Latest / Country Weekly / 6.12.26
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, it's time once again to catch up with Country Weekly,
- 0:08where we check out news and gossip from the world
- 0:11of country music. I'm your host as always, Ken Dawkins,
- 0:16and I will be reading from various sources found online.
- 0:19As a reminder, Radio I is a reading service intended
- 0:22for people who are blind or have other disabilities that
- 0:25make it difficult to read printed material. We'll begin with
- 0:29a review of the Railbird Festival from the Lexington Herald Leader,
- 0:34an article by Matt Wickstrom dated June eighth. For a moment,
- 0:39the twenty twenty six Railbird Festival in Lexington almost went political.
- 0:45Prior to Tyler Childer's headlining slot Sunday night, a pre
- 0:48recorded video message from Kentucky Governor Andy Busheer played on
- 0:51a video screen, wishing fans a happy festival and announcing
- 0:55the Railbird Festival Hall of Fame, of which Childers is
- 0:59the inaugural member. Rocky Adkins was on site to present
- 1:02the acclamation, which will serve as a permanent tribute to
- 1:05Kentucky born artists who performed at the festival and made
- 1:09lasting contributions to the state's musical legacy. But following that,
- 1:13it was back to music and Children's was happy to
- 1:16oblige with a set of heavy songs from his new record,
- 1:19Snipe Hunter, along with a few deep cuts and surprises
- 1:22along the way. Childress was far from the only Kentucky
- 1:26act to turn heads during the two day festival weekend,
- 1:29but he was the act to see this year's edition
- 1:31of a music festival. The fourth at Lexington's Red Mild
- 1:34Gaming and Racing was its biggest yet, selling out on
- 1:37Sunday with over forty five thousand in attendance to see
- 1:40Childer's third go round at the event. Childress did not disappoint,
- 1:45opening things up with two of the more boisterous songs
- 1:47from the latest compilation and eating Big Time and down Under.
- 1:51After two older love ballads Shake the Frost and All
- 1:54You're In and a handful of other tunes, Childres took
- 1:57pause for the first time to speak on being back
- 1:59in the town where his music journey took off and
- 2:02he fell in with the folk group Small Batch, which
- 2:05eventually led to a duo between him and one of
- 2:07its members, Tree Jackson. We figured we needed to put
- 2:11some music out there to land some gigs, so we
- 2:13recorded a couple of songs and we put them on SoundCloud,
- 2:16and then I forgot about them forever. That's after until
- 2:19I got TikTok trending. Childer is remarked in reference to
- 2:22his deep cut Jersey Giant, which is often covered by
- 2:25Railbird alums like l King, Sam Barber and Evan Hohner.
- 2:29We've been pulling that song back out over the last
- 2:32little bit, so I figured since we're in Lexington, it
- 2:34would be an honor to bring up Tree Jackson and
- 2:36play this song. After running through Jersey Giant, Jackson remained
- 2:40on stage for a proper duet with Childers on the
- 2:43Dean Martin classic My Rifle, My Pony and Me, before
- 2:46ripping into the slightly unhinged rabies fueled biten List that
- 2:50earlier this year earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Next,
- 2:54Childers leaned into his purgatory era with White House Road
- 2:58and Hockey Tonk Flame, before offered up a moment of
- 3:01repentance from his triple album Can I Take My Hounds
- 3:04to Heaven on the jubilant way of the Truant God.
- 3:08The headlining energy from Childers was a stark contrast to
- 3:10that of the night prior, which seemed to fall a
- 3:13bit flat with illuminators. The folk band from Denver didn't
- 3:17deliver an uninspiring performance by any means, but the liveliness
- 3:20of their act didn't stack up well against other top
- 3:23level bookings like Zach Top Mountjoy and Ella Langley, the
- 3:27latter of whom would have been the best fit for
- 3:29that slot. Albany native Colton Bowlin, whose album Grandpa's Mill
- 3:34has been named one of the years best so far
- 3:36by a number of outlets, and Owensborough's Sons of Habit
- 3:40both drew large crowds to the Burl stage on Saturday.
