Boy did I catch some hell for having the audacity to say that despite all of our love for the great and powerful Dolly Parton—which should be taken as a given simply by evoking her name—she didn’t deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At least not yet.
‘Run, Rose, Run’ deserves to be graded on a curve because it’s meant as a complement to a novel, not a standalone feature. But even without running opinions through the love we all have in our hearts for everything Dolly Parton, ‘Run, Rose, Run’ includes some quality songs.
The nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced last month, and leading the pack and making the biggest splash was not a name from the rock world, but a country one in the form of Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton.
2022 has us working overtime already to keep up with all the great songs coming out on high-caliber albums from artists old and new. The easy part is finding new songs worthy of being highlighted. The hard part is choosing which old ones to take off.
Dolly Parton is celebrating her 76th birthday today, January 19th. And the Country music legend, actor, benefactor, altruist, cultural icon, and queen to many will also soon add novelist to her resume when she releases the novel (and album) “Run, Rose, Run.”
As we look back on 2021 and before we look forward to 2022, it’s important we take the time to pay tribute to these individuals who left a mark on the country and roots music world that will never fade. Here are the performers, players, songwriters, and others we lost in 2021.
“I feel like I’m just getting started. ’29’ is the album I’ll always look back on in my career and say that was the turning point for me in the way I want to be looked at in country music. I hope when people look at my music and my little legacy, I hope they say, ‘She was a country music purist.’”
Like so many media outlets native to the print realm, Rolling Stone has experienced hard times over the last decade-plus while transitioning to the digital world, and also trying to evolve beyond their original baby boomer readership. Rolling Stone is still one of the most recognized media brands in music and culture, but what it’s […]
Don Maddox was arguably the oldest living legend in country music. And he will remain a legend, today and forevermore. But his time as one of the last living links to the very formation of country music has officially ended. Don Maddox of The Maddox Brothers & Rose has died at 98.
The son of Hank Williams Jr. has been kicking around the music industry for a few years now, dabbling with some traditional country stuff, then moving in a much more contemporary direction, but overall just seeming to be trying to find himself. Don’t expect a chip off the old block.
when it comes to the Opry picking its next contemporary member—meaning not someone past their commercial prime that could instill a little youth and vigor into the institution—there’s just about no better pick than Carly Pearce. Only fitting that Dolly Parton was the one to dole out the invitation.
For his Hall of Fame career, Randy Travis’s ace-in-the-hole behind-the-scenes was his manager, his biggest believer, his staunchest champion, his eventual wife, and eventually, his biggest and most catastrophic adversary, Elizabeth “Lib” Hatcher. This is their story.
In 1975 when Charlie Rich whipped out his lighter, and burned the card announcing John Denver as the 1975 CMA Entertainer of the Year, it was considered to be one of the greatest moments of protest in country music history. But was it truly his intent to protest John Denver’s win?
Of course you usually say nice things upon someone’s passing. But when Dolly Parton said, “I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been there” as she eulogized Uncle Bill after his passing on Wednesday, April 7th at the age of 85, you known it’s the honest truth.
This is not a country record. This is a Christian record. But along with turning in her 1st volume of exclusively religious material, Carrie Underwood might have also delivered her most country record yet, not just from the nature of the material, but the rootsy aspect of some of the music.
ohn Prine was the big winner posthumously from the 2021 Grammy Awards and the Premier Ceremony that takes place before the proper telecast. Taking home two Grammy Awards, both for his final recorded song, “I Remember Everything,” he became the most awarded artist from the roots.
“When I was riding up and down the roads in Iraq, I knew there was a chance there were mines or IEDs on either side of the road. But I didn’t anticipate that when you file something as innocuous as placing a statue after a beloved Tennessean, there would be as many mines along this path.”
Congratulations, woke Twitter. You have officially blocked the effort to erect a statue of Dolly Parton in the Tennessee State House in Nashville, certifying that the current statue of Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest remains ensconced.
The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating its 95th Anniversary with a big primetime special on Sunday, February 14th on NBC. Called ‘Grand Ole Opry: 95 Years of Country Music,’ it comes as the Opry is enjoying arguably one of its biggest resurgences in interest in the institution’s history.
“I said something that was self-deprecating, probably meant to be, ‘Oh, well, we’re just musicians’ or something to that effect, to which [Katy Perry] said, ‘Well, you know, that’s offensive to me and you. You do what you do. We’re healers. We have an important job.’”
Ensconcing a statue of Dolly Parton in the Tennessee state Capitol to replace the bust of Confederate General and Klu Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest is being proposed in the state’s legislature after receiving large grassroots support.
Dolly Parton’s younger brother, who was both a singer and songwriter, as well as a long-time bass and guitar player in Dolly Parton’s band, has died at the age of 67 after a long battle with Cancer. Randy Parton regularly performed at his big sister’s theme park, Dollywood.
Among all of the accolades and attributes tied to country music’s patron saint Dolly Parton, perhaps her most lasting and impressive contribution is her songwriting. Over 3,000 published compositions have been penned by Dolly personally, including some of the most important songs in music history.
The Grammy Awards have announced their annual inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and a few of them have deep ties to country music, including “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers, as well as Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt in “Trio.”