Country Music Hall of Fame Scores Lester Flatt’s Guitar

Vince Gill and Marty Stuart at the Country Music Hall of Fame on February 13. Photo by Marilu White

• Valentine’s Day came a day early for the Country Music Hall of Fame when Marty Stuart and Connie Smith donated memorabilia from their personal collection. Among the most famous of the gifts was Lester Flatt’s guitar.
  

  Other major pieces include: a briefcase in which Hank Williams used to store his songs; a 1930 Dobro on which Roy Nichols played the famed introduction to Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried”; Smith’s 1968 Gibson “Dove” guitar; Stuart’s 1972 pink paisley Fender Telecaster electric guitar; and a briefcase, suit and overcoat that belonged to Johnny Cash.

• Taylor Swift continues her reign over the Billboard country album chart for the sixth week in a row. Compounding on the Swift theme, I thought I’d throw it out there how genuinely thoughtful and downright awesome it was of her to personally handwrite a card to Hollerin’ Ben Cisneros thanking him for complimenting her songwriting in his article The Promise and Impact of Taylor Swift, and even complimenting him for his own writing style. Echoing Ben’s sentiments, that Taylor Swift is a class act.
• Brad Paisley has a pair of autographed Wrangler jeans up for auction on eBay. Just in case you were wondering, he wears 30×36. All proceeds will benefit the American Heart Association. If someone else’s jeans aren’t your thing, AHA has several other items up for bid from Brooks & Dunn, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill, Toby Keith and more.
• A few readers at Idolator didn’t find any humor in Vince Gill’s “Kanye” comment at the Grammys or his explanation of the comment. It just goes to show “you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Gill also says he likes the blues side of loves songs, which explains the reason he’s drawn to bluegrass, “they can kill people in their songs.”
• Dean Bevan has a quick rundown of the Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” musical performed in Phoenix on Tuesday night. Matt C. has a review of the show, too.
• Once she tasted fame Kellie Pickler says the people around her started to change, “I lost so many people. No one that I was close with before am I even remotely close to now. I have maybe three people in my life now that have been amazing through the whole process.”
• Both Heidi Newfield and Aubrey Collins have bounced on Trick Pony in the past, now co-founder Ira Dean is checking out to focus on his songwriting and plan his recording career.
• Jessica Simpson’s foray into country music is almost here. Her father says that her album is almost complete and will include a duet with Dolly and another with Willie Nelson and Charley Pride. Her first single could be out as soon as April and May. To top it all off, she’s “eyeing” a reality TV show with CMT.
• Country Universe got a shout out in this week’s edition of Country Weekly magazine. Congrats Kevin!
• Sugarland duo Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush say they plan to finish their third album toward the end of February or beginning of March.
• Twangville is handing out a signed copy of Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles’ Diamonds in the Dark. Check it out for the details.
• Sunny Sweeney has a new logo and one fan says he’s going to get it tattooed on himself. Sweeney is all for it and is even encouraging the guy. In other news, she says her guitar player left the band because he wants to “play less twangy music.”
• Monte Warden, who co-wrote the George Strait hit “Desperately” with Bruce Robison, divulges a little secret to running: don’t compare yourself to other runners on the trail.
  

  “You say, ‘I’m going to run a mile today,’ and you try, and then you say, ‘I’m going to run 10 yards today.’

• Louisville Slugger manufactured several commemorative baseball bats for Carrie Underwood and the co-writers of her smash hit “Before He Cheats”.
• Austin360.com is having a 75-day celebration of Willie Nelson’s 75th birthday.
• Galleywinter posted another fantastic edition of “20 Questions” with Ray Wylie Hubbard. I’d like to quote a lot more, but there’s not enough room, so hop on over there and check it out yourself. Highly entertaining.
  

  As a music business veteran, you’ve seen quite a lot of changes over the years. What things have stayed the same? What things have become very, very different?

  What’s stayed the same, is if you give a boy a guitar the girls come around. What is different is there’s a lot more boys with guitars!