Bill Monroe will forever be the Father of Bluegrass. But it was Jimmy Martin, who studied under Monroe, who was able to rear back and declare himself “The King of Bluegrass.”
As 2019 comes to a close and we look forward to an new year, let us take a moment to remember the country and roots music greats we lost in this past year, from bona fide legends like Earl Thomas Conley, to those who left us too soon like Neal Casal, to Hall of Famers like Harold Bradley, and major influencers like Dick Dale.
The first episode of the Ken Burns Country Music documentary tasked itself to define what country music is by delving deep into its origins and original purveyors. The second episode called “Hard Times” began the work of explaining why the music means so much to so many people.
Country Music Hall of Famer, Bluegrass Hall of Famer, performer, executive, songwriter, and general country music advocate Mac Wiseman has passed away. He was 93-years-old, and was one of the last living links to country music’s golden era. He died on Sunday, February 24th.
Before we even listen to a peep of the music from this new album from Josh Turner, it already serves as an incredible illustration of the sheer incompetence, and creative immorality that so often still grips elements of Nashville’s Music Row. But what of the music on ‘Deep South’ after the incessant delays leading up to this final, triumphant release?
With the recent loss of bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, country superstar Merle Haggard, songwriting great Freddy Powers, and Bakersfield’s Red Simpson, the amount of artists who are still around that can truly say they were there at the very start of the formation of country and bluegrass is getting anemically slim.
It’s about that time of year again to start considering who the Country Music Hall of Fame will include in their list of 2015 inductees. That said, this announcement seems to inch later, and later (and later) each year. Nonetheless, if you want your opinion to amount to anything, you better get it out there early in the year as the people who make the picks for the final ballots and eventually inductees are doing their homework.
On Tuesday (4-22) the Country Music Hall of Fame announced their 2014 inductees in a press conference held in the Country Music Hall of Fame rotunda. Kix Brooks hosted the event. The Country Music Hall of Fame inductees are selected through a committee process appointed by the Country Music Association, or CMA. Since 2010, the selection process has been split up into three categories.