Podcasts about female vocalist

17 year old Wynn Murray already had two Broadway hits on her resume when she joined The Fred Allen show as the resident Female Vocalist in 1939. Fred Allen's decision to bring a famous female vocalist onto his show in 1939 was a recognition that female singers were now in vogue. Singers like Connie Boswell … Continue reading When Radio Ruled #127 – Wynn Murray Sings 1939

Darin and Brooke Aldridge are the acclaimed husband and wife duo who play Bluegrass and Americana. She is the reigning Bluegrass Female Vocalist and the two of them together are the Bluegrass Artists Of The Year. They have performed at the Grand Ole Opry over 50 times.My featured song is “The Gift (Juliet's Song)” from Made In New York by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.—----------------------------------------Connect with Darin and Brooke:www.darinandbrookealdridge.com—----------------------------------------ROBERT'S RECENT SINGLES:“MOON SHOT” is Robert's latest single, reflecting his Jazz Rock Fusion roots. The track features Special Guest Mark Lettieri, 5x Grammy winning guitarist who plays with Snarky Puppy and The Fearless Flyers. The track has been called “Firey, Passionate and Smokin!”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS____________________“ROUGH RIDER” has got a Cool, ‘60s, “Spaghetti Western”, Guitar-driven, Tremolo sounding, Ventures/Link Wray kind of vibe!CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—--------------------------------“LOVELY GIRLIE” is a fun, Old School, rock/pop tune with 3-part harmony. It's been called “Supremely excellent!”, “Another Homerun for Robert!”, and “Love that Lovely Girlie!”Click HERE for All Links—----------------------------------“THE RICH ONES ALL STARS” is Robert's single featuring the following 8 World Class musicians: Billy Cobham (Drums), Randy Brecker (Flugelhorn), John Helliwell (Sax), Pat Coil (Piano), Peter Tiehuis (Guitar), Antonio Farao (Keys), Elliott Randall (Guitar) and David Amram (Pennywhistle).Click HERE for the Official VideoClick HERE for All Links—----------------------------------------“SOSTICE” is Robert's single with a rockin' Old School vibe. Called “Stunning!”, “A Gem!”, “Magnificent!” and “5 Stars!”.Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------“THE GIFT” is Robert's ballad arranged by Grammy winning arranger Michael Abene and turned into a horn-driven Samba. Praised by David Amram, John Helliwell, Joe La Barbera, Tony Carey, Fay Claassen, Antonio Farao, Danny Gottlieb and Leslie Mandoki.Click HERE for all links.—-------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES”. Robert's Jazz Fusion “Tone Poem”. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

This is a Music artist interview with guest Anissa Hampton, featuring a discussion on her upcoming EP project, tour schedule, and newest releases, which I will be spinning. Anissa Hampton, widely recognized as "Bigg Sexyy," is a talented soul artist originating from Chicago, Illinois. With her remarkable ability to traverse various musical genres, Anissa's repertoire includes Blues, Soul, R&B, Opera, and Jazz. Anissa's official introduction to the music industry came in 2018 with her debut single, “Big Sexy.” Since then, she has continually captivated audiences through a series of engaging singles, including her latest works, “Doggone Shucky Ducky” and "Holding On (to your good loving)." These tracks will feature in her forthcoming Blues EP titled "Variations of Me 2," soon to be available on all major music platforms. Her journey as a performing artist has seen her share the stage with eminent figuressuch as Brian McKnight, Musiq Soulchild, Eric Benét, Regina Belle, Michel'le, andBobby Rush. Additionally, Anissa has contributed background vocals for legendaryartists such as Willie Clayton, Keeshea Pratt, and Calvin Richardson. Anissa'sexceptional contributions have garnered significant recognition.In 2018, she was nominated for “Female Artist of the Year” at the Southern Soul MusicAwards. Her single, “Talk to Me,” reached prestigious rankings of #6 and #10 on the UKcharts in 2020, earning her another nomination for “Female Vocalist of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.In 2021, she secured the “R&B Band of the Year” award. The following year saw herbeing honored with “Entertainer of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.The recognition continued in 2023 with multiple nominations and winning “Entertainer ofthe Year” at The Best of Mississippi Awards. For 2024, Anissa is a nominee for “FemaleArtist of the Year,” “Entertainer of the Year,” and “R&B Group of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.Looking forward to 2025, she has been nominated as "Traditional Blues Artist of theYear" and "Band of the Year" at the Soul Music Awards, solidifying her prominent position in the sphere of music.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ladydiva-live-radio--2579466/support.

This is a Music artist interview with guest Anissa Hampton, featuring a discussion on her upcoming EP project, tour schedule, and newest releases, which I will be spinning. Anissa Hampton, widely recognized as "Bigg Sexyy," is a talented soul artist originating from Chicago, Illinois. With her remarkable ability to traverse various musical genres, Anissa's repertoire includes Blues, Soul, R&B, Opera, and Jazz. Anissa's official introduction to the music industry came in 2018 with her debut single, “Big Sexy.” Since then, she has continually captivated audiences through a series of engaging singles, including her latest works, “Doggone Shucky Ducky” and "Holding On (to your good loving)." These tracks will feature in her forthcoming Blues EP titled "Variations of Me 2," soon to be available on all major music platforms. Her journey as a performing artist has seen her share the stage with eminent figuressuch as Brian McKnight, Musiq Soulchild, Eric Benét, Regina Belle, Michel'le, andBobby Rush. Additionally, Anissa has contributed background vocals for legendaryartists such as Willie Clayton, Keeshea Pratt, and Calvin Richardson. Anissa'sexceptional contributions have garnered significant recognition.In 2018, she was nominated for “Female Artist of the Year” at the Southern Soul MusicAwards. Her single, “Talk to Me,” reached prestigious rankings of #6 and #10 on the UKcharts in 2020, earning her another nomination for “Female Vocalist of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.In 2021, she secured the “R&B Band of the Year” award. The following year saw herbeing honored with “Entertainer of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.The recognition continued in 2023 with multiple nominations and winning “Entertainer ofthe Year” at The Best of Mississippi Awards. For 2024, Anissa is a nominee for “FemaleArtist of the Year,” “Entertainer of the Year,” and “R&B Group of the Year” at theJackson Music Awards.Looking forward to 2025, she has been nominated as "Traditional Blues Artist of theYear" and "Band of the Year" at the Soul Music Awards, solidifying her prominent position in the sphere of music.Support the showMusic Artist interview

Alli Walker has spent 15 years in the music industry, but it wasn’t until 2024 that everything clicked, like opening, singing and BAGPIPING with Shania Twain, being nominated for Female Vocalist of the year at the CCMA Awards, and signing a record deal with Sony. Alli’s music has gone viral, especially with her infectious tune “Creek.” Her newest song, “First Time Living,” duets with Gretchen Wilson, just released and had Gretchen in tears the first time she heard it. Now, she’s set to take her music to London and Glasgow for C2C in March, proving that this is just the beginning.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Texas Female Artist of the Decade and reigning Female Vocalist of the Year, Bri Bagwell, is a force to be reckoned with on the Texas Country scene. Bri has seen her audience grow and diversify as she has progressed through the musical landscape. From her first full-length release, Banned from Santa Fe in 2011, to her 2022 release Corazón y Cabeza (Heart and Head) Bri has masterfully commanded the stage for over a decade with her rousingly fun live performances and trailblazing artistry while creating a loyal and passionate fan base. Catch Bri on Tour: https://www.bribagwell.com/shows Listen To Only Vans Podcast: https://www.bribagwell.com/podcast

Welcome to the Nothing Shocking Podcast 2.0 episode 277 with our guest Andy James (Jazz Vocalist and Flamenco Dancer).  We discuss her latest album, Let Me See Your Heart, featuring the single New York State of Mind.  We also discuss performing with the Jon Cowherd Sextet, Alex Acuna, John Patitucci, and more!   For more information visit:  https://andyjames.com/   Please like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nothingshockingpodcast/  Follow us on twitter at  https://twitter.com/hashtag/noshockpod.   Libsyn website: https://nothingshocking.libsyn.com For more info on the Hong Kong Sleepover: https://thehongkongsleepover.bandcamp.com Help support the podcast and record stores by shopping at Ragged Records. http://www.raggedrecords.org    Nothing Shocking Podcast Best of 2024 Apple Playlist: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/nothing-shocking-podcast-2024/pl.u-NP2Ws7135YR

The thing that made you weird as a kid might also be the thing that ultimately makes you successful.That's what Grey DeLisle wants you to know. A ubiquitous voiceover actress, a respected comedienne, and an accomplished singer-songwriter, Grey is seemingly everywhere. She voices beloved characters like Daphne in Scooby Doo and Martin Prince on The Simpsons and has lent her skills to a plethora of animated series like The Fairly Oddparents, Rugrats, The Loud House, and Spongebob Squarepants. She hosts comedy specials for YouTube and Amazon Prime.  She also just released a brand new record, Driftless Girl.In this episode, the incredibly prolific multi-passionate creative talks about her long career in the arts--from her childhood love of making up stories and telling jokes to the beautiful impact her many mentors have had on her life. Relationships are the core of creative success! She also offers practical advice for pursuing your passion--even if others think it's a little weird.To learn more about Grey DeLisle, or to follow her creative journey, visit her official website, follow her on Instagram, or check out her music on Spotify.For behind-the-scenes information and more about Journey of an Artist, visit the Journey of Series official webpage, or follow Emmeline on social media at @EmmelineMusic.

Will Jelly Roll be embarking on another big tour next year? Who will take home Female Vocalist of the Year tomorrow night during the CMA Awards?

Send us a textWe had Paige at CMA Fest and just had to get her back on to see what she had been up to. 5 Time winner at N.Carolina Music Awards, Female Vocalist of the year, Single, emerging Artist, Songwriter of year and Tour!!!  y'all have to got to check out this talented lady!!!www.paigekingjohnson.comall links are there.Support the showThe David Bradley ShowHost: David Bradleyhttps://www.facebook.com/100087472238854https://youtube.com/@thedavidbradleyshowwww.thedavidbradleyshow.com Like to be a guestContact Usjulie@thedavidbradleyshow.comRecorded at Bradley StudiosProduced by: Caitlin BackesProud Member of CMASPONSERSBottled Water and Sweet Tea provided by PURITY DairyABlaze Entertainment

Savanna, daughter of the Heartland's Flint Hills, returns to share with me new music making its radio debut on my turn as host of MidCoast Live! On KKFI…a weekly live performance radio show that welcomes all genres of music and spoken word performance.  On this episode you will hear these new bona fide country music selections: L-O-V-E Same Beer, Different Day Honky Tonk Heartbreaker Trailer No.3 In our latest conversation, we re-visit how I first discovered Savanna's songcraft.   It is alive with visual imagery indigenous to the Heartland and illustrative of a path a young generative artist like Savanna navigates every day in an industry…in a world not always kind or supportive of a woman flying solo or fronting a band. Her love for performing started in her grandparent's “Sodie Bar” on karaoke night when she was a little girl and has since taken her all across the country. From dive bars, fairs, festivals and rodeos, to season 20 of The Voice on NBC where she was chosen by Blake Shelton, Savanna has won over audiences with her unique, yet nostalgic country style.  Savanna has won multiple songwriting contests and has been nominated 4 times for Female Vocalist of the Year at the Rocky Mountain Country music awards. She has shared the stage with acts such as Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Justin Moore, Eli Young Band, Reckless Kelly, Granger Smith, Tanya Tucker, Jason Boland, Ned Ledoux and many others. She has 3 studio albums of original music available on all streaming platforms.  To quote Savanna "Country music has always been my shoulder to lean on, no matter what. I can always relate to it, and always rely on it. That's how I want my songs to be for others. Just honest, genuine, country music." Enjoy my conversation with and musical performance by Savanna Chestnut!            

