Recorded Album of the Year and Inspirational Country Music Awards for Musician of the Year as well as Mainstream Country Artist of the Year and Inspirational Bluegrass Artist of the Year (with The Whites).

In 2008, Skaggs paid tribute to the man he has often referred to as his “musical father”, Bill Monroe, and the original lineup of the Bluegrass Boys (Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise and Howard Watts) with the release of Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947, earning a 14th career Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

A musical father in his own right, Skaggs continues on the full circle path with the addition of a ReIssue Series of his groundbreaking country music masterworks to the Skaggs Family Records catalog in 2009. Beginning with 1982’s Highways & Heartaches, and followed by 1981’s Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine and 1983’s Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown, the ReIssue Series will include nine albums total and includes bonus retrospectives with each release, which feature Ricky, in his own words, sharing never-before-told stories about the making of each project.

Skaggs’ first-ever solo album, Ricky Skaggs Solo: Songs My Dad Loved (2009), celebrated the man that caused him to fall in love with music – his father, Hobert Skaggs. He elaborates, “If I could’ve gotten my dad into the studio, this is how I would’ve wanted him to sound.” Playing every instrument and singing every note on the album, Ricky brought raw, emotional honesty to the songs. By coming home to the music that meant so much to him as a child, Ricky tapped into a wellspring of passion that he channeled into every tune, as though he willed himself back to his family’s house in Kentucky. Solo was honored in the American roots field with a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2010.

Ricky Skaggs’ album, Mosaic (2010), marked a return to a full band sound that mixed elements of Country music with Beatles-esque melody and lyrics that spoke to Skaggs’ faith, making “music that is in my head and in my heart,” as Ricky said. Grammy winning songwriter/producer Gordon Kennedy, who co-wrote Eric Clapton’s “Change the World,” was instrumental as co-producer and writer. This most special album hooks the heart, as the sounds invite you in to take notice and come closer. They have blended their talents and love of music with their love for the Lord to create this distinctive collaboration of writing and talent, unparalleled in strength of genius. The song, “Return to Sender” from Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy for Best Gospel Song, and the album was a contender for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards, receiving major critical acclaim.

Marking Ricky’s 50th year in music was the release of Country Hits Bluegrass Style (2011), a compilation of many of Skaggs’ #1 country hits and fan favorites, played in a bluegrass style. Combining his country and bluegrass roots along with Ricky’s impeccable tenor voice, his eight time IBMA Instrumental Band of the Year, Kentucky Thunder, and some of Ricky’s original award-winning country band alumni together with special friends added to the magic of this album.

Long awaited by country and bluegrass music fans alike, Music To My Ears (2012) includes fresh new bluegrass tunes co-written by Skaggs along with a brand new instrumental. Many bluegrass standards are incorporated and add to its charm. The album features a duet with Ricky Skaggs and Barry Gibb (of Bee Gees fame) on deeply moving “Soldier’s Son,” along with new bluegrass treasure “You Can’t Hurt Ham,” inspired by a true story of Mr. Bill Monroe.

In 2013, music legends Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby came together again for a live album, titled Cluck Ol’ Hen. Bluegrass treasures and lively expanded hits wait to be discovered on this fresh collection of songs from the masterful duo of Skaggs and Hornsby. These live songs were originally recorded when the two music icons first hit the tour circuit together. Hornsby’s spirited piano brings a new dimension to these songs, with electrifying solos and improvisation thrown in the mix of Skaggs, Hornsby and Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder.

With the release of Hearts Like Ours (2014), a dream came true for Ricky Skaggs and his wife, celebrated artist Sharon White of The Whites. Previously in 1987 the pair won a CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award for “Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This,” but White was touring with her family band and Skaggs was on fire with his solo career, so releasing a full project wasn’t possible at the time. This first-ever studio album is produced by Skaggs and White and features the couple dueting on handpicked country love songs.

As a musician, Skaggs is a brilliant traditionalist but is also willing to mix genres, recording and touring with many different artists such as Bruce Hornsby and Ry Cooder. With dates in 2015, Ry Cooder, Sharon White and Ricky Skaggs embarked upon the critically acclaimed ‘Cooder-White-Skaggs – Songs for the Good People’ tour that featured the trio singing gospel, blues and country along with superior musicianship. Backing the trio was Mark Fain on bass, Ry’s son Joachim Cooder on drums, with Sharon’s father Buck White on piano and sister Cheryl White’s harmony vocals. Stops crossing the country included Berklee Performance Center in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York, with tour dates continuing into 2016. Most recently, Skaggs has added Country tour dates as he plugs in and plays full shows of his chart-topping hits.

Skaggs also demonstrates wizardry in the studio, producing not only his records but sets from acts such as The Whites and Dolly Parton, as well as the recent Love Remains disc from Hillary Scott & The Scott Family, which won him his 15th Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album as a producer.

2018 was a stellar year for Skaggs, with the addition of three more Hall of Fame inductions: the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, IBMA’s Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and country music’s greatest honor, the Country Music Hall of Fame. Along with his three previous inductions into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame, all six awards display his ability to masterfully cross genres with versatility in styles and instruments.

The year 2020 saw Ricky receiving what his mother always wanted him to; his high school diploma. The school, Lawrence County High School in Louisa, Kentucky, bestowed upon him an honorary diploma for all of his work in music, even though it was just a little bit later than when his mother would have imagined it, almost 50 years later! Ricky says, “It was an amazing surprise and answered prayer of my mom. She wanted me to graduate before I went full time with Ralph Stanley on the road.”

Also in 2020, Ricky was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts for his contributions to the American music industry. It is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. As a virtuoso of the mandolin and fiddle, Ricky Skaggs creates and produces bluegrass music that preserves the musical legacy of the most talented artists of his generation.

Ricky Skaggs has often said that he is “just trying to make a living” playing the music he loves. But it’s clear that his passion for it puts him in the position to bring his lively, distinctively American form of music out of isolation and into the ears and hearts of audiences across the country and around the world. Ricky Skaggs is always forging ahead with cross-cultural, genre-bending musical ideas and inspirations.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 15, 1995, Ricochet cemented their hands on our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT RICOCHET:

In 1996 the members of country super group Ricochet watched their debut single, “What Do I Know”, rise to the Top 5 earning the band the honor of the highest-charting debut single of the year. The follow up single release, “Daddy’s Money”, became an immediate across the board hit, rising to #1 on the Radio & Records Country Singles Chart, the Gavin Country Singles Chart, and the Billboard Country Singles Chart (where it stayed #1 for two consecutive weeks). The band’s distinctive musical style and intricate harmonies earned them recognition as one of the most popular vocal groups in country music, a mantle they still wear today

Now, more than fifteen years later, “The Hardest Working Band In Country Music” is still going strong. The band continues to create great country music, sung with the distinctive harmonies that are their hallmark. They log thousands of miles on the road each year thrilling audiences of all ages across the United States and abroad.

Ricochet is:
Heath Wright – Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar & Fiddle (and Dough Bro, that’s the guy that hands out the money at the end of the night!)
Chris Hempfling – Drums & Vocals (and lead whistler)
Steve Hamby -Bass Guitar & Vocals (backup whistler)
Larry Hight -Steel Guitar, Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Saxophone & Vocals (and “old-man noises”)
Matt Harelik -Keyboards, Trumpet & Vocals (auxiliary percussion and occasional Jews Harp)
• Ricochet’s debut single, “What Do I Know”, was the highest-charting debut single of 1996 rising to #3 in R&R and #5 in Billboard. The follow-up release, “Daddy’s Money”, was #1 in R&R, Billboard, Gavin, and Country Network.

• Recognized as one of Country Music’s hardest working groups, Ricochet has performed thousands of shows over the past 15+ years and they continue to perform to sold-out venues all over North America.

• Ricochet is the only country artist to ever chart our National Anthem and is in constant demand to perform it live. They have performed the anthem for our men and women in uniform, at NASCAR Sprint Cup Events, at Major League Baseball Events, at National Football League Events, at National Hockey League Events, at PBR and PRCA Professional Rodeo Events, and other national events.

• In addition to eight nationally broadcast, high rotation music videos, Ricochet has made repeated national network television appearances including The Tonight Show, Prime Time Country, The Grand Ole Opry, Crook & Chase, The CMA Awards, The ACM Awards, The CCMA Awards, Speedvision, and many others.

• Ricochet has headlined 2 USO Tours: Operation Season’s Greetings 2000 to Japan and Korea, and Operation Season’s Greetings 2001 which took the group to Spain, Sicily, Germany, Macedonia, Turkey, and Portugal to perform for the men and women of our Armed Services.

• In 2009, 2010, and 2011, Ricochet performed in Washington DC at the annual ceremony to present the Grateful Nation Award, established in 2003, to six young heroes chosen from each of the five branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Special Operations Command. The award, presented by JINSA, recognizes these young servicemen and women for having distinguished themselves through superior conduct in the War on Terrorism.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2001, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers added their hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS:

They weren’t brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (both born in 1940) were most definitely righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the term “blue-eyed soul” in the mid-’60s. The white Southern California duo were an established journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable hits of the 1960s, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” The collaboration soon fell apart, though, and while the singers had some other excellent hit singles in a similar style, they proved unable to sustain their momentum after just a year or two at the top.

When Medley and Hatfield combined forces in 1962, they emerged from regional groups the Paramours and the Variations; in fact, they kept the Paramours billing for their first single. By 1963, they were calling themselves the Righteous Brothers, Medley taking the low parts with his smoky baritone, Hatfield taking the higher tenor and falsetto lines. For the next couple of years they did quite a few energetic R&B tunes on the Moonglow label that bore similarity to the gospel/soul/rock style of Ray Charles, copping their greatest success with “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” which became a garage-band favorite covered by Mitch Ryder, the Kingsmen, and others.

Even on the Moonglow recordings, Bill Medley acted as producer and principal songwriter, but the duo wouldn’t break out nationally until they put themselves at the services of Phil Spector. Spector gave the Wall of Sound treatment to “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” a grandiose ballad penned by himself, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. At nearly four minutes, the song was pushing the limits of what could be played on radio in the mid-’60s, and some listeners thought they were hearing a 45 single played at 33 rpm due to Medley’s low, blurry lead vocal. No matter; the song had a power that couldn’t be denied, and went all the way to number one.

The Righteous Brothers had three more big hits in 1965 on Spector’s Philles label (“Just Once in My Life,” “Unchained Melody,” and “Ebb Tide”), all employing similar dense orchestral arrangements and swelling vocal crescendos. Yet the Righteous Brothers-Spector partnership wasn’t a smooth one, and by 1966 the duo had left Philles for a lucrative deal with Verve. Medley, already an experienced hand in the producer’s booth, reclaimed the producer’s chair, and the Righteous Brothers had another number one hit with their first Verve outing, “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.” Its success must have been a particularly bitter blow for Spector, given that Medley successfully emulated the Wall of Sound orchestral ambience of the Righteous Brothers’ Philles singles down to the smallest detail, even employing the same Mann-Weil writing team that had contributed to “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” It’s a bit of a mystery as to why the Righteous Brothers never came close to duplicating that success during the rest of their tenure at Verve. But they would only have a couple of other Top 40 hits in the 1960s (“He” and “Go Ahead and Cry,” both in 1966), even with the aid of occasional compositions by the formidable Goffin-King team. In 1968 Medley left for a solo career; Hatfield, the less talented of the pair (at least from a songwriting and production standpoint), kept the Righteous Brothers going with Jimmy Walker (who had been in the Knickerbockers).

Medley had a couple of small hits in the late ’60s as a solo act, but unsurprisingly neither “brother” was worth half as much on their own as they were together. In 1974 they reunited and had a number three hit with “Rock and Roll Heaven,” a tribute to dead rock stars that some found tacky. A couple of smaller hits followed before Medley retired from performing for five years in 1976. The Righteous Brothers continued to tour the oldies circuit off and on in the 1980s and 1990s. It was while on one of these tours that Bobby Hatfield died suddenly on November 5, 2003.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Riley Green played Billy Bob’s two nights in a row, he sold out one of the nights and cemented his hands in concrete before the Saturday night show.

ABOUT RILEY GREEN:

Born in Jacksonville, Alabama, Riley Green was raised on the sounds of traditional Country, Bluegrass, and Southern Gospel music. He learned the spirit of songwriting and performing at a young age while spending time with his grandfather, Bufford Green, who ran the Golden Saw Music Hall. Riley shared the stage with him and other men of his generation, laying a foundation for the songs he’d craft in the years to come. The chart-topper just released his full-length debut album DIFFERENT ‘ROUND HERE via BMLG Records, which has already produced a No. 1 hit “There Was This Girl.” Highlighting his Southern roots and relatability, he co-wrote each track offering a perspective Rolling Stone describes as “Drinks-in-the-air Nineties country at an Alabama vs. Auburn tailgate.” The 14-track project was recorded alongside producer Dann Huff and executive producer Jimmy Harnen and features his new single “I Wish Grandpa’s Never Died” – a song People praised “might take him to a whole new stratosphere,” and one he shares co-writing credits posthumously alongside his two grandfathers. Named an “Artist To Watch” by Rolling Stone Country, Taste of Country, Whiskey Riff, Sounds Like Nashville, and iHeartRadio – Green was also selected as a CMT “Listen Up Artist” and MusicRow 2019 “Next Big Things.” Recently wrapping Brad Paisley’s 2019 WORLD TOUR, he is currently headlining his GET THAT MAN A BEER TOUR and will also join Jon Pardi’s HEARTACHE MEDICATION TOUR throughout the fall.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

May 23, 1997 Ringo starr announces from the stage “I’ve been on the Ed Sullivan Show and I’ve played Shea Stadium…but now I’ve finally clinched it…I’m at Billy Bob’s!”

When Ringo came to perform at BBT, he was so excited to show off his collection of ‘western’ shirts to Pam and Billy Minick.

ABOUT RINGO STARR:

“Ultimately what’s most impressive about Ringo Starr isn’t what he’s been, but rather who he is,” wrote Rolling Stone rock critic David Wild. “The man’s great heart and soul, his wit and wisdom.” Indeed, his music has always emanated from his warmth, humor, and exceptional skill, manifesting in songs we know and love: With A Little Help From My Friends, Don’t Pass Me By, Octopus’ Garden, Photograph, It Don’t Come Easy, Back Off Boogaloo, You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine), Don’t Go Where the Road Don’t Go, The No No Song, and Never Without You, to name a few. Since beginning his career with The Beatles in the 1960s, Ringo has been one of the world’s brightest musical luminaries. He has enjoyed a successful, dynamic solo career as a singer, songwriter, drummer, collaborator, and producer – releasing 18 solo studio albums to date. He is also an acclaimed actor appearing in over 15 films. Drawing inspiration from classic blues, soul, country, honky-tonk and rock ‘n’ roll, he continues to play an important recording, touring, and unofficial mentoring role in modern music.

Born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940 “at a very young age” he knew from very early on what he wanted to do. “When I was 13, I only wanted to be a drummer,” remembers Ringo. Four years later, he joined the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Band, and in 1959 hooked up with the Raving Texans, who later became Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Just three years after that, Ringo was asked to join The Beatles. Worried that he might cost the Hurricanes a summer-long residency if he left, he delayed his departure until they could find a replacement. On August 18, 1962, Ringo Starr officially joined Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison in what would become one of the most important popular music acts of all time, or as Ringo says, “the biggest band in the land.”

In 1970, EMI released Ringo’s first solo album, Sentimental Journey. It was exactly that: a record of the music he’d grown up with and which remained close to his heart. (He later said, “I did it for my Mum.”) Ringo followed up a year later with Beaucoups Of Blues, a country and western album recorded in Nashville with Pete Drake in just two days. That same year, The Beatles disbanded.

But Ringo’s passion for creating music continued to propel him and those around him forward. In 1971, he began his unprecedented run as the first solo Beatle to score seven consecutive Top 10 singles, starting with “It Don’t Come Easy.” His second hit single, “Back Off Boogaloo” followed in 1972, and was written with and inspired by T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan. Ringo released his eponymous smash hit album in 1973. It yielded three Top 10 singles, including the #1 hits “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful And You’re Mine). The album Ringo also marked the first time since The Beatles’ break-up that all 4 band members participated in the same project (though not at the same time).

The 1970’s also saw Ringo expand on his film career, which began in the 1960’s with The Beatles films, Hard Days Night in 1964, Help! In1965 followed by Magical Mystery Tour in 1967. In 1968 he starred in Candy and in 1969 he co-starred opposite friend Peter Sellers in the critically acclaimed Magic Christian. In 1970 the documentary Let It Be was released, and in 1971 Ringo starred in Blindman. In 1974 he joined his best friend Harry Nilsson in The Son of Dracula, narrated Harry’s animated film The Point and appeared in Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels. In 1973 he co-starred as a Teddy Boy in That’ll Be The Day, in 1975 in Ken Russell’s Lisztomania and in 1976 joined The Band for their legendary final concert filmed by Martin Scorcese, The Last Waltz.

Between 1974 and 1978, Ringo released such hits as the Top 10 singles “Only You (And You Alone)” and “The No No Song,” and the albums Goodnight Vienna (1974), Blast From Your Past (1975), Rotogravure (1976), Ringo The 4th (1977), and Bad Boy (1978), which was complemented by a television special, Ognir Rats, with Art Carney, Angie Dickinson, Carrie Fisher and Vincent Price. In 1979 he appeared in the documentary on The Who, The Kids Are All Right and in 1981 Ringo starred in Caveman, where he met and soon married his beautiful co-star Barbara Bach. “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her getting on the plane, and I’ve been blessed that she has loved me since.” That same year he recorded Stop and Smell the Roses, his most critically acclaimed record since Ringo, followed two years later by Old Wave, for which he teamed up with producer Joe Walsh of The Eagles. In 1984 he appeared in Paul McCartney’s film Give My Regards To Broadstreet. A hits collection, Starr Struck: The Best Of Ringo Starr, Vol. 2, was released in 1989.

In 1989 Ringo assembled his first All Starr Band and he found consistent success as a live act with his revolving All Starrs. “I got asked if I’d be interested in putting a band together,” Ringo would later recount. “I had been thinking the same thing, and so I went through my phone book, rang up a few friends and asked them if they’d like to have fun in the summer.” Those friends included Joe Walsh, E-Streeters Clarence Clemmons and Nils Lofgren, former Band members Rick Danko and Levon Helm, Dr. John, Billy Preston, and Jim Keltner. The tour met with great success, yielding his first live album, Ringo and His All Starr Band, in 1990. “I’ve said this over and over again,” Ringo remarked, “but I love being in a band.”

The 1990s saw some of the best records of Ringo’s career. In 1992, he released Time Takes Time, which The New York Times hailed as “Starr’s best: more consistently pleasing than Ringo, it shows him as an assured performer and songwriter.” Later that year, Ringo put together his second All Starr Band, featuring Zak Starkey (his son), Burton Cummings, Dave Edmunds, Nils Lofgren, Todd Rundgren, Timothy B Schmidt, and Joe Walsh. It marked the first time Ringo had toured Europe since his Beatles days. The band’s second incarnation also yielded a new concert album, Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band – Live From Montreaux. The third All Starr Band toured the U.S. and Japan in 1995, again featuring Zak Starkey, as well as John Entwistle, Felix Cavaliere, Mark Farner, Billy Preston, Mark Rivera and Randy Bachman; Ringo Starr and His Third All Starr Band, Vol. 1 was release in 1997. The fourth band — with Gary Brooker, Jack Bruce, Peter Frampton, Simon Kirke and Mark Rivera — toured the U.S. and Europe, and with them Ringo became the first former Beatle to play in Russia.

1998 brought the release of Vertical Man, recorded with Mark Hudson, and the first collaboration between Ringo and “the Roundheads.” It was one of his strongest records, due largely to his deep involvement as drummer, singer, co-writer, and co-producer. He followed with an appearance at NYC’s Bottom Line and on VH1’s “Storytellers.” 1999 began with the creation of the 5th All Starr Band, consisting of Gary Brooker, Jack Bruce, Timmy Cappello, Simon Kirke and Todd Rundgren. In October that year, Starr released the irrepressibly festive holiday album I Wanna Be Santa Claus, mixing classics like “The Little Drummer Boy” with originals like the title track. The 6th All Starr Band was launched in 2000 and featured Jack Bruce, Eric Carmen, Dave Edmunds, Simon Kirke and Mark Rivera touring the U.S. together. The following spring, Ringo put together the 7th band, including the first female All Starr, Sheila E, as well as Greg Lake, Roger Hodgson, Ian Hunter, Howard Jones and Mark Rivera. He celebrated more than a decade of All Starr tours with the release of Ringo and His All Starr Band: The Anthology, So Far.

In 2003, The Roundheads launched the release of Ringo Rama with another impromptu Bottom Line performance. 2003’s 8th group of All Starrs — Paul Carrack, Sheila E., Colin Hay, Mark Rivera and John Waite — hit the road, their tour resulting in another live album, Ringo Starr and His All Star Band: Tour 2003 and DVD. “If you look at all the bands I’ve put together, it’s an incredible array of musicians, all these different people,” Ringo said of the All Starr experience. “Everyone has hit records, hit songs. The show consists of me up front and then I go back behind the kit and support the others. It’s just good music and I’m having a lot of fun and that’s what it’s all about – great music and fun.”

Genesis Publications printed a limited edition 2004 run of Ringo’s book, Postcards From The Boys, the proceeds of which went to the Lotus Foundation charity. He described it as “a presentation of postcards John, Paul and George have sent me over the years. What’s incredible about them is that some are actual art pieces.” His Choose Love album, full of inspired songs of innocence and experience, was released in 2005. Two years later, Capitol/EMI Music Catalog Marketing released the first-ever career and label-spanning collection of Ringo’s best solo recordings, PHOTOGRAPH: The Very Best Of Ringo Starr, featuring 20 standout tracks released between 1970 and 2005.

Ringo released Liverpool 8, his first new album with Capitol/EMI since 1974’s Goodnight Vienna, in 2008. He co-wrote its 12 original tracks, recording them in the UK and California, and the title track became the first in a series of autobiographical songs. That summer, he toured with his 10th All Starr Band — Gregg Bissonette, Colin Hay, Billy Squier, Hamish Stuart, Edgar Winter, and Gary Wright, across the U.S. and Canada, winding up at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles with a show recorded and later released as a live DVD by UMe. That summer also launched a tradition of celebrating his birthday, July 7, in and with the public and a global call to action for to say, think or do “Peace & Love” at Noon your local time, the birthday wish being a moment of “Peace & Love” would spread around the world. The first event occurred outside the Hard Rock Café in Chicago.

Y NOT, the first album Ringo himself produced, came out in 2010, showcasing collaborations with old and new friends, Paul McCartney among them. Their duet and the album’s stunning first single, “Walk With You,” served as a moving tribute to the power of friendship. Ben Harper also sang on the album, his band supporting Ringo on a promotional tour for the release. Ringo received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and launched a tour with his 11th All Starr Band: Gregg Bissonette, Rick Derringer, Wally Palmer, Richard Page, Edgar Winter, and Gary Wright. Over the following year, the band would tour the US, Canada, Europe and Latin America. On July 7, 2010 Ringo celebrated another “Peace & Love” birthday with family, friends and thousands gathered outside the Hard Rock Café in Times Square, New York City. The following year, while on tour with All Starrs, Ringo held a “Peace & Love” birthday event outside the Hard Rock Café in Hamburg Germany.

Ringo 2012, again produced by its namesake, featured 9 tracks, including new versions of “Wings,” and “Step Lightly.” In June that year, Ringo assembled His 12th All Starr Band — Gregg Bissonette, Richard Page, Steve Lukather, Mark Rivera, Gregg Rolie and Todd Rundgren — who would, by 2013, tour through the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and South America. The live DVD Ringo at the Ryman was recorded with this band as well, on Ringo’s birthday, July 7, 2012. Earlier they all convened for a moment of “Peace & Love” in front of the Hard Rock Café Nashville.

In June 2013, The GRAMMY Museum opened “Ringo: Peace & Love,” a record-breaking undertaking that drew more than 120,000 visitors and was the first major exhibit to focus on a drummer. In September 2013 Ringo was awarded the prestigious French Medal of Honor, being appointed Commander of Arts & Letters in recognition of his musical and artistic contributions.

December 2013 saw the publication of Photograph, a limited edition collection of never-before-seen material, including Ringo’s photos and exclusive images from his own personal archives, was published that December. It featured over 300 photos and 15,000 words of text.

On January 20, 2014 Ringo Starr’s musical legacy was celebrated when The David Lynch Foundation honored him with the ‘Lifetime of Peace & Love Award’. The event included star-studded tributes to Ringo’s extensive catalog that was broadcast on AXS July 13, 2014. Participating artists included Joe Walsh, Ben Harper, Ben Folds, Brendan Benson, Bettye LaVette, The Head & The Heart and Jesse Elliot and Lindsey McWilliams of Ark Life, with an equally stellar backing band featuring Don Was, Benmont Tench, Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather and Kenny Arnoff.

January 26, 2014 saw Ringo perform his song “Photograph” on the GRAMMYS, followed by him jumping on the kit during his old band mate, Paul McCartney’s performance. Ringo and Paul then performed together again the following evening, this time playing several songs for the Emmy Award-nominated taping of CBS’ “The Beatles, A Grammy Salute; The Night That Changed America,” celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their first U.S. visit and appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was broadcast on the exact anniversary, February 9, and aired again February 12. It has also been broadcast internationally.

In February 2014, Simon & Shuster published “Octopus’s Garden”, a children’s book based on Ringo’s lyrics. That summer Ringo took the 12th All Starr Band back out on the road, adding another leg in October 2014. “I just love this band and I’m doing anything to keep it together – we keep looking for places we haven’t played yet and we’ll end up playing clubs,” Ringo joked with reporters when the band launched the summer dates in June 2014.

In July 7, 2014 Ringo celebrated his birthday with his traditional Peace & Love event at Capitol Records in LA, this time joined by John Varvatos who revealed Ringo would be the model for his 2014 Fall Fashion Advertising campaign, coupled with a social media initiative, #PeaceRocks that raised funds and awareness for the David Lynch Foundation via The Ringo Starr Peace & Love Fund. “I’ve waited a long time to become a male model,” Ringo said with a laugh, “and what a great way to do it – all for a good cause.

In March 2015 Ringo released “Postcards From Paradise” (UMe) featuring 11 original tracks and his very first single written and recorded with his All Starr Band, “Island In the Sun”. “I have tried for 25 years from the first All-Starr band to get us to write songs and record. It’s just something that I’ve wanted to do,” Ringo explained. “the song started as a jam at a soundcheck. We all wrote it and we all played on it, and it’s the first time ever!”

In April 2015 he was inducted by Paul McCartney into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist for Musical Excellence, performing his songs with Paul, Joe Walsh and Green Day. In July Ringo returned to Capitol Records for his 75th birthday joined by family, friends and gathered fans for a special “Peace & Love” celebration. In September 2015 Ringo’s book Photograph was released worldwide in a mass hardcover edition, and in October 2015 Ringo and the All Starrs went back out on the road performing 21 shows in 31 days throughout North America.

