George Jones Plans to Open a Museum with His Memorabilia
- George Jones plans to spend a lot of dates on the road in 2009, but he hopes to find some time to open a museum of memorabilia that he’s been collecting with his wife Nancy.
“Nancy scours eBay looking for my old stuff,” laughs Jones. “Sometimes fans bring things back that they have found. I recently got an old guitar back after 46 years. A guy had bought it in Texas for $10 and gave it to his father — not a bad price for a Martin [brand guitar]. I’m always thrilled to see some of the old stuff.”
Of particular interest to Nancy are his classic suits, many of which were named for his most popular songs.
“We did that in the early days,” Jones says. “We would have a suit made for a hit single. Everyone did it back then.
- Although Whitney Duncan wasn’t slated to release her Warner debut until January, the label decided to release a digital EP right before Christmas. (iTunes)
- Justin Townes Earle and Steve Earle joined the Morning Edition on NPR for a brief interview. Father and son discuss Justin’s early interest in music and whether there was an conscience effort on Justin’s part to write “Lone Pine Hill” so similar to his father’s own civil war song.
- Songwriter Rivers Rutherford had four songs on the charts this year, which is down from his average. It’s a trend across the music industry and one that he doesn’t foresee improving in 2009, but he has faith that a model of breaking artists and making money is waiting to be discovered. In an interview with The Tennesean’s Cindy Watts, he refers to the current downswing as a cleansing time in which the people who are in it for the wrong reasons will fold up and leave.
- Country and pop critic Barry Mazor lists several country releases and historic issues and reissues from 2008 that are the most likely to last, including albums from Jamey Johnson and Ashton Shepherd along with an Ernest V. Stoneman box set and Willie Nelson’s One Hell of a Ride retrospective.
- Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelly proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Cassie McConnell, on Christmas morning. (via Music City TV)
- As a young woman, it wasn’t always acceptable for Bobbie Nelson to perform in bars and clubs, although playing with her father and brother, Willie Nelson, made it easier. Even then, she eventually lost custody of her children and put her performing career on hold. After Willie had established himself as a songwriter he wanted Bobbie to help him make his 1973 album The Troublemaker. Lara Pellegrinelli notes that it was a turning point for both of them and after more than 30 years in Willie’s band, Bobbie just recently released her debut album–thanks to a little trickery from one of her sons and Willie.
- The extended Christmas break caused me to fall behind on the news front, but you better believe I’ll be back tomorrow with a more thorough roundup.
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December 29, 2008 at 12:26 pm Permalink
I particularly liked when Steve asked Justin to call his grandmother at the end of that interview.
December 29, 2008 at 3:11 pm Permalink
The Rivers interview was very interesting especially the beginning where he talks about how he was struggling pretty bad for awhile in Nashville when he first started.
I don’t know if that is a good thing they released Whitney’s CD like they did because that must mean they don’t want to spend a lot on a big release as they don’t see a high projection in sales.
December 29, 2008 at 8:53 pm Permalink
Ok..everyone is doing their lists of top 10 2008 Country CD’s. Now we know several “Contemporary” Country artists that get accolades from their sales. But those listed did not do that well in sales. So are these 2008 list more for CD’s that didn’t do that well in sales but are good CD’s? Just wondering..for I thought Alan Jackson and George Strait had good CD’s but did good sales too. So just wondering.
December 29, 2008 at 9:26 pm Permalink
Rivers was one of the first songwriters I ever met when I first started going to Nashville six years ago. He’s one of my favorites and I MUCH prefer to hear him sing his songs rather than the artists that have recorded them. He’s a phenomenal performer, both acoustically and with a full band.
December 29, 2008 at 10:31 pm Permalink
I haven’t heard Rivers live but have heard others talk about his live performances. I actually enjoy the sound of the original songs from many of the songwriters but they just don’t have “the look” so they pass the songs on to who they think can best advance it. I like Craig Wisemans originals on many of his songs too. I will try to see if i can hear a Rivers original somewhere.
December 30, 2008 at 7:41 am Permalink
Congrats, 9513! You’ve been nominated for the 2008 Weblog Awards in Best Music Blog. Well deserved.
Scroll down:
http://2008.weblogawards.org/site-news/2008-weblog-awards-finalists/#more
December 30, 2008 at 8:18 am Permalink
B – you can hear Rivers on his MySpace.
http://www.myspace.com/riversrutherford
His version of “Aint Nothin’ Bout You” is miles above Brooks and Dunn’s.
December 30, 2008 at 1:29 pm Permalink
Sweet, KathyP! Thanks for letting us know about that and if you nominated us, double thanks!!
December 30, 2008 at 1:53 pm Permalink
Brady – I did nominate you guys, but it wasn’t just me I’m sure. Best thing about this is you will get more traffic once voting starts. I’ll bet many of them will stick around for the daily ride, too.
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