New Podcast alert!!! https:sistersinsong.callcast.co  The sisters had the great pleasure of talking with William Lee Golden of Oakridge Boys fame and Australian Singer Songwriter Danni Stefanetti about their beautiful new collaboration “I'veGot My Heart on You” available everywhere!  Oak Ridge Boy William Lee Golden debuts as a songwriter at 85 years old with “I've Got My Heart on You,” a heartfelt duet featuring rising star Danni Stefanetti. Inspired by his son Solomon's words during his touring days, this song blends Golden's legendary status with Stefanetti's fresh talent. Golden, a Country and Gospel Hall of Famer with 5 Grammys, brings decades of experience to his first self-penned track. Stefanetti, an award-winning artist, adds her virtuoso guitar skills and contemporary flair. This collaboration offers a poignant tribute to family bonds. With Golden's rich baritone and Stefanetti's emotive vocals, “I've Got My Heart on You” promises to resonate with longtime fans and new listeners alike, showcasing the timeless power of country music toconnect generations.  William Lee Golden has long been a Renaissance man. An accomplished painter, photographer, entertainer, and member of both the Country and Gospel Music Halls of Fame, the longtime Oak Ridge Boy has enjoyed a long, very successful career. Never content to rest on his laurels, at 85, he's always stretching his creative horizons and does so yet again as the solosongwriter on his latest release “I Got My Heart on You.”   For Stefanetti, winner of the 2023 Josie Award for Female Vocalist, getting to work with one of her musical heroes was a dream come true. “He's so easy to work with and it's a bit surreal because I remember sitting backstage at the Opry watching the Oak Ridge Boys doing ‘American Made' on my first trip to Nashville,” she says with a smile. “Working with him was a real treat and this song is so special. The melody just really hit me the first time I heard it because it is really beautiful and really touching.”  Though written for his son, Stefanetti feels “I Got My Heart on You” will have universal appeal. “It could be a love song as well. It could be about a family member. It could even be something that William could dedicate to Rusty,” she says referring to Golden's eldest son, who died of a heart attack on July 1, 2024. “The song encompasses all kind of relationships. It's got such a universal appeal. I don't think William realized that when he wrote it, but you hear it different every time you listen to it.”   Check them out here:    William Lee Golden:  Website: williamleegolden.com  FB: William Lee Golden  IG: William_Lee_Golden    Danni Stefanetti:  Website: Dannistefanetti.com  FB: Danni Stefanetti  IG: Dannistefanetti  TikTok: Dannistefanettiofficial     

My guest this week is Becky Buller.Becky is the winner of 10 IBMA awards, including the 2016 awards for Fiddler and Female Vocalist. She's the first woman in the history of IBMA to receive the Fiddle Player of the Year award and the first person ever to win in both vocal and instrumental categories. She joins me to talk about her fabulous album and song cycle 'Jubilee'.  We talk about the FreshGrass commission that sparked the piece, co-writing with Aoife O'Donovan, taking part in an historic all-female Newport line up (where she sang '9 to 5' with Dolly Parton) and recording 'Jubilee' in the studio...live...in just a day and a half!We also talk about the themes of anxiety, self-worth and depression that underpin 'Jubilee' and how the enforced shutdown brought on by Covid affected Becky's mental health. It's an open, honest and warm conversation that touches on so many things I suspect will resonate with a lot of people. It was a joy to get to have it.Visit beckybuller.com for more info and tour dates and follow Becky on Instagram and Facebook for regular updates.Happy picking!MattSend a message to Bluegrass Jam Along! (Don't forget to include your name so I know who you are!) Support the Show.===Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)- Sign up to get updates on new episodes - Free fiddle tune chord sheets- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates: Instagram Facebook - Review us on Apple Podcasts

23 million albums, multiple Grammy nominations and a four-time Female Vocalist of the Year who's recorded more than 20 top 10 singles including six number one hits! We're talking country music royalty - the legendary Martina McBride. She headlines our 2024 Independence Day Celebration at Coffman Stadium. So, what goes into planning one of Dublin's signature events and how are we able to book dynamic headliners year after year? The woman who leads our team in doing just that is Community Events Director, Alison LeRoy. She has the scoop on just about every touring performer and band out there because her job involves talking to everybody. But summer in Dublin is much more than the 4th. Alison joins Lindsay and Bruce to unveil details on weeks' worth of incredible events happening at Riverside Crossing Park: from Workout Wednesdays to Cinema Saturdays, there's something for the kids and adults alike. Have your smartphone calendar handy because this episode is full of events you'll want to plan right now!

Brendan Burke sat down with Elenee Young aka Elenee to discuss the Canadian artist journey and her music. About Elenee: Elenee is a multi-award winning Canadian Christian artist, producer, and songwriter. Her sound is warm and her tone is rooted in the encouragement that gospel music brings. Elenee was awarded the GMA USA Songwriter of the Year in 2017 and in 2022, she was Canada Wests' Spiritual Artist of the year as well as a GMA Covenant Award Nominee for Pop song and Canadian song. This year, Elenee is nominated for 5 GMA Covenant Awards including: Pop Artist of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, Video of the Year (Egypt), Adult Contemporary Song of the Year (consistently), and Pop Song of the Year (Egypt). She was the recipient of the Saskatchewan Music Awards “Inspirational or Spiritual Artist of the Year” in 2023. Elenee is both Greek and a Metis Citizen with the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan and she is proud to bring such cultural diversity to the ever-growing table of Canadian Christian/Gospel artists. Her debut self-titled album is set to release in Spring 2024 and is packed full of pop, contemporary, and jazz flavours. Source: https://www.elenee.ca/about-me/ #christianmusic #podcast #music

This week singer songwriter and Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame's 2024 Female Vocalist of the Year nominee, Meghan Clarisse, joined us for the second time on the show! She is always such a positive force in the room and graced us with two musical performances. She performed Monster and Breaker Breaker and it was outstanding my friends! Coffee in hand, we jumped into conversation about music, yoga, The Alchemist, simulation theory, recording experiences, losing loved ones, Rick and Morty, Fun Facts, and much, much more!Cheers!m&t

Lainey Wilson burst onto the country music scene in 2022 with her album Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'. But for seven years before that, she struggled to make it in the high-pressure Nashville music scene. And before that, she was a kid from a tiny town in rural Louisiana with a dream of being a country star.In this encore episode from 2023, Lainey joins Guy to talk about how she handled the hard times, what she's learned about the art of collaboration during the making of two acclaimed albums, and what defines her unique style – which she calls “Bell Bottom Country”.Links from the Show: Lainey Wins the 2023 CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year Tougher Music VideoThings A Man Oughta Know Music VideoLainey's French Bulldog Hippie Mae's Instagram Hillbilly Hippie Official Lyrics VideoLainey's Female Vocalist of the Year (2022) Acceptance SpeechLainey's New Artist of the Year (2022) Acceptance Speech Tougher album (2016)Sayin' What I'm Thinkin' (2021) Bell Bottom Country (2022)For more conversations like this – with guests ranging from Tom Hanks to Bjork to Jason Sudeikis – go to https://www.thegreatcreators.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Kentucky Music Hall of Fame member and six time International Bluegrass Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year, Dale Ann Bradley, recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. “Dale Ann Bradley is a Kentucky native who is proud of her state. Her music reflects that love as she often sings of the state's multiple charms including sparkling streams, rolling hills and mountains, lush hillsides filled with native plants and beautiful landscapes. She also includes songs about coal mines (her father was a miner) and another business, that of moonshine stills. Thanks to a great-uncle who noted Dale Ann's interest in music, an 8-track player appeared at her home, along with tapes of some of her favorite singers. When she was 14, she was given her first guitar. ‘It was a little plywood, small body guitar, but it had six strings, and I made a pick from a milk jug. I drove everybody crazy learning to play it.' The singer learned to play her guitar and soon was singing the songs she heard on the radio and off the 8-track player. When she was a junior in high school, the new band director at school and his wife, known as Back Porch Grass, sang in the summer at Pine Mountain Stage Park in Pineville. Acknowledging her talent, they asked Dale Ann to join them, which gave her the opportunity to learn to entertain an audience. Attending one of her concerts is almost like having a friend in your living room, as she chats back and forth with the audience and doesn't hesitate to share jokes on herself as well as the rest of her band. In 2018, Dale Ann was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, joining many people she looked up to including Bill Monroe, Keith Whitley, Sonny Osborne, and Sam Bush. The singer is a six-time winner of IBMA's Female Vocalist of the Year and took home the Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year in 2021 for ‘After While.' She has been named Female Vocalist of the year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America three times.” -https://www.daleannbradley.com/about In this week's “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1981 archival recording of Texas swing legend Laura Lee McBride performing the classic Western song “I Bet Ya My Heart I Love Ya” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins talks about the Ozark tradition of growing and refining molasses.

Selena Quintanilla, "The Queen of Tejano Music" and Mexican American icon, rose to popularity in the 80s and 90s as the lead singer of her family's band "Selena y los Dinos". She won her first major award, Female Vocalist of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards, at just 15. But as she quickly continued to climb the ladder to fame (becoming known as the "Mexican Madonna"), fangirl/"friend" and trusted friend of the family/business manager Yolanda Saldívar became more jealous and insecure... leading her to an act that would forever haunt Selena's home state of Texas.✨If you'd like access to over 125 episodes that aren't on the regular feed, and you'd like them all ad free, join our Patreon for as little as $5 a month! There is actually now a new FREE version that you can try with no commitment! https://www.patreon.com/TSFU

Raiatea Helm is a Native-Hawaiian musical talent from the island of Moloka'i. She skyrocketed to fame at just 18-years-old with her debut album, "Far away heaven” in 2002. Her pure, resonant voice mastered the art of leo ki'eki'e (Hawaiian falsetto), earning her two Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year. Her second release earned her 4 more Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards in 2006 when she also became the first Hawaii solo female vocalist grammy nominee. Raiatea's musical journey was celebrated in the top 10 of the 25 greatest Hawaiian albums of the new century…and she received a second grammy nomination in 2008. In 2017 she clinched her 8th Nā Hōkū Hanohano award being named Female Vocalist of the Year. She is Hawai'i's premier female vocalist, preserving the tradition of Hawaiian falsetto from the early to mid-20th century. In this episode we talk about growing up in Moloka'i, her legendary family, her music career, going back to school, Hawaiian ancestors, and so much more. Enjoy! Find Raiatea here: https://www.instagram.com/raiateamusic// Buy our merch on: https://keepitaloha.com/ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kamakadias Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KeepitAlohaPod/ Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepitalohapod/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keepitalohapod/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@keepitalohapod

This week we welcome Ashley Dawn! Ashley Dawn Originally from Buffalo, MO, she grew up singing in church where her dad was the pastor and her mama was the piano player. Singing was always a family affair. She sang in a Southern Gospel trio, “The Prater's”, with her brother and sister in her teen years. They traveled all over the country, performing about 200 concerts per year. The 135th Army Band discovered her talent and she was contracted to be the lead singer in their traveling band, “Aftershock” for a couple of years. 2019, The Branson Famous Baldknobbers offered her a singing job which she proudly accepted. You can see her performing nightly with the show that started it all in Branson. The community recognized her amazing talent and awarded her “Female Vocalist of the Year” for Branson in 2022! Ashley's true passion is singing. She loves what she's doing and is looking forward to where her music takes her next! You can check out the Branson Famous Baldknobbers at their website: Balknobbers.com, or call their theatre at 417-231-4999. You can also visit her Facebook page: AshelyDawnMusic.