Throughout his career he has received 9 Grammys, has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first as a Beatle and then as solo artist. Between 1970 and 2015 Ringo has released 18 solo studio records. He has acted in over 15 films, received an Academy Award, and was nominated as an actor for an Emmy. Ringo has published three books; had a stint as a male fashion model and that same year went behind the lens for the Foo Fighters PR shots.

For all his many creative successes, Ringo is and always will be first and foremost a musician, a drummer. Ringo’s candor, wit and soul are the lifeblood of his music. As he sang on the autobiographical Liverpool 8, “I always followed my heart and I never missed a beat.” Peace and love are his life’s rhythm and melody, and he propels this universal message in everything he does: his evocative artwork, his enthused live performances, his legendary songs, all imbued with the joy, reflection, and wisdom of the music icon the world knows and loves simply as ‘Ringo.’

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Robert Earl Keen starts the year out with the band in January of 1999 when he hits the second-highest tally for beer sales with 14,700.

ABOUT ROBERT EARL KEEN:

“The road goes on forever …”

It’s not always easy, to sum up a career – let alone a life’s ambition – so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen’s calling-card anthem just about do it. You can complete the lyric with the next five words – the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night (“and the party never ends!”) – just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it’s the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of what makes Keen tick. Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.

Now three decades on from the release of his debut album – with nineteen records to his name, thousands of shows under his belt and still no end in sight to the road ahead – Keen remains as committed to and inspired by his muse as ever. And as for accruing recognition, well, he’s done alright on that front, too; from his humble beginnings on the Texas folk scene, he’s blazed a peer, critic, and fan-lauded trail that’s earned him living- legend (not to mention pioneer) status in the Americana music world. And though the Houston native has never worn his Texas heart on his sleeve, he’s long been regarded as one of the Lone Star State’s finest (not to mention top-drawing) true singer-songwriters.

He was still a relative unknown in 1989 when his third studio album, West Textures, was released – especially on the triple bill he shared at the time touring with legends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark – but once fellow Texas icon Joe Ely recorded both “The Road Goes on Forever” and “Whenever Kindness Fails” on his 1993 album, Love and Danger, the secret was out on Keen’s credentials as a songwriter’s songwriter. Keen was at the forefront of the burgeoning Americana music scene. Bolstered by AAA radio stations across the country and magazines like No Depression, Keen was embraced as one of its prime movers. Little wonder, then, that when the songwriter-revering “Americana” style was officially recognized by the industry in 1998, Keen was the genre’s first artist to be featured on the cover of the radio trade magazine Gavin. By the end of the decade, Keen was a veritable household name in Texas. A dozen years later, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame along with the late, great Van Zandt and his longtime friend from Texas A&M, Lyle Lovett.

Keen has been involved in many benefits and charity events for communities in his home state of Texas. He had the honor of performing with fellow superstars George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, and Lyle Lovett on the Hand in Hand benefit telethon which raised more than $55 million for hurricane relief efforts in Texas. Keen was also featured on a benefit concert hosted by the five former presidents of the United States in 2017. Add that to his legendary status in the lone star state, and it is no wonder REK was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

The recognition of his legendary career doesn’t stop there. In March 2015, Robert Earl Keen was distinguished as the first recipient of BMI’s official Troubadour Award. The Troubadour Award celebrates songwriters who have made a lasting impact on the songwriting community. The award honors writers who craft for the sake of the song and set the pace for generations of songwriters who will follow. To protect songwriters, Keen was a member of the delegation that lobbied US Congress to support musicians’ rights, specifically the “Fair Pay for Fair Play Act” which was promoted to the Music Modernization Act that passed in October of 2018. Keen’s career proves him to be a true trailblazer.

Robert Earl Keen’s philanthropic and charity work, along with his legendary music career lead him to be presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas A&M University in the fall of 2018. Awarded jointly by the university and The Association of Former Students, this honor recognizes those Aggies who have achieved excellence in their chosen professions and made meaningful contributions to Texas A&M University and their local communities.

Also taking notice of Keen’s contributions, The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inducted Robert Earl Keen into their 2019 class. This is the highest honor bestowed on individuals who have shown excellence in competition, business, and support of rodeo and the western lifestyle in Texas. The Hall of Fame honored Keen for his prolific music career and charitable acts, presenting him with The Rick Smith “Spirit of Texas Award,” celebrating the achievements and uniqueness of Texans. Keen joins a prestigious list of other Hall of Fame members which includes Willie Nelson, George Strait, Lyle Lovett, Tommy Lee Jones, Red Steagall, Tuff Hedeman, Pat Green, and Clay Walker.

Troubadour Robert Earl Keen has made many meaningful contributions in both his surrounding Texas communities and in the music industry nationwide. As more projects and opportunities come down the pike, and as Keen continues to tour extensively with his veritable band, one thing remains the same: Robert Earl Keen loves what he does.

“It’s just like, man, I’m lucky to still be hanging out here and doing this,” he says. “I feel like everything came full circle in a wonderful way.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

October 16, 2020, Roger Creager cemented his place here at The World’s Largest Honky Tonk.

ABOUT ROGER CREAGER:

Roger Creager is an adventurist; he does not like to sit still while the world passes by. Whether it’s climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, jumping off his boat to snorkel with wild dolphins, snow skiing in the Rockies, catching tuna 100 miles from shore, piloting his airplane to far-off concerts, spear-fishing around oil rigs, scuba diving coral reefs, surfing in Costa Rica, or playing music through the Italian countryside, he tries to get the most out of what the world has to offer. All of this finds its way into Roger’s music and live shows. His passion for life invigorates everyone around him including his fan base. Those who get hooked on his charisma and high energy come back show after show, year after year, and record after record.

Roger is very fortunate that his music career allows him this lifestyle. But he gives it back by putting his life experiences and his infectious high energy and zeal for adventure right back into his songwriting and performances. Creager may travel the world, but he never strays far from his small-town South Texas roots and his music encompasses all of him.

The new EP “Gulf Coast Time” is certainly a slice out of Creager life. Roger grew up outside of Corpus Christi and has always maintained a love of saltwater. Whether he’s happy, sad, bored, or just in need of inspiration, you can bet this artist will be somewhere breathing sea air.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 20, 1991, Roger Miller rocked out on the main stage and got to add his hands to the “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT ROGER MILLER:

Roger Miller was more than just a honky-tonk man and singer. He was also a songwriter, a guitarist and fiddler, a drummer, a T.V. star, a Broadway composer, and perhaps, above all else, one of the wittiest personalities in Country music.

Roger Dean Miller was born on January 2, 1936, in Fort Worth, Texas, and was the youngest of three boys. When he was only a year old, Roger’s father, Jean Miller, died of spinal meningitis when only 26. Laudene Holt Miller, Roger’s mother, was already struggling to care for three children by herself during the Great Depression. Unable to provide for her children, Jean’s three brothers came, and each took one of the boys to live with them.

Armelia and Elmer Miller took Roger with them to a farm on the outskirts of Erick, Oklahoma. He would later joke about how the town was “so dull you could watch the colors run” and was “so small that the town drunk had to take turns.”

Jokes aside, Roger had a difficult childhood. Most days were spent picking cotton. He was lonely and unhappy, never accepting or understanding the separation from his mother. While walking three miles to his one-room school, he started to compose songs.

“There’s a picture on the wall,
It’s the dearest of them all, Mother.”

Roger painted a somewhat more humorous picture of his school days. “The school I went to had 37 students,” he would say, “me and 36 Indians. During recess, we would play cowboy and Indians, and things got pretty wild from my standpoint.”

Every now and then, Roger would let down his guard to comment on how lonely he was a child. “I was one of those kids that never had much to say, and when I did, it was wrong. I always wanted attention, always was reaching and grabbing for it.”

Roger was a dreamer, and his heart was never in picking cotton or working on a farm. “It’s a good thing that he made it in the music business, ’cause he would have starved to death as a farmer,” Sheb Wooley would say.

Sheb Wooley was an Erick native who married Roger’s Cousin, Melva Laure Miller. Sheb would take Roger out to fix the fencing, chase steers, and talk about stardom. They would listen to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights and the Light Crust Doughboys on Fort Worth radio by day. Wooley bought Roger his first fiddle and taught him chords on a guitar. While Roger idolized Bob Wills and Hank Williams, Wooley represented the world of show business that Roger wanted.

Eager to follow in Sheb’s footsteps, Roger started running away while still in high school. Going from town to town through Texas and Oklahoma, he would take whatever work he could find by day and haunt the honky-tonks by night. His drifting came to an abrupt halt when he stole a guitar in Texas and crossed back into Oklahoma. Roger had wanted a guitar so desperately to write songs, and that seemed the only way.

Roger turned himself in the next day. Rather than putting him in jail, they offered to let him join the Army. Although he was only 17, he chose to go into the service. Before long, he was shipped to Korea, where he coined one of his favorite one-liners: “My education was Korea, Clash of ’52.”

Though homesick, Roger’s world was starting to grow. Towards the end of his tour with the Army, he was stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. Assigned to Special Services, he joined the Circle A Wranglers and played the fiddle.

After he was discharged from the Army, Roger headed to Nashville to see Chet Atkins. Once there, he told Chet that he was a songwriter. Chet asked him to play something. Seeing that Roger didn’t have a guitar, Chet loaned him his. Roger was so nervous about playing in front of him that he proceeded to play in one key and sing in another. Thankfully, Chet was kind about it and suggested that Roger work on his songs a little more.

Needing to work while he was pursuing his dream, Roger took a job as a bellhop at the Andrew Jackson Hotel. Situated in the thick of Nashville’s music district, the Andrew Jackson gave him proximity to the vibrant Country scene. Roger soon became known as the ‘Singing Bellhop’. He would sing to anyone who would listen on the way up or down the elevator.

Roger’s first break came when he was hired to play fiddle in Minnie Pearl’s road band. His second break came when he met George Jones at the WSM radio station one night and played him some of his songs. Jones introduced Roger to Don Pierce and Pappy Daily of Mercury-Starday Records and asked them to listen to Roger’s material. Auditioned at the Andrew Jackson Hotel, Roger impressed the Mercury-Starday group enough to be granted a session in Houston.

George Jones and Roger rode to Texas together and wrote songs along the way. They co-authored “Tall, Tall Trees”, recorded by Jones in 1957, and “Happy Child”, which Jimmy Dean recorded in 1957. Roger also recorded some of his own songs, including the honkey-tonk weeper “My Pillow” and “Poor Little John”. In October of 1957, he and Jimmy Dean were paired together on the first single of Roger’s career.

The Mercery-Starday record went nowhere, but Roger continued to work for them. The Mercury-Starday record went nowhere, but Roger continued to struggle away, writing for Starday and recording mail order sound-a-like records of other artists’ hits.

Roger was married to Barbara at this time. He was expecting his first child, Alan, and considered getting out of the music business entirely. He decided to move back to Amarillo and joined the fire department. Roger worked all day and sometimes into the night before going to the clubs and singing after work. There was little time for sleep in his life. During his time with the fire department, there were only two fires. One was a chicken coop, and the second one he slept through. The department suggested that he seek other employment after that.

Thankfully, Roger met Ray Price at a show in Amarillo, Tx. Several months later, Ray hired him to replace the singer, Van Howard, in the Cherokee Cowboys. Roger moved his family back to Nashville, along with the newly written song “Invitation to the Blues”. Somehow, Roger managed to get the piece to Arizona Cowboy, Rex Allen, who recorded it for Decca in 1958. When the song became popular, Roger suggested that Ray Price release a cover of it. Bill Anderson’s “City Lights” was paired with “Invitation to the Blues”, the album became a #3 hit.

Before the Price record gave him writer’s credentials, Roger had already signed a songwriting deal with Tree Publishing for $50 a week. Buddy Killen helped handle Tree’s daily affairs; soon, the two began a life long friendship.

With Buddy Killen plugging his songs, Roger started to write hits for other artists. Ernest Tubb took “Half a Mind” to #8 while Faron Young was in the Top Ten with “That’s the Way I Feel”. Jim Reeves had #1 hit with “Billy Bayou” and a #2 hit with “Home”.

Roger became a hit songwriter in the late 1950s, but he was also as undisciplined as he was talented. Ernest Tubb wrote the last verse of “Half a Mind” because Roger couldn’t sit down long enough to do it.

Roger also had a habit of giving away lines to other writers. Bill Anderson said, “He’s the one that came up with the line in my song ‘Po’ Folks’- If the wolf had ever come to our door, he’d have had to brought a picnic lunch.’ He never let me put his name in the song”. Buddy Killen remembers how songwriters in Nashville would follow Roger around for sayings. “Everything he said was a potential song. He spoke in songs,” Killen said.

Buddy Killen managed to land Roger a record with Decca Records in 1958. In September of that year, Roger cut a duet with Donny Little (later known as Johnny Paycheck). Three months later, Little sang uncredited harmony on Roger’s “A Man Like Me” and “The Wrong Kind of Girl”. However, just like his Mercury-Starday single, the Decca record flopped. Roger’s second Decca single was another matter. While side A was typical Nashville country/pop, side B showed what Miller’s style would eventually be.

Roger spent his royalty earnings before he had earned them and needed to take road work where he could. Though he remained great friends with Ray Price, he left the Cherokee Cowboys early. Ray was relieved since Roger’s unique style drove him crazy. Roger soon found work with Faron Young as a drummer, playing with him for around a year. During that time, Faron Young recorded Roger’s song “A World So Full of Love”.

While still drumming for Faron, Roger Signed a deal with RCA’s Nashville office, run by guitar legend Chet Atkins. As a producer, Chet Atkins played a significant role in defining the soft-edged country style that was to be known as the ‘Nashville sound’. When Buddy Killen brought Chet Atkins Roger’s new song “You Don’t Want My Love”, Buddy suggested that Roger cut the piece himself. Chet agreed, and on August 10, 1960, Roger recorded the song. “You Don’t Want My Love” (later to be known as “In The Summer Time”) took off, reaching #24 on the country charts, and later covered by Any Williams. The record gave Roger the fame he needed to hit the road as a solo act.

Less than a year later, Roger broke into the Top Ten with “When Two Worlds Collide”, written together with Bill Anderson while en route to Texas. Peaking at #6, “When Two Worlds Collide” proved to be the high point of Roger’s RCA career. “Lock, Stock, and Teardrops” was another ballad written by Roger, later to be sung by K. D. Lang.

Like his previous songwriting accomplishment of the late 1950s, Roger’s success on RCA proved to be a deceptive measure of his career advancement. His royalties were used to payback Tree Publishings advances, and gigs paid only in the $150 to $225 range. His first marriage, which had given him three children, was falling apart. His extracurricular habits had earned him the reputation as Nashville’s ‘Wild Child’. In November of 1963, RCA dropped Roger.

Roger was beginning to doubt that he could ever make a decent living with Country music; his only ray of hope lay in the glow of the television spotlight. In 1962, Jimmy Dean was guest-hosting on The Tonight Show when he invited Roger to be on the program. He was a hit. Roger sang “I Hold My Pants Up with A Piece of Twine”, a parody of “I Walk The Line”. Appearances on other shows soon followed near the end of 1963. Roger began to think that he might have a better shot at stardom on T.V. instead of on the radio. Thinking he would have better luck starting his acting career in California, Roger began to figure out how to finance the move. Around the same time, Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, began taking pop radio by storm.

Smash Records went into business in February 1961, headed by Charles Fash. Having produced hits such as Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby” and the Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back”, they were eager to expand with other artists. In 1963, the label signed on Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, and Roger Miller.

Roger lucked into being signed by Smash Records when Charles Fash and Lou Green, an executive at Mercury Records, attended an annual disc jockey convention in Nashville. While having dinner with Shelby Singleton, head of the Mercury office in Nashville, Roger walked into the restaurant with Buddy Killen. Shelby Singleton was the one who suggested that they sign Roger on, and in less than a minute, Roger was part of Smash Records.

Needing funds to move to California, Roger went to Fash and asked if they would give him $1,600. Charles agreed, but with the understanding that Roger would record sixteen songs at a rate of $100 per piece. Roger began recording with Smash Records on January 10, 1964, cutting “Ain’t That Fine” by Dorsey Burnette, “Why”, and his song “Less and Less”. After only a few hours of sleep, Roger and the production crew gathered at the studio the next morning to record the rest of the songs that would pay for Roger’s move to California.

Roger brought twelve of his songs with him, with his first song being “Chug-a-Lug”. “Chug-a-Lug” set the tone of what would turn out to be an important day in Country music history. Roger managed to cut fifteen of the sixteen songs in just two days. Of all the songs recorded that day, “Dang Me” stood out the most. Roger wrote the song in four minutes while in a Phoenix hotel room, picturing himself sitting in a booth at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

Roger pocketed $1,500 and headed to California, where he moved into an apartment above Lee Hazelwood’s garage. “Dang Me” was such an original song that it became a hit pop song right away; by June, it was topping Pop and Country charts.

With his career taking off, Roger moved out of his apartment and hit the road. In the summer of 1964, Roger worked a San Francisco T.V. show. In June, he embarked on a ten-day ‘TV-DJ tour of the midwest.’ In August, Roger stopped in Nashville long enough to record “Reincarnation” and “Hard Headed Me”. Later in the year, he performed three live recordings for Smash Records.

By September of 1964, “Chug-a-Lug” replaced “Dang Me” in the charts. Concerned about offending the Country audience, Smash Records initially balked at releasing “Chug-a-Lug” as a single. At one point, an alternative version of “Chug-a-Lug” was recorded, with the word ‘wine’ edited out. Thankfully, both the college crowd and the country fans loved the song.

Roger recorded “Do Wacka Do” in October, followed by “King of the Road” on November 3, 1964. During the summer, Roger was on the road outside of Chicago when he saw a sign that read ‘Trailers for Sale or Rent’. He began writing the first draft to “King of the Road”, though he got no further than the first verse. In Boise, Idaho, Roger noticed a hobo statue in an airport gift shop and bought it in hopes of finding inspiration for the rest of the lyrics. It was all he needed to finish writing the song. “King of the Road” took almost six weeks to write, much longer than the four minutes he spent on “Dang Me”.

“King of the Road” was released in early 1965 and took off as fast as “Dang Me” had. In March, the single hit #1 on Country charts and stayed there for five weeks, and it also hit #4 on the Pop charts. “King of the Road” was certified Gold, having reached a million copies sold.

The song “Dang Me” hadn’t been forgotten, though. On April 13, Roger won his first five GRAMMYs, including the award for ‘Best New Country and Western Artist’.

By the summer of 1965, Roger was officially a music star. The first royalty check he received from Tree Publishing was for $160,000. Buddy Killen remembered Roger crying when he found out. His personality was also well known, with his quick one-liners and unique songs filling air time on the radio. Life Magazine called him a ‘cracker-barrel philosopher’, while Time Magazine said he was the ‘unhokey Okey’. In February of 1966, Roger made the Saturday Evening Post cover, featuring a piece on the big boom in country music. Journalists loved him for his endlessly quotable sayings. After all, who could resist a chart-topping Oklahoma boy who called his music’ depressive jazz’.

Roger wasn’t comfortable with his newfound popularity as the ‘down-home jester of pop’. He didn’t want to appear to people as a hick and fought against the unwanted label by continuing to write and record more serious music. Whenever he recorded sad songs, such as “Husbands and Wives” or “The Last Word in Lonesome is Me”, the results were astounding. Roger also recorded songs with the sole purpose of communicating his boundless joy, such as “England Swings” and “Walkin’ in the Sunshine”.

By the end of 1966, Roger was in danger of becoming over-exposed. In September of 1966, Roger was given his own NBC program; the show was cut after just thirteen weeks. In the final episode, Roger blew up the train set that was part of his show; he didn’t want anyone else to use it.

For three years, Roger recorded songs that had been written by others. In 1970, Roger finally recorded the album he had wanted to for years. Called “A Trip to the Country”, it consisted of his older songs that he had written but not recorded.

Mercury closed the Smash Record subsidiary in 1970. His last chart reaching piece for Mercury was “Hoppy’s Gone”, a song about how Hopalong Cassidy’s death signified the end of all that was just and true in America.

Roger signed on with Columbia Records after leaving Mercury and Smash Records. His first album with them was titled “Dear Folks: Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately”. In 1974, Roger wrote and sang the songs for Disney’s animated movie, “Robin Hood”.

Roger signed on with Columbia Records after leaving Mercury and Smash Records. His first album with them was titled “Dear Folks: Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately”. In 1974, Roger wrote and sang the songs for Disney’s animated movie, “Robin Hood”.

“He was truly original, and he would just add on something that we had no idea what he was doing,” laughs Mary Miller, Roger’s third wife. Formerly a member of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Mary worked with her husband as a back-up vocalist from the 1970’s onward. “I always joked that the first year I knew him, I didn’t understand anything he said. He had a brilliant mind and a wonderful slant on things. There was such a richness to his life.”

In 1981, Roger got a call from Willie Nelson, who had been recording a series of duet albums with his friends. When Willie asked Roger, he said, “Well, Will, you’ve done a duet with about everyone.” Willie replied, “I know, but we’re down to the M’s.” Roger agreed and offered a new song, “Old Friends,” which he had written for his mom and dad back in Oklahoma.

Ray price joined them for the recording session, and the sweetly melancholy tune was well-loved by music critics. “Old Friends” was the last people heard of Roger until Big River showed up on Broadway.

Big River was the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” brought to life, a story that resonated very strongly with Roger. It took him over a year and a half to finish writing for the musical’s first phase. “I was writing from every corner of my heart,” Roger said. On April 25, 1985, Big River opened at New York’s Eugene O’Neal’s Theather. The musical was a hit. Roger became the first Country artist to win a Tony Award.

In September of 1990, at the urging of his manager and long time friend, Stan Moress, Roger embarked on a tour unlike any he had ever done before. Just him and a guitar. The first show was ninety minutes of Roger being himself and left the audience laughing the entire time.

Roger found out that he had lung cancer in the fall of 1991 and performed one last time during CMA week in Nashville, TN. After a year of treatment and one short-lived remission, Roger passed away in Los Angeles on October 25, 1992, at 56 years old.

A week later, a memorial service was held for him at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Hundreds of relatives and friends, many of whom had known him while he was the ‘Singing Bellhop’, squeezed into the Ryman. They told their favorite Roger Miller stories and listened to his music, a fitting tribute to a man who was equal parts laughter and soul.

In 1995, Roger was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. “This would have been his dream come true,” Mary said. “The ultimate recognition of his songwriting and musical artistry”.

When asked how he wanted to be remembered, Roger replied, “I just don’t want to be forgotten”.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

The first time Ronnie Dunn played at Billy Bob’s, he went and sang the National Anthem at the World Series in Arlington in 2011. Then he went and rocked the main stage.

ABOUT RONNIE DUNN:

Bass player and vocalist Ronnie Dunn (born Ronnie Gene Dunn) joined Louisiana-born Leon Eric “Kix” Brooks to create the most successful country music duo of the 1990s. Their debut album, Brand New Man, released in 1991, sold more than six million copies, while their first two singles — “Brand New Man” and “My Next Broken Heart,” their first songwriting collaborations, reached the top position on Billboard’s country music charts. In addition to 20 chart-topping tunes, they’ve placed an additional 21 songs in the Top Ten. The recipients of Entertainer of the Year award from the Country Music Association in 1996, and the Academy of Country Music in 1995 and 1996, Brooks & Dunn shared Duo of the Year honors from the CMA for eight consecutive years, and from the ACM for seven consecutive years (their non-consecutive wins place the total even higher and they are the most awarded act in The Academy of Country Music’s history).

The son of a country music enthusiast, Dunn was born in Coleman, Texas, and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Playing in bands since his teens, he briefly studied psychology and theology at Abilene Christian College. Expelled from the school for “performing in honky-tonks,” he continued to attract attention with his Tulsa nightclub performances. Although Dunn recorded several tunes for Churchill Records in 1983 and 1984, none provided a breakthrough. He fared much better four years later when an appearance in the Marlboro National Country Music talent contest led to an opportunity to record in Nashville. Brought together with Brooks, who despite writing songs for Crystal Gayle and the Oak Ridge Boys had found little success with his own recordings (by Tim DuBois), Dunn finally discovered a formula for success.

Brooks & Dunn’s 1991 debut, Brand New Man, was a hit out of the gate, launching a career that proved to be one of the most successful in contemporary country music. Ronnie Dunn played with Kix Brooks for nearly two decades, and during that time they were always at the top of the country charts, racking up an astonishing 20 number-one singles during that time. The duo announced an amicable split in 2009 followed by a farewell tour in 2010. Dunn was the first of the pair to launch a solo career, releasing a self-produced eponymous solo album in the summer of 2011. Ronnie Dunn debuted at number one on the U.S. country charts and had a Top Ten single in “Bleed Red.” Dunn’s 2014 album, Peace, Love and Country Music, didn’t make any waves — neither of its singles cracked the Billboard Top 40 — so he switched to Nash Icon in 2016, releasing the album Tattooed Heart in November of that year.

Dunn reunited with Brooks in 2019 for Reboot, an album featuring new versions of old Brooks & Dunn hits cut with younger artists. Dunn quickly followed Reboot with Re-Dunn, a solo album featuring covers of his favorite old tunes.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In October of 1992, Ronnie Milsap performs at a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

ABOUT RONNIE MILSAP:

Born blind (his family thought it was retribution for sin), Ronnie Milsap’s grandparents gave the boy over to the North Carolina State School for the Blind hoping for a better chance. There, Milsap discovered music – deviating from the school’s classical curriculum to explore the nascent realms of race music, rock & roll and jazz.

Being the brilliant kid he was, it wasn’t long until he’d found his way into the local clubs and the tiny indie labels.

Suddenly, he was sharing bills with Ray Charles and James Brown on a circuit that included the Howard Theater, the Royal Peacock, and more.

It was Ray Charles who told the young pianist when he was offered a scholarship to Young Harris College’s law program, “Son, I can hear the music inside you…” – It settled Milsap’s fate.

Living in Atlanta, playing clubs and doing sessions, Ronnie caught wind that JJ Cale was looking for a keyboard player. Cale hired him. Ronnie went on to work at the Whiskey for a good while.

From Atlanta, Ronnie moved to Memphis where he was doing sessions with Chips Moman, where Elvis famously commanded, “More thunder on the keys, Milsap,” during the recording of “Kentucky Rain.” It was there he was asked to play the Whiskey on the famed Sunset Strip in LA. While staying at the notorious Hyatt House, Charley Pride saw the white kid playing rock & soul and suggested giving Nashville a try.

Now, looking back on the last 50 years, no country singer had as smooth a touch as Ronnie Milsap.

Blending country and soul so elegantly it could often appeal to a pop audience — and it did: “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” went all the way to number five on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1981 — Milsap also had deep roots in soul.

Long before he was a fixture on the country charts — during his prime, he racked up 35 number one hits — Milsap cracked the R&B charts with a version of Ashford & Simpson ’s “Never Had It So Good,” and that familiarity with rhythm & blues was apparent throughout his work. Nevertheless, his strength lay in taking it easy, a quality evident on “Pure Love,” his breakthrough number one in 1974.

