Before we look forward to 2025, let’s look back at 2024 and remember the important individuals we lost, from huge superstars, to songwriters and side players. They all contributed to the music we love, and deserve to be remembered.
The 2024 ACM Awards had many pondering the question, is it better for an awards show to be bad for the inadvertent entertainment value as opposed to being so boring you want to gouge your eyeballs out?
Like a high ‘E’ string hitting the sweetest note of a soaring harmonious guitar solo, a collective exhalation of sincere grief, but undying gratitude pierces through the din to mark the death of the indomitable Dickey Betts.
There is perhaps no artist, no performer in the history of country music whose impact, influence, appeal, and footprint so far outpaced the recognition he received in life and death than Gary Stewart.
Billy Joe Shaver was one of the greatest, most influential, and most colorful songwriter/performers in the history of country music. There may have never been a more important performer in country music who never had a Top 40 hit. Billy Joe’s son Eddy Shaver was no slouch either.
Over the last couple of weeks there’s been a big fight in Nashville over the fate of the iconic venue called the Exit/In. Opened in 1971, and named for the fact that the entrance was in the back, it’s one of those venues that’s housed so many memories and iconic moments.
Southern rock legend and founding member of The Allman Brother Band Dickey Betts is currently in critical but stable condition in a Florida hospital after hitting his head, causing bleeding from his brain. Betts was in his backyard in Little Sarasota Bay, and slipped and cracked his head while playing with the family dog.
You can’t go long talking about badasses in country music without bringing up the one, the only Billy Joe Shaver. Though he may have never received the recognition of Willie, Waylon, or even Coe or Paycheck, his influence is arguably just important. When you have Elvis cutting one of your songs, Willie Nelson calling you his favorite songwriter, have Bob Dylan name dropping you…