Pamela Hopkins was invited to appear on Rick Flynn's podcast "Rick Flynn Presents: Confessions of a Show Biz Kid" when, by accident, after being pitched some other artist's material to promote and consider for guest appearances, her material was recommended and somehow found its way into the pile of guest artists we were considering for appearances on the show. Her already recorded song, "Somebody Here is Walkin" especially drew all eyes to it as it was an excellent Country single as was "Givin A Damn (Don't Go With My Outfit) I'm OK With Me" which will also be featured in this show. In 2022, Pamela was an Official Nominee for 3 Arkansas Country Music awards; Country Artist of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Album of theYear.  In 2023, Pamela is an official nominee for several other awards this year including Country Song of the Year for “I Love You Most,”  and Americana Song of the Year for “Squirrel Train” with the Josie Awards.  Her song, "Givin' a Damn (Don't Go With My Outfit),"  is also the title of her new 8-song album which became available for sale on December 21, 2021.   She has some great custom logo merch to go with this song/album release. Check it out on her merch page and be sure to order before she runs out!   She has more music being released throughout 2023 and she can't wait for her fans to hear her new co-written music, she said, "I am so excited to put out new music that will hopefully make people connect with me and with their inner-selves.  I have worked hard to put my whole heart into my writing and vocal performances on each song." Contact Pam at www.PamelaHopkinsMusic.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rick-flynn/support

This week we welcome Phaedra Marze Clemmons! Phaedra Marze Clemmons was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana and has been singing all her life. She began singing on Ark-La_tex shows, jamborees, festivals and fairs as well as the famous Louisiana Hayride. She has won numerous talent contests, recorded several albums and has appeared on the Jimmy Snow Grand Ole Opry Gospel Show, Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree, Nashville Palace, Jim Ed Brown's Night Life Theater, and others shows across the county. She moved to Nashville, Tn and worked on music and recorded for eight years. She has opened for Tracy Lawrence, Mike Reid, Ricky Skaggs, Kentucky Headhunters, Ronnie Millsap, Joe Diffy, and John Anderson. Phadrea and her husband, who is a Firefighter in Springdale, Arkansas, now live in Huntsville, Arkansas and they have three kids, 17, 19, 20. She has been performing in Branson for the past 12 years. She now currently sings in "The Hits" Show at the Copeland Theatre on Wednesday and Friday at 2:00 pm, which has been nominated for “New Show of the Year”, “New Matinee Show of the Year”, and “Female Vocalist of the Year” from the 2023 Branson Show Awards. She has also been nominated for “Female Vocalist of the Year” from the 2023 Branson Terry Awards. Phaedra also sings at Cowboy Church the first Sunday of every month at God and Country Theater. You can find Phadrea and her talented cast at the Copeland Theater. For tickets and information, call 417- 332-5338; or visit CopleandTheater.com.

Lori started her music career in 1993 and began performing and singing with the group Bluegrass Addiction in 1999. Lori was introduced to bluegrass music by her husband Joe and began playing bass in 1994. After five years of playing and singing at local music festivals and jams, she joined the group and became a driving force behind the band.Her awards include the 2015 Midwest SPBGMA Bass Fiddle Player and Traditional Female Vocalist of the Year and 2016 Female Vocalist.  Her powerhouse vocals mixed with her tone and style on her 1967 Kay Upright bass provides a solid foundation for the band. Lori had a vision for this group and, in 2014, they began taking bluegrass in the Midwest by storm!Lori is the founder and director for Lori King Productions. Her passion for bluegrass music shows on stage and off. Support the show

LADIES OF THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME LACY J DALTON Lacy J. Dalton (born Jill Lynne Byrem; October 13, 1946)[1] is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is known for her gritty, powerful vocals, which People Magazine likened to a country equivalent of Bonnie Raitt.[2] Dalton had a number of hits in the 1980s, including "Takin' It Easy", "Crazy Blue Eyes", and "16th Avenue". Though absent from the U.S. country charts since 1990, she still continues to record and perform, having most recently released three independently recorded albums: Wild Horse Crossing on Shop Records in 1999; The Last Wild Place on Song Dog Records in 2004; and her 2010 self-released Here's To Hank.[3] When asked about her musical influences, she replied: "Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Janis Joplin, Robert Johnson, Karen Dalton, Fred Koller, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette and J. J. Cale."[4] SYLVIA Sylvia Jane Hutton (née Kirby, born December 9, 1956[1]), also known mononymously as Sylvia, is an American country music and country pop singer and songwriter.[2] Her biggest hit (a crossover chart topper), was her single "Nobody" in 1982.[3] It reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 5 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, number 9 on the Cashbox Top 100, and number 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The song earned her a gold record certification and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Her other country chart hits include "Drifter" (number one in 1981), "Fallin' in Love", "Tumbleweed" and "Snapshot". She was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music for 1982. She is also credited with making the first "concept" music video clip to air on Country Music Television (CMT), with "The Matador".