Arriving just after Charlie Rich brought a similar country-soul synthesis into the upper reaches of the charts, “Pure Love” rocketed to number one on Billboard’s country charts, followed to that position by “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends” — a one-two punch that turned the singer into a star.

The Country Music Association would name Milsap Male Vocalist of the Year in 1976 and 1977, a sign of his runaway popularity in the late ’70s.

Between 1974’s “(I’d Be) A Legend in My Time” and 1979′s “Nobody Likes Sad Songs,” he hit the top of the Billboard country charts ten times, with “Daydreams About Night Things” (1975), “(I’m A) Stand By My Woman Man” (1976), “It Was Almost Like a Song” (1977), and “Only One Love in My Life” (1978) spending multiple weeks in the pole position.

“It Was Almost Like a Song” became his first single to crack the pop Top 40, climbing all the way to number 16 while reaching seven on the Adult Contemporary chart. It was a harbinger of what was to come in the first half of the ’80s.

During the early ’80s, Milsap subtly adopted some Urban Cowboy and soft rock production techniques, a move that consolidated his position in the Top 10 in both the country and adult contemporary charts. Beginning with 1980′s “Why Don’t You Spend the Night,” Milsap dominated the top position on Billboard’s country charts, reaching number one 13 times between 1980 and 1984. One of the rare times he missed the top slot was with 1983′s “Stranger in My House,” a song that went to eight on the Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at 23 on Billboard’s Top 40. It arrived after a streak when Milsap was crossing over into the pop charts with regularity, beginning with 1980′s “Smoky Mountain Rain,” which went to 24 pop and number one AC. The following year brought “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” his biggest pop hit: it reached number five on the Hot 100, number two on Adult Contemporary.

The next two years were his most successful as a crossover act, thanks to the hits “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World” (1981), “Any Day Now” (1982),” “He Got You” (1982), and “Don’t Know How Much I Love You” (1983).” This hot streak led the Academy of Country Music to named Milsap their Top Male Vocalist in 1982.

Milsap maintained his strength on Billboard’s country charts during the second half of the ’80s, scoring another ten number one hits between 1985 and 1989, including the Kenny Rogers duet “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine,” which took home the Best Country Vocal Performance Duet Grammy in 1987.

Only two of these managed to be major Adult Contemporary hits, though, and both were heavily nostalgic: the oldies ode “Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night”) went to eight in 1985 — and “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” a cover of a ’50s chestnut by the Tune Weavers.

As the ’90s began, Milsap remained a reliable hitmaker, reaching the Billboard Country Top 10 another four times in 1990 and 1991, but country radio began to embrace the new generation spearheaded by Garth Brooks around the time Milsap left his longtime home of RCA for Liberty.

“True Believer,” the title song of his 1993 debut for Liberty, proved to be his last Top 40 hit, peaking at 30. Liberty released only one album from Milsap before he left for Capitol Nashville. There, he re-recorded his hits as Sings His Best Hits for Capitol Records in 1996.

For the next few years, Milsap worked on the oldies circuit, finally making his return to the studio with the Image Entertainment-released Just for a Thrill , a collection of standards, in 2004.

He returned to RCA in 2006 for My Life, an album designed as comeback to the country mainstream; it reached 46 on Billboard’s Album Charts, his first placement there since 1991.

Three years later, Milsap delivered Then Sings My Soul, his first collection of gospel and inspirational material; it peaked at 19 on the Country charts and eight on the Christian charts. Bigger Picture released Country Again in 2011, but his next heavily promoted release was Summer Number Seventeen, a collection of oldies covers which appeared on Sony/Legacy in 2014.

Following Gospel Greats in 2016, Milsap released The Duets, a 2018 collection that paired him with old friends like Willie Nelson and new stars like Kacey Musgraves.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

Ryan Bingham breaks the record for most bottles of beer sold at a show with a total of 16,800. The previous record was set by Hank Williams Jr. in 1986.

ABOUT RYAN BINGHAM:

Ryan Bingham vaulted from obscurity to stardom in 2009 when he won an Oscar for co-writing “The Weary Kind” with T Bone Burnett. The song was the centerpiece of Crazy Heart, a drama about a country singer that won Jeff Bridges the Academy Award for Best Actor, and it established Bingham as a troubadour, giving him the opportunity to pursue a career that walked the line separating country and Americana. In the wake of Crazy Heart, Bingham appeared on the country charts, but by the time he left Lost Highway to establish his own imprint Axster/Bingham, his music had turned more idiosyncratic, a shift highlighted on the dark 2015 set Fear and Saturday Night and its robust 2019 sequel, American Love Song.

Mescalito

Ryan Bingham was raised in rural Texas, where years of hardscrabble ranch work and rodeo competitions would later lend a sense of authenticity to his music. Living alone since his mid-teens, Bingham shuttled back and forth between Southwestern border towns and relatives’ homes, often sleeping in his truck after rodeo shows. It was during those treks that he began entertaining friends with the guitar, an instrument he’d learned at the age of 17 from a mariachi neighbor. Drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan, Marshall Tucker, and Bob Wills — all of whom populated the jukebox of The Halfway Bar, a roadhouse owned by Bingham’s uncle (whose musical tastes influenced those of his nephew) — Bingham fashioned a road-weary sound that piqued the interest of a barroom proprietor in Stephenville, Texas. Bingham was offered a weekly residency at the bar; soon after, he began issuing self-released albums like Lost Bound Rails and Wishbone Saloon. The material was brought to the attention of Nashville heavyweights Lost Highway Records, who signed Bingham and issued his major-label debut, Mescalito (featuring production by Marc Ford, former guitarist for the Black Crowes), in October 2007.

Roadhouse Sun

Mescalito was well received by critics, with Rolling Stone aptly comparing Bingham’s raw, scratchy voice to that of “Steve Earle’s dad.” After supporting the album with ample tour dates, the songwriter reprised his relationship with Marc Ford, who produced 2009’s Roadhouse Sun. Later that year, he joined another music veteran — producer/songwriter T-Bone Burnett — in contributing music to the film Crazy Heart. Revolving around the attempted comeback of a down-and-out country singer, Crazy Heart became one of the year’s highest-praised films and won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for “The Weary Kind,” one of Bingham’s original compositions written with T-Bone Burnett, the soundtrack’s musical director and producer. Bingham and his band the Dead Horses followed it with the album Junky Star in September 2010, which was produced by Burnett. Bingham left Lost Highway after three albums and released 2012’s Tomorrowland, recorded in Malibu, California, and co-produced by Bingham and Justin Stanley, on Bingham’s own newly created Axster Bingham Records imprint. The Jim Scott-produced Fear and Saturday Night appeared in January 2015. The concert set Ryan Bingham Live was released in October 2016.

Bingham returned with American Love Song — a double-album co-produced by Charlie Sexton — in February 2019.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On January 13, 2017, Sammy Kershaw and his band serenaded all of the Queens of Our Double Wide Trailer.

ABOUT SAMMY KERSHAW:

Sammy Kershaw was enthralled with the masters at an early age – names like Conway Twitty, Mel Street, and George Jones. In fact, as a teenager, Kershaw had developed such a reputation for his vocals – even then – that he was often called upon to open for those acts, and others like them. Jones was so impressed with Sammy that he frequently used him on his shows whenever he was playing in the region. He topped the singles chart for the first time with “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful,” which has become one of the most-played records at Country Radio over the past two decades. Albums such as Don’t Go Near The Water and Haunted Heart were both certified as million-sellers by the RIAA, and only continued to add to his stature.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In the September of 2003, Sara Evans played the main stage.

ABOUT SARA EVANS:

Sara Evans was born Sara Lynn Evans in Boonville, Missouri on February 5, 1971, and led a life on a farm with six other siblings. Her large family formed a band and she was made the lead singer. A tragedy struck at the age of 8 which led to her determination to become a singer. An automobile accident forced her to sit in a wheelchair and sing to make up her medical bills.

By 16, Evans was a club performer in a nightclub in Columbia, Missouri. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was 20 with the hope of becoming a bigger musician. The opportunity came when she met fellow musician Craig Schelske whom she later married in 1993. Spending a little time in Oregon, Evans and Schelske were back in Nashville and started recording demos. One of them, called “Tiger by the Tail” landed her a contract with RCA Nashville.

She released her debut album “Three Chords and the Truth” under the label and received attention from Billboard, CMT, and MVPA. But it wasn’t until her second album “No Place That Far” which was released in 1998, that she gained wider popularity. One of the songs, “No Place That Far”, was a duet with Vince Gill that reached No. 1 on the Country charts as well as entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40.

She geared up the release of a third album which was eventually released in 2000. “Born to Fly” achieved greater success than the predecessors, thanks to its title track and three other singles. The album became Evans’ first album to receive a “Platinum” rating by the RIAA. By 2004, “Born to Fly” was officially certified two-times Platinum by the RIAA.

The success was rewarded with multiple nominations at the 2001 Country Music Association Awards. She won her first CMA award when “Born to Fly” took the coveted Video of the Year. Evans did not waste time to release another album, coming out two years later with “Restless”. The first single “Back Seat of a Greyhound Bus” did well on the Country Songs chart but it failed to secure a place on Billboard Hot 100.

Nevertheless, the album sold fairly well, debuting at number 20 on Hot 200 with 40,000 copies sold. Perhaps it was the case of a wrong choice of the first single because her second and third experienced chart success. “Perfect” and “Suds in the Bucket” hit Top 5 in the country chart and the latter entered the Top 40 of Hot 100.

In 2005, she dropped another album, her fifth, and called it “Real Fine Place”. Again, it spawned a country hit “A Real Fine Place to Start” which also broke Billboard’s Pop 100 and Hot Digital Songs. As a result, the album performed well on Hot 200 by selling 130,000 units in the first week and landing at no. 3.

To tide fans over to her sixth album, she released a compilation album titled “Feels Like Home” which included her best hits like “Born to Fly” including their remix. There was also a special Mother’s Day album called “Always There” released in 2006. It boasted live and acoustic versions of “Born to Fly”, “Suds in the Bucket” and more, in addition to two new songs.

Her effort came to fruition when she was announced as the winner of the Top Female Vocalist at the 2006 ACM Awards. The accolade was followed by a Greatest Hits collection in 2007 which also featured four new songs including the hit “As If”. She spent the next two years writing books, hosting ACM, writing songs for movies, and supporting Texas Congressman Ron Paul. In 2009, she released an EP containing Christmas songs in order to embark on a Christmas tour.

The bridge from the fifth to a sixth album release is six years away due to her high-profile divorce from her husband of 13 years, Craig Schelske. Evans had to withdraw from “Dancing with the Stars” to take care of her messy split, which was marred with cheating allegations. Evans married a former University of Alabama quarterback, Jay Barker in 2008, a year after the divorce was finalized. Their children witnessed the wedding taking place in Franklin, Tennessee.

Her sixth album is called “Stronger” and is released on March 8, 2011. It is led by the single “A Little Bit Stronger” which was co-written by Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

Scotty McCreery joined Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame” on February 16, 2014.

ABOUT SCOTTY MCCREERY:

“I’ve lived a lot of life since my last record,” says Scotty McCreery. “I moved out on my own, I travelled across the country and the world, I got engaged, I was dropped by my label, I was even robbed at gunpoint. So I really wanted this album to show who Scotty is at 24, what’s going on in my life, and I think we accomplished that.”

With his third album (plus a chart-topping Christmas record), the young star takes a huge creative step forward. He co-wrote all 11 songs on Seasons Change, working with some of the finest songwriters in Nashville to express a wide range of emotions and musical styles. And after a lengthy legal struggle that kept him on the sidelines for several years, McCreery placed a bold bet with his career that has paid off with a new label and a reinvigorated attitude.

“At first, it actually started pretty simple,” he says. “We were just looking for the best songs. But then as my life got more complicated, I knew I wanted to make a record that was a lot more personal, and I felt that writing more myself would help capture that.”

After winning Season Ten of American Idol in 2011, McCreery made history when he became the youngest male artist of any genre, and the first country music artist ever, to have his debut album enter at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Clear as Day was certified Platinum for sales of one million units in just 13 weeks and became the best-selling solo album released by a country artist in 2011. The singles “I Love You This Big” and “The Trouble with Girls” were also certified Platinum. He won the New Artist of the Year award at both the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards and the American Country Awards, and also received the CMT Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year for “The Trouble with Girls.”

A year later, Christmas with Scotty McCreery debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart and was quickly certified Gold. His next album, 2013’s See You Tonight, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and “See You Tonight” and “Feelin’ It” both reached the Top 10 and were certified Platinum and Gold respectively. “See You Tonight” earned McCreery both his first BMI Award for writing one of the Top 50 Country Songs of 2015, and his first Music Row No. 1 Challenge Coin for landing atop the Music Row Country Breakout Chart.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On August 4, 1990, Shelby Lynne rocked out on the main stage, before she took the stage we had to get her hand prints to add to our “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT SHELBY LYNNE:

By the time Shelby Lynne won her Best New Artist Grammy, she’d already completed six albums and had over a decade of recording experience under her belt. Yet in a way, the award was appropriate, since I Am Shelby Lynne was the album that finally found her taking control of her music, following years of casting about in search of an identity. Lynne’s work ranged through country, blues, Southern soul, roots rock, Western swing, jazz, and adult contemporary pop; naturally, that eclecticism made her difficult to market, and it also resulted in pressure to record more commercial, radio-friendly material that didn’t really suit her. Once Lynne put all the pieces together, she found herself embraced not by the country mainstream, but by rock critics, British audiences, and the alt-country/Americana crowd for albums that ranged across the spectrum. They included teaming with producer Phil Ramone for 2008’s Dusty Springfield homage Just a Little Lovin’, 2011’s roots music set Revelation Road, the all-original outing I Can’t Imagine in 2015, and Not Dark Yet, a covers collection with sister Allison Moorer two years later.

Sunrise

Lynne was born Shelby Lynne Moorer in Quantico, Virginia, in 1968 and spent most of her childhood in Jackson, Alabama. Her father was a local bandleader and her mother a harmony-singing teacher; as children, she and her younger sister Allison — later a country recording artist in her own right — sometimes joined their parents on-stage to sing along. However, Lynne’s father was a violent alcoholic who at one point had her thrown in jail; when Lynne was 17, he shot his wife dead in the family’s driveway, then turned the gun on himself while his daughters looked on. Lynne took charge of raising her sister and married her high school sweetheart (albeit briefly) prior to their move to Nashville. There, Lynne recorded some demo songs, which landed her an appearance on TNN’s Nashville Now series. That, in turn, led to a duet with George Jones, for 1988’s Top 50 hit “If I Could Bottle This Up,” and a record deal with Epic, where Lynne teamed up with legendary producer Billy Sherrill for her 1989 debut album, Sunrise. The follow-up, 1990’s Tough All Over, took more of a Reba McEntire-esque direction, and 1991’s Soft Talk found Lynne moving into slick country-pop.

Temptation

Lynne placed several songs on the country charts during this period, but none managed to break into the Top 20. Critics generally regarded her as a promising talent, and she even won the CMA’s Horizon Award (given to the year’s top emerging artist) in 1991. However, she was tiring of the lack of control she was afforded over her image and musical direction. She split from Epic and signed with the smaller Morgan Creek label, debuting with 1993’s Temptation, an exercise in Bob Wills-style Western swing and big-band jazz. Unfortunately, the label folded not long after, and she moved on to Magnatone for 1995’s Restless, which marked a return to contemporary-style country. Afterward, Lynne disappeared from recording for several years. During that time, she moved to Palm Springs, California, and convinced producer Bill Bottrell — best known for his early work with Sheryl Crow — to work on her next album.

Love, Shelby

Lynne signed with Island Records and finally returned in 2000 with I Am Shelby Lynne. Effectively a roots rock album with Sheryl Crow overtones and strong hints of Lynne’s eclecticism, the record was greeted enthusiastically in the U.K. and was released in the U.S. several months later. Positive word of mouth led to effusive critical praise, with many hailing I Am Shelby Lynne as a major statement of purpose as confident as its title’s declaration. It won her a Grammy for Best New Artist in early 2001, and she began working on a follow-up with producer Glen Ballard, best known for his work with Alanis Morissette. Love, Shelby appeared later in 2001 but was received with confusion and disappointment by many reviewers, mainly because of its smoother, less country-infused production. Two years later, Lynne returned to form with Identity Crisis. Her debut release for Capitol, it was her most sensitive album yet. Suit Yourself appeared in spring 2005, and in 2008, an homage to Dusty Springfield, Just a Little Lovin’, produced by Phil Ramone, was released on Lost Highway.

Midnight Souvenirs

Lynne appeared as Peter Wolf’s duet partner on the single “Tragedy,” the lead-off single from his 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs, and performed on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show with him. More importantly, less than a month later, the Tears, Lies and Alibis album was released on her own Everso imprint, distributed by Fontana. Lynne wrote all ten songs on the recording, and cut it at home in Rancho Mirage, California, as well as at the Rendering Plant in Nashville. She co-produced the album with Brian Harrison, and was able to coax a few former Muscle Shoals sidemen (most notably Spooner Oldham) to accompany her. After recording for over 20 years, Tears, Lies and Alibis marked the first album over which she had complete freedom of creative control. Later that year, she issued her first holiday collection entitled Merry Christmas. Tears, Lies and Alibis eventually reached the Top Ten at Americana radio. She toured for a solid year behind it. In 2011, Lynne commenced writing, producing, and performing virtually all instruments and voices for her next release on Everso, Revelation Road. The album was advanced by the pre-release of its title track as a download single in August, and was released in October of 2011. In 2013, she returned with a five-track EP entitled Thanks. Co-produced by Ben Peeler, it featured influences such as blues and gospel. In 2014, I Am Shelby Lynne got the deluxe reissue treatment.

It was a year for returns and changes. Lynne, who has lived and worked on the West Coast since the late ’90s, decided to return to recording in the Deep South. She and her band assembled at Dockside Studio in the village of Maurice, Louisiana in the fall and cut her next album live from the studio floor. Entitled I Can’t Imagine and released in the spring of 2015, it was her first album for Rounder. The tour that followed included complete concert performances of the new recording and I Am Shelby Lynne in a single set.

In 2010, Lynne and sister Moorer teamed for the Side by Side tour, and considered recording an album together. The plan was shelved until 2017 when they got together in Los Angeles with producer Teddy Thompson and a small group of invited guest musicians including Benmont Tench, Erik Deutsch, Doug Pettibone, and Val McCallum. The sisters chose to record a host of covers from the classic country canon, alongside contemporary fare by pop and Americana songwriters. Their lone co-written original was the set closer “Is It Too Much?” Titled Not Dark Yet, the album was released by Thirty Tigers in August.

In the spring of 2020, Lynne announced the release of a self-titled set she called her “most revealing album yet.” Many of its songs were taken from the soundtrack to an unreleased independent film by lyricist/director/screenwriter Cynthia Mort titled When We Kill the Creators, in which Lynne stars as “a deeply conflicted artist struggling at the intersection of art and commerce. Backing her on the project were Tench, Mimi Friedman, Ed Roth, and Billy Mitchell. The album was released in April.

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Shooter Jennings used to attend the club with his father, Waylon Jennings and his mother, Jessi Colter, as a child.

November 10, 2016, along with recording his album, shooter took the time to stop and see the concrete handprints of his father, Waylon Jennings.

ABOUT SHOOTER JENNINGS:

The only son of country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings literally spent his childhood on a tour bus. Shooter seemed destined for a career in music, and like his father, he established himself as an artist who played by his own rules from the start. Shooter’s music was strongly informed by both hard rock and outlaw country, with 2006’s Electric Rodeo emphasizing the guitars and 2007’s The Wolf playing up his twangy side. With his project Hierophant, Jennings explored his interest in metal and electronic music, while 2016’s Countach paid homage to a seemingly unlikely influence, Euro-disco icon Giorgio Moroder. Through it all, Shooter’s gritty, passionate songwriting and vocals have remained a constant.

Born Waylon Albright Jennings, Shooter was playing drums by the time he was five years old and had already begun taking piano lessons, only to break them off and follow his own path to an understanding of the instrument. He discovered guitar at 14 and rock & roll (particularly Southern rock and the loose-limbed hard rock of Guns N’ Roses) at 16. Soon he moved from Nashville to L.A., where he assembled a rock band called Stargunn. Stargunn earned a strong local reputation for its live shows, and enjoyed a six- or seven-year run on the L.A. circuit before Jennings rediscovered his outlaw country roots and dissolved the band.

After a short stay in New York, where Jennings assembled material for a country project, he returned to L.A. and put together a second band — this time with solid country roots — which he named the .357s. Jennings, and the band holed up in the studio, eventually emerging with a rambunctious country album called Put the O Back in Country, which was released in 2005 on Universal South Records. Following in his father’s footsteps, but with his own feisty, scrappy sense of country, Jennings placed himself in a fine position to both explore that legacy and carve out his own. A second album, Electric Rodeo (which was actually recorded before Put the O Back in Country), appeared in 2006, followed by a live set, Live at Irving Plaza, later in the year. Jennings’ third solo effort, The Wolf, was released in October 2007, featuring a cover of Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life” (whose composer, Mark Knopfler, had been a longtime family friend). A month later, Jennings became a father. His girlfriend, actress Drea De Matteo, gave birth to Alabama Gypsy Rose in November. He proposed to De Matteo in 2009 on-stage in Utica, New York.

Jennings renamed his backing band Hierophant for his fourth studio album, Black Ribbons, a dark concept record influenced by Nine Inch Nails and produced by Dave Cobb. It appeared early in 2010. Later in the year, the album was re-released in a special edition entitled Black Ribbons: The Living Album. The second version was sold on a USB flash drive in the shape of a Tarot card. It featured the studio record and live performances by Hierophant. In early 2011, Jennings and blogger Adam Sheets came up with the idea of creating XXX, a new radio format that would focus on insurgent country, rock, and hybrids of both, from new and established artists, that fell far outside the narrow conceits of mainstream radio and were thus ignored. It gained traction, and a channel on Sirius/XM where both men served as program hosts. Jennings also moved to New York City with De Matteo. He and pianist Erik Deutsch formed a new band called the Triple Crown, and he became a father for the second time in April, to Waylon Albert “Blackjack” Jennings.

In urgent fashion, Jennings and the Triple Crown began recording; they released the video/download-only single “Outlaw You,” his screed against the country music establishment. It reached the top spot on CMT’s daily audience request competition and stayed there until a dispute with his former label dictated it be removed. The first official single from the forthcoming album, “The Deed and the Dollar,” again reached the top spot in the daily CMT request competition. Jennings’ fifth album, Family Man, followed soon after in March of 2012 — minus “Outlaw You.”

His next album, The Other Life, was released a year later on his own Black Country Rock label; it featured guest appearances from Patty Griffin, Scott H. Biram, and Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas. The Other Live, Jennings’ second live album, recorded during his 2013 tour and featuring many of the songs from The Other Life, appeared early in 2014, again from Black Country Rock. In 2013, BCR also released an EP in which Jennings performed a dark and atmospheric reworking of “You Are My Sunshine” with Jamey Johnson and former Marilyn Manson guitarist Twiggy Ramirez that was originally recorded for the television series Sons of Anarchy. 2014 saw the release of an EP, Don’t Wait Up (For George), a tribute to his longtime friend George Jones

In early January 2016, Jennings announced a February release for Countach, a collection of songs written and/or inspired by legendary producer Giorgio Moroder. The nine-song set featured guest appearances from Marilyn Manson, Brandi Carlile, Steve Young, and video game pioneer Richard Garriott de Cayeux. 2016 also saw Jennings collaborating with Billy Don Burns on the EP A Night in Room 8, while he also reissued Black Ribbons in recognition of that year’s presidential race. Jennings struck a deal with Dave Cobb’s Elektra-distributed label Low Country Sound, and Cobb produced his first release for the imprint, 2018’s Shooter, which celebrated Jennings’ roots in vintage country and blues.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Country Legend Conway Twitty died June 5, 1993, only a few weeks before his scheduled performance at Billy Bob’s on June 26. With many tickets for the show already sold, Skip Ewing performed a tribute to the late singer. Ticket holders were allowed to enjoy the for free, and were also offered a refund of their tickets. Around 50 percent of the concert-goers did not ask for a refund so they could keep their ticket as a memento.

ABOUT SKIP EWING:

For Skip Ewing, there’s a mystique about the West, a land populated by fascinating characters and shaped by unforgettable legends. Ewing’s new album, Wyoming, is as expansive as the majestic landscape of his current home and as deep as his roots in Tennessee, where he evolved from early days as an Opryland performer to one of Nashville’s most successful singer/songwriters. A native of Redlands, CA, Ewing also spent some of his formative years in South Carolina and Colorado before moving to Nashville in 1984.

Ewing has had songs recorded by Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, George Strait, Keb Mo, Willie Nelson, and numerous others. His #1 hits include Collin Raye’s “Love, Me,” Diamond Rio’s “I Believe,” Kenny Chesney’s “You Had Me From Hello,” Clint Black’s “Something That We Do,” and Brian White’s “Rebecca Lynn,” “Someone Else’s Star,” and “I’m Not Supposed to Love You Anymore.” As outstanding as those cuts are, there’s something achingly poignant about hearing Ewing sing his own compositions. On Wyoming, Ewing is back to do just that.

After a detour that took him to new territory geographically, professionally, and spiritually, Skip Ewing has crafted his first new album in more than a decade. “I started writing the album in 2018. At the time, I didn’t know if I’d ever do another music project,” Ewing admits. “I had sold everything in Nashville, my furniture, my house. I sold everything except my instruments and some art. In the meantime, I’d been coming to Wyoming every year since the early 2000s. I fell in love with the people, the country, and the way of life, and I knew I wanted to live here.”

Though music would remain his first love, Ewing developed a passion for horses and discovered he had a gift for working with them. “I rode thousands of miles horseback,” Ewing says. “I devoted myself to horsemanship. I learn so much from them about who I am and how I could better myself. It was another part of my spiritual journey. Meditation was a big part of it, and horses became a big part of it.

Soon, Ewing found himself in a particularly creative season of his life. He had remarried, and he and his wife Linda had taken up residence in a historic cabin in Wyoming near Whiskey Basin, which provides the name of one of the album’s twelve tracks. “I picked up my guitar and started writing again, and started sharing with her,” Ewing says. Her encouragement inspired Ewing to pen the musically sweeping and candidly autobiographical love song “Wings.”

As writing for the album neared completion, Ewing sent iPhone recordings of the new material to trusted friends in Nashville, asking their advice and opinion. “It doesn’t sound anything like what I’ve done in the past,” he wrote. Everyone enthusiastically encouraged him to move forward.

“I wasn’t striving for this to be a certain kind of record, just allowing it to be what it was. I wanted to write skillfully using all the tools I had—my heart, my brain, my experience. I was unafraid, willing to speak my heart without filtering it through what somebody else told me I had to do to be successful. I want to be successful, of course I do. At this point, success means redefining myself as an artist, and reaching people meaningfully by doing so.”

