Oldest Active Opry Member Hank Locklin Passed Away At 91
- Hank Locklin, a country legend who The Tennessean’s Peter Cooper says is one of the greatest and most influential tenor singers in country music history, died at the age of 91 on Sunday in Brewton, Alabama. Locklin has been a member of the Opry since 1960 and his hits include “Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On” (listen) and “Please Help Me I’m Falling” (listen). (Rick shared another obituary in the comments yesterday)
- Brad Paisley’s eight studio album, American Saturday Night, will be released June 30 and the first single, titled “Then,” is being sent to radio today.
- The Academy of Country Music announced that Julianne Hough, Jake Owen and Zac Brown Band are the Top New Female Vocalist, Top New Male Vocalist and Top New Vocal Duo or Group. They’re now considered nominees for the Top New Artist award, which will be opened to fan voting on March 16th.
- In other ACM news, performers for the April 5th award ceremony include: Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Heidi Newfield, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland and Taylor Swift.
- Justin Townes Earle calls for a higher standard of decorum at the Opry and Rascal Flatts fans continue to make zero sense in this week’s edition of “Quotable Country.”
- The Houston Chronicle’s Joey Guerra published a brief Q&A with Trace Adkins in which he talks about Omarosa picking him as a weak contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, recording “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and fried Twinkies. In another article, Guerra reviewed Adkins performance at RodeoHouston.
- If you needed another reason to avoid The Carter Twins‘ new single “Heart Like Memphis,” Farce The Music provided it in the form of a .99 review.
- Watch the video for Caitlin & Will’s “Even Now.”
- Country Radio Seminar got started in an encouraging style with Seth Godin’s keynote, unfortunately For The Record’s Mike Severson says that hopeful spirit wasn’t carried over to the panels.
- John Mayer wants to sing with Taylor Swift.
- On May 12, McCoury Music will release a 5-disc special edition box set titled Celebrating 50 Years of Del McCoury. It will feature more than 30 new recordings of McCoury’s songs from his first 40 years of recording and 18 of the essentials from the last decade.
- With the recent announcement that the Oak Ridge Boys will be participating in this year’s SXSW events, Kevin Oliver asks, “are the Oak Ridge Boys cool again?”
- The Gobblers Knob has a man-crush on Charlie Robison, who played at Hank’s in McKinney, TX on Friday night.
- Tanya Tucker took a hiatus from recording when her father died in 2006, but she’s back with a new album on June 2. The album will be titled My Turn, and features Tucker putting her spin on songs made famous by some of country music’s greatest men, like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Faron Young.
“My dad basically introduced me to all those singers,” says Tucker, now 50. “Most songs that I’ve ever done, from Delta Dawn on, were really for guys. I’ve spent a career taking men’s songs and making them a woman’s songs.”
- Pitchfork has the track list for Steve Earle’s upcoming tribute album to Townes Van Zandt, simply titled Townes, and a preview for his take on “Lungs.” (via Twang Nation)
- Our sponsors help keep the site running, so we’d like to extend a hearty thanks to Skaggs Family Records and Cutaway Crossing (MySpace) for their support this month. If you haven’t checked out their offers this month, be sure to do so.
If you or your company is interested in advertising on The 9513, you can find more details on our advertising page and contact us for rates.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
Is Dave Haywood going solo? This and many other of country music's most pressing questions answered in the September edition of The 9513's world famous Mailbag!
Caroline Herring likes to sing songs about life in the South. No, not exactly like Justin Moore and Jason Aldean...
The 9513's resident historian Paul W. Dennis sits down for a chat with country music legend Gene Watson.
As much as we love girl singers, we love songs about girl singers even more. Here's just a few of the many tribute songs out there.
Step away from the river and up to a jukebox, because heartbreak is only temporary, but a good song about drowning yourself—like a diamond—lasts forever.
What do you think about music labels "testing the waters" with a single before providing access to an artist's entire album? 
What country artist, young or old, would you recommend as a must-listen artist to a newcomer on his/her journey through country music, and what would your essential song picks be?Tagged In This Article
Alabama // Brad Paisley // Buck Owens // Charlie Robison // Del McCoury // George Jones // Heidi Newfield // Jake Owen // Julianne Hough // Justin Townes Earle // Merle Haggard // Miranda Lambert // Oak Ridge Boys // Peter Cooper // Rascal Flatts // Steve Earle // Sugarland // Tanya Tucker // Taylor Swift // Tim McGraw // Toby Keith // Townes Van Zandt // Trace Adkins // Zac Brown Band
Current Discussion
- Matt: I'm glad you chose to review this as opposed to the new Joe Nichols album. Instead of complaining about bad ...
- Terry Ridont: I think its cool. Thats what I like about indy rock artists, everything isn't the same high budget packaging and ...
- Stormy: Jon: The problem is that the progressive country music is now being called Americana. And why is it ...
- Razor X: Maybe his brother did talk him into it but what’s to say he hasn’t ‘always loved’ and ‘wanted’ to ...
- Brian: Josh Kelley will be fine. At the very least it means Katherine Heigl may show up on country award shows regularly. ...
- Razor X: Change may be inevitable but we aren't required to support it and if enough people boycott it, it doesn't last ...
- Jon: "You can’t stop “progress”… We can if we try hard enough. Um, no. Not that I think "progress" is a good ...
- Joe: When she moved from Mercury to BNA, I think we were all just allowed to think there'd be some grand ...