- 3:43For the latter, their set was even capped off with
- 3:45a surprise announcement from their significant others that the band
- 3:48would be making its Grand Old Opry debut on August fourteenth.
- 3:52It was one of many full circle moments at rail
- 3:55Bird for the group, with guitarist Dalton Daniels reflecting on
- 3:58attending rail Bird as a fan three years ago alongside
- 4:01Jacob Young from Only sixty, who played the festival back
- 4:04in twenty twenty five, dreaming that one day they'd get
- 4:07to play it. At that time we didn't have either band,
- 4:10he recalled, and a year later we're playing it. And
- 4:12two years later we are Wow. It's unbelievable just even
- 4:15being here. On Sunday, it was the Creakers who stole
- 4:18the show with a blistering bluegrass show that brought arguably
- 4:21the biggest crowd to the Burl Stage that it's ever
- 4:24seen at Railbird, even more than the Red Clay Strays
- 4:27and endearing debut back in twenty twenty four. Aside from
- 4:31the crowd hollering back every word to the group's hit
- 4:33song Tennessee, the biggest highlight came when the Creakers welcomed
- 4:37fellow Eastern Kentucky group's Sunday best fresh off vocalist Nicholas Jammerson,
- 4:42set with his own band, The Morning Jay's an hour
- 4:44before to tackle their original song Swarping. Aside from the
- 4:49festival's Kentucky contingent, there was much more music to consume
- 4:53across the two days, led by the aforementioned Ella Langley,
- 4:56who likely would have received headlined billing if the lineup
- 4:59for Reale Bird had dropped after her mega hit Choosing
- 5:02Texas rather than before. Opening with the title track from
- 5:06a just released record, Dandelion, Langley powered through a wide
- 5:10ranging set that included everything from story driven missives you
- 5:13Look Like You Love Me to pop country bangers be Her,
- 5:16and a rock and cover of Gretchen Wilson's Here for
- 5:19the Party. It was the manifestation of an artist fully
- 5:22confident in herself and one that country fans should expect
- 5:25to be in the spotlight for years to come. Neo
- 5:29traditional country was also out in full fourth Sunday with
- 5:32Texas Braxton Keith and Washington Zach Top. Keith was first
- 5:37up in the early afternoon and delivered a sweltering set
- 5:39of eighties and nineties inspired originals like Real Damn Deal
- 5:42and I Own This Bar, even going as far as
- 5:45to mix in a cover of George Strait's The Chair
- 5:48to really drive his classic country stick Home. Top followed
- 5:52in the evening as direct support for Childers and conjured
- 5:54up his own blend of nostalgic twang with made for
- 5:57radio hits like I Never Lie, Sounds Like the Radio,
- 6:00and Ain't in It for My Health, the latter being
- 6:02the title track from his album that earlier this year
- 6:05took home the first ever Grammy Award for Best Traditional
- 6:08Country Album. Also standing out during the Action Pack weekend
- 6:12was Southern Indiana Stephen Wilson Junior, whose ten minute guitar
- 6:16solo while meandering through the crowd on Gary cultivated one
- 6:19of Railbird's coolest moments. Wilson also joined Mountjoy on stage
- 6:24following his Saturday set for performance of their hit song
- 6:27Astra Van as well. Then there's Cassius Culpepper and Carter Faith,
- 6:31who opened the Elkhorn and Limestone Stages on Sunday, respectively.