Experiencing Wyoming as an album is captivating. The melodies wash over us; the lyrics transport us. We become enveloped in the lyrical fabric, and musical tapestry Ewing has woven. The collection reverberates with a wide array of emotions, tangible feelings of longing, hope, love, angst, and joy. “In my writing, I endeavor to reach across the imaginary lines between us to find common ground. Where are we the same?” Ewing asks. “Where do the lines of our understanding about life and love intersect and overlap?”

“Margolaigne” is a tender exploration of loyalty, devotion, and timeless love. “Wyoming” soars with emotion, the inner turmoil and loss we often endure on the journey to find ourselves. “Little Jenny” is a playful, tongue-in-cheek look at a much different type of affection. “Santa Fe” illuminates the inner struggle and heartbreak in the inability to trust in love. “Until It’s Gone” is a veritable cinematic contemporary western. “Cowboy Inside” is an homage totraditional country music, while lyrically celebrating the grit and gravitas of his late friend Dave Ruff.

“The Juggler,” an autobiographical metaphor from early in Ewing’s career, reaches across the proscenium between artist and listener, “Some of us we juggle on the stage, but all of us we struggle just the same.” Because of its candor and connectivity, Ewing cites it as one of his favorite songs he’s ever written. The album begins with the steam-driven power of “Railroad,” surprises again with the mystery and deeply human connection of “Petroglyph,” then closes out with the whimsical yet poignant “Unicorns.”

“There is poetry in all music, and music in all poetry. I hope listeners experience that in this project. I hope it’s beautiful and powerful for them. I hope it speaks to the miraculous and heartbreaking depths of our shared human experience.”

When Ewing began thinking of who he wanted to co-produce the album with him, only one person came to mind—Kyle Lehning. They’d met years ago when Lehning, because of Ewing’s unique style, enlisted him to play guitar on a Randy Travis session—another of Ewing’s destined-to-be #1 compositions, “If I Didn’t Have You.” Though they hadn’t spoken in years, Ewing reached out to Lehning. “In his ever-kind manner, Kyle said, ‘Alright, send it to me, but honestly, I’m only recording things I really want to record,’” Ewing recalls. “Kyle listened to it and called me back right after and said, ‘Well, when do you want to record?’”

From the moment they stepped into the studio, Ewing says the experience was better than he could have anticipated. “It felt like Kyle and I had worked together for 20 years. We had so much fun making the record and pushing the envelope,” he smiles. “I believe we captured some wonderful moments just because of the way we worked together. Kyle is brilliant. He can be technical when it’s needed, and he’s also a wonderful musician. I respect him very much. We would give each other room. If he had something, I got out of his way. If I had something, he would get out of my way. We would give each other enough space to let whatever happened happen, and yet, time after time, we’d look at each other with the same thought, the same insight, at exactly the same moment. We’d get all excited, and it was constantly fun.”

One of the most memorable moments for Ewing in the studio came from a conversation with acclaimed drummer, Eddie Bayers. “Eddie is the best drummer in the world,” Ewing enthuses. “He came to me the second day of tracking and said, ‘Skip, how much do I owe you?’ It took me by surprise, and I asked, ‘For what?’ He said, ‘For getting to play on this project. We just don’t get to play on projects that are made like this.’ That conversation with Eddie brought me great joy.”

In addition to Bayers, the tracking sessions for Wyoming featured legendary studio musicians, bassist Larry Paxton, keyboardist Steve Nathan, and electric guitarist Brent Mason. “Bryan Sutton is a phenomenal musician and one of the best guitar players I’ve ever had the privilege of playing with. What happened in the studio felt so supportive. These brilliant musicians were willing to gather together with me and be part of further inventing something, not just playing on it. I had imagined the songs, and now we were going to craft a record,” Ewing says. “Every moment on this project, we truly worked together as musicians. I love that feeling. We all did. Somehow, collectively, we had something that worked every time we showed up.

Once live music returns to venues Ewing looks forward to hitting the road and sharing his music. “I wasn’t writing for any specific genre; I was writing for the hearts and ears of the people I believed would listen. I was writing as an artist. I was out here letting myself draw from whatever musical wells I had, and whatever was in me,” Ewing explains. “I was writing imagining I was going to share it with people all over the world. That made a big difference in where I went, and it felt good to be free,” he says.

“You can hear that I’m happy. There’s so much warmth and encouragement around this record. People are genuinely excited to hear it. And when they listen, they’re excited to share it. I’m praying that leads to the immense good fortune of creating music for a living again.”

“Meaningfully connecting with people through what I write, what I say, and what I sing… that means the world to me.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Jolie and Sonny Burgess put on a great show and were presented with a check for the Cook Children’s Child Life Zone from the Crownman Cruise tonight of $10,000 from about 100 people that had fun and raised money for a great cause!

ABOUT SONNY BURGESS:

From the twinkle in his eye to the firm handshake, it is easy to see that Sonny Burgess is a true traditional country artist with a heart as big as his home state of Texas.

​Burgess is a CMA Artist Winner, and a Texas Country Music Hall of Famer. His discography of four releases has scored 11 top 10’s in the Texas Country Music Charts. Career highlights include hosting the Nashville Fan Fair/CMA Music Fest along with the International Music Awards, making several appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and walking the red carpet at The American Country Music Awards. In addition he has played three times for former President George W. Bush during his campaign trail (twice in Iowa and once in Ohio). He’s built his career in Texas and Tennessee bringing inevitable good lessons hard earned. Standing here today, Sonny demonstrates that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Not to be confused with the first-generation rockabilly singer of the same name, Burgess stays true to his traditional Country roots building a catalog of albums which includes four stellar releases: When In Texas, Stronger, Have You Got A Song Like That and All About The Ride. The constant flow of hit singles from these releases include “Cowboy Cool,” “The More I’m Around Some People (The More I Like My Dog,” “Jesus and Bartenders,” “When In Texas,” “Little Bit Stronger,” “She Don’t Make It Easy, “All Kinds Of Beautiful” and “Dang Good Thing”.

​After many miles of touring as a solo artist, Burgess’ found himself coming together on the same music path with fellow Country artist Jolie Holliday. It quickly made sense to join forces as a duo act with love and marriage to follow. Fans must agree as the dynamic duo known as Jolie & Sonny continues to work 200+ shows a year. For more information visit jolieandsonny.com

​When not touring, they find inspiration in working with children at Fort Worth’s Cook Children’s Hospital. Burgess spends his time there as full time director of clinical programming, helping patients to record music and audio for their families in Cook’s ChildLife Zone. “We teach ‘em guitar and [how to] write songs. Some of these doctors are sharing [that] these kids are actually taking less pain medication when they’re doing music,” Burgess said. “Unfortunately, if they do pass, we have something for the family, some closure hopefully for them, something for them to go back to. It’s amazing what music does.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 28, 1997, Sons of the Desert cemented their hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT SONS OF THE DESERT:

Sons of the Desert are a contemporary country band with country-rock leanings who released their debut album, Whatever Comes First, in June of 1997. The first incarnation of Sons of the Desert was a Waco, TX-based bluegrass band comprised of McClennon Community College students who formed the group in 1989. The original lineup featured bassist Doug Virden and caught the attention of Drew Womack (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), who joined the band in 1990. Three years later, the group relocated to Dallas, TX. Shortly after settling in Dallas, drummer Brian Westrum and keyboardist Scott Saunders joined the band. With the addition of Drew’s older brother Tim as lead guitarist, the final lineup of Sons of the Desert was in place.

Sons of the Desert began playing local dance halls, honky tonks and night clubs, refining their blend of country-rock and contemporary country. They stayed on the club circuit for two years before they attracted the attention of major labels. Eventually, the group signed with Columbia Records and headed into the studio with producers Doug Johnson and Johnny Slate. Their debut, Whatever Comes First, was divided between original songs from Drew Womack (which were often co-written by writers like Steve Pippin, Pat MacDonald, or Tom Douglas) and material from professional songwriters like Radney Foster, Charlie Black, and Phil Vassar. The album was released in June of 1997. The follow-up, Change, was released in mid-2000.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On July 5, 2002, Steve Azar made his Billy Bob’s Texas debut.

ABOUT STEVE AZAR:

Steve Azar knew that someday he would leave his Mississippi Delta home of Greenville to pursue his own life in music. Music & Culture Ambassador of Mississippi, Azar is a hit songwriter, recording artist, music producer, consultant, avid golfer and philanthropist whose musical sound traverses a blend of country, blues, folk and rock n’ roll, a genre he calls, “Delta Soul”.

Azar’s debut album Waitin’ On Joe was released in 2001. The title track went to #1 on CMT and featured Academy award-winning actor Morgan Freeman. From the same album the hit single “I Don’t Have To Be Me (‘Til Monday)” received three BMI Million-Air awards for over 3 million in air plays and is one of the top five most played songs of the past decade on country radio.

Indianola, the follow up album to Waitin’ on Joe, was the debut release from Azar’s own independent music label, Dang/Ride Records featuring the singles “You Don’t Know a Thing” and “You’re My Life”. The video for “You Don’t Know a Thing” starred PGA player, John Daly, and was an instant favorite at the country music video channels. “You’re my Life”, is still a strong seller and fan favorite to this day. Indianola also received strong critical reviews and landed the album at #1 on the XM Radio “Country Outlaw” channel, bumping Willie Nelson out of the #1 spot, and then giving up the #1 spot to John Mellencamp the next week.

In People Magazine, Taylor Swift said that her favorite song of the year 2010 was Steve Azar’s “Sunshine.” The album Slide On Over Here, featuring the hit single “Sunshine,” was spotlighted in Oprah’s O Magazine in her “Oprah’s Favorite Things “edition in 2011. “Sunshine” was also featured in US Weekly Magazine in June 2012 as one of the most popular celebrity wedding songs.

Steve has written, and recorded songs for film and has been the music supervisor for a number of movies. “Doin’ It Right” (Delta Mix) off the album Delta Soul Volume One, was the feature track for Sony Pictures 2013 movie Here Comes The Boom starring Kevin James and Salma Hayek Steve wrote “Fly”, the official song for the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Vail. His performance at the opening ceremonies reached an audience of one billion households. “Fly” was also used as the feature song for Sony Pictures movie: Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 starring actor Kevin James. As a songwriter, Reba McEntire, Danny Gokey and others have cut his songs.

In 2007, Azar was personally chosen by Bob Seger to perform 46 shows on what has been rated the #1 Tour in America by Pollstar Magazine.

An accomplished golfer, Steve has been ranked one of the top five musicians that play golf by Golf Digest Magazine numerous times. He is a frequent guest at charity golf tournaments across the country. In 2006, Steve and his wife Gwen started the Steve Azar St. Cecilia Foundation, and annually host the Delta Soul Celebrity Golf & Charity Event. Since its inception, the foundation has channeled over $950,000 to many worthwhile causes in the Delta and beyond. Steve has additionally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable causes through the auctioning of songs. These songs are written for the highest bidder’s charity of choice.

In April of 2016, Steve became the first artist to record a full-length studio album at the legendary Mississippi landmark, Club Ebony. A long time in the making, and his first record in 5 years, Steve cut 13 new original tracks for the Down At The Liquor Store LP. Club Ebony now belonging to the BB King Museum, was turned into a recording studio capturing the rich history and vibe of the room and in turn inspiring incredible performances on the record. The album was made with the participation of The Kings Men, a group of musicians who backed BB King, Elvis Presley, and other musical kings. The combination of Steve’s Delta songwriting approach and the band’s musical background has created a unique and soulful sound.

Steve Azar & The Kings Men made their live debut headlining 2016’s BB King Homecoming Festival. The band headlined both the Mississippi Night at The GRAMMY’s in Los Angeles during February 2017 and the Mississippi Bicentennial Celebration in Jackson in December of 2017. The new record is accompanied by a full-length feature documentary combining the making of the record with the musical trajectory of The Kings Men and the Mississippi Delta’s important musical influence on the world music scene. The film, titled Something In The Water, was released in 2017 on Quello-Stingray and GoUSA TV.

Steve has been honored with “Steve Azar Day” in the states of Mississippi (on March 13th) and South Dakota (on August 10th).

He is the co-founder of Ride Records and in 2013 co-founded the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival, dubbed “A Southern Gem” by the American Blues Scene magazine and included in Acoustic Guitar magazine’s 2014 Roadside Americana: 50 States 50 Must-Attend Events.

With a keen interest in mentorship and giving back to the Delta, Steve enjoys being the artist in residence at the Delta Music Institute, part of Delta State University.

Governor Paul R. LePage has requested that all the Governors in the United States use Steve’s song, “The Sky is Falling,” as a way to spread awareness about the serious issue of human trafficking in America.

Steve is an in-demand keynote speaker. His speeches highlight the importance of giving back and that it is never too soon to start. From the sports world to the world of entertainment, Steve has had success and has also had his share of trials and tribulations; his speeches are full of the lessons learned.

Steve narrated “Second Crossing: The Making of The Mississippi Bridge” for Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) back in 2007. Later in 2016 his voice was used for a series of 12 short documentaries celebrating MDOT’s 100th Anniversary.

In 2016, Azar began his consulting company All Access Azar offering a wide range of consulting services in the areas of artist and songwriter development and coaching, music production, festival and special events production, music publishing and licensing, and talent buying.

2017 marks the bicentennial of the state of Mississippi. Steve has been appointed Music & Culture Ambassador of Mississippi and is working closely with the State of Mississippi in his official role. This position enables him to continue making a positive impact on the State’s tourism and economy. His Delta Soul Celebrity Golf & Charity Event and Mighty Mississippi Music Festival have added millions in economic impact to the state. As ambassador Steve is making an even larger impact.

Steve is the recipient of the 2018 prestigious Mississippi Arts Commission’s Governor’s Choice Award.

In January 2018, Steve began hosting his own radio show and podcast In A Mississippi Minute with Steve Azar. Steve takes on the other side of the interview asking the questions and talking with friends from all walks of celebrity sharing their stories to success and what’s going on in their lives now. The show is broadcast throughout the state on SuperTalk Mississippi radio network and available nationally online and via podcast.

In February of 2019, he co-founded and hosted his first Mockingbird Music Series. A bi-monthly musical dinner series featuring intimate performances with some of Nashville’s best and prolific award-winning songwriters, telling the stories behind their hits and performing them as originally written. The first annual Mockingbird Songwriters Music Festival was held in 2021, co-founded and produced by Steve.

He was named to the 2019 class of Mississippi Top 50 in the Business, Media and Culture category. Mississippi Top 50 is an annual list of the people who are judged to be the most influential leaders in the state. This bipartisan selection of leaders comes from the ranks of elected and appointed officials, economic development professionals, business, media and government affairs.

In October of 2019, Azar was enshrined on the Mississippi Country Music Trail as the trail’s 32nd marker was unveiled in Greenville, Mississippi. Governor Bryant was in attendance and spoke at the marker unveiling ceremony. Azar’s class also included the legends Jerry Lee Lewis (Nesbit, MS) and Marty Gamblin (Philadelphia, MS) as well as Johnny Cash’s “Starkville City Jail” track and Jimmie Rodgers’ Bristol, Tennessee music sessions.

Also, in 2019, Azar officially released the bicentennial anthem “One Mississippi” after a request from then Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant that Steve write the official song to commemorate the state’s bicentennial anniversary. From slug burgers to The Muppets to the Natchez Trace Parkway, “One Mississippi” highlights the charm and history of the Magnolia State. The song was recorded at The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The Max) in Meridian. The official music video, filmed and produced by Azar’s son Strack, documents the recording session.

In 2020, Azar co-founded The Mighty Roots Music Festival. The inaugural event will be held October 1-2, 2021 on historic Stovall Farms, just outside of Clarksdale, MS and 70 miles south of Memphis, TN.

In October 2020, Azar released a compilation exclusive vinyl, CD and digital release titled My Mississippi Reunion featuring a collection of new and remastered songs, all about home. The album is the winner of the 2021 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for best contemporary album.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2006, Dallas Country singer Steve Holy plays a Christmas Eve show, and a reporter from the Dallas Morning News said it called to mind music greats Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison.

ABOUT STEVE HOLY:

Born and raised in Dallas, TX, country vocalist Steve Holy was the youngest of eight children and entertained his grade school classmates with his imitations of Conway Twitty. At 19, he auditioned for the local Mesquite Opry and later earned a spot on Johnny High’s Country Music Revue, eventually garnering the revue’s Entertainer of the Year award. This brought the attention of legendary country producer Wilbur Rimes (and his daughter LeAnn), who encouraged Holy to shop himself around Nashville. Curb Records signed the young singer/songwriter in 1999 and his Wilbur Rimes-produced album, Blue Moon, was released in late 2000. Brand New Girlfriend arrived in 2006.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In February of 1996, Charlie Nagatani joins Steve Wariner on stage and becomes the first, and to date only Japanese country artist to play Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT STEVE WARINER:

Singer/songwriter/storyteller and multi-instrumentalist, Steve Wariner, is a troubadour in the music industry and continues to inspire artists today. More than 20 albums and five decades into his career, Wariner has become a modern-day multi-genre icon, earning 14 No. 1 hits, over 30 Top 10 singles, three RIAA-certified Gold albums, the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award, four GRAMMY Awards, four CMA Awards, three ACM Awards, two TNN/Music City News Awards, a Christian Country Music Association Award, a CMA Triple Play Award, 15 BMI Million-Air Awards, and most recently, Country Radio Broadcasters bestowed Wariner as the recipient of the 2018 CRB Artist Career Achievement Award. In October 2019, he’ll be inducted into the prestigious Musicians Hall of Fame, and throughout his illustrious career, has been inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame, the Music City Walk of Fame, and is one of only five guitar players in the world to be given the “Certified Guitar Player” (CGP) award by Chet Atkins.

As an award-winning songwriter, he has composed songs for Clint Black (“Nothin’ But the Taillights”), Bryan White (“One Small Miracle”), Keith Urban (“Where the Blacktop Ends”), as well as the three week No. 1 smash, “Longneck Bottle,” by Country Music Hall of Fame member Garth Brooks. Wariner has also penned songs for Country Music Hall of Fame members Alabama, Kenny Rogers, The Statler Brothers, Conway Twitty, Bill Anderson and Don Williams; pop music icon Peter Tork (of The Monkees); R&B singer Ruben Studdard; Bluegrass music’s Del McCoury Band and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver; Rockabilly/Country hitmaker Bob Luman and many more.

Today, he continues to captivate audiences with his sensational voice and guitar prowess and is recognized through his portfolio of work spanning Country, Bluegrass, Rock, Jazz and Pop.

Born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1954, the Noblesville, Indiana native got his start in music at the tender age of 10 playing bass guitar. A few years later, he played drums in his father’s band.

One night while performing in an Indianapolis club, Country Music Hall of Fame member, Dottie West, happened to be there and spotted the talented teenager. West convinced the 17-year-old to make the bold move from Indiana to Music City to join her band. Upon accepting the offer, Wariner played bass for three years with her and eventually signed to Dottie’s publishing company as a songwriter. After he left Dottie’s organization, Wariner toured and recorded with Grand Ole Opry star Bob Luman.

In the 70’s, Wariner’s life and career forever changed when he connected with his idol and guitar extraordinaire Chet Atkins through guitar virtuoso Paul Yandell. Atkins signed him to his first recording contract at RCA Records in 1977 and eventually hired Wariner to play bass in his band. His first single, “I’m Already Taken,” peaked at No. 63 on the Country charts and was later re-recorded by Country icon Conway Twitty. More than 20 years later, Wariner recorded “I’m Already Taken” again in 1999 and took it all the way to the Top 5 on Billboard. Wariner’s first Top 40 hit was “Your Memory,” which was released in 1980 and peaked at No. 7, which paved the way for two more Top 10 hits, including “By Now” and his first No. 1 “All Roads Lead to You,” which was released in 1981.

While on the rise, Wariner left RCA in 1984 and signed with MCA Records, the label that would catapult him to achieve some of his biggest hits spanning into the 90s, including “What I Didn’t Do,” “Heart Trouble,” “Some Fools Never Learn,” “The Weekend,” and “Life’s Highway.”

His star began to shine brighter as his music made its way into television. In 1986, he recorded the theme song for ABC’s Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning TV sitcom, “Who’s The Boss?”

Wariner moved over to Arista Records in 1991 where he released his album I Am Ready. Shortly after, he earned his first GRAMMY Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration as a vocalist on the single “Restless,” along with Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs and Mark O’Connor, on O’Connor’s album. They were known as The New Nashville Cats.

Although he played the Opry since 1973 when he debuted as bass guitarist with Dottie West, a lifelong dream came true on May 11, 1996, when Wariner was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry as a member. He sang “A Woman Loves,” a duet with Bill Anderson on “Tips Of My Fingers” and Chet Atkins joined Wariner on “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?”

In 1997, Wariner collaborated with Anita Cochran on the No. 1 duet “What If I Said,” which Wariner recorded on his RIAA Gold certified album Burnin’ the Roadhouse Down.

In 1998, Capitol Records signed and released Wariner’s “Holes In The Floor Of Heaven.” That same year, Wariner swept the Country Music Awards and Academy of Country Music awards by winning 3 ACMs and 3 CMAs for “Holes in the Floor of Heaven,” which won Song of the Year and Single of the Year. Wariner also produced “Holes in the Floor of Heaven.” The emotional hit smash was also nominated for a GRAMMY.

During that time, he won the GRAMMY Award for Best Country Instrumental as a musician on the Asleep at the Wheel song, “Bob’s Breakdown,” an award he would win again in 2008 for his collaboration with Brad Paisley for the single, “Cluster Pluck,” and in 2009 for “Producer’s Medley,” a track on Wariner’s album My Tribute to Chet Atkins.

In 2011, he released Guitar Laboratory, a collection of instrumental songs spanning many genres, including Bluegrass, Classical, Country, Jazz, Blues and traditional Hawaiian music. The release of It Ain’t All Bad followed in 2013 and All Over the Map in 2016.

Metal icon Dave Mustaine, of Megadeth, invited Wariner to play steel guitar on the band’s Dystopia album in 2015. It’s clear Wariner has a true passion for his profession, and evident through his extensive collection of guitars, including the first one he ever learned to play, the first one he bought, several gifted to him by Chet Atkins, his own Takamine models, including 3 editions, and in 2019, Gretsch released the Steve Wariner Signature Nashville Gentleman.

Over the course of his career, Wariner’s passion for writing, playing and singing music remains undiminished. He has served as an extraordinary role model and inspiration to artists in many genres and has become an excellent example of one our industry’s most talented and professional artists, songwriters and musicians, and has proven to be a triple threat; an award-winning artist, musician, and songwriter.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

When Stoney Larue took the stage to record “Live at Billy Bob’s”, it was a special night…..his birthday.

ABOUT STONEY LARUE:

“I like to connect with people at any age, whatever it might be sonically or to the depth of what they are willing to think. I like to think, and I like people to think and that often generates a connection that can be nurtured,” says Stoney LaRue. As he prepares the release of Us Time, LaRue reflects on this important connection he has fostered with his fans over his 15-plus years of touring. Together, LaRue and his fans have culled together a “favorite live song set” that is dedicated to his loyal and growing fan base. Stoney LaRue is known for his real life, thinking man’s music. US TIME is a collection of songs from the native Texan who now resides in Oklahoma reflecting on his own dreams that openly shares with his longtime fans. “This project is a tribute to my fans. We have developed a strong relationship and I appreciate all of them,” says LaRue. “ Together, we have built a compilation of fan favorites from the live shows that reflect the complexion of our time together in music, it is simply our US Time”, he continues. This sentiment rings even louder after LaRue took a hiatus from touring this summer to re-center his life that seemed to be lost. Stoney LaRue says, “Being able to record such timeless songs as “Empty Glass,” “Into the Mystic” and “Wichita Lineman” aside some of the original tunes, all selected by my fans make me feel validated as an artist, and hopefully it gives the fans exactly what they are looking for.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On April 3, 2015, Sturgill Simpson joined so many other legends last week and added his prints to Billy Bob’s “Wall Of Fame.”

ABOUT STURGILL SIMPSON: 

Formerly the leader of Sunday Valley, an energetic roots outfit that made some waves in the early years of the new millennium, Sturgill Simpson gained greater renown as a solo artist, initially thanks to his muscular 2013 solo debut, High Top Mountain. An outlaw country record in form and feel — its debt to Waylon Jennings clear and unashamed — High Top Mountain became a word-of-mouth hit in 2013, thereby establishing Simpson’s country credentials and opening the door to a wider future.

Metamodern Sounds in Country MusicA native of Jackson, Kentucky, raised near Lexington, Simpson has deep Southern roots, but he moved out west once he reached his late teens. In 2004, he formed Sunday Valley, receiving a big break when they played Portland, Oregon’s Pickathon Festival in 2011. Sturgill went solo in 2012, beginning work on the album that became High Top Mountain, which appeared the following year. After extensive touring, Simpson settled down in the studio to concentrate on his next recording. He experimented with stretching the boundaries of his chosen genre, digging deep into topics like physics and evolution, as evidenced by his pre-release single “Turtles (All the Way Down).” The Dave Cobb-produced album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, appeared in May of 2014 and peaked in the Top Ten on all of the country charts. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Album. Simpson won Best Emerging Artist at that year’s Americana Music Awards, and in 2015 was named Artist of the Year by the same foundation.

A Sailor’s Guide to EarthIn March 2016, he released “Brace for Impact (Live a Little),” as the first single from the full-length A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. The self-produced album was released in April and featured a guest appearance from the Dap-Kings. It earned rave reviews plus a surprise nomination for the Grammy’s Album of the Year. Although it lost the big award, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth did win Best Country Album at the 2017 Grammys.

PurgatoryDuring 2017, Simpson kept a relatively low profile, touring some on his own and as an opener for Guns N’ Roses. He also produced Purgatory, the debut album by Tyler Childers. In 2018, Simpson dabbled in acting, and film was an essential component of his next project, Sound & Fury. A noisy excursion into sci-fi rock & roll, the album was accompanied by an anime film upon its September 2019 release. The following year saw Simpson issue Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions, which included bluegrass versions of songs culled from his first three solo efforts, along with a handful of Sunday Valley cuts.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In January of 2007, “Come Sail Away” rockers Styx performed at the club for one of their 8 shows at the World’s Largest Honky Tonk. A guitar signed by the band hangs in the Guitar Bar today.

ABOUT STYX:

Harmony. Chemistry. Balance. Grit. Dexterity. Determination. Solidarity. Terms that describe a Super Bowl champion? Well, almost. These are words that define the core essence of STYX, the multimegamillion-selling rock band that has forged an indelible legacy both on record and onstage.

Never known for resting on their laurels, STYX has now added a triumphant new chapter to their never-ending story of success: namely, The Mission, the band’s sonically sweet 16th studio album and most ambitious, most challenging, and most rewarding release to date.