Episode 168 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Say a Little Prayer”, and the interaction of the sacred, political, and secular in Aretha Franklin's life and work. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "Abraham, Martin, and John" by Dion. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. Even splitting it into multiple parts would have required six or seven mixes. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. Information about Martin Luther King came from Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. I also referred to Burt Bacharach's autobiography Anyone Who Had a Heart, Carole King's autobiography A Natural Woman, and Soul Serenade: King Curtis and his Immortal Saxophone by Timothy R. Hoover. For information about Amazing Grace I also used Aaron Cohen's 33 1/3 book on the album. The film of the concerts is also definitely worth watching. And the Aretha Now album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick warning before I begin. This episode contains some moderate references to domestic abuse, death by cancer, racial violence, police violence, and political assassination. Anyone who might be upset by those subjects might want to check the transcript rather than listening to the episode. Also, as with the previous episode on Aretha Franklin, this episode presents something of a problem. Like many people in this narrative, Franklin's career was affected by personal troubles, which shaped many of her decisions. But where most of the subjects of the podcast have chosen to live their lives in public and share intimate details of every aspect of their personal lives, Franklin was an extremely private person, who chose to share only carefully sanitised versions of her life, and tried as far as possible to keep things to herself. This of course presents a dilemma for anyone who wants to tell her story -- because even though the information is out there in biographies, and even though she's dead, it's not right to disrespect someone's wish for a private life. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to stay away from talk of her personal life except where it *absolutely* affects the work, or where other people involved have publicly shared their own stories, and even there I've tried to keep it to a minimum. This will occasionally lead to me saying less about some topics than other people might, even though the information is easily findable, because I don't think we have an absolute right to invade someone else's privacy for entertainment. When we left Aretha Franklin, she had just finally broken through into the mainstream after a decade of performing, with a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect" on which she had been backed by her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. "Respect", in Franklin's interpretation, had been turned from a rather chauvinist song about a man demanding respect from his woman into an anthem of feminism, of Black power, and of a new political awakening. For white people of a certain generation, the summer of 1967 was "the summer of love". For many Black people, it was rather different. There's a quote that goes around (I've seen it credited in reliable sources to both Ebony and Jet magazine, but not ever seen an issue cited, so I can't say for sure where it came from) saying that the summer of 67 was the summer of "'retha, Rap, and revolt", referring to the trifecta of Aretha Franklin, the Black power leader Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, a name he later disclaimed) and the rioting that broke out in several major cities, particularly in Detroit: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] The mid sixties were, in many ways, the high point not of Black rights in the US -- for the most part there has been a lot of progress in civil rights in the intervening decades, though not without inevitable setbacks and attacks from the far right, and as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement have shown there is still a long way to go -- but of *hope* for Black rights. The moral force of the arguments made by the civil rights movement were starting to cause real change to happen for Black people in the US for the first time since the Reconstruction nearly a century before. But those changes weren't happening fast enough, and as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", there was not only a growing unrest among Black people, but a recognition that it was actually possible for things to change. A combination of hope and frustration can be a powerful catalyst, and whether Franklin wanted it or not, she was at the centre of things, both because of her newfound prominence as a star with a hit single that couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a political statement and because of her intimate family connections to the struggle. Even the most racist of white people these days pays lip service to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, and when they do they quote just a handful of sentences from one speech King made in 1963, as if that sums up the full theological and political philosophy of that most complex of men. And as we discussed the last time we looked at Aretha Franklin, King gave versions of that speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, twice. The most famous version was at the March on Washington, but the first time was a few weeks earlier, at what was at the time the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, in Detroit. Aretha's family connection to that event is made clear by the very opening of King's speech: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech"] So as summer 1967 got into swing, and white rock music was going to San Francisco to wear flowers in its hair, Aretha Franklin was at the centre of a very different kind of youth revolution. Franklin's second Atlantic album, Aretha Arrives, brought in some new personnel to the team that had recorded Aretha's first album for Atlantic. Along with the core Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Tommy Cogbill and Roger Hawkins, and a horn section led by King Curtis, Wexler and Dowd also brought in guitarist Joe South. South was a white session player from Georgia, who had had a few minor hits himself in the fifties -- he'd got his start recording a cover version of "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor", the Big Bopper's B-side to "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: Joe South, "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"] He'd also written a few songs that had been recorded by people like Gene Vincent, but he'd mostly become a session player. He'd become a favourite musician of Bob Johnston's, and so he'd played guitar on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme albums: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "I am a Rock"] and bass on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, with Al Kooper particularly praising his playing on "Visions of Johanna": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna"] South would be the principal guitarist on this and Franklin's next album, before his own career took off in 1968 with "Games People Play": [Excerpt: Joe South, "Games People Play"] At this point, he had already written the other song he's best known for, "Hush", which later became a hit for Deep Purple: [Excerpt: Deep Purple, "Hush"] But he wasn't very well known, and was surprised to get the call for the Aretha Franklin session, especially because, as he put it "I was white and I was about to play behind the blackest genius since Ray Charles" But Jerry Wexler had told him that Franklin didn't care about the race of the musicians she played with, and South settled in as soon as Franklin smiled at him when he played a good guitar lick on her version of the blues standard "Going Down Slow": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Going Down Slow"] That was one of the few times Franklin smiled in those sessions though. Becoming an overnight success after years of trying and failing to make a name for herself had been a disorienting experience, and on top of that things weren't going well in her personal life. Her marriage to her manager Ted White was falling apart, and she was performing erratically thanks to the stress. In particular, at a gig in Georgia she had fallen off the stage and broken her arm. She soon returned to performing, but it meant she had problems with her right arm during the recording of the album, and didn't play as much piano as she would have previously -- on some of the faster songs she played only with her left hand. But the recording sessions had to go on, whether or not Aretha was physically capable of playing piano. As we discussed in the episode on Otis Redding, the owners of Atlantic Records were busily negotiating its sale to Warner Brothers in mid-1967. As Wexler said later “Everything in me said, Keep rolling, keep recording, keep the hits coming. She was red hot and I had no reason to believe that the streak wouldn't continue. I knew that it would be foolish—and even irresponsible—not to strike when the iron was hot. I also had personal motivation. A Wall Street financier had agreed to see what we could get for Atlantic Records. While Ahmet and Neshui had not agreed on a selling price, they had gone along with my plan to let the financier test our worth on the open market. I was always eager to pump out hits, but at this moment I was on overdrive. In this instance, I had a good partner in Ted White, who felt the same. He wanted as much product out there as possible." In truth, you can tell from Aretha Arrives that it's a record that was being thought of as "product" rather than one being made out of any kind of artistic impulse. It's a fine album -- in her ten-album run from I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You through Amazing Grace there's not a bad album and barely a bad track -- but there's a lack of focus. There are only two originals on the album, neither of them written by Franklin herself, and the rest is an incoherent set of songs that show the tension between Franklin and her producers at Atlantic. Several songs are the kind of standards that Franklin had recorded for her old label Columbia, things like "You Are My Sunshine", or her version of "That's Life", which had been a hit for Frank Sinatra the previous year: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "That's Life"] But mixed in with that are songs that are clearly the choice of Wexler. As we've discussed previously in episodes on Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, at this point Atlantic had the idea that it was possible for soul artists to cross over into the white market by doing cover versions of white rock hits -- and indeed they'd had some success with that tactic. So while Franklin was suggesting Sinatra covers, Atlantic's hand is visible in the choices of songs like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "96 Tears": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "96 Tears'] Of the two originals on the album, one, the hit single "Baby I Love You" was written by Ronnie Shannon, the Detroit songwriter who had previously written "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Baby I Love You"] As with the previous album, and several other songs on this one, that had backing vocals by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn. But the other original on the album, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)", didn't, even though it was written by Carolyn: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] To explain why, let's take a little detour and look at the co-writer of the song this episode is about, though we're not going to get to that for a little while yet. We've not talked much about Burt Bacharach in this series so far, but he's one of those figures who has come up a few times in the periphery and will come up again, so here is as good a time as any to discuss him, and bring everyone up to speed about his career up to 1967. Bacharach was one of the more privileged figures in the sixties pop music field. His father, Bert Bacharach (pronounced the same as his son, but spelled with an e rather than a u) had been a famous newspaper columnist, and his parents had bought him a Steinway grand piano to practice on -- they pushed him to learn the piano even though as a kid he wasn't interested in finger exercises and Debussy. What he was interested in, though, was jazz, and as a teenager he would often go into Manhattan and use a fake ID to see people like Dizzy Gillespie, who he idolised, and in his autobiography he talks rapturously of seeing Gillespie playing his bent trumpet -- he once saw Gillespie standing on a street corner with a pet monkey on his shoulder, and went home and tried to persuade his parents to buy him a monkey too. In particular, he talks about seeing the Count Basie band with Sonny Payne on drums as a teenager: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Kid From Red Bank"] He saw them at Birdland, the club owned by Morris Levy where they would regularly play, and said of the performance "they were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before. What I heard in those clubs really turned my head around— it was like a big breath of fresh air when somebody throws open a window. That was when I knew for the first time how much I loved music and wanted to be connected to it in some way." Of course, there's a rather major problem with this story, as there is so often with narratives that musicians tell about their early career. In this case, Birdland didn't open until 1949, when Bacharach was twenty-one and stationed in Germany for his military service, while Sonny Payne didn't join Basie's band until 1954, when Bacharach had been a professional musician for many years. Also Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell only got bent on January 6, 1953. But presumably while Bacharach was conflating several memories, he did have some experience in some New York jazz club that led him to want to become a musician. Certainly there were enough great jazz musicians playing the clubs in those days. He went to McGill University to study music for two years, then went to study with Darius Milhaud, a hugely respected modernist composer. Milhaud was also one of the most important music teachers of the time -- among others he'd taught Stockhausen and Xenakkis, and would go on to teach Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This suited Bacharach, who by this point was a big fan of Schoenberg and Webern, and was trying to write atonal, difficult music. But Milhaud had also taught Dave Brubeck, and when Bacharach rather shamefacedly presented him with a composition which had an actual tune, he told Bacharach "Never be ashamed of writing a tune you can whistle". He dropped out of university and, like most men of his generation, had to serve in the armed forces. When he got out of the army, he continued his musical studies, still trying to learn to be an avant-garde composer, this time with Bohuslav Martinů and later with Henry Cowell, the experimental composer we've heard about quite a bit in previous episodes: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] He was still listening to a lot of avant garde music, and would continue doing so throughout the fifties, going to see people like John Cage. But he spent much of that time working in music that was very different from the avant-garde. He got a job as the band leader for the crooner Vic Damone: [Excerpt: Vic Damone. "Ebb Tide"] He also played for the vocal group the Ames Brothers. He decided while he was working with the Ames Brothers that he could write better material than they were getting from their publishers, and that it would be better to have a job where he didn't have to travel, so he got himself a job as a staff songwriter in the Brill Building. He wrote a string of flops and nearly hits, starting with "Keep Me In Mind" for Patti Page: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Keep Me In Mind"] From early in his career he worked with the lyricist Hal David, and the two of them together wrote two big hits, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como: [Excerpt: Perry Como, "Magic Moments"] and "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins: [Excerpt: "The Story of My Life"] But at that point Bacharach was still also writing with other writers, notably Hal David's brother Mack, with whom he wrote the theme tune to the film The Blob, as performed by The Five Blobs: [Excerpt: The Five Blobs, "The Blob"] But Bacharach's songwriting career wasn't taking off, and he got himself a job as musical director for Marlene Dietrich -- a job he kept even after it did start to take off.  Part of the problem was that he intuitively wrote music that didn't quite fit into standard structures -- there would be odd bars of unusual time signatures thrown in, unusual harmonies, and structural irregularities -- but then he'd take feedback from publishers and producers who would tell him the song could only be recorded if he straightened it out. He said later "The truth is that I ruined a lot of songs by not believing in myself enough to tell these guys they were wrong." He started writing songs for Scepter Records, usually with Hal David, but also with Bob Hilliard and Mack David, and started having R&B hits. One song he wrote with Mack David, "I'll Cherish You", had the lyrics rewritten by Luther Dixon to make them more harsh-sounding for a Shirelles single -- but the single was otherwise just Bacharach's demo with the vocals replaced, and you can even hear his voice briefly at the beginning: [Excerpt: The Shirelles, "Baby, It's You"] But he'd also started becoming interested in the production side of records more generally. He'd iced that some producers, when recording his songs, would change the sound for the worse -- he thought Gene McDaniels' version of "Tower of Strength", for example, was too fast. But on the other hand, other producers got a better sound than he'd heard in his head. He and Hilliard had written a song called "Please Stay", which they'd given to Leiber and Stoller to record with the Drifters, and he thought that their arrangement of the song was much better than the one he'd originally thought up: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Please Stay"] He asked Leiber and Stoller if he could attend all their New York sessions and learn about record production from them. He started doing so, and eventually they started asking him to assist them on records. He and Hilliard wrote a song called "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters, which Leiber and Stoller were going to produce, and as he put it "they were so busy running Redbird Records that they asked me to rehearse the background singers for them in my office." [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Mexican Divorce"] The backing singers who had been brought in to augment the Drifters on that record were a group of vocalists who had started out as members of a gospel group called the Drinkard singers: [Excerpt: The Drinkard Singers, "Singing in My Soul"] The Drinkard Singers had originally been a family group, whose members included Cissy Drinkard, who joined the group aged five (and who on her marriage would become known as Cissy Houston -- her daughter Whitney would later join the family business), her aunt Lee Warrick, and Warrick's adopted daughter Judy Clay. That group were discovered by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and spent much of the fifties performing with gospel greats including Jackson herself, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But Houston was also the musical director of a group at her church, the Gospelaires, which featured Lee Warrick's two daughters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick (for those who don't know, the Warwick sisters' birth name was Warrick, spelled with two rs. A printing error led to it being misspelled the same way as the British city on a record label, and from that point on Dionne at least pronounced the w in her misspelled name). And slowly, the Gospelaires rather than the Drinkard Singers became the focus, with a lineup of Houston, the Warwick sisters, the Warwick sisters' cousin Doris Troy, and Clay's sister Sylvia Shemwell. The real change in the group's fortunes came when, as we talked about a while back in the episode on "The Loco-Motion", the original lineup of the Cookies largely stopped working as session singers to become Ray Charles' Raelettes. As we discussed in that episode, a new lineup of Cookies formed in 1961, but it took a while for them to get started, and in the meantime the producers who had been relying on them for backing vocals were looking elsewhere, and they looked to the Gospelaires. "Mexican Divorce" was the first record to feature the group as backing vocalists -- though reports vary as to how many of them are on the record, with some saying it's only Troy and the Warwicks, others saying Houston was there, and yet others saying it was all five of them. Some of these discrepancies were because these singers were so good that many of them left to become solo singers in fairly short order. Troy was the first to do so, with her hit "Just One Look", on which the other Gospelaires sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Doris Troy, "Just One Look"] But the next one to go solo was Dionne Warwick, and that was because she'd started working with Bacharach and Hal David as their principal demo singer. She started singing lead on their demos, and hoping that she'd get to release them on her own. One early one was "Make it Easy On Yourself", which was recorded by Jerry Butler, formerly of the Impressions. That record was produced by Bacharach, one of the first records he produced without outside supervision: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "Make it Easy On Yourself"] Warwick was very jealous that a song she'd sung the demo of had become a massive hit for someone else, and blamed Bacharach and David. The way she tells the story -- Bacharach always claimed this never happened, but as we've already seen he was himself not always the most reliable of narrators of his own life -- she got so angry she complained to them, and said "Don't make me over, man!" And so Bacharach and David wrote her this: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"] Incidentally, in the UK, the hit version of that was a cover by the Swinging Blue Jeans: [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "Don't Make Me Over"] who also had a huge hit with "You're No Good": [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "You're No Good"] And *that* was originally recorded by *Dee Dee* Warwick: [Excerpt: Dee Dee Warwick, "You're No Good"] Dee Dee also had a successful solo career, but Dionne's was the real success, making the names of herself, and of Bacharach and David. The team had more than twenty top forty hits together, before Bacharach and David had a falling out in 1971 and stopped working together, and Warwick sued both of them for breach of contract as a result. But prior to that they had hit after hit, with classic records like "Anyone Who Had a Heart": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart"] And "Walk On By": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Walk On By"] With Doris, Dionne, and Dee Dee all going solo, the group's membership was naturally in flux -- though the departed members would occasionally join their former bandmates for sessions, and the remaining members would sing backing vocals on their ex-members' records. By 1965 the group consisted of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, the Warwick sisters' cousin Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. The group became *the* go-to singers for soul and R&B records made in New York. They were regularly hired by Leiber and Stoller to sing on their records, and they were also the particular favourites of Bert Berns. They sang backing vocals on almost every record he produced. It's them doing the gospel wails on "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And they sang backing vocals on both versions of "If You Need Me" -- Wilson Pickett's original and Solomon Burke's more successful cover version, produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me"] They're on such Berns records as "Show Me Your Monkey", by Kenny Hamber: [Excerpt: Kenny Hamber, "Show Me Your Monkey"] And it was a Berns production that ended up getting them to be Aretha Franklin's backing group. The group were becoming such an important part of the records that Atlantic and BANG Records, in particular, were putting out, that Jerry Wexler said "it was only a matter of common decency to put them under contract as a featured group". He signed them to Atlantic and renamed them from the Gospelaires to The Sweet Inspirations.  Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham wrote a song for the group which became their only hit under their own name: [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Sweet Inspiration"] But to start with, they released a cover of Pops Staples' civil rights song "Why (Am I treated So Bad)": [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Why (Am I Treated So Bad?)"] That hadn't charted, and meanwhile, they'd all kept doing session work. Cissy had joined Erma and Carolyn Franklin on the backing vocals for Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"] Shortly after that, the whole group recorded backing vocals for Erma's single "Piece of My Heart", co-written and produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] That became a top ten record on the R&B charts, but that caused problems. Aretha Franklin had a few character flaws, and one of these was an extreme level of jealousy for any other female singer who had any level of success and came up in the business after her. She could be incredibly graceful towards anyone who had been successful before her -- she once gave one of her Grammies away to Esther Phillips, who had been up for the same award and had lost to her -- but she was terribly insecure, and saw any contemporary as a threat. She'd spent her time at Columbia Records fuming (with some justification) that Barbra Streisand was being given a much bigger marketing budget than her, and she saw Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick as rivals rather than friends. And that went doubly for her sisters, who she was convinced should be supporting her because of family loyalty. She had been infuriated at John Hammond when Columbia had signed Erma, thinking he'd gone behind her back to create competition for her. And now Erma was recording with Bert Berns. Bert Berns who had for years been a colleague of Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic. Aretha was convinced that Wexler had put Berns up to signing Erma as some kind of power play. There was only one problem with this -- it simply wasn't true. As Wexler later explained “Bert and I had suffered a bad falling-out, even though I had enormous respect for him. After all, he was the guy who brought over guitarist Jimmy Page from England to play on our sessions. Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, and I had started a label together—Bang!—where Bert produced Van Morrison's first album. But Bert also had a penchant for trouble. He courted the wise guys. He wanted total control over every last aspect of our business dealings. Finally it was too much, and the Erteguns and I let him go. He sued us for breach of contract and suddenly we were enemies. I felt that he signed Erma, an excellent singer, not merely for her talent but as a way to get back at me. If I could make a hit with Aretha, he'd show me up by making an even bigger hit on Erma. Because there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the sisters, this only added to the tension.” There were two things that resulted from this paranoia on Aretha's part. The first was that she and Wexler, who had been on first-name terms up to that point, temporarily went back to being "Mr. Wexler" and "Miss Franklin" to each other. And the second was that Aretha no longer wanted Carolyn and Erma to be her main backing vocalists, though they would continue to appear on her future records on occasion. From this point on, the Sweet Inspirations would be the main backing vocalists for Aretha in the studio throughout her golden era [xxcut line (and when the Sweet Inspirations themselves weren't on the record, often it would be former members of the group taking their place)]: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] The last day of sessions for Aretha Arrives was July the twenty-third, 1967. And as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", that was the day that the Detroit riots started. To recap briefly, that was four days of rioting started because of a history of racist policing, made worse by those same racist police overreacting to the initial protests. By the end of those four days, the National Guard, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville were all called in to deal with the violence, which left forty-three dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a police officer), 1,189 people were injured, and over 7,200 arrested, almost all of them Black. Those days in July would be a turning point for almost every musician based in Detroit. In particular, the police had murdered three members of the soul group the Dramatics, in a massacre of which the author John Hersey, who had been asked by President Johnson to be part of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders but had decided that would compromise his impartiality and did an independent journalistic investigation, said "The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven by our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents" But these were also the events that radicalised the MC5 -- the group had been playing a gig as Tim Buckley's support act when the rioting started, and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided afterwards to get stoned and watch the fires burning down the city through a telescope -- which police mistook for a rifle, leading to the National Guard knocking down Kramer's door. The MC5 would later cover "The Motor City is Burning", John Lee Hooker's song about the events: [Excerpt: The MC5, "The Motor City is Burning"] It would also be a turning point for Motown, too, in ways we'll talk about in a few future episodes.  