- 6:36Both are voices on the rise in country music, with
- 6:38Culpeper leaning heavily into southern soul as well on songs
- 6:42like Alabama Beauty, Queen, Man of His Word and a
- 6:45pair of covers from Bill Withers. By contrast, Faith was
- 6:48like a blonde Caitlin Buttz with her quick wit and
- 6:51navigation between sweet and sass on numbers like Grudge Ain't
- 6:55Over Me Yet and a countrified cover of Britney Spears Oops,
- 6:58I Did It Again, the latter of which pushed boundaries,
- 7:01similar to how Railbird has been a leader curating unique events,
- 7:05both in terms of the artists they book, but also
- 7:08the local experience is curated around it. Meanwhile, Country Music
- 7:12Hall of Famer and Kentucky native when owner Judd is
- 7:15coming home to Kentucky when owner Judd will kick off
- 7:19her Kentucky Queen Tour on September thirtieth with an intimate
- 7:24performance at the historic Lexington Opera House. This exclusive engagement
- 7:29marks the very first stop of a limited three city
- 7:31run celebrating her album The Hard Truth, which releases October second.
- 7:36Tickets go on sale this weekend. Moving on now, we
- 7:40head on down the block to parade dot com Country
- 7:44Stars concert canceled after health scare. What fans need to
- 7:47know This article dated June seventh, Mark Chestnutt was unable
- 7:52to perform his scheduled show over the weekend due to
- 7:55a temporary health setback. The nineties country music icon now
- 7:59sixty two was supposed to entertain folks in a live
- 8:02outdoor setting at Lukenbach Texas in Fredericksburg, Texas on Saturday,
- 8:06June sixth, but the evening didn't go as planned. Instead, Summerdan,
- 8:11who was already on the bill, performed a free two
- 8:13hour set and ticket holders were automatically refunded at their
- 8:16point of purchase. The official Facebook page of the music
- 8:20venue shared a post hours before the show was set
- 8:22to kick off, citing a temporary loss of Chestnut's voice
- 8:26as the reason behind the singer's abrupt concert cancelation. Hi, folks, Unfortunately,
- 8:31the Mark Chestnut show schedule for tonight on June sixth
- 8:34will be canceled due to the temporary loss of his
- 8:37voice and at this time will not be rescheduled. The
- 8:39post reads, alongside a promotional image of Chestnut. The caption continued,
- 8:45All ticket sales purchased directly from Lukenbach will be automatically refunded.
- 8:49We apologize for any inconvenience in wish Marcus Speedy recovery. Tonight,
- 8:54Summer Dean will be taking the Dance Hall stage from
- 8:56seven to nine. There will be no cover and I
- 8:59hope to see you folks out. Chestnuts concert was supposed
- 9:03to be a highlight of his career, as it marked
- 9:05his official headline debut at the venue. However, leading up
- 9:08to the next show, Chestnut was allegedly already showing concerning
- 9:12vocal strain, according to some fans, who pointed out his
- 9:15previous gig, which took place just two days earlier. Saw
- 9:20him in Paris on Thursday, and you could tell he
- 9:22was struggling, when fan wrote in the comments section of
- 9:24the post, While another person atit. He talked about allergies
- 9:27bothering him when we saw him Thursday in Paris. Meanwhile,
- 9:31a third person attit he played here in Paris, Texas
- 9:34Thursday night made a comment about it being breezy. Hopefully
- 9:37he didn't catch anything from here. This is the first
- 9:40time Chesnut has had to bow out of a string
- 9:42of concerts. Fall of last year, he was hospitalized and
- 9:45then forced to cancel around of performances. In twenty twenty four,
- 9:49he underwent emergency heart surgery, which led to a series
- 9:52of canceled dates. At this point, it's unclear how long
- 9:55Chestnut's vocal issues will keep him off the road, as
- 9:58his tour calendar could still continues to show performances scheduled
- 10:02throughout the summer. Now we move over to NBC news
- 10:07dot Com with the first article dated Monday, June eighth,
- 10:11Brad Paisley criticizes data center planned next to Nashville Zoo.
- 10:16Brad Paisley, Grammy Award winning American Country music singer and songwriter,
- 10:20of course, urged his followers to sign a petition to
- 10:23stop the construction of a sixty nine thousand square foot
- 10:26data center that would be fifty yards from the Nashville Zoo,
- 10:30which he called an absolute nightmare scenario in an Instagram reel.