“The planets truly aligned for The Mission, and I couldn’t be prouder,” says STYX vocalist/guitarist Tommy Shaw, who co-wrote the album’s storyline with longtime collaborator Will Evankovich (Shaw Blades, The Guess Who). Continues Shaw, “It’s our boldest, most emblematic album since Pieces of Eight.” Adds STYX co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young, “This album is an incredible artistic expression that resonates with the best parts of our past, but is intended for modern-day consumption. I’m very excited about it.”

Indeed, The Mission is an aurally adventurous 43-minute thrill ride that chronicles the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumphs of the first manned mission to Mars in the year 2033. From the hopeful drive of the lead single “Gone Gone Gone” to the pivotal harmonic convergence of “Radio Silence” to the stargazing machinations of “Locomotive” to the rough-riding blaze of glory that permeates the hard-charging “Red Storm” to the elegiac optimism of the closing track “Mission to Mars,” The Mission succeeds in delivering the greater good from a band that continues to fire on all cylinders, 45 years after signing its first recording contract.

The band’s acclaimed pedigree most definitely infused the recording sessions for The Mission with an even deeper-rooted sense of purpose and duty, something that can be directly attributed to the six men comprising STYX having invested themselves in rocking the Paradise together with audiences far and wide by entering their second decade of averaging over 100 shows a year, and each one of them is committed to making the next show better than the last. “Every night, we go on that magic carpet ride together,” observes original bassist Chuck Panozzo, who joins the band on tour as often as he can. “The thing I always like the most is the immediate response we get when playing live,” notes JY Young, an integral force of nature in the band since its 1972 inception and the one who helped steer the band to landing its first recording contract with Wooden Nickel Records.

“And this is as good a live band as there is,” continues JY, who’s also known far and wide as The Godfather of STYX. “Someone once told me, ‘I’ve seen Paul McCartney, I’ve seen the Rolling Stones, I’ve seen U2, I’ve seen the Police. But my favorite show last year was STYX.’ I like to say we’re the best-kept secret — but perhaps we’re not anymore.” Adds the perennial wunderkind Tommy Shaw, “There are so many portals to reach your musical soul, and our live show is like a religious experience where people come to commune and testify. We have a pretty sophisticated audience, and we really respect that. We didn’t use to have people who would come see every show, but now they’re coming back again and again for more. And we owe it to our fans to continually rehearse, prepare, and improve.”

The space saga that is the crux of the music that makes up The Mission is just the kind of envelope-pushing creative endeavor Shaw refers to above. The storyline was forged to reflect the viewpoint of the six-person crew enlisted for the maiden voyage of Khedive, the first entry in a new fleet of nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft underwritten by the Global Space Exploration Program (or GSEP, for short). The Khedive team consists of The Pilot, a fully hands-on, seat-of-the-pants born leader; a First Officer who serves as the team’s big-brother figure; an Engineer who is skeptical of every phase of the mission but remains confident in his own abilities to make the best of any technical situation; and a Top-Shelf Trio of science, astrophysics, and survivalist experts.

An invigorating combination of freedom and trust is what ultimately led Shaw down The Mission’s highly focused songwriting path. “It’s been so long since we made a STYX album like the ones we did before because so much has changed,” Shaw acknowledges. “We are rough-edged and badass when we’re out on the road, and we know it. But, to a man, while we were making this record, everyone got very real and dug down deep in unfamiliar territory, and gave the performances you hear. Anything we can do to make the songs better — that’s what we do. It was all hands on deck, and it’s such a cool thing after all these years to still have that together. And to have this album come out when the brotherhood of the band has never been stronger, well — it’s the sweet dream we never imagined. The truth is, it is a dream fulfilled.”

The collective strengths of The Mission are not lost on JY. “Tommy likes to say, ‘From a tiny acorn a giant oak doth grow,’” Young recites. “And my genetic material is there too, so I helped birth this child, and if it turns out to be the most successful thing we’ve done — well, that’s why we make STYX records. It shows how we work as a team. The skill level of the band has allowed us to go do things we just couldn’t have otherwise in the past. And that’s not a knock on Mr. John Panozzo or Mr. John Curulewski at all [the two original STYX bandmembers who have passed away]. As I’ve said before, I’ve surrounded myself with home-run hitters after the people we’ve lost. I really do love this album, and what we’ve done on it. It’s a great collaboration.”

Gowan loves how The Mission reflects the band’s core identity. “The album feels simultaneously comfortable and new,” observes the keyboardist/vocalist/onstage shaman. “It’s both entertaining and charming, and a natural progression of our sound. There’s a tip of the hat to all the great music of that era, which we made sure to highlight by my utilizing all those vintage Oberheim synthesizer sounds. That DNA, quite frankly, is what’s in all those great, classic STYX albums anyway, and I can see all kinds of cross-references that appear on this album. I feel great about it. It’s also been particularly intriguing to hear Tommy mutter a couple of times, ‘This feels like The Grand Illusion.’ I take that as being quite the positive response.”

Gowan also looks forward to how the band will develop The Mission in the live arena. “Something feels fresh with these guys every time I walk out on stage with them,” he admits. “It’s not lost on anyone that we’re pretty fortunate to be doing this. I look across the stage and I’m as entertained as much as the audience is as to how strong the band is. There’s not the slightest sliver of doubt that we’re all going to leave everything we can onstage every night.”

Agrees drummer and percussive dynamo Todd Sucherman, “This is a band that never has a bad show. I think our level of professionalism, musicianship, and spirit carries that across every night. The fact that we have so much fun when we’re playing — that’s very contagious. That’s a miraculous feat in and of itself. We never walk off the stage thinking, ‘What happened?’”

Sucherman also feels that, with The Mission, the band has struck the right balance for the here and now. “This record has so much great ear candy on it from start to finish,” the drummer notes. “And I think the ebb and flow of it was tailored just right, too. The spirit of how well we all work together is captured here — that overall sense of fun mixed in with the light and shade of the material itself. Plus, the fact that the storyline is rooted in some sort of scientific truth, based on our relationship with the New Horizons team [the NASA scientists who named Pluto’s smallest moon after STYX in 2015], adds a certain warmth and gravitas to it. That just lends even more depth to the space story at hand.”

Ricky Phillips, bassist, background vocalist, and the backbone of the backline, is impressed with how harmoniously the album came together. “I’ve done a lot of sessions over the years and played on songs and albums that have had big productions and gone all the way to No. 1, but The Mission was by far the easiest, most seamless recording project I’ve ever been a part of,” the bassist admits. “Everyone was so prepared. That’s the beauty of us having worked together over all these years, and being out there every night onstage and seeing each other more than we see our families. That’s all paid off because everybody in STYX knows what works in this unit. In fact, I don’t remember us having a single struggle over any of the material at all.”

Being in tune with the degree STYX is ready transfers to the live stage as well. “There’s a lot going on up there. It’s a multilayered, multilevel show with a number of elements going on beyond the music itself,” Phillips observes. “I find a symmetry with the give and take and all of the different emotions we touch upon. As many people as I’ve had the privilege to play with, I’ve never had the pleasure of being part of a situation like this one.” And that’s the crux of the unique rock and roll feeling STYX shares with its fans show in and show out.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Rumor has it, T.G. Sheppard enjoyed playing pool at Billy Bob’s Texas as much as he did recording his “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” album.

ABOUT T.G. SHEPPARD:

T.G. Sheppard has always had an unstoppable passion for music. This passion along with 21 number one hits and being ranked among the top 100 country artists iof all time has made him one of the most popular live performers on tour today. It’s only natural with a show chock full of chart topping hits like “Last Cheaters Waltz”, ”I Loved ‘Em Everyone”,”Do You Wanna Go To Heaven”, and “Party Time” that TG has developed a reputation as a solid performer who delivers exactly what audiences want. All this and more combined with a steadfast dedication to entertainment has truly made him one of the great Legends in country music.
T.G. knew early in his life that music was more than a hobby. He left his home in Humboldt, Tennessee, at the age of 15, journeying to Memphis to begin his career in earnest. Working in various bands, he began to develop his stage skills, learning how to put his own touch on the myriad of songs required to survive on the club and party circuit. Using the name Brian Stacy, he released his first record, “High School Days”, which caused a few ripples on the pop charts in 1966. The resulting acclaim brought him gigs as an opening act for some of the biggest acts in America, including The Animals, Jan & Dean and The Beach Boys.

The fledgling star veered off his musical course in 1965, reverting to his given name of Bill Browder and getting into the record promotion business. In a short time his passion for music, now redirected to furthering the careers of others, made him one of the industry’s most successful record promoters.

In 1974, T.G. found a song that would change his life forever. His astute ability to pick a hit song and promote it had paid off for numerous artists, yet T.G. kept thinking of his own musical aspirations. He knew Bobby David’s composition “Devil In The Bottle” was destined to be a hit, yet had no success in pitching the tune. After being turned down by eight record labels in 18 months, T.G. decided to cut the song himself. Heading to Nashville, he was signed to Motown, the mammoth R&B label that was trying to establish a presence in country music.

When he released “Devil In The Bottle” as T.G. Sheppard by night, he soon realized which of the two jobs would get his undivided attention. While promoting records for RCA, T.G. formed a close personal and professional relationship with Elvis Presley. The legendary performer appreciated T.G.’s unique style and personality. As a token of their friendship, Elvis gave T.G. his first tour bus in 1976, helping to provide him with the confidence to give up the promotion business and hit the road full time. During his first year on the road he scored numerous hits with the Motown imprints of Melodyland and Hitsville, including “Trying To Beat The Morning Home” and “When Can We Do This Again”.

Named “Best New Male Artist” in 1976 by CASH BOX, T.G. signed with Warner Bros. when Motown decided to get out of country music. His career then skyrocketed as he scored 14 consecutive number one songs, including such classics as “Only One You”, “Party Time”, and “War Is Hell (On The Homefront)”. In 1982, following this impressive “debut”, T.G. was honored as Music City News “Most Promising Male Vocalist”.

His sound – a smooth fusion of R&B rhythms, pop arrangements and solid country songwriting – was a blueprint for country music in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, his style rarely changed, and fans came to rely on his substantial recordings of well crafted, slickly produced country-pop rhythms, highlighted by his evocative vocals.

The “promise” of T.G.’s early career continued into the 1980s, as he racked up one hit after another. His duet with Karen Brooks, “Faking Love”, scored yet another number one, and “Make My Day”, a duet with Clint Eastwood featured in the feature film “Sudden Impact” crossed over onto the pop charts.

In 1985, T.G. signed with Columbia Records, where he again found himself at the top of the charts with songs like “Fooled Around And Fell In Love”, “Strong Heart”, and “One For The Money”. During his Columbia days, he worked with renowned producers Rick Hall and Bob Montgomery to create four more albums to add to his repertoire.

By 1990, country music traditionalists had changed the course of the format, and T.G. found himself wondering how he fit the new mold. He chose to withdraw from recording at this time and instead concentrated on his live performances, touching audiences night after night with his tried-and-true repertoire of hits, delivered with non-stop energy and the same excitement he felt as a teen.

He also made a name for himself as an astute businessman. In 1988, he opened his private residence in the Great Smoky Mountains as a bed and breakfast. The 160-year-old log home, built high atop Moon Mountain, was an instant success and is still a popular tourist destination, although T.G. no longer owns the property.

The popular performer, who learned firsthand the kind of entertainment experience fans craved, was one of the original investors in the highly popular chain of country nightclubs, Guitars & Cadillacs. The clubs, located throughout the Midwest, serve as showcase venues for many emerging country singers as well as some of the format’s biggest stars.

T.G. also served as the national spokesperson for the Folgers’ NASCAR racing team for eight years. During a six-year span, he served as host/performer on “Folgers’ Wakin’ Up Country Tour”, which headlined throughout North America.

In 1995, he took a two-year hiatus from the road to perform exclusively for eight months a year at T.G. Sheppard’s Theater In The Smokies, a state-of-the-art theater in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. For the first time in his musical career, he enjoyed the luxury of going home every night after a show. But the wanderlust of a road musician was inescapable, as he returned to the road in 1997.

Charity work is a crucial part of T.G.’s career. Throughout the year, he works with many of the nation’s top charitable organizations such as Cerebral Palsy, Inc; St. Jude Children’s Hospital; The Alzheimer’s Association; The United Way; and ChildHelp USA.

T.G.’s first commercial album in over 13 years “Legendary Friends & Country Duets” has just been released. It is a duet CD with some of music’s biggest icons including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Kelly Lang, Ricky Skaggs, The Oak Ridge Boys, Englebert Humperdink, Lorrie Morgan, Crystal Gayle, Delbert McClinton, The Whites, Mickey Gilley, Steve Cropper, Jimmy Fortune, and Wayne Jackson and the Memphis Horns. T.G. states that this is the music he is the most proud of. A 90 minute motion picture length DVD was also filmed as the sessions were recorded and has won the top award for best music documentary at the Tele Awards in Los Angeles, CA.

T.G. Sheppard’s ardor for life and unceasing energy allow him to fulfill his unrelenting passion for music. His brand new album, “Midnight In Memphis”, available everywhere on September 20, is the latest means by which he shares that passion with the rest of us.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

When Tanya Tucker was asked what she wanted on her tombstone, she replied “She’s not here. She’s playing at Billy Bob’s.”

ABOUT TANYA TUCKER:

Country music legend Tanya Tucker engraved her name in the country music history books when she was just 13 years old with the single “Delta Dawn” in 1972. In the succeeding decade, Tucker became one of the few child performers to transition into adulthood and maintain her fan base. During the course of her career, she’s notched a remarkable streak of hits including the chart-topping “What’s Your Mama’s Name,” “Blood Red and Goin’ Down,” and “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone).” Along with Jessi Colter, Tucker was one of very few women adopted by the outlaw country movement during the ’70s and ’80s. As a recording artist, she’s placed nine titles on the Top Country Albums charts, nine singles in the Hot 100, and more than a dozen at Top Country Songs. Ubiquitous during her first two decades, Tucker achieved high-profile professional successes that were balanced by some lows and personal scandals, but she never stayed down for long. Between 1988 and 1997, she charted a comeback that netted three gold albums. In the 21st century, she started her own label, was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame, and continued to tour. After an extended break from recording new material, in 2019 she released the full-length While I’m Livin’ on Fantasy Records, co-produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings.

Tucker was born in Seminole, Texas, and much of her childhood was spent moving throughout the Southwest as her father pursued construction jobs. At the age of six, she began taking saxophone lessons; two years later, she decided she wanted to sing and made an auspicious debut with Mel Tillis, who was so impressed by her talents that he invited her on-stage to perform. In 1969, Tucker and her family moved to Las Vegas, where she regularly performed. Eventually, she recorded a demo tape that gained the attention of songwriter Dolores Fuller, who sent it to producer Billy Sherrill. At the time, Sherrill was the head of A&R at CBS Records, and he was so impressed with the demo tape that he signed the teenaged vocalist to Columbia. Sherrill initially planned to have Tucker record “The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.,” but she passed on the tune, choosing “Delta Dawn” — a song she heard Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show — instead. Released in the spring of 1972, the song became an instant hit, peaking at number six on the country charts and scraping the bottom of the pop charts.

T.N.T.

At first, Columbia tried to downplay Tucker’s age, but soon word leaked out and she became a sensation. Her second single, “Love’s the Answer,” also became a Top Ten hit later in 1972. Tucker’s third single, “What’s Your Mama’s Name,” became her first number one hit in the spring of 1973. Two other number ones — “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” and “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)” — followed, establishing Tucker as a major star. In 1975, she signed with MCA Records, where she had a string of hit singles that ran into the late ’70s. She decided to radically change her image in 1978 and cross over to rock with her T.N.T. album. Despite the controversy over the record and its sexy cover, it went gold the following year.

By the end of the ’70s, her sales were declining; in 1980 she only had two hits. She recorded a few singles with Glen Campbell, with whom she was romantically linked. She also made her feature film debut in Hard Country. She switched to Arista in 1982, where she had several hits, highlighted by the Top Ten “Feel Right.” She didn’t chart in 1984 or 1985, and signed with Capitol Records. In early 1986, she returned with “One Love at a Time,” which rocketed to number three. For the rest of the decade, she scored a constant stream of Top Ten singles, including four number one hits. Her success continued in the early ’90s, even though her sales began slumping as the decade wore on. By the new millennium, Tucker was still in the game.

Tanya

Several retrospectives and various hits collections were released. In 2002, Tucker issued her 31st album — her most personal to date — Tanya. More compilations followed, culminating in the live recording/DVD Live at Billy Bob’s Texas in 2005. What could be termed a comeback album, the Pete Anderson-produced and arranged My Turn, a collection of classic country covers, appeared in 2009 from Saguaro Road. While Tucker continued to perform, she didn’t record for a decade.

In January 2019, Tucker spent three weeks recording in a Nashville studio with producers Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. Carlile wrote a handful of tunes specifically for the album, and co-wrote “Bring My Flowers Now.” On April 1, 2019, Tucker and Carlile performed the song at Loretta Lynn’s All-Star Birthday Celebration Concert in Nashville. The duo performed “Delta Dawn” at the 2019 CMT Music Awards, joined by Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Deana Carter, and others. The album’s first official single, “Hard Luck,” and an accompanying music video appeared in June. A second pre-release single, a cover of Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me,” along with the LP, While I’m Livin’, appeared in August.

Live from the Troubadour

While I’m Livin’ proved to be a big comeback for Tucker, earning the artist her first Billboard Country Top Ten album since 1991 and her first two Grammy Awards (Best Country Album and Best Country Song for “Bring My Flowers Now”). She kept up her momentum the following year, releasing Live from the Troubadour, a concert album recorded during an L.A. appearance on the While I’m Livin’ tour.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On September 30, 1999, the Temptations cemented their hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT THE TEMPTATIONS:

The Temptations, often referred to as American Music Royalty, are world-renowned superstars of entertainment, revered for their phenomenal catalog of music and prolific career. The group will be celebrating their 60th Anniversary beginning in June 2021 through June 2022. To mark this milestone, the Temptations are releasing a brand-new album with new, original songs, plus they are planning to tour both in the U.S, dates to be determined, and in the UK, fall of 2021. Dr. Otis Williams, the sole surviving member of the original, classic lineup of the Temptations, will turn 80 years old on October 30th of 2021.

Ranked #1 in Billboard magazine’s most recent list of the Greatest R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of All Time, the Temptations also appear in the magazine’s 125th Anniversary list of the 125 Greatest of All Time Artists. In addition, Rolling Stone magazine named the group among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In September of 2020, the editors of Rolling Stone magazine commented that the Temptations are “Indisputably the greatest black vocal group of the Modern Era…,” and listed the group’s Anthology album among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The Anthology album has appeared in all three of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums’ lists.

The Temptations’ heritage, influence and contributions to, not only American culture and African American communities but also to the global music landscape are monumental. The influence that the Temptations had on mainstream and global artists, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and others, is undeniable.

The group’s popularity is ever-increasing and they are one of the most iconic, bestselling brands in the entertainment world today. While the group has evolved over the years, Dr. Otis Williams has continued to lead the group and carry the torch forward for the next generation of Temptations’ fans.

The Temptations are currently the subject of the smash hit Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, which opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on March 21st, 2019. The musical received 12 Tony nominations and won the Tony Award for Best Choreography at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 10, 2019. It has already captivated thousands of theater-goers during sold-out performances on Broadway. At year-end of 2019, Ain’t Too Proud had broken the house record at the Imperial Theatre for a second time. The week ending December 29th the musical had the highest grossing week in the history of the Imperial Theatre. In June of 2019, the show’s producers announced plans for a touring production of the musical to appear in more than 50 cities, in 100+ weeks, dates for 2021 and beyond to be announced.

Also in 2019, the original cast album for the smash hit Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations was nominated for a Grammy® Award in the “Best Musical Theater Album” category.

In addition to the musical, the Temptations’ journey, as seen through the lens of Dr. Otis Williams, the sole surviving, original Temptation, was also a blockbuster television mini-series which aired in 1998. The mini-series, Temptations, was produced by long-time Temptations’ manager Shelly Berger, Dr. Otis Williams, and Suzanne de Passe, head of de Passe Entertainment, and was reportedly viewed by 45 million fans when it originally aired. The television mini-series went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Direction for a Mini-series or Movie, as well as the 1999 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-series. The mini-series continues to air on cable networks today.

In 2018, Universal Music Enterprises (“UMe”) released worldwide the Temptations’ latest studio album, All the Time, which was the group’s first new album in eight years. It was released in CD, vinyl LP, limited edition white vinyl LP and digital formats. It features three new, original Temptations’ songs, in addition to inspired renditions of songs from Maxwell, The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars and others.

At the time of the album’s release, Dr. Otis Williams, founding member of the Temptations said, “…Looking back, I never could have imagined where my life has taken me. I’m proud of what the Temptations have achieved, and I’m grateful for every opportunity we’ve been so fortunate to receive. The music carries me. Together, we lift our voices with love and wonder…”

The group’s 60-year history spans the 20th and 21st centuries, and their music transcends generations. The Temptations’ story is a road map through American history. What began in Detroit, when a remarkable combination of soulful voices united, was the genesis of an epic journey that introduced multiple superstars to the world and produced some of the greatest music of our era.

Motown auditioned and signed the original Temptations in May of 1961. When the legendary “Classic Five,” (Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams and David Ruffin) released the single, “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” in 1964, which peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and remained on the list for 11 weeks, it marked the beginning of a multitude of award-winning and chart-topping singles and albums that would be embraced by popular music audiences globally. Considered trailblazers in the 60’s, leading the way not only for themselves but for other R&B artists, and successfully reaching mainstream audiences here and abroad, the Temptations’ rise to fame was meteoric. It was on March 6, 1965 that their first million copy, bestselling single, “My Girl” hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The Temptations’ role as artists, and how they used their voices to speak to the times they lived through, especially during the 60’s-one of the most turbulent decades in our nation’s history, is compelling.

They were among the first African American musical artists to crossover into mainstream America and appear on popular, national mainstream television programs, such as The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Hollywood Palace. The group’s star power was so striking that these top-rated, national programs, and many others, scheduled appearances for the Temptations multiple times during a single year. At the time, this was an unparalleled accomplishment for African American entertainers.

On December 9, 1968, Diana Ross & The Supremes and the Temptations headlined a network television special TCB (Taking Care of Business), a first for two African American music groups. According to published reports at the time, the special won its time slot, was the top-rated television variety show in 1968 and received an Emmy nomination. The original cast soundtrack album, TCB, was released a week prior to the special and reached #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums’ chart. In July 1969, Motown put together a major television special for the group called The Temptations Show. In November of that same year, a third national television special, G.I.T. (Gettin’ It Together) on Broadway, starring Diana Ross & The Supremes and the Temptations aired, and according to published reports won the primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design. An accompanying soundtrack album by Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations was released in advance of the television special. The Temptations helped change the face of primetime television and fueled the growth in the performing arts and entertainment world for African American artists forever.

The Temptations, throughout the group’s evolution, have produced 53 Billboard Hot 100 singles, including four Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles: “My Girl,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Just My Imagination,” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” Additionally, they released 44 Top 10 R&B chart hits, 14 of which were #1 R&B singles, including timeless classics such as “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” and songs influenced by their funk/psychedelic soul sound including “Happy People,” and “Shakey Ground.” The group also has 16 #1 R&B Chart albums. The Temptations’ music, then and now, continues to raise the spirit of the country and uplift a nation searching for common bonds and glimmers of hope and humanity.

The Temptations are the recipients of numerous awards and honors. They have won four Grammy® Awards (and have received nine Grammy® nominations), in addition to being awarded the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy® Award at the 56th Annual Grammy® Awards (2013). The Temptations delivered Motown’s first-ever, GRAMMY® at the 11th Annual Grammy® Awards in 1969 for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group, Vocal or Instrumental, for their song, “Cloud Nine.” They won their next two GRAMMYS® at the 15th Annual Grammy® Awards in 1973 for the #1 Billboard Hot 100 Single, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” which won a total of three Grammy® Awards that year: Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, awarded to the Temptations; Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance, awarded to the Temptations and Paul Riser, and Best Rhythm & Blues Song, awarded to Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield as songwriters. The group won their fourth GRAMMY® at the 43rd annual Grammy® Awards in 2001 for their Top 20 R&B Chart Album, Ear-Resistible for Best Traditional Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance. “My Girl,” what many call their magnum opus, was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 1998, followed by “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” a year later in 1999.

In 1974, the Temptations were the very first group to be awarded Favorite Soul/Rhythm & Blues Band/Duo/ Group at the inaugural American Music Awards Ceremony. In 1975, the Temptations recorded their album, A Song for You, that won the American Music Award for Best Soul/Rhythm & Blues Album, at the third annual American Music Awards ceremony in 1976. The album includes two wildly popular and bestselling #1 R&B singles, “Happy People,” (co-written by Lionel Richie) featuring the Commodores as instrumentalists, and “Shakey Ground” featuring instrumentals by Parliament-Funkadelic’s Eddie Hazel with Billy “Bass” Nelson. In August 1998, the Temptations released the album, Phoenix Rising, featuring the debut of Terry Weeks, a lead vocalist for the group then, and now, and it won the Soul Train Music Award for Best Rhythm & Blues/Soul Album by a Duo or Group at the 12th annual Soul Train Music Awards in 1999. The single, “Stay,” from that album became a “Top 30” R&B single.

In 1983, Ron Tyson, one of the group’s current lead vocalists, joined the Temptations. In May of 1983, the televised anniversary special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, aired on NBC-TV and the extraordinary battle between the Temptations and the Four Tops led to a road tour together, famously called the “T’NT” tour. The two legendary groups still perform together today while on their respective concert tours.

In 1988, Dr. Otis Williams’ critically-acclaimed autobiography, Temptations, written with The New York Times bestselling author Patricia Romanowski, was published nationally. The book went on to become the source for both the Emmy Award-Winning television mini-series, Temptations, in 1998 and in 2019 the smash hit Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, with Tony Award-Winning choreography and Grammy®-Winning music.

In 1989, The Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blockbuster #1 chart hits “Just My Imagination,” “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone,” and “My Girl” are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” The group was also inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999, and into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2013. They were invited back to the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017 to receive The Rhythm & Blues Male Group of the 20th Century Award. They also received the NAACP Image Award “Hall of Fame Award” in 1992.

On September 14, 1994, the Temptations were given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California, and on June 7, 2019 given a star on the Apollo Theater’s Walk of Fame in Harlem in New York City. At the official ceremony, Dr. Otis Williams received a plaque marking the occasion on behalf of the legendary, classic five lineup. Dr. Otis Williams was also honored at the Apollo Theater’s 85th Anniversary Gala on June 10th, 2019.

In 2003, in 2012, and again, in September 2020, Rolling Stone magazine included the group’s Anthology album, originally released in 1973, among its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2020, the editors of Rolling Stone magazine commented that the Temptations are “Indisputably the greatest black vocal group of the Modern Era…”

In 2006, Dr. Otis Williams received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Stillman College, a Historically Black College/University in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

In 2018, the Library of Congress announced the induction of the Temptations’ classic mega-hit, “My Girl” into the National Recording Registry.

In November of 2019, the Temptations appeared on Billboard’s 125th Anniversary list of the 125 Greatest of All Time Artists.