And it was a political turning point too -- Michigan Governor George Romney, a liberal Republican (at a time when such people existed) had been the favourite for the Republican Presidential candidacy when he'd entered the race in December 1966, but as racial tensions ramped up in Detroit during the early months of 1967 he'd started trailing Richard Nixon, a man who was consciously stoking racists' fears. President Johnson, the incumbent Democrat, who was at that point still considering standing for re-election, made sure to make it clear to everyone during the riots that the decision to call in the National Guard had been made at the State level, by Romney, rather than at the Federal level.  That wasn't the only thing that removed the possibility of a Romney presidency, but it was a big part of the collapse of his campaign, and the, as it turned out, irrevocable turn towards right-authoritarianism that the party took with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Of course, Aretha Franklin had little way of knowing what was to come and how the riots would change the city and the country over the following decades. What she was primarily concerned about was the safety of her father, and to a lesser extent that of her sister-in-law Earline who was staying with him. Aretha, Carolyn, and Erma all tried to keep in constant touch with their father while they were out of town, and Aretha even talked about hiring private detectives to travel to Detroit, find her father, and get him out of the city to safety. But as her brother Cecil pointed out, he was probably the single most loved man among Black people in Detroit, and was unlikely to be harmed by the rioters, while he was too famous for the police to kill with impunity. Reverend Franklin had been having a stressful time anyway -- he had recently been fined for tax evasion, an action he was convinced the IRS had taken because of his friendship with Dr King and his role in the civil rights movement -- and according to Cecil "Aretha begged Daddy to move out of the city entirely. She wanted him to find another congregation in California, where he was especially popular—or at least move out to the suburbs. But he wouldn't budge. He said that, more than ever, he was needed to point out the root causes of the riots—the economic inequality, the pervasive racism in civic institutions, the woefully inadequate schools in inner-city Detroit, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods by urban renewal. Some ministers fled the city, but not our father. The horror of what happened only recommitted him. He would not abandon his political agenda." To make things worse, Aretha was worried about her father in other ways -- as her marriage to Ted White was starting to disintegrate, she was looking to her father for guidance, and actually wanted him to take over her management. Eventually, Ruth Bowen, her booking agent, persuaded her brother Cecil that this was a job he could do, and that she would teach him everything he needed to know about the music business. She started training him up while Aretha was still married to White, in the expectation that that marriage couldn't last. Jerry Wexler, who only a few months earlier had been seeing Ted White as an ally in getting "product" from Franklin, had now changed his tune -- partly because the sale of Atlantic had gone through in the meantime. He later said “Sometimes she'd call me at night, and, in that barely audible little-girl voice of hers, she'd tell me that she wasn't sure she could go on. She always spoke in generalities. She never mentioned her husband, never gave me specifics of who was doing what to whom. And of course I knew better than to ask. She just said that she was tired of dealing with so much. My heart went out to her. She was a woman who suffered silently. She held so much in. I'd tell her to take as much time off as she needed. We had a lot of songs in the can that we could release without new material. ‘Oh, no, Jerry,' she'd say. ‘I can't stop recording. I've written some new songs, Carolyn's written some new songs. We gotta get in there and cut 'em.' ‘Are you sure?' I'd ask. ‘Positive,' she'd say. I'd set up the dates and typically she wouldn't show up for the first or second sessions. Carolyn or Erma would call me to say, ‘Ree's under the weather.' That was tough because we'd have asked people like Joe South and Bobby Womack to play on the sessions. Then I'd reschedule in the hopes she'd show." That third album she recorded in 1967, Lady Soul, was possibly her greatest achievement. The opening track, and second single, "Chain of Fools", released in November, was written by Don Covay -- or at least it's credited as having been written by Covay. There's a gospel record that came out around the same time on a very small label based in Houston -- "Pains of Life" by Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio: [Excerpt: Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio, "Pains of Life"] I've seen various claims online that that record came out shortly *before* "Chain of Fools", but I can't find any definitive evidence one way or the other -- it was on such a small label that release dates aren't available anywhere. Given that the B-side, which I haven't been able to track down online, is called "Wait Until the Midnight Hour", my guess is that rather than this being a case of Don Covay stealing the melody from an obscure gospel record he'd have had little chance to hear, it's the gospel record rewriting a then-current hit to be about religion, but I thought it worth mentioning. The song was actually written by Covay after Jerry Wexler asked him to come up with some songs for Otis Redding, but Wexler, after hearing it, decided it was better suited to Franklin, who gave an astonishing performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] Arif Mardin, the arranger of the album, said of that track “I was listed as the arranger of ‘Chain of Fools,' but I can't take credit. Aretha walked into the studio with the chart fully formed inside her head. The arrangement is based around the harmony vocals provided by Carolyn and Erma. To add heft, the Sweet Inspirations joined in. The vision of the song is entirely Aretha's.” According to Wexler, that's not *quite* true -- according to him, Joe South came up with the guitar part that makes up the intro, and he also said that when he played what he thought was the finished track to Ellie Greenwich, she came up with another vocal line for the backing vocals, which she overdubbed. But the core of the record's sound is definitely pure Aretha -- and Carolyn Franklin said that there was a reason for that. As she said later “Aretha didn't write ‘Chain,' but she might as well have. It was her story. When we were in the studio putting on the backgrounds with Ree doing lead, I knew she was singing about Ted. Listen to the lyrics talking about how for five long years she thought he was her man. Then she found out she was nothing but a link in the chain. Then she sings that her father told her to come on home. Well, he did. She sings about how her doctor said to take it easy. Well, he did too. She was drinking so much we thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. The line that slew me, though, was the one that said how one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but until then she'll take all she can take. That summed it up. Ree knew damn well that this man had been doggin' her since Jump Street. But somehow she held on and pushed it to the breaking point." [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] That made number one on the R&B charts, and number two on the hot one hundred, kept from the top by "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band -- a record that very few people would say has stood the test of time as well. The other most memorable track on the album was the one chosen as the first single, released in September. As Carole King told the story, she and Gerry Goffin were feeling like their career was in a slump. While they had had a huge run of hits in the early sixties through 1965, they had only had two new hits in 1966 -- "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and neither of those were anything like as massive as their previous hits. And up to that point in 1967, they'd only had one -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees. They had managed to place several songs on Monkees albums and the TV show as well, so they weren't going to starve, but the rise of self-contained bands that were starting to dominate the charts, and Phil Spector's temporary retirement, meant there simply wasn't the opportunity for them to place material that there had been. They were also getting sick of travelling to the West Coast all the time, because as their children were growing slightly older they didn't want to disrupt their lives in New York, and were thinking of approaching some of the New York based labels and seeing if they needed songs. They were particularly considering Atlantic, because soul was more open to outside songwriters than other genres. As it happened, though, they didn't have to approach Atlantic, because Atlantic approached them. They were walking down Broadway when a limousine pulled up, and Jerry Wexler stuck his head out of the window. He'd come up with a good title that he wanted to use for a song for Aretha, would they be interested in writing a song called "Natural Woman"? They said of course they would, and Wexler drove off. They wrote the song that night, and King recorded a demo the next morning: [Excerpt: Carole King, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (demo)"] They gave Wexler a co-writing credit because he had suggested the title.  King later wrote in her autobiography "Hearing Aretha's performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can't convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection, and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin." She went on to say "But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It's about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them." And that's correct -- unlike "Chain of Fools", this time Franklin did let Arif Mardin do most of the arrangement work -- though she came up with the piano part that Spooner Oldham plays on the record. Mardin said that because of the song's hymn-like feel they wanted to go for a more traditional written arrangement. He said "She loved the song to the point where she said she wanted to concentrate on the vocal and vocal alone. I had written a string chart and horn chart to augment the chorus and hired Ralph Burns to conduct. After just a couple of takes, we had it. That's when Ralph turned to me with wonder in his eyes. Ralph was one of the most celebrated arrangers of the modern era. He had done ‘Early Autumn' for Woody Herman and Stan Getz, and ‘Georgia on My Mind' for Ray Charles. He'd worked with everyone. ‘This woman comes from another planet' was all Ralph said. ‘She's just here visiting.'” [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"] By this point there was a well-functioning team making Franklin's records -- while the production credits would vary over the years, they were all essentially co-productions by the team of Franklin, Wexler, Mardin and Dowd, all collaborating and working together with a more-or-less unified purpose, and the backing was always by the same handful of session musicians and some combination of the Sweet Inspirations and Aretha's sisters. That didn't mean that occasional guests couldn't get involved -- as we discussed in the Cream episode, Eric Clapton played guitar on "Good to Me as I am to You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Good to Me as I am to You"] Though that was one of the rare occasions on one of these records where something was overdubbed. Clapton apparently messed up the guitar part when playing behind Franklin, because he was too intimidated by playing with her, and came back the next day to redo his part without her in the studio. At this point, Aretha was at the height of her fame. Just before the final batch of album sessions began she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and she was making regular TV appearances, like one on the Mike Douglas Show where she duetted with Frankie Valli on "That's Life": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, "That's Life"] But also, as Wexler said “Her career was kicking into high gear. Contending and resolving both the professional and personal challenges were too much. She didn't think she could do both, and I didn't blame her. Few people could. So she let the personal slide and concentrated on the professional. " Her concert promoter Ruth Bowen said of this time "Her father and Dr. King were putting pressure on her to sing everywhere, and she felt obligated. The record company was also screaming for more product. And I had a mountain of offers on my desk that kept getting higher with every passing hour. They wanted her in Europe. They wanted her in Latin America. They wanted her in every major venue in the U.S. TV was calling. She was being asked to do guest appearances on every show from Carol Burnett to Andy Williams to the Hollywood Palace. She wanted to do them all and she wanted to do none of them. She wanted to do them all because she's an entertainer who burns with ambition. She wanted to do none of them because she was emotionally drained. She needed to go away and renew her strength. I told her that at least a dozen times. She said she would, but she didn't listen to me." The pressures from her father and Dr King are a recurring motif in interviews with people about this period. Franklin was always a very political person, and would throughout her life volunteer time and money to liberal political causes and to the Democratic Party, but this was the height of her activism -- the Civil Rights movement was trying to capitalise on the gains it had made in the previous couple of years, and celebrity fundraisers and performances at rallies were an important way to do that. And at this point there were few bigger celebrities in America than Aretha Franklin. At a concert in her home town of Detroit on February the sixteenth, 1968, the Mayor declared the day Aretha Franklin Day. At the same show, Billboard, Record World *and* Cash Box magazines all presented her with plaques for being Female Vocalist of the Year. And Dr. King travelled up to be at the show and congratulate her publicly for all her work with his organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Backstage at that show, Dr. King talked to Aretha's father, Reverend Franklin, about what he believed would be the next big battle -- a strike in Memphis: [Excerpt, Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech" -- "And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."] The strike in question was the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike which had started a few days before.  The struggle for Black labour rights was an integral part of the civil rights movement, and while it's not told that way in the sanitised version of the story that's made it into popular culture, the movement led by King was as much about economic justice as social justice -- King was a democratic socialist, and believed that economic oppression was both an effect of and cause of other forms of racial oppression, and that the rights of Black workers needed to be fought for. In 1967 he had set up a new organisation, the Poor People's Campaign, which was set to march on Washington to demand a program that included full employment, a guaranteed income -- King was strongly influenced in his later years by the ideas of Henry George, the proponent of a universal basic income based on land value tax -- the annual building of half a million affordable homes, and an end to the war in Vietnam. This was King's main focus in early 1968, and he saw the sanitation workers' strike as a major part of this campaign. Memphis was one of the most oppressive cities in the country, and its largely Black workforce of sanitation workers had been trying for most of the 1960s to unionise, and strike-breakers had been called in to stop them, and many of them had been fired by their white supervisors with no notice. They were working in unsafe conditions, for utterly inadequate wages, and the city government were ardent segregationists. After two workers had died on the first of February from using unsafe equipment, the union demanded changes -- safer working conditions, better wages, and recognition of the union. The city council refused, and almost all the sanitation workers stayed home and stopped work. After a few days, the council relented and agreed to their terms, but the Mayor, Henry Loeb, an ardent white supremacist who had stood on a platform of opposing desegregation, and who had previously been the Public Works Commissioner who had put these unsafe conditions in place, refused to listen. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who could recognise the union, and he wouldn't. The workers continued their strike, marching holding signs that simply read "I am a Man": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowing in the Wind"] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP had been involved in organising support for the strikes from an early stage, and King visited Memphis many times. Much of the time he spent visiting there was spent negotiating with a group of more militant activists, who called themselves The Invaders and weren't completely convinced by King's nonviolent approach -- they believed that violence and rioting got more attention than non-violent protests. King explained to them that while he had been persuaded by Gandhi's writings of the moral case for nonviolent protest, he was also persuaded that it was pragmatically necessary -- asking the young men "how many guns do we have and how many guns do they have?", and pointing out as he often did that when it comes to violence a minority can't win against an armed majority. Rev Franklin went down to Memphis on the twenty-eighth of March to speak at a rally Dr. King was holding, but as it turned out the rally was cancelled -- the pre-rally march had got out of hand, with some people smashing windows, and Memphis police had, like the police in Detroit the previous year, violently overreacted, clubbing and gassing protestors and shooting and killing one unarmed teenage boy, Larry Payne. The day after Payne's funeral, Dr King was back in Memphis, though this time Rev Franklin was not with him. On April the third, he gave a speech which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech", in which he talked about the threats that had been made to his life: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech": “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."] The next day, Martin Luther King was shot dead. James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, pled guilty to the murder, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming from what I've read, but the King family have always claimed that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy and that Ray was not the gunman. Aretha was obviously distraught, and she attended the funeral, as did almost every other prominent Black public figure. James Baldwin wrote of the funeral: "In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“Once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down." Many articles and books on Aretha Franklin say that she sang at King's funeral. In fact she didn't, but there's a simple reason for the confusion. King's favourite song was the Thomas Dorsey gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", and indeed almost his last words were to ask a trumpet player, Ben Branch, if he would play the song at the rally he was going to be speaking at on the day of his death. At his request, Mahalia Jackson, his old friend, sang the song at his private funeral, which was not filmed, unlike the public part of the funeral that Baldwin described. Four months later, though, there was another public memorial for King, and Franklin did sing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at that service, in front of King's weeping widow and children, and that performance *was* filmed, and gets conflated in people's memories with Jackson's unfilmed earlier performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord (at Martin Luther King Memorial)"] Four years later, she would sing that at Mahalia Jackson's funeral. Through all this, Franklin had been working on her next album, Aretha Now, the sessions for which started more or less as soon as the sessions for Lady Soul had finished. The album was, in fact, bookended by deaths that affected Aretha. Just as King died at the end of the sessions, the beginning came around the time of the death of Otis Redding -- the sessions were cancelled for a day while Wexler travelled to Georgia for Redding's funeral, which Franklin was too devastated to attend, and Wexler would later say that the extra emotion in her performances on the album came from her emotional pain at Redding's death. The lead single on the album, "Think", was written by Franklin and -- according to the credits anyway -- her husband Ted White, and is very much in the same style as "Respect", and became another of her most-loved hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Think"] But probably the song on Aretha Now that now resonates the most is one that Jerry Wexler tried to persuade her not to record, and was only released as a B-side. Indeed, "I Say a Little Prayer" was a song that had already once been a hit after being a reject.  Hal David, unlike Burt Bacharach, was a fairly political person and inspired by the protest song movement, and had been starting to incorporate his concerns about the political situation and the Vietnam War into his lyrics -- though as with many such writers, he did it in much less specific ways than a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan. This had started with "What the World Needs Now is Love", a song Bacharach and David had written for Jackie DeShannon in 1965: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "What the "World Needs Now is Love"] But he'd become much more overtly political for "The Windows of the World", a song they wrote for Dionne Warwick. Warwick has often said it's her favourite of her singles, but it wasn't a big hit -- Bacharach blamed himself for that, saying "Dionne recorded it as a single and I really blew it. I wrote a bad arrangement and the tempo was too fast, and I really regret making it the way I did because it's a good song." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "The Windows of the World"] For that album, Bacharach and David had written another track, "I Say a Little Prayer", which was not as explicitly political, but was intended by David to have an implicit anti-war message, much like other songs of the period like "Last Train to Clarksville". David had sons who were the right age to be drafted, and while it's never stated, "I Say a Little Prayer" was written from the perspective of a woman whose partner is away fighting in the war, but is still in her thoughts: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] The recording of Dionne Warwick's version was marked by stress. Bacharach had a particular way of writing music to tell the musicians the kind of feel he wanted for the part -- he'd write nonsense words above the stave, and tell the musicians to play the parts as if they were singing those words. The trumpet player hired for the session, Ernie Royal, got into a row with Bacharach about this unorthodox way of communicating musical feeling, and the track ended up taking ten takes (as opposed to the normal three for a Bacharach session), with Royal being replaced half-way through the session. Bacharach was never happy with the track even after all the work it had taken, and he fought to keep it from being released at all, saying the track was taken at too fast a tempo. It eventually came out as an album track nearly eighteen months after it was recorded -- an eternity in 1960s musical timescales -- and DJs started playing it almost as soon as it came out. Scepter records rushed out a single, over Bacharach's objections, but as he later said "One thing I love about the record business is how wrong I was. Disc jockeys all across the country started playing the track, and the song went to number four on the charts and then became the biggest hit Hal and I had ever written for Dionne." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Oddly, the B-side for Warwick's single, "Theme From the Valley of the Dolls" did even better, reaching number two. Almost as soon as the song was released as a single, Franklin started playing around with the song backstage, and in April 1968, right around the time of Dr. King's death, she recorded a version. Much as Burt Bacharach had been against releasing Dionne Warwick's version, Jerry Wexler was against Aretha even recording the song, saying later “I advised Aretha not to record it. I opposed it for two reasons. First, to cover a song only twelve weeks after the original reached the top of the charts was not smart business. You revisit such a hit eight months to a year later. That's standard practice. But more than that, Bacharach's melody, though lovely, was peculiarly suited to a lithe instrument like Dionne Warwick's—a light voice without the dark corners or emotional depths that define Aretha. Also, Hal David's lyric was also somewhat girlish and lacked the gravitas that Aretha required. “Aretha usually listened to me in the studio, but not this time. She had written a vocal arrangement for the Sweet Inspirations that was undoubtedly strong. Cissy Houston, Dionne's cousin, told me that Aretha was on the right track—she was seeing this song in a new way and had come up with a new groove. Cissy was on Aretha's side. Tommy Dowd and Arif were on Aretha's side. So I had no choice but to cave." It's quite possible that Wexler's objections made Franklin more, rather than less, determined to record the song. She regarded Warwick as a hated rival, as she did almost every prominent female singer of her generation and younger ones, and would undoubtedly have taken the implication that there was something that Warwick was simply better at than her to heart. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Wexler realised as soon as he heard it in the studio that Franklin's version was great, and Bacharach agreed, telling Franklin's biographer David Ritz “As much as I like the original recording by Dionne, there's no doubt that Aretha's is a better record. She imbued the song with heavy soul and took it to a far deeper place. Hers is the definitive version.” -- which is surprising because Franklin's version simplifies some of Bacharach's more unusual chord voicings, something he often found extremely upsetting. Wexler still though thought there was no way the song would be a hit, and it's understandable that he thought that way. Not only had it only just been on the charts a few months earlier, but it was the kind of song that wouldn't normally be a hit at all, and certainly not in the kind of rhythmic soul music for which Franklin was known. Almost everything she ever recorded is in simple time signatures -- 4/4, waltz time, or 6/8 -- but this is a Bacharach song so it's staggeringly metrically irregular. Normally even with semi-complex things I'm usually good at figuring out how to break it down into bars, but here I actually had to purchase a copy of the sheet music in order to be sure I was right about what's going on. I'm going to count beats along with the record here so you can see what I mean. The verse has three bars of 4/4, one bar of 2/4, and three more bars of 4/4, all repeated: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] While the chorus has a bar of 4/4, a bar of 3/4 but with a chord change half way through so it sounds like it's in two if you're paying attention to the harmonic changes, two bars of 4/4, another waltz-time bar sounding like it's in two, two bars of four, another bar of three sounding in two, a bar of four, then three more bars of four but the first of those is *written* as four but played as if it's in six-eight time (but you can keep the four/four pulse going if you're counting): [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] I don't expect you to have necessarily followed that in great detail, but the point should be clear -- this was not some straightforward dance song. Incidentally, that bar played as if it's six/eight was something Aretha introduced to make the song even more irregular than how Bacharach wrote it. And on top of *that* of course the lyrics mixed the secular and the sacred, something that was still taboo in popular music at that time -- this is only a couple of years after Capitol records had been genuinely unsure about putting out the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Franklin's gospel-inflected vocals made the religious connection even more obvious. But Franklin was insistent that the record go out as a single, and eventually it was released as the B-side to the far less impressive "The House That Jack Built". It became a double-sided hit, with the A-side making number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Hot One Hundred, while "I Say a Little Prayer" made number three on the R&B chart and number ten overall. In the UK, "I Say a Little Prayer" made number four and became her biggest ever solo UK hit. It's now one of her most-remembered songs, while the A-side is largely forgotten: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] For much of the

