Country Reunion Music

From Tulsa to Kornfield Kounty, Gailard Sartain has seen or done it all. Affectionately remembered for his roles as Maynard in “The General Store,” Orville in “Lulu’s Truck Stop,” Officer Bull Moose or the trucker in the CB Radio Spot on “Hee Haw,” Sartain has become an accomplished and successful...

Healthy chicken was the concept for a restaurant bearing the name of founder Kenny Rogers, who launched the chain in 1991 with former Kentucky governor John Y. Brown. Both men had the experience to make the Kenny Rogers Roasters successful. Brown was an early investor in Kentucky Fried Chicken who...

Beale Street brewed. Music Row crafted. Makky Kaylor’s original top-shelf blend is an intoxicating mix of his authentic Memphis-soul-meets-Nashville-classics roots with a splash of jazz that is served up stylishly with the singer-songwriter-entertainer’s winsome southern charm. Some call it...

Multitalented Grand Ole Opry inductee Hal Ketchum, who was a singer, songwriter, painter, master carpenter and actor, died on Nov. 23, 2020, at his home in Texas.“With great sadness and grief we announce that Hal passed away peacefully last night at home due to complications of Dementia,”...

The flip side of a Country single catapulted Country Music’s most famous father-daughter duo to a career that spanned two decades and saw more than 30 of their hits reach the Top 40. The Kendalls, Royce and daughter Jeannie, may have recorded “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away” 40 years ago, but the snappy...

Country music and the folk heritage from which it emerged tells timeless stories of heartbreaks, heroics and happy endings. Jan Howard’s life embodied that legacy. When Howard passed away on March 28, 2020, at age 91, she had been a member of the Grand Ole Opry for 49 years and was its oldest...

It only seems fitting that the man known as Mr. Country Music would have been tapped to host the first network television show exclusively for the country audience. Clyde Julian Foley, nicknamed “Red” for his ginger-colored hair, was already an experienced host of radio and live stage productions,...

The ballad is an ancient form of poetic storytelling. With elements like unrequited love, ill-fated heroes and untimely death, the ballad was established early in Country Music’s history as a popular sub-genre. Perhaps the most well known of the thousands of ballads recorded in modern times is...

Duos are prevalent in Country music, but there are legendary early duo pioneers that paved the way for artists to come. Among those were The Davis Sisters, two young women who were best friends and sisters at heart.Mary Frances Penick, who was born in Dry Ridge, Kentucky in 1931, met Betty Jack...

Country music’s first superstar was a Texan named Marion Try Slaughter, who was known professionally as Vernon Dalhart. The prolific and talented singer had sold millions of records three years before Jimmie Rodgers, often heralded as Country’s first star, was even recording. Dalhart took his...

Everyone’s seen the little crosses on the side of the road. Sometimes flowers surround them. There may be stuffed animals, wedding photos or other mementoes that honor a person who lost his or her life on the spot. Over the years the flowers fade, and the cross deteriorates, but the memorial...

Johnny Cash did not actually fall into a burning ring of fire, but in the summer of 1965 he certainly created one.The official story is that Cash was driving through California’s Los Padres National Forest watershed in when his camper truck, which he called “Jesse,” became stuck on a road near...

The singer-songwriter whose background seemed unlikely to produce a Grammy Award-winning artist may well be Mary Chapin Carpenter. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, she lived in Japan as a youth, attended some of New Jersey’s most exclusive private prep schools and graduated from one of the country’s...

Larry’s Country Diner” is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019, and Keith Bilbrey has been the show’s announcer since its very first episode aired. Inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame in 2015, Bilbrey has spent half a century following his passion for Country music and taking his...

There’s a stunning young performer singing her heart out around St. Louis this summer in anticipation of heading back to Nashville to pursue her future. Her name’s Aubry Rodriguez and, yes, she is the daughter of THAT Rodriguez – Johnny, of course – making her Country Music aristocracy. However,...

The Battle of New Orleans was fought 200 years ago this year, putting an end to the War of 1812. Though countless Americans are descendants of veterans of the bloody three-year war that pitted American citizens against the British and their unlikely Native American allies, most people know very...

Aaron Tippin would have been spending his 30th anniversary in the entertainment industry doing what any “workin’ man” would do – entertaining his fans across the country with hit-filled stage performances. However, the Covid-19 crisis has forced him to reschedule his 2020 shows. “The fans have...

A combination of serendipity and talent best explains how country music’s beloved tenor, Jimmy Fortune, wound up with the Statler Brothers. Fortune was handpicked by the group’s original tenor, Lew DeWitt, as a temporary replacement for himself while he fought a debilitating medical condition. In...

The singer of one of country music’s greatest songs originally scoffed at recording it because he thought it was too morbid and would not sell. Boy was George Jones wrong. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" earned Jones the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1980. The Academy of...