In addition, for the 2019 holiday season, Universal Music Enterprises, the Temptations’ current recording company, released a first-of-its-kind, animated video featuring the Temptations’ “Silent Night,” one of the most popular holiday songs of all time.

On March 24, 2020 Tantor Media, a division of Recorded Books, released the audiobook edition of Dr. Otis Williams’ critically acclaimed autobiography, Temptations, written with The New York Times best-selling writer Patricia Romanowski. The audiobook includes a never-before-released introduction and a newly revised final chapter. Dr. Otis Williams narrates the new introduction and J.D. Jackson, an AudioFile Golden Voice Award winner, who also narrated Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made by David Halberstam, narrates the book. The audiobook is available in CD, Mp3 and digital formats.

In June of 2020, the Temptations released, what many called a message for our times, a new, soulful version of the popular single “You’ve Got a Friend,” as a YouTube video. The group raised their voices to reflect on their 60’s struggles and pay tribute to today’s movement for change. The video was recorded in a private session in Los Angeles, California.

In July of 2020, the Temptations were among the award-winning stars to perform in the 40th anniversary presentation of A Capitol Fourth, the national July 4th TV tradition on PBS.

On October 30, 2020, Dr. Otis Williams, the legendary and sole-surviving member of the original, classic five line-up of the Temptations and leader of group for 60 years, turned 79 years of age.

In November and December of 2020, the cast of the Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, performed in three nationally televised NBC-TV holiday events, including: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Christmas in Rockefeller Center, and One Night Only: The Best of Broadway to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Beginning in June 2021 through June 2022 the 60th anniversary of the Temptations’ legendary history and music will be commemorated. The Temptations will release a new album with brand new, original songs, and they are also looking forward to a national concert tour (dates to be determined) and a fall 2021 UK concert tour.

During Christmas 2021, the Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations is scheduled to go back to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where it ran in previews.

Dr. Otis Williams, the sole surviving member of the original, classic line-up of the Temptations, Ron Tyson, a lead vocalist with the group for 38 years, Terry Weeks, a lead vocalist for 24 years, Willie Greene, Jr., bass vocalist with the group for five years, and Mario Corbino, who joined the group in 2020, always look forward to serenading fans with their soulful voices, lighting up stages with their famous Temptations’ Walk, and bringing joy to audiences of all ages.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

July 28, 2018, Billy Bob’s was sizzling with the talented and beautiful Terri Clark burning up the main stage.

ABOUT TERRI CLARK:

Hailing from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, Terri Clark got her start by playing for tips at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a legendary honky-tonk bar across the alley from Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. With over 5 million albums sold, critically acclaimed international tours, and hit singles such as “Better Things To Do,” “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” “Girls Lie Too,” “Northern Girl,” and “I Just Wanna Be Mad,” Terri has solidified her place in the history books of country music.

In September 2018 Terri will be inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. The 3-time JUNO Award winner also holds the honor of being the only Canadian female member of the legendary Grand Ole Opry. She has been named CCMA Female Vocalist of the Year five times and has taken home eight CCMA Fan’s Choice Awards. In total, Terri has had the honor of receiving 19 CCMA Awards.

In 2016, Country Gold with Terri Clark debuted. The internationally syndicated Westwood One radio show airs on more than 145 stations across the USA and Canada and in November 2017 Terri was nominated for a CMA Award for National Broadcast Personality of the Year and in 2018 Terri received an ACM Award nomination for National On-Air Personality of the Year.

In October of 2017, Terri joined forces with Pam Tillis and Suzy Bogguss for the Chicks With Hits Tour – a guitar-pull style acoustic tour featuring chart-topping hits from three renowned women of country music. In 2018, Terri will hit the road for shows with the Chicks With Hits as well as headlining shows with her band across the US and Canada.

Terri is set to release her new holiday album, ‘It’s Christmas…Cheers!’ on September 25, 2020.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Signing the backstage wall became a tradition at Billy Bob’s in 1991. Since then, The Texas Tornados, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Pat Green have all signed the wall next to a handcrafted logo of their name.

ABOUT TEXAS TORNADO:

The ultimate Tex-Mex supergroup, Texas Tornados were composed of some of the genre’s most legendary figures: Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers (Sahm’s bandmate in the groundbreaking Sir Douglas Quintet), Hispanic country star Freddy Fender, and accordion virtuoso Flaco Jimenez. The group’s infectious, party-ready sound blended country, early rock & roll, Mexican folk music, R&B, blues, and whatever other roots music crossed their paths. The Tornados first assembled in 1989 at a concert in San Francisco, billing themselves as the Tex-Mex Revue. They enjoyed the collaboration so much they decided to stick with it and generated far more publicity together than they would have solo; Jimenez had released several acclaimed albums by that point, but Sahm had recorded only sporadically during the ’80s, and Fender hardly at all. Their self-titled debut album was released on Reprise in 1990 — in both English and Spanish versions — to rapturous reviews and also sold pretty well, reaching number 25 on the country charts. The group toured extensively behind it and issued the Grammy-nominated follow-up album Zone of Our Own in 1991, again to hugely positive reviews. By the time of 1992’s Hangin’ on by a Thread, the group’s primary audience was Latino, and Jimenez accordingly took more and more of the spotlight. After more touring, the group went their separate ways to concentrate on other projects and work on new material; most notably, Sahm and Meyers formed a new version of the Sir Douglas Quintet. In the meantime, Reprise issued a compilation, The Best of Texas Tornados. The Tornados reconvened in 1996 for the album 4 Aces, which didn’t attract quite as much attention or acclaim as their previous work. The group’s late-1998 concert at Antone’s in Austin was recorded and released the following summer as Live From the Limo, Vol. 1; unfortunately, it would prove to be the only volume, as Sahm died of a heart attack in late 1999.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

March 10th of 2007, The Wreckers were joined on their main stage debut by Kelly Clarkson.

ABOUT THE WRECKERS:

In 2004, Michelle Branch took a break from her successful solo career to team with friend and touring backup singer Jessica Harp in a new project called the Wreckers. Previous to the Branch collaboration, Harp had been working as a singer/songwriter in Nashville, and those country music elements mixed with Branch’s pop sensibilities to inform the Wreckers’ rootsy, harmony-rich sound. The duo debuted in autumn 2004, performing “Good Kind” on the WB teen drama One Tree Hill. “Good Kind” then appeared on the show’s official soundtrack — issued in January 2005 — as the Wreckers prepared to release their full-length debut. Its first single, “Leave the Pieces,” hit country radio before the album, Stand Still, Look Pretty, appeared in March 2006 on Maverick and reached number 14 on the album charts. The concert album Way Back Home: Live from New York City followed in 2007.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

May 6th of 2021, Thomas Rhett rocked the main stage for his first time since October of 2019

May 9^th of 2020, Thomas Rhett and his wife Lauren Akins announced they are pregnant with their 4^th baby girl on the main stage here at Billy Bob’s.

ABOUT THOMAS RHETT:

ACM “Entertainer of the Year” Thomas Rhett’s most recent release, his GRAMMY-nominated fourth studio album CENTER POINT ROAD continued to propel his meteoric career as “few singers have played a larger role in defining the sound of country music over the past half-dozen years” (Rolling Stone), debuting atop the Billboard 200 and spawning three No. One hits including its PLATINUM lead single, “Look What God Gave Her,” which was first introduced on SNL. Thomas Rhett has scored nearly 10 BILLION total career streams, 16 career No. One single and received two CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. One song within a 12-month period, adding to his collection of trophies from the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, Billboard Music Awards, CMT Music Awards, and more. Following the record-breaking success of his Top 10-and-rising single “What’s Your Country Song,” additional new music is expected this year. “At the top of his musical game” (Winnipeg Free Press), the in-demand superstar has headlined multiple nationwide and international tours as well as major festivals. For more information, visit www.thomasrhett.com.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1982, Three Dog Night played Billy Bob’s Texas for the first time.

In September of 1987, it was a packed line up with Blood, Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf rock the main stage.

ABOUT THREE DOG NIGHT:

Legendary music icons, THREE DOG NIGHT, celebrating nearly 5 decades, claims some of the most astonishing statistics in popular music. In the years 1969 through 1974, no other group achieved more top 10 hits, moved more records or sold more concert tickets than THREE DOG NIGHT.

THREE DOG NIGHT hits wind through the fabric of pop culture today, whether on the radio where they are heard day in and day out, in TV commercials or in major motion pictures — songs like “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)”, “Joy to the World”, “Black and White”, “Shambala” and “One” serve to heighten our emotions and crystallize THREE DOG NIGHT’s continuing popularity.

This Grammy-nominated band is not content resting on its legacy alone. Always working to expand its audience, THREE DOG NIGHT has embraced and been embraced by 21st century music technology. New and existing fans buy THREE DOG NIGHT’s music on iTunes as well as at record stores. In fact, releases from this decade alone have sold well over a million copies.

Recently, THREE DOG NIGHT began adding new songs to its arsenal by releasing its first double-A sided single in nearly 25 years. The blistering performance of “Heart Of Blues” and the timely, beautiful a-cappella ballad “Prayer of the Children” are available online at iTunes, Amazon.com and other digital retailers as well as through the official band website (www.threedognight.com).

THREE DOG NIGHT also pushed boundaries by recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, giving fans new and old a chance to experience its dynamic performances of the hits as well as several new songs. The project, recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios in London and released to coincide with the band’s 35th Anniversary, added exciting new orchestral arrangements to THREE DOG NIGHT’s signature sound.

THREE DOG NIGHT maintains an aggressive, year-round touring schedule of over 70 dates a year. The hit filled concerts are performed for generation-spanning audiences by Danny Hutton (founder/lead vocalist) and Michael Allsup (guitar), Paul Kingery (bass/vocals), Pat Bautz (drums), Howard Laravea (keyboards) and David Morgan (vocals). The band’s now-famous name refers to native Australian hunters in the outback who huddled with their dogs for warmth on cold nights; the coldest being a “three dog night”.

Boasting chart and sales records that are virtually unmatched in popular music, THREE DOG NIGHT had 21 consecutive Top 40 hits, including 3 #1 singles, 11 Top 10’s, 18 straight Top 20’s, 7 million-selling singles and 12 straight RIAA Certified Gold LPs. The hits appeared on best selling charts in all genres (pop, rock and country). Its records continue to sell around the world, reaching beyond the borders of the U.S. into Japan, Canada, Holland, England, Germany, Spain and elsewhere. Tens of millions of THREE DOG NIGHT records have been sold through the years.

THREE DOG NIGHT recorded the music of the best (and mostly undiscovered) new songwriters of that time including Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Elton John, Laura Nyro, Paul Williams and Hoyt Axton among many others. The group’s eclectic taste, combined with its ability to recognize and record hits in a unique, distinctive and appealing style, resulted in THREE DOG NIGHT dominating the charts for years.

Now, marking nearly 50 years on the road, THREE DOG NIGHT continues to grow its fan base by keeping up a full schedule of concerts at theatres, performing arts centers, fairs, festivals, corporate events, and casinos. Since 1986, the band has performed over 2,200 shows including two Super Bowls.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In May of 1998, Tim McGraw, who had just released his first single “Indian Outlaw,” opens for Joe Diffie at the club.

ABOUT TIM MCGRAW:

Tim McGraw arrived on the country scene in the mid-’90s with the big, swaggering “Indian Outlaw” and “I Like It, I Love It,” hits that underscore his connection to a new generation of arena-rock-influenced country singers, but he sustained a career by playing to his sensitive side. McGraw unveiled his soft touch on “Don’t Take the Girl,” the 1994 single that became his first number one country hit, and as the years turned into decades, the singer wound up specializing in smoothly empathetic (and sometimes nostalgic) ballads and love songs. It was an aesthetic that served him well as he got older, as it offered him the opportunity to subtly shift with the times without losing sight of his core strengths as a singer and without sacrificing his maturity. McGraw’s ability to be reliable yet different is why he reached the top of the country charts with regularity for over 20 years, building a songbook containing such modern country perennials as “My Next Thirty Years,” “Live Like You Were Dying,” “The Highway Don’t Care,” and “Humble and Kind.”

Samuel Timothy McGraw was born in Delhi, Louisiana, on May 1, 1967. Though he didn’t know it until years later, his father was baseball player Tug McGraw, a star relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets who’d had a brief affair with McGraw’s mother. He was raised mostly in the small town of Start, Louisiana, near Monroe, and grew up listening to a variety of music: country, pop, rock, and R&B. He attended Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship, studying sports medicine, and it was only then that he started playing guitar to accompany his singing. McGraw played the local club circuit and dropped out of school in 1989, heading to Nashville on the same day his hero Keith Whitley passed away. He sang in Nashville clubs for a couple of years and landed a deal with Curb in 1992. His debut single, the minor hit “Welcome to the Club,” was released later that year, and his self-titled debut album appeared in 1993 but failed to make the charts.

McGraw’s fortunes changed with the lead single from his 1994 sophomore effort, Not a Moment Too Soon. “Indian Outlaw” was embraced as a lighthearted, old-fashioned novelty song by fans but was heavily criticized for what some regarded as its patronizing caricatures of Native Americans. Despite some radio stations’ refusal to air the song, it reached the country Top Ten and even crossed over to the pop Top 20. All the publicity helped send McGraw’s next single, the ballad “Don’t Take the Girl,” all the way to the top of the country chart; it too made the pop Top 20. The album kept spinning off hits: “Down on the Farm” hit number two, the title track went to number one in 1995, and the novelty tune “Refried Dreams” also reached the Top Five. Not a Moment Too Soon was a genuine blockbuster hit, eventually selling over five million copies and topping both the country and pop album charts; it was also the best-selling country album of the year.

McGraw’s follow-up, 1995’s All I Want, immediately consolidated his stardom with the number one smash “I Like It, I Love It.” The album topped the country chart, reached the pop Top Five, and sold over two million copies. Once again, it functioned as a hit factory thanks to the number two “Can’t Be Really Gone,” the number one “She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart,” and the Top Five “All I Want Is a Life” and “Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It.” Over 1996, McGraw supported the album with an extensive tour, accompanied by opening act Faith Hill. In October, after the tour was over, McGraw and Hill married, in a union of country star power that drew plenty of attention from mainstream media. It doubtlessly helped McGraw’s next album, 1997’s Everywhere, become another crossover smash; the record topped the country chart, fell one spot short of doing the same on the pop side, and sold four million copies. The lead single was a McGraw-Hill duet called “It’s Your Love,” which not only hit number one country, but made the pop Top Ten. Three more singles from the album — “Everywhere,” “Where the Green Grass Grows,” and “Just to See You Smile” — hit number one, and two others — “One of These Days” and “For a Little While” — reached number two. Meanwhile, “Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me,” another husband-and-wife duet from Hill’s 1998 album Faith, climbed into the Top Five.

With the multi-platinum success of Everywhere, McGraw was poised to take over Brooks’ throne as the king of contemporary country, a transition that only accelerated when Brooks confounded his fans with the In the Life of Chris Gaines project. McGraw, meanwhile, just kept topping the charts. His next album, 1999’s triple-platinum A Place in the Sun, hit number one country and pop, and four of its singles also hit number one: “Please Remember Me” (which featured Patty Loveless), “Something Like That,” “My Best Friend,” and “My Next Thirty Years.” The year 2000 brought McGraw’s first Greatest Hits compilation, a best-selling smash, and another Top Ten duet from Hill’s Breathe album, “Let’s Make Love.” The song later won McGraw his first Grammy, for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. Also in 2000, McGraw had a brush with the law when he and tourmate Kenny Chesney got involved in a scuffle with police officers after Chesney attempted to ride one of the officers’ horses; McGraw was later cleared of assault charges and spent the rest of 2000 on a second tour with Hill.

Released in 2001, Set This Circus Down (number one country, number two pop) kept McGraw’s hit streak going into the new millennium, giving him four more number ones — “Grown Men Don’t Cry,” “Angry All the Time,” “The Cowboy in Me,” and “Unbroken” — just like that. In 2002, his duet with protégée Jo Dee Messina, “Bring on the Rain,” also went to number one. For the follow-up album, McGraw defied country convention by entering the studio not with session musicians but with his road band, the Dancehall Doctors, a unit that had been together since 1996 (with some members around even before that). Tim McGraw was released in late 2002 and produced Top Ten hits in “Red Rag Top” and “She’s My Kind of Rain”; it also featured a startlingly faithful cover of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” McGraw kept the formula the same on 2004’s chart-topping Live Like You Were Dying, utilizing his road band, as well as co-mixing/producing the record himself. Let It Go followed in 2007, with Southern Voice arriving in 2009.

McGraw resumed recording in early 2010 with longtime co-producer Byron Gallimore. He finished the album Emotional Traffic and even toured in anticipation of its imminent release, but his longtime label Curb refused to release it, feeling it followed Southern Voice too quickly. The dispute landed both artist and label in court, resulting in a separation agreement. McGraw landed a major role in the film Country Strong, which was released in 2011. He followed it with the single “Felt Good on My Lips,” which reached the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and was followed by “Better Than I Used to Be”; both were pre-release singles for Emotional Traffic, which was finally issued in January 2012, two years after it was completed and delivered to Curb. He signed to Big Machine for Two Lanes to Freedom, which was released in early 2013; the album spawned three back-to-back number one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including “Highway Don’t Care” with Taylor Swift and Keith Urban guesting.

McGraw wasted no time following up on that success, issuing the pre-release single “Lookin’ for That Girl” in advance of his 2014 album Sundown Heaven Town. “Lookin’ for That Girl” was eclipsed by “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s,” a ballad featuring harmonies from Faith Hill, and that song was riding high in the country Top Ten when Sundown Heaven Town saw its release in September 2014. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. country chart and number three on the Billboard 200. It also generated two other hits: the number one “Shotgun Rider” and the Catherine Dunn duet “Diamond Rings and Old Barstools.” In August 2015, McGraw released “Top of the World,” his first single from Damn Country Music, which appeared in November. Early the next year, second single “Humble and Kind,” an inspirational song written by Lori McKenna, topped Billboard’s country chart. Within the next year, it racked up even bigger awards, including CMA Song of the Year, Grammy’s Best Country Song, and AMA’s Country Song of the Year.

Early in 2017, McGraw released “Speak to a Girl,” the first song from a duets album with Hill. The track peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The full-length The Rest of Our Life appeared in November of that year, debuting at number one on the U.S. country chart and reaching number two on the Billboard 200. Over the next few years, McGraw kept busy with a series of non-album singles including 2018’s “Neon Church” and 2019’s “Thought About You” and “Drive.” Neither song was included on his next album, Here on Earth. Arriving in August 2020, the record featured the single “I Called Mama,” which peaked at 17 on Billboard Country Airplay.

Here on Earth debuted at number one on Billboard’s Country charts and number 14 on its Hot 100 chart. Three months after its release, the compilation McGraw Machine Hits: 2013-2019 appeared.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Trace Adkins make his debut on the Showroom Stage. He had performed on the Honky Tonk stage as part of the band Bayou.

ABOUT TRACE ADKINS:

A Nashville icon for more than two decades, Trace Adkins has made his mark on the country music industry. 11 million albums sold. Time-honored hit singles. Momentous, fiery and always memorable live performances. GRAMMY nominations. CMT and ACM awards. Nearly 200 million plays on YouTube. Hell, even a slew of movie and TV roles have come the Grand Ole Opry member’s way. But ask Adkins what’s left to prove in his career and the small-town Louisiana native says it’s simple: the itch remains. To create. To collaborate. To continually feel the excitement that comes after whipping up a new song out of thin air and laying it down to tape. It’s what, after all these years, he says he still craves. “It’s an adrenaline rush and I love it,” says Adkins, who is back in the studio working on a new project, his Ain’t That Kind Of Cowboy EP, released on October 16th. “There’s nothing else like that,” the Louisiana naive offers. “That is still my favorite thing to do in this business. Go into the studio with some lyrics and a melody and then let the finest musicians in the world help turn it into something magical. It liberates me. I just dig it!”

Working with some of Nashville’s most respected songwriters, Adkins continues to find ways to connect with his fans through music while recording what he describes as autobiographical songs. “Over the years people have asked me, ‘How could we get to know you?’ Well, if you really wanted to know who Trace Adkins is, go back and listen to the album cuts on the records I’ve done over my career. Those are the songs that reflect where I was in my head at the time I made that record.”

It’s an interesting change of perspective for Adkins, however, when he hits the road for a slew of his now legendary live gigs. Where the studio offers unique insight into his current state of mind, onstage—when revisiting his classics like “You’re Gonna Miss This” or “Every Light in the House” nearly every evening, he says he’s taken back, if only for a brief while, to earlier moments in his life.

“It’s hard to describe, I gotta be honest,” he says of being overcome with emotion and reflection when trotting out some of his time-tested cuts for adoring audiences. “I’ve gotten to the point now where I’ll be onstage singing ‘Every Light in the House Is On’ and I look down at the crowd and realize that person right there wasn’t even alive when I recorded that song,” he says, laughing. “To watch their face go, ​Oh, that’s a cool hook,​ it’s like, ‘Oh my god, that’s the first time that person ever heard that song!’”

Adkins says he’s profoundly touched that he serves as an inspiration to a younger generation of country artists, much in the way he revered icons like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard when he first moved to Nashville. “I want to be in that position,” he says of taking the reigns as an elder statesman of the genre. “I want to be looked at that way. I want those guys to know they can walk up to me and ask me anything and know I’m here for them and I’ll help them however I can. I relish that position.”

With one million followers on Spotify and over one billion spins on Pandora (10 million spins per month), the longstanding country icon has yet to lose any of his trademark passion and killer instinct for his craft. The 58-year-old is as fired up as ever to be back on the road this year, taking his music to the fans once again. “I get a kick out of it. I still enjoy the camaraderie, the band of brothers, your crew and your band. I’m an old jock. I like team sports,” he says of his continued passion for touring. “I like it when the new guy is closing for me, and we turn it up a notch or two and just absolutely kick his ass. You go out and put a boot in somebody’s ass!”

Ask Adkins where he goes from here and he’ll say it’s quite simple: keep doing what he knows and loves. Performing. Creating. Inspiring. He loves it. And, he adds, he knows so many of his lifelong fans, and new ones to boot, do too. “I’m gonna go out there and find those people,” he says with genuine enthusiasm for the coming months. “I’m gonna bring a band and turn it up real loud! And we’re gonna have a good time!”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Tracy Byrd becomes part of Billy Bob’s Texas Lore as he becomes the 51^st artist to record a “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” album.

Tracy’s “Live at Billy Bob’s” album is the first live album to be released in his career.

ABOUT TRACY BYRD:

 Tracy Byrd became a household name on the Country Music Scene in 1993 when his third single, called “Holdin’ Heaven”, off of his MCA Records, self-titled debut album, hit #1 on the Billboard Country Charts. The Album also included the remake hit of Johnny Paycheck’s “Someone to Give my Love to” cementing Byrd as a Traditional Country Troubadour!! The Debut Album went on to be certified Gold, a reward signifying sales in excess of 500,000 copies.

            Byrd’s second project, “No Ordinary Man”, kept building on the momentum the first album created, the first radio single from it called “Lifestyle’s of the Not so Rich and Famous” reached #4, followed by another top-five hit, “The First Step”, then with the release of the smash, chart-topping hit “Watermelon Crawl” the second album crossed the half-million sales mark and certified Gold. The release of the 4th and last single on this project moved Byrd to the top of both the Billboard Album and Singles charts. The song was called “The Keeper of the Star’s” and it shot to #1 on the singles charts and pushed the album to Double Platinum Status, which certifies sales of over

2 Million Copies. “The Keeper of the Star’s” won the Academy of Country Music’s “Song of the Year” award in 1995. A Keeper Year for Tracy Byrd for sure.

            His third studio album, “Love Lesson” is one of Tracy’s favorites. It included the title track, another top-five hit single for Byrd, also included were the top 15 singles, “Walking to Jerusalem” and “Heaven in My Woman’s Eyes”, Byrd’s personal favorite.

A 4th top 15 single was released called “4 to 1 in Atlanta” in which Byrd performed Live on the David Letterman Show.  The “Love Lesson’s” album also reached sales of 500,000 copies certifying Gold.

            “Big Love” became Byrd’s fourth studio album with its release in the fall of 1996.  It spawned two more top-five singles with the release of the title track and “Don’t Take Her She’s All I’ve Got” The Video’s of both of these songs reached the top of CMT’s Video Chart’s and also earned Byrd his first TNN Television Special titled “Tracy Byrd’s Big Love” on which Byrd invited guest’s Johnny Paycheck, Mark Chesnutt, and Asleep at the Wheel. The Album “Big Love” became Tracy’s Fourth consecutive Studio Album to be Certified Gold. Tracy said that this meant more to him than anything because he knew fans weren’t just listening to his hit songs on the radio, they were laying down their hard-earned money to own a copy of their own and that was flattering.

            The fifth project on MCA was titled, “I’m From the Country” and it contained the title track a fun, party song stating what most fan already knows, that Tracy Byrd was from the Country and sang Country Music. The CD also contained a Beautiful Ballad called “I Wanna Feel That Way Again” Both of these singles’s reached the Top Five on the Charts.  It was at this same time that TNN Outdoors recruited Byrd as the TV Host of their Weekend Outdoor Broadcast.  Tracy, a well-known outdoorsman, was perfect for the job and continued his hosting responsibilities for three years.

            At this point in his career, Tracy Byrd was looking for a change in labels but still was under contract with MCA Records who were preparing a release of “Keepers: Greatest Hit’s” containing all the hits from Byrd’s catalog of songs.  The album quickly earned another Gold Record award for Byrd but he was trying to persuade MCA to let him out of his contract so he could pursue a different direction.  MCA finally allowed Byrd out of his contract and he quickly signed with RCA Records and got to work on a new project, “It’s About Time”, that would be released in November of 1999 and would reach the top 10 quickly with the single “Put Your Hand In Mine” Byrd has said that this album is the most Traditional Album he ever released and therefore his favorite.

            Tracy Byrd crossed into the new Millineum with the release of his Album “10 Rounds” It took off on the release of a duet with his longtime hometown buddy and hero Mark Chesnutt.  The song was called “A Good Way to get on my Bad Side” and was a milestone for Byrd to finally get to record with his good friend. Then came the release of the party song of the year, “10 Rounds with Jose Cuervo” which shot to the top of the Billboard Charts to notch Byrd’s third #1 single. He also hit the top 10 with his Spanish guitar flared “Just Let Me Be in Love”.

            Next came “The Truth About Men”, which first released the title track which was a comedic look at what Men are really like, it was a team effort with Tracy’s buddies Blake Shelton, Andy Griggs, and Troy and Eddie of Montgomery Gentry lending their talents to the song and the video. This Album also released the top five smash “The Drinkin’ Bone” which became a crowd favorite sing-along song.

            Byrd was then moved to BNA Records, the sister label of RCA, and they released his second greatest hits project, another feat that not many artists experience, two Greatest hits projects!!! It debuted in the top five of the album charts and became Byrd’s sixth Gold Album, and sent him to over 6 Million Records Sold!!!