Lainey Wilson burst onto the country music scene in 2022 with her album Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'. That year, she won Female Vocalist of the Year and Best New Artist at the CMA's. But for seven years before that, she struggled to make it in the high-pressure Nashville music scene. And before that, she was a kid from a tiny town in rural Louisiana with a dream of being a country star. She joins Guy to talk about how she handled the hard times, what she's learned about the art of collaboration during the making of two acclaimed albums, and what defines her unique style, which she calls Bell Bottom Country.Links from the show:Tougher Music VideoThings A Man Oughta Know Music VideoLainey's French Bulldog Hippie Mae's Instagram Hillbilly Hippie Official Lyrics VideoLainey's Female Vocalist (2022) Acceptance SpeechLainey's New Artist of the Year (2022) Acceptance Speech Tougher (2016)Sayin' What I'm Thinkin' (2021) Bell Bottom Country (2022)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Personally Speaking, Msgr. Jim Lisante is joined by country music singer Martina McBride. Martina has sold over 23 million albums which includes twenty top ten singles and six # 1 hits. She has earned more than 15 major music awards including four wins for “Female Vocalist of the Year” from the “Country Music Association.” Martina is currently on tour around the country and while on the road she talks about her life, her music, family, and the values that matter most to her.Support the show

We are live at the Flourish 2023 Women's Conference in Fort Worth, Texas!!!  Seth & Andrea paired up 4 Superstars vs 4 Legends in a cage match. Join the conversation on Facebook or Instagram Support the show on Patreon Or sport the MERCH!