- 10:34First of all, they don't have the power to build this,
- 10:37They don't have the water, It doesn't belong there. It
- 10:39would be an enormous monstrosity, an absolute eyesore, and detract
- 10:43in every way from not only that zoo, but that area,
- 10:46Paisley said in his video, which he posted collaboratively with
- 10:49the zoo Saturday. The Nashville Zoo, which had one point
- 10:53four million visitors last year, has over thirty seven hundred
- 10:57animals and represents over three hundred and fifty species. It's
- 11:01one of the top zoos in the world, Paisley said
- 11:03in his post. The video comes days after the zoo
- 11:07created a petition and promoted it on social media, which
- 11:10brought national attention to the dispute and had a mass
- 11:13three hundred and thirty one eight hundred and twenty four
- 11:16signatures and over one hundred and twenty six thousand shares
- 11:20by Monday afternoon. The Zoo's president and CEO, Rick Schwartz,
- 11:24said in an interview Friday he was particularly concerned about
- 11:27its impact on rare and vulnerable species at the facility,
- 11:31such as the clouded leopard, whose population the zoo is
- 11:34working to conserve. Paisley, a Nashville resident, is so far
- 11:38the most widely recognized figure to push back against the project.
- 11:42No one has shared studies or environmental impact assessments, just
- 11:46their word. That's why the Nashville Zoo is asking the
- 11:49community to join and vehemently opposing the proposed data center
- 11:52being built adjacent to the zoo. The petition says. The
- 11:56proposed data center is from DC Blocks, in Atlanta based
- 12:00company that specializes in building and operating data centers as
- 12:03a service to hyperscalers, enterprises, communications providers, and technology companies.
- 12:09According to its website, with twenty three data centers in
- 12:13operation and development, DC Blocks aims to expand the number
- 12:17of data centers across the country. More centers are required
- 12:20outside the major cities near to edge markets to house
- 12:24necessary technology to run services closer to data producers and consumers,
- 12:28its website says. The spokesperson for DC Blocks told NBC
- 12:33News on Friday that he did not immediately know what
- 12:36the data center would be used for or whether AI
- 12:38companies would be among its customers. However, the spokesperson said
- 12:42it would not be an AI factory, placing a burden
- 12:45on local resources, and is proposed on a site that
- 12:47had previously operated a data center. The zoo says the
- 12:52noise could disturb some of its animals and nearby residents,
- 12:55and out of that concern, it's fighting the data center.
- 12:58As we move forward, we've taken then next step in
- 13:00our fight against the proposed data center, the Zoo wrote
- 13:02in comment to NBC News. Our land use attorney and
- 13:06former Metro Codes director Bill Herbert has filed his owning
- 13:09appeal with the city. The goal of this appeal is
- 13:12to overturn the permits that DC blocks has filed and
- 13:15that have been approved. National residents have voiced their concern
- 13:19the Mayor, Freddie O'Connell, who's working closely with our Department
- 13:23of Law and Metro departments to ensure large scale data
- 13:26centers don't harm our local communities. That's according to Julie
- 13:29Oakes Smith, chief communications officer for the Mayor's office, and
- 13:34she wrote to NBC we're looking at what options are
- 13:37available under the law for the mayor and Metro government
- 13:40to implement safeguards to protect our air, water and ratepayers
- 13:44and keep our neighborhoods and our residents from being negatively
- 13:46impacted by these facilities. Paisley often weaves social commentary and
- 13:51complex issues into his music, and outside of his music career,
- 13:55he remains engaged in cultural and philanthropic issues. He and
- 13:59his wife helped start a nonprofit back in twenty twenty
- 14:02called The Store, which is a free referral based grocery
- 14:05store in Nashville that fights food insecurity. Paisley also joined
- 14:09U twenty four, a platform to raise money and support
- 14:12Ukraine and the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky, founded back in
- 14:17January twenty twenty three. Nashville Zoo is overwhelmed with gratitude
- 14:21for the support from the community as we continue our
- 14:24fight against the proposed data center. We would like to
- 14:27take this time to thank Brad Paisley, a dear friend
- 14:30of the Zoo, for making a public statement on our behalf.