            Byrd then left the major label and released an album on his own, appropriately titled, “Different Things” Although this project was not commercially successful, it garnered Byrd the highest Critical acclaim of his career with Billboard magazine choosing it as one of their Top 10 Country Albums of the Year!!!

            Through all of these years, Byrd became a promoter favorite on the road, performing over 4000 exciting shows across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia from 1992 until 2009!  He then says he needed a break to take care of himself and his most precious thing, his family, wife Michelle, daughter Evee, and sons Logan and Jared, who had taken a backseat to his career for years. He did not perform from 2010-2013, but in 2014 he got back to the music with a new band and newfound sobriety and love of the thing he enjoys so much.  Say’s Byrd, “These days my life has great balance, with my music being a part of it, not all of it.  I can honestly say I have never enjoyed it more!!”

             Byrd went back to the studio in June of 2016 and started work on his first project in 10 years.  Recorded completely in Tyler, Texas at Rosewood Studios, that album is appropriately titled, All American Texan, which is exactly what he is and has always been. This album features 8 tracks written by Byrd, a fact he is very proud of.  The album was released in October of 2016 and has been very well received by his fans and critics alike.

            If you get the chance pick up some Tracy Byrd music, and catch a show on the road.  You won’t be sorry that you did!!!

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Tracy Lawrence, at the peak of his career, joins Kenny Chesney on stage in February of 1999.

ABOUT TRACY LAWRENCE:

Tracy Lawrence is one of the most recognizable voices in Country music with songs such as “Paint Me A Birmingham,” “Time Marches On,” “Alibis,” and “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” The entertainer has enjoyed twenty-two songs on the Billboard top ten charts with eighteen number one singles, selling over thirteen million albums.

The Multi-platinum CMA and ACM award-winning recording artist has helped shape the sound of Country music for two decades, recently celebrating twenty years in music. Few country artists have ever known the kind of success that Tracy Lawrence has earned and the influence his iconic voice has contributed to the Country music genre.

His music has inspired a whole new generation of entertainers and fans. Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan frequently pay tribute to the singer live in concert by playing his double-platinum hits like “Time Marches On” and Alibis.” Songs that help make Lawrence one of the most played artists on the radio.

Lawrence has set out to embark on the next chapter of his music career with his highly anticipated forthcoming studio album Headlights, Taillights And Radios to be released August 2013. The first single, “Stop Drop And Roll” written by hit songwriters Casey Beathard who penned Lawrence’s CMA and ACM award-winning hit “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” and Brandon Kinney, marks the singer’s first studio album in five years.

Headlights, Taillights And Radios is not just another release for Lawrence, it’s a testament to how his music continues to evolve and engage all generations of Country music fans. The 11-song collection features some of his most progressive music to date.

Reflecting on the creative process when recording Headlights, Taillights And Radios Lawrence knew that he needed to push the envelope and creativity to a new level. “When recording the new album it was a very different process than I had ever done before,” said Lawrence. “We ended up recording the album in two parts, that’s just how it worked out. I started recording in the direction to make a more traditional County record. But as time progressed, I needed to explore and challenge myself musically. I wanted to go deeper and try a more edgy and progressive sound that reflected where I was going next. The combination really worked well for me and I think it will appeal to many different types of County music fans.”

The album title Headlights, Taillights And Radios carries a signature meaning for the artist. “Headlights” looking to the future; “Taillights” celebrating the past; and “Radios” a tribute to his success on radio.

Headlights, Taillights, And Radios gives us a new Tracy Lawrence. One that is sure to inspire and ignite a whole new generation of Country music.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Ken Kragen, the manager of Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, calls the club to promote a new artist named Travis Tritt. Tritt performs as the club’s house band three times throughout 1989.

ABOUT TRAVIS TRITT:

Three decades after Travis Tritt launched his music career, the Southern rock-influenced artist continues to sell out shows and stay true and relevant to country music fans across the globe. The highly abbreviated Tritt timeline started when the young Marietta, Georgia native incorporated his lifelong influences of Southern rock, blues, and gospel into his country during a honky-tonk apprenticeship that led him to Warner Bros. in 1989. Tritt’s albums, seven of which are certified platinum or higher, led him to amass more than 30 million in career album sales, two GRAMMY® Awards, four CMA Awards, an invitation to become a member of the world’s famous Grand Ole Opry and a devoted fan base that has filled venues coast-to-coast. Travis Tritt is dubbed one of “The Class of ‘89,” which included Country music superstars Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Alan Jackson; all of whom dominated the charts in the early ‘90s. Among his eleven studio albums and numerous charted singles are nineteen Top 10 hits, including “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde,” “Here’s A Quarter” and “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive.” Tritt’s talents, however, are not limited to music as he has also appeared in numerous feature films and TV shows throughout his extraordinary career. Tritt is currently on tour performing solo acoustic and full band shows across the country.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On January 12, 2001, Trick Pony cemented their hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.” Or should I say cemented face.

ABOUT TRICK PONY:

Contemporary country trio Trick Pony drew heavily from the sounds of the ’70s, particularly outlaw country and country-rock. The group was formed by guitarist Keith Burns and bassist Ira Dean in 1996; the two had known each other for five years and were both working as sidemen for established artists — Joe Diffie and Tanya Tucker, respectively. They decided on a two-man, one-woman format in which lead vocals would be shared, and Burns’ wife at the time discovered a perfect fit in California-born singer/guitarist/harmonica player Heidi Newfield, who quickly joined the band. Trick Pony spent several years honing their sound on the Southern club circuit and gradually incorporated more and more original material into their sets. They landed a deal with Warner Brothers in 2000 and issued their self-titled debut the following year. Their first single, “Pour Me,” narrowly missed the country Top Ten, and its follow-up, “On a Night Like This,” climbed into the Top Five; third single “Just What I Do” was another near-Top Ten. Trick Pony was certified gold within a year of its release, and in 2002 they followed it up with On a Mission, whose title track made the Top 20. R.I.D.E. followed in 2005. Singer/songwriter Aubrey Collins joined the group in 2007.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1991 Trisha Yearwood plays Billy Bob’s for the first time behind the strength of her hit song “She’s in Love with the Boy.”

ABOUT TRISHA YEARWOOD:

When you find your purpose, you just know it.

As such, Trisha Yearwood considers music to be “more like a calling than a choice.” That becomes instantly apparent on her 2019 solo album, Every Girl. The award-winning singer, artist, and performer approaches these fourteen songs with the same freedom and fire first ignited at the dawn of her storied career, yet further fueled by a few years of well-earned wisdom.

“I approached this album without any pressure or expectations,” she affirms. “You want people to recognize you as an artist, but you also want to take them somewhere they haven’t necessarily been with you before. With the freedom of no expectations, I got back to that feeling I felt on my first album, like I have to do this and put it out there. Over the years, I let go of worrying about perfection. I just wanted to have a good time. I realized maybe that’s when you do your best work.”

The record came to life during a prolific period for Trisha. She initially entered the studio with longtime producer and collaborator Garth Fundis during May 2018 before spending June in Los Angeles recording the Frank Sinatra homage Let’s Be Frank at the world-famous Capitol Records studio. Upon finishing the covers collection, she returned to Nashville and spent the remainder of the year working on what would become Every Girl alongside Fundis.

The album marked an important milestone. Other than the holiday duet album Christmas Together with husband Garth Brooks, Every Girl closed a 12-year gap since the release of her last original solo record, Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love, in 2007. In between, she launched the EMMY® Award-winning Food Network smash Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, moved back to Music City, and joined Garth on a marathon three-year world tour.

“Right before I started the cooking show eight years ago, my mom passed away,” she recalls. “The show was like therapy, especially because my mom and dad were really good cooks. Cooking those recipes and telling our stories helped my sister Beth and I keep their memories alive. Then, I went on 400 shows with Garth. In order to do this right, I needed to be in a space where I could just breathe and listen to songs. One day, I looked up and thought, ‘I didn’t mean for eleven years to pass. As much as I love all of these other things I’m doing, music feeds my soul. I have to do this for me’. Making both records was so gratifying. It reminded me that I don’t want to ever let that much time pass again before I make more music.”

Abetted by this perspective and time, she dove into assembling Every Girl. The introductory single and title track, “Every Girl In This Town,” set the tone for the record. Pairing delicate clean guitar with Trisha’s dynamic delivery, it crescendos toward a vibrant and vivid refrain as it transmits an empowering reminder.

“I like songs that take me on a journey through a lot of different emotions,” she elaborates. “The theme of the album is it’s okay to be who you are no matter what. Sometimes, you’re playful. Sometimes, you’re frustrated. Sometimes, you’re sad. Sometimes, you’re happy. It’s okay. The record gave me permission to be all of those things.”

The opener “Workin’ On Whiskey” sips away sorrows under the drone of an electric guitar and a confessional chorus detailing, “a situation you want to change, but can’t,” as she explains. Showcasing her powerhouse vocals, she tackles “Home,” which was written by iconic songwriter Karla Bonoff and popularized by Bonnie Raitt in 1977.

“It was really amazing to do,” smiles Trisha. “Karla suggested ‘Home.’ Her version is one I’ve been singing since I was 15-years-old. I grew up on this. Now, I get excited I have Karla’s email,” she laughs.

She teams up with Kelly Clarkson on the “the very vulnerable and personal” ballad “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.” Above sweeping keys, Trisha’s voice takes flight complemented by Kelly’s towering range before a soaring guitar solo. Meanwhile, she features Garth on “What Gave Me Away,” which captures “a sultry vibe.”

“I can’t imagine anyone else singing on that except for him,” she smiles.

Elsewhere, the stark and simple storytelling of “Bible And A .44” nods to classic country as Trisha dedicates the tune to the memory of her father. Between sparse piano chords, Don Henley joins her for a powerful final word on the conclusion “Love You Anyway,” reuniting the friends who have been collaborating since their 1992 Hearts In Armor standout “Walkaway Joe.”

“It harks back to the album Hearts In Armor,” she says. “It has to be a really special song for me to call Henley, and it is.”

Throughout the past three decades, Trisha has garnered numerous GRAMMY®, CMA®, and ACM® Awards, achieved countless multi-platinum certifications, and entertained millions of fans. The singer, actress, author, chef and entrepreneur permeates multiple facets of culture as well. Beyond twelve studio albums, she hosts the EMMY® Award-winning Food Network hit Trisha’s Southern Kitchen and her Facebook Live “pre-show,” T’s Coffee Talk. At the forefront of a veritable lifestyle empire, she penned three New York Times-bestselling cookbooks and has designed cookware, furniture, home accessories, and area rugs. Trisha has also collaborated with Williams-Sonoma on her signature best-selling cocktail mixes like “Summer in a Cup,” “Autumn in a Cup,” and “Christmas in a Cup” as well as a variety of food products ranging from a signature biscuit mix to a complete Thanksgiving Dinner.

Through fulfilling her calling again on Every Girl, Trisha’s voice resounds and resonates louder than ever.

“I’d love for people to be as moved by the songs as I was when I recorded them,” she says. “I’ve never experienced more joy in the studio. This is what I believe I was born to do. In my career, I’ve never once said or felt like, ‘I don’t want to sing tonight.’ When you’re given a gift from God and you get the opportunity to use it for a living, it’s the greatest match. I’m not sure what I’d be doing without music. I’m so grateful to be here.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Ty Herndon performed with Southern Thunder as a Billy Bob’s house band.

ABOUT TY HERNDON:

Ty Herndon is a master of the ties that bind. The Grammy-nominated and Dove award-winning recording artist has the ability to connect with an audience far beyond his onstage performance. More than 20 years into his career, Herndon shows no signs of slowing down.

Herndon made his chart debut in 1995 with “What Mattered Most,” which became his first No. 1 song and garnered a Song of the Year award (Music Row Magazine). It was also the title track to his debut album, which debuted on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and had the biggest first-week shipment in the history of Epic Records’ Nashville.

Between 1995 and 2002, Herndon charted 17 singles, including his three No.1s and numerous top 10 hits, such as “I Want My Goodbye Back,” “Loved Too Much,” “A Man Holding On,” and “Hands of a Working Man.” He topped the charts in 1996 with the single “Living in a Moment” and again in 1998 with “It Must Be Love.”

In 2014, Ty was the first major male country artist to publicly come out as gay in an exclusive with People magazine. He received an outpouring of support that only strengthened his relationship with fans and the country music community, all while expanding his reach to new and diverse audiences. Shortly after, he made history when he hosted a first-of-its-kind country music event, The Concert for Love and Acceptance. The event, designed to raise awareness and support for LGBTQ youth and families, received national attention from Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Tonight, and many more. Since the launch of the event, Herndon has partnered with GLAAD to produce the event each year and created the Foundation For Love & Acceptance in 2020 to further his work on behalf of LGBTQ acceptance.

Ty found himself back at No. 1 in 2020 — this time on iTunes with his remake of “Orphans of God,” a collaboration with Kristin Chenoweth and Paul Cardall featured on his holiday release, Regifted. He is currently in the studio writing and recording a new album — his first of all new music since 2016’s House On Fire.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

Tyler Childers played to a Texas-sized sold-out crowd here on the main stage to make his debut.

ABOUT TYLER CHILDERS:

Like many great Southern storytellers, singer-songwriter Tyler Childers has fallen in love with a place. The people, landmarks, and legendary moments from his childhood home of Lawrence County, Kentucky, populate the 10 songs in his formidable debut, Purgatory, an album that’s simultaneously modern and as ancient as the Appalachian Mountains in which events unfold. The album, co-produced by Grammy Award winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, is a semiautobiographical sketch of Childers’ growth from wayward youth to happily married man, told in the tradition of a Southern gothic novel with a classic noir antihero who may just be irredeemable. Purgatory is a chiaroscuro painting with darkness framing light in high relief. There’s catharsis and redemption. Sin and temptation. Murder and deceit. Demons and angels. Moonshine and cocaine. So much moonshine and cocaine. All played out on the large, colorful canvas of Eastern Kentucky. Childers had been searching for a certain sound for his debut album for years as he honed his craft, and was finding it elusive when his friend, drummer Miles Miller, introduced him to Simpson, the Grammy Award-winning musician, and fellow Kentuckian. Childers sent Simpson a group of his songs, then went to visit him in Nashville. “And he said, ‘There’s this sound. I know what you’re trying to get at, the mountain sound,'” Childers recalled. “‘So I asked, ‘What are you doing?'” Intrigued, Simpson enlisted the aid of Ferguson, the Grammy Award-winning sound engineer. They assembled a band that included multi-instrumentalists Stuart Duncan, Michael J. Henderson, and Russ Pahl, bassist Michael Bub and Miller on drums, of course, and helped Childers make a debut album of consequence that announces an authentic new voice. “I was writing an album about being in the mountains,” Childers said. “I wanted it to have that gritty mountain sound. But at the same time, I wanted a more modern version of it that a younger generation can listen to — the people I grew up with, something I’d want to listen to.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 2010, Uncle Kracker- also known as Matt Shafer-makes his Billy Bob’s debut in November.

ABOUT UNCLE KRACKER:

No matter what he does or where he goes, Uncle Kracker adheres to a simple, yet rather timeless philosophy. “I really subscribe to this mindset of just having fun,” he affirms. “That’s what it’s always about. It’s the train that I’m forever on. The way I feel is if I’m enjoying it, it’s really worth doing.”

Now he’s having more fun than ever. And it certainly shows with the release of his brand new single “Floatin’.” Just in time for summer, the feel-good track recorded in Nashville couples Uncle Kracker’s heartfelt, infectious lyrics with a country groove that will keep fans smiling all summer long.

Uncle Kracker will be showcasing his new song in sheds across the country. His live show continues to get bigger and better with every tour. “It’s very interactive,” he says. “It’s meant to be a party, and I want everybody involved. Each time we go on stage, I want people to leave smiling.”

That outlook has served him well over the years. After vaulting to stardom as a charismatic presence and chief collaborator in Kid Rock’s Twisted Brown Trucker Band, the Michigan singer, songwriter, and performer, also known as Matthew Shafer, kicked off a stunning solo career of his own.

His 2000 major label debut, Double Wide, fittingly went double-platinum and yielded #1 smash “Follow Me”. Its 2002 follow-up No Stranger To Shame reached gold status and spawned cross-format hits such as “In A Little While” and the powerful cover of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” which set a Billboard record for most weeks at #1 on any chart, topping their #1 run on the Adult Contemporary radio charts for a staggering 28 weeks.

Before Uncle Kracker flew up the charts for 5 weeks at #1 with “When the Sun Goes Down”, a duet with good friend Kenny Chesney, country music might’ve seemed an odd place to find the Detroit-based good-time Kid Rock alumni. But after a few summer tours with Chesney, Uncle Kracker reached country’s Top 10 with his double-platinum crossover hit “Smile”. Then, 2012 saw him fully embrace his country side with his critically acclaimed fifth outing, Midnight Special produced by Keith Stegall which leaves no doubt this feel-good rocker is exactly where he should be.

Uncle Kracker has played sold out shows across the country and appeared everywhere from the American Country Music Awards to Late Night With Conan O’Brien. He is still having a blast, and fans worldwide undoubtedly will too when they see him on the road. “When I’m up onstage, I don’t feel removed from the people coming to hear the music,” he leaves off. “You can feel it, when they identify with you. Sometimes when I’m up there, I wanna tell’em ‘I’m not any different than you are.”

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Van Zant took over the main stage to make their Billy Bob’s debut on March 24, 2006.

ABOUT VAN ZANT:

As a band name, Van Zant first appeared in 1985, when Johnny Van Zant (brother of .38 Special’s Donnie and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s late Ronnie) headed an AOR-styled quintet on an album also titled Van Zant. The group disbanded, however, when Van Zant joined Lynyrd Skynyrd two years later. The Van Zant group name was revived in 1998, when Johnny and Donnie joined forces on what was slated to be a one-off collaboration, titled Brother to Brother and released on CMC International. However, reaction to the record was positive enough to convince the duo to continue pursuing the project; hence, a follow-up, Van Zant II, was issued in early 2001. The duo’s first country album, Get Right with the Man, arrived in May 2005, followed by My Kind of Country in 2007.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On October 28, 1989, Vern Gosdin put a pin and his hands into cement.

ABOUT VERN GOSDIN:

5 August 1934, Woodland, Alabama, USA. Gosdin’s first steps in carrying out his wish to be a country singer-songwriter came in the early 50s, when as a result of singing with his two brothers in the local church, they became regulars as the Gosdin Family on WVOK Birmingham. In 1953, he moved to Atlanta where he sold ice cream and in 1956 to Chicago where he ran a country music nightclub. During this time he worked hard to develop his singing and writing, and also became a talented instrumentalist on guitar, banjo and mandolin. In 1960, he moved to California, where he joined his brother Rex (b. 1938, d. 23 May 1983), first in a bluegrass group called the Golden State Boys and then as members of Chris Hillman’s bluegrass band the Hillmen. When Hillman moved on to rock as a founder member of the Byrds, Gosdin also worked as a session musician while continuing to perform bluegrass with Rex. He recorded for several labels with no real success, and in 1966, recorded an album with Gene Clark (Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers) who had recently left the Byrds. In 1967, the brothers finally achieved a US country chart hit with ‘Hangin’ On’, but lacking any follow-up success, Gosdin soon returned to Atlanta and opened a glass and mirror shop, singing only in his spare time. His song, ‘Someone To Turn To’, was recorded by the Byrds at the instigation of guitarist Clarence White.

In 1976, Gosdin returned to recording, charting a version of ‘Hangin’ On’ and enjoying Top 10 hits with ‘Yesterday’s Gone (both of which featured backing vocals by Emmylou Harris) and ‘Till The End’. He left his sons to run the business and with Rex returned to touring and concerts. Between 1978 and 1988, he registered 27 more US country chart hits, including number 1s with ‘I Can Tell By The Way You Dance (You’re Gonna Love Me Tonight)’ and ‘Set ’Em Up Joe’. In 1979 and 1980, his brother Rex had three minor chart entries, the biggest being a duet with Tommy Jennings on ‘Just Give Me What You Think Is Fair’. Rex died in May 1983 at the age of 45, some two weeks before his recording of ‘That Old Time Feelin’’ entered the charts.

Gosdin continues to record and perform although he was hospitalized in 1995 with a stroke, and was dropped by Columbia Records. He resurfaced on BTM Records with 1998’s The Voice. He is a rare performer in that his solid country voice and heartbreaking songs are somewhat alien to much of Nashville’s modern music scene. Like George Jones, he appears to improve with age. Even Tammy Wynette once said, ‘If anybody sounded like Jones other than Jones without really trying to, it is Vern Gosdin.’

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Vince Gill placed a golf ball in his handprints cast. The ball has since gone missing.

ABOUT VINCE GILL:

Vince Gill is a reluctant superstar.

It’s not that he’s not innately captivating, or that he’s not easily among the greatest guitarists of our time, or that he doesn’t write songs that have moved millions of listeners, including legends such as Guy Clark, Merle Haggard, John Prine, Don Schlitz, and Rodney Crowell.

It’s not that his voice isn’t instantly recognizable and remarkably beautiful, with dusky alto tones that give way to a soaring, stream-clear high tenor.

It’s not that he hasn’t won enough Grammy Awards (21) to crater any mortal mantle, or that he hasn’t won more Country Music Association trophies than most any other artist. Or that he didn’t sing and write “When I Call Your Name” or “Go Rest High On That Mountain” or a bunch of other songs now considered classics. Or that he’s a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and recently joined the Eagles tour.

But superstars trade on glamour and remoteness. They are photographed and videotaped on red carpets and in limousine loading zones, and maybe via long-range lenses on exclusive beaches or hotel balconies.

Vince Gill is photographed at the Pancake Pantry in Nashville, by people who ask him to smile for the shot. And he always smiles for the shot.

Gill is a reluctant superstar, intentionally absent of the glamour and remoteness.

“I would like people to view me as pretty normal,” he says, in a statement never uttered by Mick Jagger or Little Richard. And Vince Gill adores Mick Jagger and Little Richard. “I’m approachable. I play at a little bar on Monday nights.”

He plays that bar, Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley, with a band called The Time Jumpers. He joined the band because he wanted to be a better guitar player, though he was already known as one of the world’s better guitar players.

And he talks with anyone who wants to talk. And he plays with the best music-makers in the world, regardless of fame: The Eagles at a massive arena is fine, and The Time Jumpers at 3rd & Lindsley is just as fine. And he sings with a voice that is instantly recognizable and remarkably beautiful, with dusky . . . well, we’ve been through that.

“I spend my time trying to make it all a little better,” he says. “I don’t have to be in the forefront of attention. I try to be welcoming of anybody that comes into my life.”

Gill is innately relatable, unless someone is paying attention to the notes and the tones, to the McCartney-esque melodies and the eye-swelling emotions . . . unless someone rightly marvels at the enormity of his gifts. He’s an unbelievable musician, and the most believable of people.

Vince Gill has a new album. It’s called OKIE. It contains lines like “Let them cowboys be the heroes, I’ll just be an honest man,” and it includes songs that point listeners to Clark and Haggard. It’s his most personal album, as he sings about his wife in prayer, about kindness and forgiveness, about his heroes in death, and about his own loves, joys, and regrets.

The album’s title is taken from the once-derogatory term used to disparage migrants from Oklahoma to the nation’s west coast during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras. A proud Oklahoman, Gill has appropriated this term on an album that embraces his roots and explores some of the most important issues of our time.

“I thought this was going to be a songwriter record, not a concept album,” Gill says. “It wound up being more information than I’d envisioned. A friend sent me an email saying, ‘You could have only written this record after living a 60-year-plus life.’ He said, ‘There’s no struggle in these songs, just truth and your experience.”

OKIE could have only come from Gill, who tells his truth with clarity and virtuosity and unsurpassed beauty, and with nothing in the ways of glamour and remoteness, and with everything in the ways of connection and understanding.

“Kindness would solve everything,” he says. “It would solve everything if people were kind and fair-minded.” And that’s as close as Vince Gill gets to braggadocio, because he is kind and fair-minded, and he is aware enough to realize that people realize all this.

One of the new tracks off the album is called “Forever Changed.” It’s about abuse, and he nearly didn’t record it. But many years ago when he performed it live, a band member who heard it ran off the stage in tears, and told him that it was her story. She asked, “How did you know?” And he didn’t, but he did. He knows people aren’t always kind or fair-minded, or right or true.

“That mirror won’t lie,” he says. “You think you’ve gotten away with something? You can’t ever get away.”

OKIE is an album that’s mirror-true, from the perspective of a searcher, not a preacher. “Everyone knows the price of regret,” Gill sings, recognizing the unfortunate folly of judgment and supposition: “You’re black and I’m white, we’re blinded by sight/ Close your eyes and tell me the color of my skin.” Gill figures that if we’d close our eyes, we’d welcome people and things more honestly. “The price of regret . . . I pay it most days,” he says.

There’s a song called “A Letter To My Mama” that used to be called “Love I Owe.” Gill penned it with legendary writer Dean Dillon, settling on the original title but then realizing that it should be addressed to the woman who raised him. He’s sung about his father in “The Key To Life.” He’s sung about his brother in “Go Rest High On That Mountain.” This is a debt once owed and now paid.

And then there are tributes to Haggard — both “A World Without Haggard” and “Black and White,” written by Gill and Charlie Worsham, the latter of which points to the poignance and ambiguity of Merle’s “Are the Good Times Really Over For Good” — and to Guy Clark, the poetic curmudgeon who impacted thousands of listening lives.

And so here’s a new Vince Gill album. It speaks of the price of regret, and it speaks of the Bible’s red words, the ones spoken by Jesus. And it is full of melody and grace. And he didn’t have to make it, because he’s already made a whole bunch of albums, and they’ve been good and they’ve been heard, and he’s a superstar.

Maybe we ought to listen. Maybe if we do then we won’t think of him as normal, in spite of his own wishes.

The dude is a treasure, and he’s pointing the way.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

On September 25, 2021, Wade Bowen finally cements his hands and leaves his mark on the Wall of Fame.

ABOUT WADE BOWEN:

Native Texan and New Braunfels resident Wade Bowen is an award-winning and highly respected singer/songwriter and recording artist. He has been a staple on the Texas country circuit for over two decades and has also made name for himself on the national and international scene, touring the world consistently over the years. Bowen has appeared on the Conan O’Brien Show, released nine, critically acclaimed studio albums (including a gospel record and a Christmas album) as well as 3 live albums (2 of which are with his longtime friend Randy Rogers).

Bowen, who the New York Times calls “..an earnest and direct singer who wrings feelings from small vocal gestures and whose songwriting .. is graceful, with twists like small sighs” is also a proud dad, husband, and active community member both in New Braunfels and his hometown of Waco. A few years ago, he started the Bowen Family Foundation that has raised over $5 million for charities important to him and his family. The Foundation’s biggest fundraiser is a highly anticipated annual event that includes a golf tournament and music festival – called Bowen Musicfest & Classic Golf Tournament.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In 1995, Pam Tillis and Wade Hayes ring in the New Year on the main stage.