“The Gambler” has quite possibly the best example of literary conceit of any song. Ever. Not to be too academic, but literary conceit is defined as “an extended metaphor that compares two dissimilar things by juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways and inviting...

Elvis Presley and Col. Tom Parker are in the news almost 70 years after the pair first formed a successful and perhaps lethal business arrangement that ended with Elvis’s death in 1977. The recently released movie, “Elvis,” explores the relationship between the two men with Hollywood mainstay Tom...

More than 100 Country artists are represented in the Heart of Texas Country Music Museum  in Brady, Texas, where stage costumes, musical instruments, autographs, posters and other memorabilia highlight Country Music's colorful past. KNEL disc jockey Tracy Pitcox began collecting various stage...

It’s been more than 50 years since Don McLean’s “American Pie” became a part of American history. “American Pie” was issued as a double A-side single in November 1971 and charted within a month. Interest from the media and public sent the single to No. 1 in the USA and McLean to international...

World-renowned guitarist and song- writer, Carl Perkins shook America by writing and performing the 1956 mega hit, “Blue Suede Shoes.” Known to the world as the “Father of Rockabilly,” Perkins helped influence a whole generation of audiences and musicians. His beginnings included being put to work...

One of Country Music’s most inspirational and multitalented performers was laid to rest in November 2017. "I stuttered so bad, and I couldn't hardly talk at all in those days, but I could sing," Mel Tillis recalled during an interview when he was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts in...

Known as “Grandpa Jones” to most of the world and remembered for his comedic role on the successful and long-running Hee Haw television series, Louis Marshall Jones was far more than a Country comedian and musician. Television was in its embryonic stage when in 1931 Jones launched his professional...

Merle Haggard’s 1969 number one hit “Okie from Muskogee” started as a joke between band members but soon became the most lasting Country music anthem of the Vietnam War era. According to the story Haggard told numerous times about the concept for the song, he and his band were driving through...

Country Reunion Magazine published an article last year just before Leslie Jordan made his first Grand Ole Opry appearance. The Chattanooga, Tennessee, native died in an accident in Los Angeles on Oct. 24. “Hello Fellow Hunker Downers,” actor turned Country gospel singer Leslie Jordan exclaimed to...

It’s difficult to explain the obsession with Citizens Band (CB) radio in the mid-1970s in light of today’s text messaging, social media and video chatting. With the decline of railroad shipping, the trucking industry exploded. Just as the railroad had provided material for music and movies,...

As young boys, Christopher and Taylor Malpass soaked up the music of their granddad’s phonograph records. Christopher earned his first talent show trophy at age 7, and Taylor was playing mandolin by the time he was 10. Today, they promote the work and music of classic country artists they treasure...

Recent guests on “Larry’s Country Diner” included The Isaacs, a family group whose musical roots reach back to the late 1950s when matriarch Lily Isaacs was signed to Columbia Records. As a child of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors who were imprisoned in a German concentration camp, Lily moved to...

When a person has a distinguished title bestowed upon them, sometimes it can be easy to constrain that individual to a certain set of parameters. Rarely is that a fair assessment. Jimmie Rodgers is known as “The Father of Country Music,” but he was a major influence on multiple genres, like blues,...

2022 marks 60 years since country music legend Gene Watson released his first single to radio. To celebrate, the iconic vocalist is embarking on his 60th Anniversary Tour, which kicked off January 1 in Florida and is taking Watson across the country. Watson’s single “If It’s That Easy” was...

A new exhibit, “Bill Anderson: As Far as I Can See,” at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum examines Anderson’s unprecedented career and enduring musical legacy In 1957, a nineteen-year-old college student, Bill Anderson, sat atop a three-story hotel overlooking a few stoplights in...

Country and Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member William Lee Golden and his sons The Goldens continue to celebrate the success of their current single, “Come and Dine,” off their upcoming album, "Old Country Church Gospel." “Come And Dine” has received overwhelmingly positive...

“Hello Fellow Hunker Downers,” actor turned Country gospel singer Leslie Jordan exclaimed to his Instagram followers each morning during 2020’s all-consuming pandemic.   Already a seasoned performer and writer, Jordan began posting funny video shorts of himself as he “hunkered down” in his...

Old Crow Medicine Show started busking on street corners in 1998 New York state and up through Canada, winning audiences along the way with their boundless energy and spirit. They eventually found themselves in Boone, North Carolina where they caught the attention of folk icon Doc Watson while...

Banjo virtuoso James Dee “JD” Crowe passed away at age 84 on Christmas Eve 2021 at his home in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Initial reports indicated that Crowe’s cause of death was pneumonia. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Sheryl, and their two children, David and Stacey, as well as one...

The last thing David Ball has is a “thinkin’ problem.” Yes, that’s the name of his platinum certified debut album and a No. 2 hit single he co-wrote, but it’s in no way reflective of his life. The Grammy and Academy of Country Music Awards nominee has released 10 albums, with 14 of his singles...