- 14:32The Zoo wrote on NBC News with more on Brad Paisley,
- 14:37we head to Saving Country Music with the first article
- 14:40dated June ninth, and the headline what is going on
- 14:43with these new Brad Paisley songs? Fans of country music
- 14:47artists Brad Paisley have been celebrating recently as new songs
- 14:51from the performer have been populating on streaming services a
- 14:54few at a time, and have been reminding them of
- 14:57his early career output in the best of ways. The
- 15:00songs come very anticipated from Paisley fans, since it's officially
- 15:04been over nine years since April twenty seventeen's Love and
- 15:08War that we've heard a proper new original album from
- 15:11the singer and guitar slinger. The six songs released so
- 15:14far are full of strong traditional country wordplay, double entendres,
- 15:18and catchy puns in hooky, easy to love country songs,
- 15:21while the instrumentation in production is indicative of nineties country.
- 15:25Now this doesn't just feel like old Brad Paisley. It
- 15:28feels like Brad Paisley at his best, when he's able
- 15:30to work his cleverness into country songs. The first of
- 15:34now six new singles, called Fallen, was released on May eleventh,
- 15:38and came the same day it was announced as part
- 15:40of a greater project titled tackle Box. But tackle Box
- 15:44wouldn't exactly be an album per se, and it wouldn't
- 15:47exactly include new material. I see this project as never ending.
- 15:51It's almost like the fans have a direct link to
- 15:53my dropbox or to a playlist that never ends. Says Paisley.
- 15:58We are calling a tackle box because it's a box
- 16:00full of hooks country lyric hooks. In this digital age,
- 16:03I have every song I've ever written at my fingertips.
- 16:06This project gave us a license to dig back into
- 16:09the catalog of songs that were never released, and that
- 16:12feels like in a time period, a style of writing,
- 16:14a sound, and a nostalgia. In other words, these are
- 16:17not new songs, even if they might be new to
- 16:20the public. Paisley goes on to further explain went back
- 16:24into the studio to record or re record at the
- 16:26Castle in Franklin, the same place where several of my
- 16:29first few albums were recorded. When I first started writing
- 16:32and recording music, I couldn't have dreamed of the ability
- 16:35to put something out instantly for the fans. Now. Don't
- 16:39get it wrong, even though these songs are older, they
- 16:41are still cool and dare we say, at saving country
- 16:44music even cooler since they're coming from an earlier era
- 16:48in the Brad Paisley legacy. But despite the positivity around
- 16:53the recent release songs. There's still something that feels weird
- 16:56about how all of this is transpiring. Instead of the
- 16:59song releases perhaps being an indication that the damn is
- 17:02finally starting to break that's been held back and braid
- 17:06Brad's creative output, it might be the latest sign yet
- 17:09that something is inherently wrong in his career, either with
- 17:12a publishing deal, his record label deal, or both, or
- 17:15something else. Brad Paisley has released other new music in
- 17:19between whatever tackle Box turns out to be and his
- 17:22twenty seventeen album Love and War. Just last year, Paisley
- 17:26released a really excellent Christmas record called Snow Globe Town.
- 17:30It feels like one of those seasonal albums that you'll
- 17:32be returning to each season for years to come, But
- 17:35this is different from a serious, proper studio album. That's
- 17:39what we were supposed to receive from Brad Paisley in
- 17:41twenty twenty three or shortly thereafter. On September twenty ninth
- 17:45of that year, Paisley announced a new album called Sun
- 17:48of the Mountains. As a native of West Virginia, the
- 17:51album was going to be Paisley's return to his original
- 17:54roots through a very forward thinking project. Where he sang
- 17:57about the beauty of Appalachia, where he was confronting the
- 18:00crisis plaguing the region. Coinciding with the announcement was the
- 18:05release of the album's first four tracks, which were said
- 18:08to be sequenced very intentionally to tell a deeper story.