ABOUT WADE HAYES:

Country music’s power has always been in its ability to reflect real life, and few artists have a stronger gift for capturing both heartache and hope than Wade Hayes. In the past few years, the singer/songwriter has navigated a complicated journey that has produced some of the most potent songs of his already impressive career. Surviving stage IV colon cancer, not just once but twice, has given Hayes a unique perspective of the fragility of life and the strength of the human spirit. Those lessons learned are embodied in the songs on Go Live Your Life.

Far from being a heavy manifesto on pain and survival, Go Live Your Life is actually a vibrant tapestry that is both poignant and playful. The title track is an upbeat anthem that celebrates living life to the fullest while “Dirt Road” pays homage to his Oklahoma roots and “Remember the Alimony” is a tongue-in-cheek slice of advice to a friend on the precipice of another romantic mistake. “She is Home” is a tender love song about life’s true priorities while “If the Sun Comes Up” is a powerful ballad about moving on. Anchored by Hayes insightful songwriting and brought to life through his warm, rich baritone, the songs on Go Life Your Life are steeped in country’s best traditions yet have a contemporary edge.

Hayes co-produced the album with longtime friend Dave McAfee. “Dave and I got together and listened to songs and honed it down to what we thought fit on this project,” says Hayes, who wrote or co-wrote all but one song on Go Live Your Life. “I’m very fortunate getting to this next step. After getting through the years of ill health and bad luck, I’m kind of laser-focused right now. Getting sick has changed me immensely. It’s as if I’m looking through different eyeballs now. “I appreciate everything so much more. I realize how much I took for granted.”

Hayes was in his early 20s when he began churning out such enduring hits as “Old Enough to Know Better,” “I’m Still Dancing with You,” “On a Good Night” and “What I Meant to Say.” A second-generation country singer from Bethel Acres, Oklahoma, Hayes grew up watching his dad perform. The young guitarist’s dream was to be the next Don Rich, Buck Owens’ revered guitar player and one of country music’s most legendary sidemen. “I was a big fan of Don Rich and I thought that’s what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “That’s what I moved to Nashville for.”

Hayes began realizing that goal when Johnny Lee tapped the young musician to be his lead guitarist, but he just wasn’t meant to be a sideman. “Record label people started coming to watch me play and the next thing I knew everything was happening fast,” says Hayes, who landed a publishing deal just nine months after moving to Nashville, and a contract with Columbia Records soon after. His debut single, “Old Enough to Know Better,” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, and Hayes was nominated for the ACM’s Top New Male Vocalist honor. Two of Hayes’ four major label albums have been certified gold by the RIAA, and hits such as “Don’t Stop,” “The Day That She Left Tulsa (In a Chevy)” and “How Do You Sleep at Night” continue to be fan favorites in his shows.

In 2009, he released the critically acclaimed independent album, A Place to Turn Around, and continued to tour extensively until his world came to a screeching halt when he was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in the fall of 2011. It was a surprise to everyone, even the doctors. Because Hayes was so young, doctors initially thought the symptoms were the result of him working out too strenuously and lifting too much weight. After extensive surgery and debilitating chemotherapy, Hayes battled his way back to health only to have the cancer return in the fall of 2012.

He’s now cancer-free again, and the title track of his new album was inspired by a conversation with his oncologist. “That’s a song that I’m very proud of,” he says. “When I’d gotten through cancer the second time and we were looking at my blood work, my oncologist was talking about taking my port out. A port is something they implant into either your chest or under your arm where you receive chemotherapy. My oncologist said, “Wade, you were stage IV and now you’re cancer-free. We can take your port out. This is a big deal and I want to tell you something. I want you to go live your life.’

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Hayes continues, “because I knew that he meant two different things: one being, it’s kind of a miracle that you’re still here. You need to go enjoy your life. And two being, you had cancer really bad, and when it spread as far as it did, there’s a good chance that it can come back. He was telling me to go live my life because we don’t know how long this good is going to be. I told Bobby Pinson that story and we wrote the song.”

“Go Live Your Life” is an upbeat anthem about making the most of every day and reveling in the things that bring you happiness. “It’s really been an impactful song doing it live,” Hayes says. “I’ve done it at a lot of events and people have really gravitated towards it. They understand it and they get it.”

Writing songs has been part of his healing. “Writing is therapy, letting my mind go somewhere else instead of worrying about what’s on my plate,” he shares. “The thing that got me in trouble in school has been the thing that’s saved my life. It’s daydreaming. I’ve gotten very good at that. Writing songs like ‘Remember the Alimony’ and ‘Bluebonnet Blues’ were just fun songs to do. It was a good time.”

The album closes with an instrumental version of the old hymn “Just As I Am,” a tender ending to a tour de force artistic expression. “That song was played on my very first guitar that I got when I was twelve-years-old,” Hayes says. “That guitar is not the easiest guitar to play. But I still love that guitar. It’s not perfect, but it’s like me. I’m not perfect. That cut isn’t perfect, but it’s the way it came out. That song means a lot to me.”

In addition to writing and recording, Hayes has been back on the road, touring this spring with pals Bryan White and Mark Wills. He also enjoys spending time at his 11-acre farm outside Nashville where one of his favorite hobbies is restoring old pickup trucks. He makes time to share his experience with cancer and encourages others to fight the battle. “I’ve met so many wonderful people during this journey, especially when I started healing and got out and began speaking. I’ve met some incredible, brave people that were inspiring to me and told me that my story is inspiring to them. I heard the story of a guy who had cancer similar to mine and he made it back to being cancer-free. It gave me so much hope that once I got through the valley I thought, ‘Man, that’s what I want to do for other people.’ I want to help them and try to give them inspiration and hope. With God all things are possible. I’m a living example.”

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Warren Zeiders was still a collegiate star athlete when he released “Ride the Lightning,” a platinum-certified debut single whose mix of country storytelling, heartland twang, and larger-than-life rock & roll launched his career. He continues the momentum with 2023’s Pretty Little Poison. Released on the heels of his 717 Tapes compilation, Pretty Little Poison positions Zeiders as Nashville’s newest headliner at just 24 years old. He created the album during a whirlwind period that found the young artist selling out his first national tour in 72 hours, making his debut national television appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, performing on the Grand Ole Opry stage for the first time, landing a spot on Stagecoach’s lineup, charting his first Top 40 hit on the Billboard charts, and racking up a staggering 1.4 billion TikTok views and 895 million audio streams. Produced by chart-topping producers Ross Copperman and Bart Butler, Pretty Little Poison is modern country music at its most heartfelt, created by a young songwriter whose push into mainstream culture has been nothing short of meteoric.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

In April of 1981, Waylon Jennings was the second show ever to happen on the main stage.

ABOUT WAYLON JENNINGS:

If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the ’70s, it was Waylon Jennings. Though he had been a professional musician since the late ’50s, it wasn’t until the ’70s that Waylon, with his imposing baritone and stripped-down, updated honky tonk, became a superstar. Jennings rejected the conventions of Nashville, refusing to record with the industry’s legions of studio musicians and insisting that his music never resemble the string-laden, pop-inflected sounds that were coming out of Nashville in the ’60s and ’70s. Many artists, including Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, followed Waylon’s anti-Nashville stance and eventually the whole “outlaw” movement — so-named because of the artists’ ragged, maverick image and their independence from Nashville — became one of the most significant country forces of the ’70s, helping the genre adhere to its hardcore honky tonk roots. Jennings didn’t write many songs, but his music — which combined the grittiest aspects of honky tonk with a rock & roll rhythm and attitude, making the music spare, direct, and edgy — defined hardcore country, and it influenced countless musicians, including members of the new traditionalist and alternative country subgenres of the ’80s.

Jennings was born and raised in Littlefield, TX, where he learned how to play guitar by the time he was eight. When he was 12 years old, he was a DJ for a local radio station and, shortly afterward, formed his first band. Two years later he left school and spent the next few years picking cotton, eventually moving to Lubbock, TX, in 1954. Once he was in Lubbock, he got a job at the radio station KLLL, where he befriended Buddy Holly during one of the station’s shows. Holly became Waylon’s mentor, teaching him guitar licks, collaborating on songs, and producing Jennings’ first single, “Jole Blon,” which was released on Brunswick in 1958. Later that year, Waylon became the temporary bass player for Holly’s band the Crickets, playing with the rock & roller on his final tour. Jennings was also scheduled to fly on the plane ride that ended in Holly’s tragic death in early 1959, but he gave up his seat at the last minute to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from a cold.

Following Holly’s death, Jennings returned to Lubbock, where he spent two years mourning the loss of his friend and working as a DJ. In late 1960, he moved to Phoenix, AZ, where he founded a rockabilly band called the Waylors. Jennings and the Waylors began to earn a local following through their performances at the local club JD’s, eventually signing to the independent label Trend in 1961. None of the group’s singles made any impact, and Jennings began working for Audio Recorders as a record producer. In 1963, Waylon moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a contract with Herb Alpert’s A&M Records. By this point, Waylon’s music was pure country, and Alpert wanted to move him toward the pop market; Jennings didn’t cave in to the demands and his sole single, “Sing the Girl a Song, Bill,” and album for A&M flopped.

Following the A&M debacle, Jennings landed a contract with RCA with help from Chet Atkins and Bobby Bare, and he moved to Nashville in 1965. After arriving in Nashville, he moved in with Johnny Cash, and the two musicians began a long-lasting friendship (which eventually resulted in a collaboration in the form of the Highwaymen in the ’80s). Waylon released his first single for RCA, “That’s the Chance I’ll Have to Take,” late in the summer of 1965, and it became a minor hit. With his second single, “Stop the World (And Let Me Off),” he had his first Top 40 country hit, and it began a string of moderate hits that eventually developed into several Top Ten singles — “Walk on Out of My Mind,” “I Got You,” “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” “Yours Love” — in 1968. At this point, he was working with Nashville session men and developing a sound that was halfway between honky tonk and folk. As the next decade began, he started to move his music toward hardcore country.

Singer of Sad Songs

In 1970, Jennings recorded several songs by a struggling but promising songwriter called Kris Kristofferson, which led to a pair of ambitious albums — Singer of Sad Songs and Ladies Love Outlaws — the following year. On these two records, he developed the roots of outlaw country, creating a harder, tougher muscular sound with a selection of songs by writers like Alex Harvey and Hoyt Axton. During the following year, Waylon began collaborating with Willie Nelson, recording and writing several songs with the songwriter.

Honky Tonk Heroes

By 1972, he had renegotiated his contract with RCA, demanding that he assume the production and artistic control of his records. Honky Tonk Heroes, released in 1973, was the first album released under this new contract. Comprised almost entirely of songs by the then-unknown songwriter Billy Joe Shaver and recorded with Jennings’ road band, the album was an edgy, bass-driven, and surly variation on stripped-down honky tonk. Jennings and his new sound slowly began to gain more fans, and in 1974 he had his first number one, “This Time,” followed by yet another number one single, “I’m a Ramblin’ Man,” and the number two “Rainy Day Woman.” Waylon’s success continued throughout 1975, as Dreaming My Dreams — featuring one of his signature songs, the number one “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” — reached number 49 on the pop charts; he was also voted the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year.

Wanted! The Outlaws

Jennings truly crossed over into the mainstream in 1976, when Wanted! The Outlaws — a various-artists compilation of previously released material that concentrated on Waylon but also featured songs from his wife Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson, and Tompall Glaser — peaked at number one on the pop charts. Following the success of Wanted!, Waylon became a superstar, as well known to the mainstream pop audience as he was to the country audience. For the next six years, Jennings’ albums consistently charted in the pop Top 50 and went gold. During this time, he recorded a number of duets with Nelson, including the multi-platinum Waylon & Willie (1978), which featured the number one single “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Over the course of the late ’70s and early ’80s, Jennings scored ten number one hits, including “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” (which hit number 25 on the pop charts and spent six weeks at the top of the country charts), “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get Over You),” “I’ve Always Been Crazy,” “Amanda,” “Theme from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (Good Ol’ Boys),” and three duets with Nelson.

By the mid-’80s, the momentum of Waylon’s career began to slow somewhat, due to his drug abuse and the decline of the entire outlaw country movement. Jennings kicked his substance habits cold turkey in the mid-’80s and formed the supergroup the Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash in 1985; over the next decade, the band released three albums, yet none of them were more successful than their debut, which spawned the number one single, “Highwayman.” Also in 1985, Jennings parted ways with RCA, signing with MCA Records the following year. At first, he had several hit singles for the label, including the number one “Rose in Paradise,” but by the end of the ’80s, he was no longer able to crack the Top 40. In 1990, Waylon switched labels again, signing with Epic. “Wrong,” his first single for the label, reached the Top Ten in 1990, and “The Eagle” reached the Top 40 the following year, but after that minor hit, none of his singles were charting.

Right for the Time

Despite his decreased sales — which were largely due to the shifting tastes in country music — Waylon remained a superstar throughout the ’90s and was able to draw large crowds whenever he performed a concert, while many of his records continued to receive positive reviews. In 1996, he signed to Justice Records, where he released the acclaimed Right for the Time. Closing In on the Fire followed in 1998. His work was slowed by his health in the years following that album, as complications from diabetes made it difficult for him to walk. His foot was amputated in December 2001 because of his illness, and he died on February 13, 2002, at his home in Arizona.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Whiskey Myers partnered with Miller Lite. They played in an empty showroom while their fans watched from the safety of their home.

ABOUT WHISKEY MYERS:

“You can tell when somebody is faking it,” says Cody Cannon, lead singer, and guitarist of Whiskey Myers, “and you can tell when it’s real.” This kick-ass band has been steadily building a devoted following with its gritty authenticity, and with their self-titled fifth album, they’re poised to explode. Each one of the releases from Whiskey Myers has been bigger and bigger — following their breakout third album, 2014’s Early Morning Shakes, their most recent record, Mud, climbed to No. 4 on Billboard’s country charts in 2016. And that was before the group was featured in Kevin Costner’s TV series Yellowstone in 2018 (not just on the soundtrack, but on screen, performing in a bar), which propelled the band’s entire catalog into the Top 10 of the iTunes country chart. But playing to larger and wilder crowds — including audiences of more than 100,000 at the Download Festivals in London and Paris — didn’t cause Whiskey Myers to change their approach this time around. “We just bring our songs to the table and make it sound like us,” says Cannon. “We never think about it. We just try to go in and write a good song, whether it’s country or rock and roll or blues.”

“There’s never a plan or the sense that we need to make a song sound a certain way,” adds guitarist John Jeffers. “A country song could end up a rocker or the other way around — it’s extremely organic, and that’s always been us as a band.” The big change for Whiskey Myers was the decision by the group (which also includes Cody Tate on guitar, Jeff Hogg on drums, bassist Jamey Gleaves and Tony Kent playing keyboards and percussion) to produce the album themselves. GRAMMY winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson) helmed the band’s last two albums, but this time around, they felt ready to take the wheel.

“We loved a lot of things about our producers,” says Jeffers, “but it was time to be set free and do it ourselves — to take what we learned from them and put it all together, figure it out. I think it just made it more authentically us.” “We didn’t know what to expect being on both sides of the glass, but we loved it,” says Cannon. “Everybody got along, and we really incorporated everybody’s ideas,” Jeffers emphasizes how that sense of collaboration and experimentation really defined their whirlwind eighteen days of recording at the Sonic Ranch studio, outside of El Paso.

“There’s never a right or wrong answer when it comes to ideas,” he says. “We would run every single idea from everyone — some work and some don’t, but we give them all a shot. And then there’s that magical moment when the whole band hears it, your eyes get a twinkle — ‘That’s it, that’s us!’ It’s usually a no-brainer.”

It should come as no surprise that at this point, the members of Whiskey Myers can communicate and create so cohesively. The band’s roots stretch back decades into the red dirt of East Texas, where Cannon, Jeffers, and Tate first began playing together. They earned a rabid local following on the strength of their 2008 debut album, Road Of Life, and then notched their first No. 1 on the Texas Music Charts with the 2011 follow-up Firewater. With Early Morning Shakes, though, the rest of the world started to catch up to what Texas already knew. Esquire called them “the real damn deal,” while USA Today wrote that their music had “shades of Led Zeppelin and David Allen Coe.” They took their blistering live show across the U.S. and U.K. non-stop, sharing stages with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr., and Jamey Johnson and racking up more than 300 million streams of their songs.

The band draws as much inspiration from Nirvana as from Waylon Jennings, and Whiskey Myers bursts out of the gate with the raging “Die Rockin’,” followed by such bruisers as “Rolling Stone” and “Gasoline.” Over the course of fourteen tracks, though, songs expand, moods change and songs like “Bury My Bones” and “California to Carolina” explore different stories and emotions. “You want an album to be like a rollercoaster,” says Jeffers. “Does it really take you for a ride, with ups and downs and some loops, and sometimes you’re upside down?”

“Those first songs on the album were the first batch we recorded, and they were really rock and roll,” says Cannon. “That got the juices flowing. But an album should be like a whole work of art that moves, comes out strong, ends strong, flows in the middle — as a good show does.” Whiskey Myers hasn’t dialed down their Southern Rock rowdiness, but these songs also reveal new maturity and changes in the lives of the band — both Jeffers and Cannon got married since the release of their last record. “There’s always pressure there,” says Jeffers about the challenges of maintaining a relationship and a relentless touring schedule, “‘Bury My Bones’ is about being home. I was on the road and just wanted to go home. It is on your mind, sometimes harder than others, and it shows in the songs. And then sometimes you’re just pissed off and you write a song called ‘Bitch!’” “We’re growing up,” says Cannon, “and this is exactly the place we’re at, and it comes out in our songs, in our business, everything, We’re not as wild as we were — we’re not totally calm, but you see how your life changes. You always write about little sections of your life — you can write a happy song when you’re sad, but you tend to go to where you are — and I just think this album is happier, more upbeat, doesn’t have too many dreary songs on it.”

For this band of renegade brothers, the goal isn’t to fit into a format or try a new direction for its own sake, it’s to be true to the music they love — and with Whiskey Myers they continue pushing in all directions and sharpening their attack, whether country, rock, blues, whatever — even adding the legendary McCrary Sisters’ gospel influence to the project on background vocals. “Everybody wants you to pick a genre, but we did this our whole career,” says Cody Cannon. “We like it all, so we’re gonna do it all. We’re better than we were at 20 years old — you try to hone your skills and get better, write better, play better. This is just how it came naturally, and it works better that way.”

Watch the video below!

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

April 1, 2006 Willie Nelson returns to perform on the club’s silver anniversary, 25 years after he first played the club’s opening week.

ABOUT WILLIE NELSON:

With a six-decade career and 200 plus albums, this iconic Texan is the creative genius behind the historic recordings of Crazy, Red Headed Stranger, and Stardust. Willie Nelson has earned every conceivable award as a musician and amassed reputable credentials as an author, actor, and activist. He continues to thrive as a relevant and progressive musical and cultural force. In recent years, he has delivered more than a dozen new album releases, released a Top 10 New York Times’ bestsellers book, again headlined Farm Aid, an event he co-founded in 1985, received his 5th degree black belt in Gong Kwon Yu Sul, headlined the annual Luck Reunion food and music festival at his ranch in Luck, TX during SXSW, launched his cannabis companies Willie’s Reserve and Willie’s Remedy, and graced the covers of Rolling Stone and AARP The Magazine. In 2015, Nelson published “It’s A Long Story: My Life,” the unvarnished and complete story of his life that landed him on the New York Times’ bestsellers list. He also released a new studio album with Merle Haggard titled Django And Jimmie, which debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s Country album chart and #7 on Billboard‘s Top 200 album chart. In November 2015, the Library of Congress honored him with their Gershwin Prize for Popular Song for his contributions to popular music. He is the first country artist to receive the distinguished award. The following year began with the release of Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, a collection of 11 newly recorded Gershwin classics. The album debuted at #1 on both the Top Current Jazz chart and the Top Traditional Jazz chart, as well as earned him a Grammy Award for the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. In September 2016, came For the Good Times: A Tribute to Ray Price, an album of newly recorded interpretations of 12 Ray Price songs. In 2017, he released two albums of newly recorded performances: God’s Problem Child, with 13 new songs that debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Country album chart and #10 on the Billboard 200, and Willie Nelson and The Boys (Willie’s Stash, Vol. 2), that includes 11 country classics and one brand-new song performed by Nelson and his sons Lukas and Micah. For 2018, he released Last Man Standing in April to celebrate his 85th birthday. It is comprised entirely of songs newly-penned by Nelson (and longtime collaborator and producer Buddy Cannon). In September he released the album My Way, a collection of newly recorded standards and classics originally made famous by Nelson’s close friend and musical colleague Frank Sinatra. It went on to win the GRAMMY Award for Best Traditional Pop Album. These new songs and performances add to his classic catalog, and finds Willie Nelson rolling at a creative peak, writing and singing and playing with the seasoned wit and wisdom that comes from the road, which he still travels along performing for fans.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

On June 16, 1995, Woody Lee cemented his hands on to Billy Bob’s “Wall of Fame.”

ABOUT WOODY LEE:

Country singer Woody Lee cashed his hit songwriting credit for Tracy Lawrence (“I See It Now”) into a solo contract for himself, courtesy of Atlantic Records. The single hit number two on the country charts during 1994, and Lee wrote a song for Shenandoah as well before Atlantic signed him. On his debut album, Get Over It, Lawrence returned the favor by contributing a vocal.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

The Judds performed a showcase concert on the Honky Tonk Stage on May 17, 1985.

ABOUT WYNONNA:

As one half of the Judds, Wynonna Judd became one of the most popular and respected female country stars of her time. On her own since the early ’90s, Judd demonstrated an eclecticism that increasingly confounded hardcore country fans and radio programmers but also helped her retain a core of admiring followers. Her solo records might stick with Judds-style country-pop or delve into roots rock, blues, gospel, adult contemporary pop, folk, or Southern R&B.

Judd was born Christina Ciminella in Ashland, Kentucky, on May 30, 1964. Her mother, Naomi (then known by her birth name, Diana), was still in high school at the time, and her biological father abandoned the family almost immediately; Naomi married another man, Michael Ciminella, to create a traditional family unit. In 1968, they moved to Los Angeles, but the marriage disintegrated in 1972. Wynonna spent parts of the next few years living on welfare and returned to Kentucky with her mother in 1976. They lived in a mountain home with no phone or television, and listening to country music on the radio was a major source of entertainment. Wynonna learned to play guitar after receiving one as a gift and was soon singing close harmony with her mother. By the time she was a teenager, her vocal talents were apparent, and in 1979, the family moved to Nashville to try their luck in the music business. Naomi and Wynonna landed a contract with RCA in 1983, and over the remainder of the ’80s, they became the biggest-selling duo in country music history (a title that would later be taken over by Brooks & Dunn). Wynonna wasn’t always as career-minded as her mother, who effectively ran the group, and was growing ever more rebellious when, in 1990, Naomi was diagnosed with hepatitis C; she retired from performing after a farewell tour in 1991.

Wynonna was at first unsure whether she wanted to carry on without her mother but quickly decided to embark on a solo career, signing with MCA. Her first album on her own, Wynonna, was released in 1992 and was an instant smash, selling over three million copies; it also topped the country charts, reached the Top Five on the pop side, and earned many positive reviews as well. Her first three solo singles — “She Is His Only Need,” “I Saw the Light,” and “No One Else on Earth” — all went to number one on the country charts, and “My Strongest Weakness” also made the Top Five. Judd’s 1993 follow-up, Tell Me Why, was another platinum-selling, number one country/Top Five pop album; it gave her five more Top Ten hits in the title track, “Only Love,” “Girls with Guitars,” “Rock Bottom,” and “Is It Over Yet.” However, Judd’s career hit a snag when it was revealed that, like her mother before her, she had become pregnant out of wedlock. The tabloids had a field day, and more conservative country fans attacked her as being an immoral role model.

Judd eventually married her son’s father, Nashville businessman Arch Kelly, in 1996, and that year she finally released her third album, Revelations. It was a more introspective affair that gave her a number one single in “To Be Loved by You” and eventually went platinum despite not producing any further Top Ten hits. For the follow-up, 1997’s The Other Side, Judd refashioned her sound into a bluesy, rock-driven roots music blend that often recalled Bonnie Raitt. It reached the country Top Five yet failed to sell a million copies for the first time in Judd’s solo career, prompting her to split with MCA and move to Mercury. By this point, Judd had also had a second child, but her marriage fell apart in 1998; instead of releasing another solo album right away, Judd reunited with her mother for a New Year’s Eve concert to ring in the year 2000. They embarked on a full-fledged tour together in 2000, and four new Judds songs were released on an exclusive bonus disc with Wynonna’s Mercury debut, New Day Dawning. Her most eclectic effort to date (and her first as a co-producer), the album featured covers of Joni Mitchell and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and while it didn’t spawn any major hit singles, it again climbed into the Top Five on the country album charts.

Judd returned to her country roots in 2003 with What the World Needs Now Is Love, which found her reuniting on one track (“Flies on the Butter”) with her mother. The live Her Story: Scenes from a Lifetime, released on DVD and CD, arrived in 2005, hitting number two on the Top Country Albums chart, and the next year, just in time for the holiday season, the singer released Classic Christmas. An album of covers and standards, Sing: Chapter 1, appeared in 2009.

In 2010 the Judds reunited; the single “I Will Stand by You” was released on October 4. The following year, after a farewell tour, Wynonna’s first novel, Restless Heart, was published by NAL. A six-episode reality television series with her mother entitled The Judds was broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network in April. It was followed in May with the single “Love It Out Loud.” In November, Wynonna and her new band, Wynonna & the Big Noise (which included her new husband, drummer/producer Cactus Moser), made their debut concert appearance in Nashville. The band released its first single, “Something You Can’t Live Without,” in 2013. It was Judd’s first new solo material in four years. She also made guest appearances on albums by Willie Nelson and Colt Ford that year and was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. In 2016, after another years-long period of silence, the full-length Wynonna & the Big Noise (produced by Moser) was released in February by Curb Records.

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HISTORY WITH BILLY BOB’S: 

Zach Bryan makes his Billy Bob’s debut on November 26, 2021 for a SOLD OUT show. As of 05//25/2022: Zach Bryan has now sold out Billy Bob’s Texas THREE times.

ABOUT ZACH BRYAN: 

Zach Bryan is a singer/songwriter from Oologah, Oklahoma, proud of his small-town roots and whose music is fueled by a desire to stay true to himself. The 25-year-old served 7 years in the Navy before being honorably discharged. His success is found in his raspy voice, a mix of classic folk melody and outlaw country with a raw edge that cuts to the bone.

His breakthrough moment makes all that clear as day. In the video for “Heading South,” shot by phone outside of his Navy barracks in humid 95-degree heat, Zach’s passion echoes off the strings of his trusted Guild. Drenched in sweat and belting words that he had written minutes earlier, the moment is authentic, brutal, and real. Millions of fans have now seen that video without any sort of industry assistance, and millions more have connected to the tender, sincere songs found on Zach’s 2019 debut album “DeAnn. A man of simple words, Zach’s ability to create depth in his work is rivaled by few artists. He believes that who you are only extends to the person you are today, an ideology reflected in everything he creates.