In this episode, Belinda Ellsworth introduces singer-songwriter Delnora Reed Acuff, discussing her career and background in music. Delnora talks about her favorite performances and the importance of her faith in her music. She also discusses her experiences working with musical heroes and her new album, "Blank Page." Delnora shares her superpower of energy and her hands-on approach to engaging with fans. She emphasizes the importance of excellent customer service and staying true to oneself as an artist. The conversation also touches on the challenges of balancing creativity and business, being a mother, and finding joy in pursuing one's passion. About Delnora:Delnora is a singer/songwriter, The voice that brought her from West Virginia to Nashville has been recognized with consecutive nominations for ICMA's Female Vocalist of the Year and she is currently ICMA's reigning “New Artist of the Year”. She's released eight studio albums, including three as a member of the critically acclaimed duo Blue Eyed Grass. She is also a member of The Shotgun Rubies on Carl Jackson's “Orthophonic Joy – The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited.” She then received her first #1 on Sideline's “Return to Windy Mountain” which she penned with the one & only Carl Jackson. Feb-April 2022 her song “Blank Page” went #1 on PowerSource, Christianvoice & Cashbox. In May 2022, she released “Man at the Well” and it debuted at #1 on Christian Music Weekly! Most recently, Delnora's feel good song “Thankful” hit #1 on Cashbox May 2023.Connect with Delnora:https://www.delnora.comhttps://www.facebook.com/Delnora.Musichttps://www.youtube.com/user/DelnoraReedhttps://www.instagram.com/delnora/https://www.twitter.com/DelnoraReedhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/4DTeNsKx2wwYHgT6vgLrOHAbout the Host - Belinda Ellsworth is a Speaker, Trainer, Best-Selling Author, and Podcaster She has been a professional speaker, mover, and shaker for more than 25 years. Having built three successful companies, she has helped thousands of entrepreneurs make better decisions, create successful systems, and build business strategies using her "Four Pillars of Success" system. Belinda has always had a passion and zest for life with the skill for turning dreams into reality. How to Connect with Belinda: Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/workfromyourhappyplace LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindaellsworth Instagram -https://www.instagram.com/workfromyourhappyplace/ Website - www.workfromyourhappyplace.com Join my membership program and discover the art of creating and sharing amazing experiences with like-minded people, all from the comfort of your own home. You get to connect with others online, learn new skills and techniques, and grow your network without ever having to leave your computer screen. To know more, click on the link https://workfromyourhappyplace.com/vip/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4939248/advertisement

Singer, songwriter, superstar Lainey Wilson left Baskin, Louisiana and moved to Nashville in a camper trailer 12 years ago. She spent her early years building her career, song by song, show by show, before breaking through with her #1 hit “Things a Man Oughta Know” in 2021.  Since then, Lainey's been on a wildly successful ride. Her second #1 song, “Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell in 2022 was followed by the #1 hits “Heart Like a Truck” and her collaboration with HARDY, “Wait in the Truck.”  Her critically-acclaimed 2023 album, Bell Bottom Country, overflowing with amped up, guitar-driven, rockstar energy, continues to gain new fans all over the globe and crank out more modern classics like “Watermelon Sunshine,” “Smell Like Smoke” and “Hold My Halo.” She has been headlining and selling out shows all across the map, while also gracing festival stages at Lollapalooza, Stagecoach and at arenas with the likes of Luke Combs and other leading country stars. She just made history by nabbing nine 2023 CMA Award nominations, including Entertainer of the Year, Single of the Year, Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. She is the only artist to top the nominations list in her first two appearances on the final ballot. This on the heels of winning big at the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards, receiving, among others, top honors for Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. She also received Billboard's Women in Music “Rulebreaker” Award this year and is the most nominated woman at the People's Choice Country Awards as well. Full of heart, soul, grit and gratitude, Lainey shares what has inspired and challenged her, advice for fellow music creators and how she feels about this hard-won moment in her career. Also, Jordan Smith Reynolds, the winner of our Green Theme Song Contest, powered by Studio Green @ ASCAP, joins to chat and share a special in-studio performance of his winning work. Check out Lainey's website. Watch the video for Lainey's multiple CMA-nominated song “Heart Like a Truck” Learn more about Studio Green @ ASCAP  

Kasey gives an introduction to her world of vocal covers that she posts on her social pages (which is how our hosts discovered her) and how that led to her linking up with an becoming the touring vocalist for Nita Strauss. She also tells us about her own personal influences, and spotlights multiple exciting female role models in the scene right now.

As the saying goes, “Everything's bigger in Texas.” And no one is bigger in Texas than my special guest today, country music star, Bri Bagwell! If you have ears, (and by the way, I hope you do,) or if you lean in for good times and you love good music, you have heard of Bri Bagwell. Or, should I say Y'all have heard of her? Bri is a force to be reckoned with on the Texas Country scene. Bri has been dreaming of performing most of her life. And she has performed, here and there. But after college, Bri found herself too often choosing between her day job and her dream. Performing less and less. For most of us, this is where the story would end. Reality and daydreams make terrible partners. After just three months at her new job after college, Bri knew what she had to do and threw herself full-time into her music career. Now…she has ten #1 songs in Texas and multiple Female Vocalist of the Year awards to her credit. People Magazine recently premiered her new record Corazón y Cabeza. and said of Bri: “Bri Bagwell finds the path to her own heart on new album Corazón y Cabeza…[Bri Bagwell] is increasingly finding her name being mentioned amongst country music truth-tellers such as Ashley McBryde and Morgan Wade.” https://www.bribagwell.com Hello Highway Tour 2023 www.onlyvanspodcast.com Only Vans is the new podcast brought to you by country music singer, Bri Bagwell, where she talks with her friends in her van about unique topics like feet pics, dating in the music scene, tour bus and green room antics, and so much more. New episodes every other Monday. www.onlyvanspodcast.com

This week we welcome The Baker Family! From Birch Tree, Missouri, the Baker Family has become one of the most talked- about family musical ensembles in the country. They tour nationwide, performing around 100 concerts each year, and they have produced multiple CDs. The Baker Family is a past winner of the Entertainer of the Year award given by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America-Midwest. The band also received the Album of the Year honor from that same organization. In 2016, the Baker Family won the Youth in Bluegrass band competition at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. This competition is the premier showcase in the world for bluegrass musicians under the age of 21 and their parents. That same year, the group was named Bluegrass Band of the Year by the International Country Gospel Music Association. The family appeared on season 12 of the NBC television program America's GotTalent. Producers of that program invited the group to audition for the program after seeing a YouTube video of their award-winning performance at the 2016 Youth in Bluegrass band competition. The group has also performed on the RFD-TV program The Bluegrass Trail. The Baker Family has also won the Oklahoma Bluegrass Band championship four times, and they won the Pickin' In The Pines band championship in Arizona in 2013. The band includes mom Carrie Baker, who plays guitar and upright bass. Three of her four children are also in the musical group. Twenty two-year-old Trustin Baker plays fiddle and banjo, and he also sings lead and harmony vocals. He is a past winner of the Grand Master Fiddle Championship at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. This award is the most prestigious honor given to a fiddle player. He has also won more than a dozen other fiddle competitions in five states. Carina Baker, 19, plays mandolin and sings lead and harmony vocals for the family band. She is a past winner of the Mandolin Player of the Year award and the Female Vocalist of the Year award from SPBGMA-Midwest. Seventeen-year-old Elijah Baker plays bass and lead guitar, and he sings both lead and harmony vocals for the group. He is a past winner of the Oklahoma State Junior Fiddle Championship. Both Carina and Elijah have also competed and won other honors for their musicianship at festivals and contests across the country. You can check their website: TheBakerFamilyBluegrass.com; or on their Facebook page: Facebook.com/OfficialBakerFamily.

Kimié Miner is a Native-Hawaiian, Portuguese Grammy Nominated, producer, singer-songwriter, and recording artist from the Big Island of Hawai'i. She has written and co-produced five award-winning albums including the Grammy Nominated album, “Hawaiian Lullaby,” and most recently produced “Children of the Sea - Na kama Kai” a full length album from her free community mentorship program called MeleCraft BootCamp, dedicated to supporting young artists and honoring the Hawaiian culture and language. In 2018, she won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for Female Vocalist of the year, song of the year for her song “Bamboo,” and female Artist of the year at the Island Music Awards. This mother of three is also the president and CEO of Haku Collective, which is a full-service, multimedia talent production, and management group founded in Honolulu, Hawai'i.  In this episode we talk about her journey in music and how moving to Jamaica gave her confidence, our identities as a mixed Hawaiian, becoming a mother, choosing passion over fear, and so much more! Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kamakadias Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/Hawaiiverse Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hawaiiversepodcast/ Shop local on https://hawaiiverse.com/

Sarah Evans is a tremendously talented singer and songwriter who has left an indelible mark in the world of country music. She has released ten studio albums, the most recent being 2020's Covers collection, and has five number-one hits. She has won numerous awards and accolades, including the Academy of Country Music's top Female Vocalist accolades, as well as numerous American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and CMA CMT Grammy Awards nominations.Sarah is now on Blunt Business to talk about her new luxurious CBD product line called Born to Fly, which is named after one of her chart-topping signature songs. She expresses her gratitude for being on the show and for the kind introduction. Jorge reveals that he first heard her music in the form of the song Suds in a Bucket and found himself compelled to stop and watch the video every time it was on.Sara is discussing how CBD has helped her to manage the chronic pain and anxiety she still experiences due to a hospital stay she endured at a young age. She explains that using the Born to Fly Roll On product and drops has helped her a great deal to relax the tension in her back and reduce her anxiety. She explains that when she was a child, she was unaware that she was dealing with PTSD after a traumatic event such as almost dying and having to endure numerous surgeries to correct her legs. CBD has been a saving grace for her in terms of managing her chronic pain and anxiety.Our guest Sara Evans, who is a singer-songwriter, has had a long career and has struggled with anxiety and PTSD from a car crash. She discovered CBD and found that it could help her pain and anxiety, so she decided to start her own CBD line and brand, which she called Born to Fly after a song she wrote about her life growing up in Missouri. She said that the message of her CBD line is that everyone is born to fly and should not be held back by pain, anxiety, or PTSD. She is proud of the product and said it is one of the most exciting things she has done in her career. She also noted that she still has to maintain the image people expect of her when she is performing on stage.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Texas Country's current Female Vocalist of the year, Sarah Hobbs joins us this week! Fresh off a soaring new single, an incredibly busy winter and another song on deck, we talk about the wild 2023 she's already embarking on!Find Sarah's music, tour dates and merch at https://www.sarahhobbsmusic.comYou can support Texas Toast by following us on social medias (@texastoastpod), giving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, subscribing on YouTube and MOST IMPORTANTLY, sharing the show with a friend!Intro song: "The Ride" by Jon StorkOutro song: "You Can Go To Hell" by Phineus RebSupport the show

Lainey Wilson is a country music singer-songwriter and actress. She won Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2022 Country Music Awards and also appears in the show “Yellowstone” on Paramount. Her new album “Bell Bottom Country” is out now.  Lainey Wilson joins This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von to talk about growing up in Louisiana, impersonating Miley Cyrus in high school, the early days of roughing it in Nashville, finding new success and much more.  Lainey Wilson: https://www.instagram.com/laineywilsonmusic/  ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com Podcastville mugs and prints available now at https://theovon.pixels.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit  https://www.amazon.com/stores/CELSIUS/ShopNow/page/95D581F4-E14E-4B01-91E7-6E2CA58A3C29 Keeps: Visit https://keeps.com/THEO to receive your first month of treatment free. Lightstream: Visit https://lightstream.com/THEO and apply now to get a special interest rate discount and save even more. RocketMoney: Visit https://rocketmoney.com/theo  to stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way. BlueChew: Visit https://bluechew.com to try BlueChew free with promo code THEO, just pay $5 shipping. ------------------------------------------------- Music:  "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Producer: Ben https://www.instagram.com/benbeckermusic/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In season 5 episode 5, John cancels all his meetings to join the Yellowstone cowboys for the gathering and branding of cattle. Jen and Jefferson recap the gathering and other big moments, including the disastrous dinner that results in a “slugfest” between Summer and Beth as their relationship finally reaches a boiling point. Then CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year Lainey Wilson (“Abby”) joins the podcast to discuss her acting debut on Yellowstone. She also talks about her songwriting process and her new songs that premiered in the series. 