- 18:11The opening song, featuring Dan Timnsky and Jerry Douglas, was
- 18:15called Son of the Mountains, written by Paisley and with
- 18:18Lee Thomas Miller. So is the second song, The Medicine Will,
- 18:21which addressed West Virginia's opioid crisis. Anticipation was high for
- 18:26the album. It felt like Paisley was trying to put
- 18:28together a project similar to the insurgent Appalachian artists that
- 18:31were reshaping country music at the time, like Tyler Chilters
- 18:35and Sierra Ferrell. But those first four songs are all
- 18:39we ever received from Son of the Mountains. After that
- 18:42and further promises of details forthcoming about the upcoming project,
- 18:46the entire thing appeared to be mothballed, if not scrapped altogether.
- 18:50By the time Paisley's Christmas album came out November of
- 18:53last year, Son of the Mountains seemed to have been
- 18:55completely memory hold. So the next question is what exactly
- 19:00is going on with Brad Paisley's career. Just like Gary Allen,
- 19:03Josh Turner, Joe Nichols, and other artists, Paisley likesly signed
- 19:07a record deal back in the day that might not
- 19:09reflect the realities of the modern music industry. Their deals
- 19:13and the label leads managing them don't often know how
- 19:16to move forward without a dedicated radio strategy, putting these
- 19:20artists careers in limbo. Ultimately, if a label can't see
- 19:23a profitable outcome for releasing new music, then more likely
- 19:26to just sit on their hands and not release anything
- 19:29new at all. For Brad Paisley's entire career, starting with
- 19:32his debut album in nineteen ninety nine, Who Needs Pictures,
- 19:35He'd recorded for Ariston Nashville, which was a division of
- 19:38Sony Music Nashville. In the spring of twenty twenty three,
- 19:42so just about as the time Sun of the Mountains
- 19:45was likely being finalized for release, Ariston Nashville was shuddered,
- 19:49with the artists on the label being shuffled to other
- 19:51Sony Nashville imprints, But Paisley ended up on Mercury Nashville,
- 19:55which is part of a Universal Music Group, not Sony.
- 20:00All of us is to say that Brad Paisley very
- 20:02well could be suffering under some sort of weird label
- 20:04contract regime that is, forbidding him from releasing actually new music.
- 20:09Many of these music robe based labels, if they don't
- 20:11see a radio strategy for you, they just don't know
- 20:14what to do, and ultimately they do nothing. Brad Paisley's
- 20:18now fifty three. He's made quite a few weird steps
- 20:20and outright missteps in his later career. It's unlikely he
- 20:23has another hit album or hit single just waiting to
- 20:26be released, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the
- 20:28creative freedom to release the music he wishes. Clearly he
- 20:32was feeling passionate about Sun of the Mountains at one point.
- 20:36There's a good chance Paisley ultimately ends up on the
- 20:38Country Music Hall of Fame. But as we've seen time
- 20:41and time again, when an artist ages out or loses
- 20:43radio support, their careers get fumbled. It's a lonely place
- 20:47where you're no longer mainstream relevant, but are still too
- 20:50young to be considered legendary. Next on, Garth Brooks looking
- 20:56to sell his catalog for two billion dollars. So Garth
- 21:00Brooks is pondering the sale of his music catalog and
- 21:03including both his publishing and recorded music rights, all of
- 21:07which he's retained sole ownership over his career. According to
- 21:11The Wall Street Journal, who was first to report the news,
- 21:13Garth's asking price is said to be upwards of two
- 21:16billion dollars, though that doesn't mean that will be the
- 21:19eventual price. The first question one might have is if
- 21:23Garth can actually fetch that kind of cash for his catalog.
- 21:26Though two billion dollars might be too rich for of
- 21:28an asking price, it might not be outside the ballpark.