- sam sam: Well, Suzie, maybe if I saw his live show I'd love him. But I'm not interested in attending concerts. Radio ...
- JOHN: Personally Sherrie s voice is as pure as it gets to me. Just listened to her demo songs after reading ...
15 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
March 9, 2009 at 12:09 pm Permalink
Taylor Swift and John Mayer…That’s an interesting combination. I think that John should find someone, anyone, else. I’ve always liked John’s music, but I think that he just wants the song to sell by adding Taylor.
March 9, 2009 at 12:14 pm Permalink
Sad news on Locklin. And I think I’ll kill myself if fan voting gives the top new artist to Hough above Owen/ZBB.
March 9, 2009 at 12:39 pm Permalink
I’m not here to judge, but I would hold out for a more important reason to kill myself.
March 9, 2009 at 1:35 pm Permalink
Don’t do it John!! You will lose a great deal of respect from me if you record with Swift! I forgave you for remaking a Hendrix song but I will NEVER forgive you if you go through with this!
Sigh. Fan-voted ACMs and CMAs cheapens the significance of these awards. One thing I agree with Chesney, even though I hate the guy.
March 9, 2009 at 2:49 pm Permalink
He compared Taylor to Stevie Nicks and himself to Tom Petty…God help us…Wonder what Jennifer Aniston thinks? She’ll have to have her 2 cents about it soon enough.
Congrats to Jake about the award!
March 9, 2009 at 2:50 pm Permalink
As others have commented, I can attest to the fact that Hank Locklin remained in excellent voice through his final Opry performaces. Sadly, the changing of the guard at the Opry continues. RIP.
March 9, 2009 at 3:18 pm Permalink
I am really excited to hear the new Tanya album.
“Guests include Jim Lauderdale; Rhonda and Darrin Vincent; bluegrass group The Grascals; and Tucker’s ex-husband, Jerry Laseter.
Sounds really interesting.
And I love the video for the Caitlin & Will song. The simplicity of it really let the lyric shine – which is definitely the song’s best attribute, along with Caitlin’s vocals.
March 9, 2009 at 3:32 pm Permalink
I didn’t think Tanya ever actually married Jerry Laseter, did she? But yes, her new album is one of the more exciting upcoming releases. Production from Pete Anderson is another plus. It s this the one that was supposed to be called Lonesome Town, or is that something else again?
March 9, 2009 at 4:45 pm Permalink
Opry Report: Speaking of Del McCoury, he was on the Opry last Saturday night and had a tuba in his band! Not only that but one of his songs featured a tuba solo as well. Zany stuff in a fun kind of way. Ray Price was simply amazing (as usual) and Jeannie Shepherd mentioned that a young Buck Owens was a guitar player in her band “a long time ago”. Mike Snider even referenced Merle Travis’ “Fat Gal” song when he found out his segment sponsor specialized in heating and air conditioning. Both Saturday night shows were sold out and I’d like to think it was Ray Price rather than Carrie Underwood that caused this…
Mike Severson’s articles are always interesting and his straight thinking is appreciated. Thanks for the link!
Kudos to Skaggs Family for helping to sponsor The 9513. All the cool labels like Rounder, Sugar Hill, and Yep Roc should follow their lead!
March 9, 2009 at 7:49 pm Permalink
I think you’re right about Tanya Tucker and Jerry Laseter, Occasional Hope. The pair have been engaged more than once (with Tanya calling off the wedding plans in early 2002, then reuniting and officially announcing their engagement again.) But I’ve heard Tanya state in many interviews that she intends to take marriage vows seriously and she just hasn’t met the man she wants to marry yet.
She even came under fire in the early 90s when Al Gore and the whole Murphy Brown having children out of wedlock brew-ha-ha came about. She was a single mother at the time (she missed the 1991 CMA Awards where she finally won Female Vocalist honors due to birth of her second child) and defended single mothers saying it was not always the woman’s fault – that the real culprit in most of these cases was the deadbeat dads. Which is very true, but that’s another story.
March 9, 2009 at 8:19 pm Permalink
Rick, Josh Turner there too might have caused the packed house at the Opry as well.
March 9, 2009 at 9:03 pm Permalink
No disrespect to Josh Turner, Ray Price or anyone else, but the increment of attendance would be due to the biggest and rarest names appearing there, whether you like them or not. In case it hasn’t already been pointed out here, Opry attendance in recent months has been low enough that they’ve cancelled or shortened shows. The Opry needs members like Carrie Underwood and it needs for them to make appearances there.
BTW, anyone who doesn’t already have a copy of Highways & Heartaches – the subject of the Skaggs Family Records banner ad – really needs to pick one up. IMO, Skaggs hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves for the “neo-traditional” impact he had in the very early 80s, well in advance of Randy Travis, and that album in particular is a real gem.
March 9, 2009 at 9:09 pm Permalink
“The Opry needs members like Carrie Underwood and it needs for them to make appearances there.”
Well said.
March 9, 2009 at 10:15 pm Permalink
I love the new song and music video for Caitlin & Will =D
And I’m glad Julianne Hough creamed Sarah Buxton and Ashton, why was Buxton even nominated? They could’ve done far better (Crystal Shawanda <3 )
March 15, 2009 at 7:02 am Permalink
I had the opportunity to meet Hank Locklin when I lived in London in 1970. He had played at the the NCO Club at Ruislip AFB and wandered downtown to a club where I was an occasional vocalist, and sang with the band for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, he bought us a round of drinks and chated with us for a while.
Rest In Peace
Leave a Comment