In season 5 episode 5, John cancels all his meetings to join the Yellowstone cowboys for the gathering and branding of cattle. Jen and Jefferson recap the gathering and other big moments, including the disastrous dinner that results in a “slugfest” between Summer and Beth as their relationship finally reaches a boiling point. Then CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year Lainey Wilson (“Abby”) joins the podcast to discuss her acting debut on Yellowstone. She also talks about her songwriting process and her new songs that premiered in the series.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We put out another poll asking people to name who they thought the top female vocalist in rock or metal is. Bill and I discuss the resultsCheck out other shows from the network: https://www.deluxeeditionnetwork.com Check out the website: metalheadjourneys.com

"I guess I know why we romanticize Bonnie & Clyde." Music heals.How many times has a song helped you through something difficult? How many times has a song made you feel a bit more understood and a little bit less alone? How many times has a song been the voice for an emotion you didn't even know you were feeling?With rich harmonies, a driving guitar, and  a deceptively cheerful chorus, "Bonnie & Clyde" is one of the songs that helped singer-songwriter Alexandra heal after a difficult period of reevaluation in her life. In this episode, Alexandra sits down with Emmeline to talk about music as medicine, songwriting as catharsis, and the importance of learning to sit in silence with your messy parts until you can navigate and make peace with them.They also discuss the challenge of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and what people don't talk about when they talk about why everyone loves a bad boy.To learn more about Alexandra, or to follow her musical journey, find her on Instagram at @AlexandraMusic.  For behind-the-scenes info and more about Journey of a Song, follow Emmeline on social media at @EmmelineMusic or visit the official Journey of Series webpage.  You can also hear songs from previous episodes through the Journey of a Song official Spotify playlist.

Hey, y'all. I am Shay. This is thebuzzr podcast. On air indie, from my pad to yours over the airways.

A proud native of Texas, Billie Jo is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist blending traditional country vocals with honest songs. Billie Jo is well on her way of establishing herself as one of Texas country's upcoming artists to watch. She has won numerous singing competitions and continues to make a name for herself. Her accomplishments have led her to open for legendary acts such as Gene Watson, Linda Davis, Barbara Fairchild, and The Oakridge Boys. A personal highlight for her was opening for Ray Price, an artist she remembers listening to with her grandparents who is one of her biggest inspirations. Other artists she has opened for include Justin Moore, Wade Bowen, Pat Green, Stoney LaRue, Roger Creager, Sam Riggs, Bryan White, Jerrod Niemann, Josh Abbott and many others.  Coming up in June she will be opening for one of her all time favorites “Diamond Rio” in Fredericksburg Tx.Most recently she was featured on “Real Country” tv show where she filmed for a month in Nashville and was hand picked by Shania Twain to compete on her team.  She made top 14 on that show.  She has also been on The Voice and American Idol.Billie Jo released her first country single back in October of 2018 called “Favorite Place To Be” That song was nominated for Song of the Year in 2019 at the Texas Country Music Awards where she was also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year!  Her current single out is called “Redneckin' which now has over 26,000 streams on Spotify and was Top 5 on the Texas Internet Radio Charts.https://www.facebook.com/BillieJoTxMusic/https://www.instagram.com/billiejotxmusic/?hl=enhttps://twitter.com/billiejomusic?lang=enhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/4ZVTAR2mX6p9zWJgG3xu1Hhttps://www.bandsintown.com/a/13684468-billie-jo-sewell-music

This week we welcome Rhonda Vincent and Matt Gumm! Bluegrass award-winner Rhonda Vincent began her professional music career at the age of five, playing drums with her family's band, the Sally Mountain Show. She picked up the mandolin at eight and the fiddle at ten, performing with the family band at festivals on weekends. Rhonda struck out on her own, singing with Grand Ole Opry star, Jim Ed Brown. Her opportunity eventually led to a deal with Rebel Records. Her work caught the attention of Giant Nashville's president, James Stroud, who signed Vincent to record two contemporary country albums. After Giant, she signed with Rounder Records where her passion for traditional bluegrass music flourished. She made her label debut in 2000 with Back Home Again, recorded with her band, The Rage. She showcases her hard-driving, high-energy contemporary bluegrass on The Storm Still Rages in 2001, One Step Ahead in 2003, Ragin' Live in 2005, All American Bluegrass Girl in 2006, and Good Thing Going in 2008. In 2000, Vincent won her first in a string of seven Female Vocalist of the Year Awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association. In 2001, she won the Entertainer of the Year Award. In 2011, Vincent released a collaboration album with Gene Watson titled Your Money and My Good Looks. During the 2020 Branson Christmas season, Rhonda produced and starred in her own show, Rhonda Vincent Christmas In Branson. She has a brand new album Music Is What I See. Rhonda is constantly thinking of new adventures, songs, opportunities, and she loves the excitement and challenge of putting together a plan at the last minute. Anyone who has ever worked with Rhonda Vincent, knows they must be ready at a moment's notice. There could be an impromptu recording session, a midnight drive to Canada to see Niagara Falls, a video shoot, or even a jam session aboard the Larry's Country Diner/Country's Family Reunion Cruise. Her motto is to always be ready for anything. It's one of the secrets to her success. For more information and tour dates, visit her website: RhondaVincent.com Matt Gumm literally grew up around variety shows at Lake of the Ozarks, so at the age of 30, he takes to the stage like a seasoned pro. Of course, growing up with Thom "Gabby" Gumm as your dad & mentor didn't hurt. In fact, he learned so well, Matt was added to the Main Street Opry act at the age of seven. Long before that, though, he seemed to know what he was going to do with his life. His mom Sandy will tell you that he spent everyday up on his bed, with a make-shift curtain that hung from the ceiling, with wigs and props doing his "show". It was in these very early years that a family friend thought it would be "funny" to buy Matt a toy set of drums. Well, the joke was on him, because Matt started playing those things and he was a natural! All that practice may have been painful at times for the family, but it definitely paid off. While in High School, Matt was the only student chosen out of his class to attend the Missouri Fine Arts Academy because he excelled in Music, Art & Drama. Fresh out of high school, Matt spent 5 years developing his own reputation as a gifted comedian and musician on the stage of the long-running Lee Mace's Ozark Opry in Osage Beach, Missouri. Once again, his family ties drew him back to work along side his dad and mom at the Main Street Opry in Osage Beach. There he honed not only his comedy skills with his dad, but he came into his own with his impersonations. He's brought the house down with his take on such artists as Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart & Sammy Davis, Jr., just to mention a few. Clay Cooper caught his act and knew he wanted to be the first to introduce Matt to Branson. Currently, he is the craziest addition to Clay Cooper's Country Express where you can experience Matt's family friendly, high- energy fun, visual humor, and surprising abilities on some unusual instruments. When he's not performing, he enjoys spending time with his wife Katie, daughter Norah Sue, and son Nash. Matt has put together his own show titled “Matt Gumm & Company”. The show features his Dad, Sister and Travis Spratt for two-hours of hilarious comedy and great music. The next presentation of this show will be 7:30pm, November 13. For more information call 417-332-2529; or visit ClayCooper.com or MattGumm.com

Hannah Bethel is that rare artist who blurs lines between Americana, country, and rock. Her musical artistry is a reflection of who she is: a fierce, independent, wild, free and untamed spirit. After dedicating her life to music, Bethel has now risen to claim her place at the vanguard of independent singer/songwriters in Nashville's vibrant music scene. Her music captures the essence of her signature sound by blending elements of the many genres and styles that have influenced her writing and creative expression. Being fearless and unafraid to bare her deepest feelings in her songs is a reflection of her lifestyle, from solo backpacking in the deserts of Arizona and the mystical Joshua Tree, to hiking snow-peaked mountains in Alaska, Bethel lives her life to the fullest. She has experienced deep love, great loss and the healing power of personal growth and redemption – and she translates those life experiences to listeners though her songs, music videos and live performances.  Bethel was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where as a child she studied dance and appeared in theater performances. She attended elementary school in nearby Oakfield, before moving to Houghton, Michigan where she went to middle and high school. She grew up listening to Country and Seventies Rock music. Drawing on influences from Tom Petty, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Willie Nelson, among others, she spent her teenage years traveling the upper Midwest performing at fairs, bars, talent shows, coffee houses, shopping malls and Country Western shows.Bethel's career trajectory took a sharp upward turn following the release of her single and music video “Train” in October, 2018. A deeply personal song, “Train” was the beginning of a new chapter in her musical career, and one that saw her firmly taking the reins of her musical expression and how it is produced and presented. Bethel and “Train” were selected as a CMT Music “Artist Discovery” where Bethel and “Train” were featured across all CMT broadcast, online and social media platforms. 2022 has seen Bethel release three singles, “Bad News Baby,” “Godspeed, Los Angeles” and “Someone's Woman,” all from her highly anticipated new EP, ‘Until the Sun Comes Back Around.' The six-song project, released in late March, has received critical acclaim from media across America and Europe, and inclusion on Americana, folk, and country editorial playlists at major outlets across the digital spectrum. On the heels of her latest music, she took home the award for top “Female Vocalist of the Year” (all genres) at the 2022 Appalachian Arts and Entertainment Awards.https://www.instagram.com/hannahbethel/?hl=enhttps://www.facebook.com/hannah.bethel.artisthttps://twitter.com/hannahbethel?lang=enHost - Trey Mitchelltreymitchellphotography IGfeeding_the_senses_unsensored on IGtrey mitchell: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074368084848For Sponsorship Information or Questions -  ftsunashville@gmail.comTheme Song - Damien HorneTake It From Me @damienhorne

Maren Morris is a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum artist. She's also won multiple country music awards, including CMAs for Female Vocalist of the Year, and Single of the Year in 2020, but her feelings about the country music industry are kind of complicated, as she discusses in this episode. She breaks down her song "Humble Quest," which is the title track from her third album. It was produced by Greg Kurstin, who's won the Producer of the Year Grammy more than once. The album came out in March, and hit #2 on Billboard country chart. But before "Humble Quest" was a title, Maren had to figure out what the words meant to her, and that's where the song began. To learn more, visit songexploder.net/maren-morris

Singer-songwriter Cash Crawford releases her new single, “Save Myself.” As a female musician, Cash is growing, healing, evolving, and learning all through her own shadow. “How could you love me, when I didn't love me” a cutting-edge hook line that explains Cash saving herself this time. Listeners get an inside look of the singer's light and dark sides, but most refreshingly her impeccable honesty. Embracing the feelings and emotions of healing, Cash faces her own challenges and focuses on the light that comes from positivity instead of blaming others for past mistakes. Don Miggs, a multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Mick Fleetwood and Tower of Power, as well as fronting the band Whole Damn Mess and touring with artists such as ZZ Top and Cheap Trick, produced the single. "Save Myself" is my version of acknowledging that, at a time, I looked to others for my happiness," says Cash. Through bold and emotional lyrics, Cash, who once felt like a nobody and later accepted her imperfections, found her own self-worth. Cash says, “After some very deep personal battles, I had to spend time getting to know myself all over again as well as take responsibility for ways I had wronged myself but blamed others. It's about my journey in becoming my own hero.” Cash's powerhouse vocals are distinctive, and her ability to empower other women through lyrics is undeniable. Becoming her own hero, the gypsy singer continues to make waves in Nashville as she begins a new self-love musical journey. Cash is no stranger to the music industry, spending over 20 years as a noteworthy vocalist, songwriter, and entertainer. As an artist, she has earned Rising Star, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Song of the Year Nominations for her solo projects. Cash has won Best Singer-Songwriter for the Toronto Indie Music Awards in 2012/2013. In 2019, Cash released “Stevie”, her single written about her idol Stevie Nicks, with David Tolliver. “Save Myself” is set to be released on Friday, May 27th.

Thrilled to welcome the 'Queen of Bluegrass' Rhonda Vincent to the show to kick start CMA Fest 2022. A Grand Ole Opry Member since February 2021, Rhonda is a multi-award winner, with a 2017 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, an Entertainer of the Year 2001, Song of the Year 2004, and unprecedented seven consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association 2000 – 2006. Rhonda's career has spanned over four decades and is without doubt a pioneer and trailblazer in the current popularity of Bluegrass sweeping the nation. In addition to her own career, Rhonda has appeared on recordings by Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, Tanya Tucker, Joe Diffie, Faith Hill and more. Join us as we chat about sleep regimens on the road, being superstitious, giving back to the community, Nashville traffic and more. For more information on Rhonda Vincent, visit: https://rhondavincent.com

We are thrilled to have with us once again, Country Music Artist - Pamela Hopkins!As our Circle of Friends, you can help support Pamela in her journey as an upcoming artist.She has been nominated for Country Artist of the Year, Album of the Year ( Given a Damn, Don't Go With My Outfit) & Female Vocalist of the Year! You can show your love and VOTE  for Pamela - Arkansasmusic.org/voteIf you would like to see Pamela in person please visit her schedule Thank you for always supporting our guests! We appricatate it!