- 21:32When Sony acquired fifty percent of Michael Jackson's catalog in
- 21:36twenty twenty four, it was for six hundred million, and
- 21:38Jackson's assets were said to be valued somewhere between one
- 21:41point two and one point six billion. Historically, Garth is
- 21:45certainly on that Michael Jackson level, and he's still living.
- 21:49Garth can still promote those assets and his music, and
- 21:52doesn't have accusations of pedophilia to contend with. The Second
- 21:56most important question might be why Garth Brooks wants to
- 21:59sell and why now Brooks is famous for wanting to
- 22:02keep complete and total control over his intellectual property in
- 22:06any in all capacities. He's refused to put his music
- 22:09up on streaming services, first launching his own autonomous streaming
- 22:13service called ghost Tunes, before later partnering with Amazon for
- 22:16exclusive digital distribution. He even sued Blockbuster Music for selling
- 22:21used copies of his albums. So why sell now? The
- 22:25answer is that everyone with any good sense seems to
- 22:27be cashing out on the American economy, especially when it
- 22:30comes to intellectual property. With the onset of AI and
- 22:34the potentially catastrophic ramifications that could wreck on music and
- 22:38especially back catalogs, now is the time to grab whatever
- 22:41equity you can and call it good. Now is also
- 22:44the time to sell, as massive corporations still have an
- 22:47appetite to buy up these assets and they may never
- 22:49be valued higher. Garth Brooks is also getting old. He's
- 22:53sixty four, recently stopped his weekly podcasts, has no tour planned,
- 22:58and only has a few appearances schedule for the summer.
- 23:01Though it might be foolish to expect a second retirement
- 23:04from the country music superstar, Certainly, Garth's days of crushing
- 23:08it live or in the studio are behind him. Despite
- 23:12his rabid popularity over his career, Garth Brooks has been
- 23:15a polarizing character, especially from his financial first perspective on
- 23:19his career. Selling his catalog for two billion dollars or
- 23:23even something just shy of that will certainly stir up
- 23:25those emotions again, but it also might be one of
- 23:28the best things to happen to one of the most
- 23:30important catalogs in country music history. Generations of listeners remain
- 23:35disconnected from the Garth Brooks music legacy, and that gaping
- 23:38hole isn't good for anyone, especially Garth. Next voice of
- 23:44the Grand Old Arpery and Radio Hall of Famer, Bill Cody,
- 23:47has passed away. Arguably, nobody had a more recognizable voice
- 23:52in country music over the last thirty plus years. Who
- 23:55wasn't a singer himself. He might have not penned the
- 23:59tunes that send shivers down your spine, or sing them
- 24:02with grand eloquence, or picked the guitar behind them, but
- 24:05Bill Cody was the person we would invite into our homes,
- 24:08our cars, our ears, and our hearts to deliver all
- 24:12those heartfelt songs from our favorite country stars. He was
- 24:15one of the voices of the Grand Old Opry and
- 24:17one of the voices of our lives, along with announcing
- 24:21countless shows for the Grand Old Opry over the years.
- 24:23Most people know Country Radio Hall of Famer Bill Cody
- 24:27through WSM six fifties long running flagship morning show Coffee
- 24:31Country and Cody. For many, those three words of the
- 24:35title were essential for getting their mornings started off right
- 24:38on three decades, but this was just the centerpiece of
- 24:41his career. For some fifty four years, Cody appeared all
- 24:44over radio and television, including GAC TV's Masters series, Tennessee's
- 24:49wild Side on PBS, Ray Stevens Nashville on RFDTV, Willie's
- 24:55Roadhouse on Sirious Examine, so many more. Born in Lebanon, Kentucky,
- 25:00on December sixteenth, nineteen fifty four, and growing up in
- 25:03towns like Gravel Switch, Crab, Orchard in Junction City, radio
- 25:07loom large for Bill Cody because it gave him a
- 25:10window to the bigger world. His dad was a Baptist
- 25:13preacher and would broadcast his sermons on the one thousand
- 25:15watt station WLBN out of Lebanon every Sunday. That is
- 25:20where Bill Cody would officially start his broadcast career. At
- 25:23the ripe old age of twelve, Cody immediately became enamorated
- 25:27with the radio format and started sitting in with country
- 25:30DJ Frank Kemp. One day, Kemp called in six, so
- 25:34the twelve year old Cody took the reins, playing his
- 25:36first song, Wanda Jackson's I'll Sing in the Sunshine on
- 25:39an album at forty five r pm, so it sounded
- 25:43like the Chipmunks. He would get her better hang of
- 25:45the job as time went on. When Cody turned eighteen
- 25:49and could begin his career in ernest, he started working
- 25:51at WVLK and Lexington. Cody would continue to bounce around
- 25:55stations in Louisville, WHO in Orlando, Florida, down TOYX and
- 26:01San Antonio and other locations until he finally made it
- 26:04to his dream job at the mothership of country radio,
- 26:07WSMAM in nineteen ninety four. He also appeared on wsm
- 26:12FM from ninety six through two thousand. It wasn't just
- 26:17the presence and voice of Bill Cody, but his personality
- 26:20is musical knowledge. The way he could disarm performers when
- 26:23they came into the studio and make them feel right
- 26:26at home that ultimately proved how irreplaceable Bill Cody really was.
- 26:31That's why longtime fans and listeners were so heartbroken to
- 26:33hear that he'd been admitted to the ICU in May
- 26:36and was suffering from heart and kidney failure. He was
- 26:39waiting for a heart and kidney transplant when he passed
- 26:41away on Tuesday, June ninth. Bill Cody was also champion
- 26:45of traditional country artists, up in comers, legends, and independent
- 26:48performers who are others in radio would sometimes ignore, but
- 26:52Bill would give them a voice in one of the
- 26:54most important radio stations in country music. As Garth Brooks said,
- 26:58there might be someone somewhere in the world who loved
- 27:00country music as much, but nobody loved country music more
- 27:04than Bill Cody. Cody might have spinned them, announced them,
- 27:07and interviewed them as opposed to being one himself. But
- 27:10he was also the facilitator the folk room of so
- 27:12many country music songs, the de factor mayor of the
- 27:16country music airwaves. He was also officially a Country Radio
- 27:19Hall of Famer, a Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Famer,
- 27:23and an honoree of the Music City Walk of Fame.
- 27:26Bill Cody leaves behind his high school sweetheart who he married, Rebecca,
- 27:30as well as three children. He also leaves behind dead
- 27:33air that will be difficult, too impossible to properly fill.
- 27:38And finally, from the boot dot Com dated June tenth,
- 27:42Keith Urban says, I really don't have a plan for
- 27:44what's next. Keith Urban is releasing a full length album
- 27:48of ten yacht rock cover songs along with one new
- 27:51original song, and that's this weekend. It's called flow State.
- 27:56Most of the time, when artists are asked what's next
- 27:58for them, they have a clear direction for the next
- 28:01step of their career, but not Urban, at least not
- 28:03this time. Urban sat down with Taste of Country Nights,
- 28:07where he talked about what comes after he releases flow
- 28:10State and if he'll continue to cover songs or get
- 28:12back to making albums of full original recordings. I have
- 28:16no idea, he admits, I didn't expect this. I don't know.
- 28:19I really don't have a plan with what I'm doing next.
- 28:21He continues. I think being spontaneous and having fun in
- 28:24the studio is how this record got born, and I'm
- 28:27up for doing more of that. Whatever that looks like
- 28:30and whatever that sounds like. Well, this concludes the reading
- 28:34of Country Weekly for this week. If you have any
- 28:37comments or suggestions about our program, kindly call us at
- 28:40eight five nine four two two six three nine zero.
- 28:44Thank you so much for joining me and on behalf
- 28:46of everyone here at RADIOI. This is Ken Dawkins, wishing
- 28:50you a great day