Podcasts about Harlan Howard

Send us a Text Message.What happens when three talented musicians cross paths with one of Nashville's most esteemed producers? Join us as we uncover the serendipitous origins of McBride and the Ride, a band that became legendary under the masterful guidance of Tony Brown. Ray Herndon reveals his shift from touring with Lyle Lovett to joining the band, Billy Thomas shares stories of playing with legends, while Terry McBride opens up about his time with Delbert McClinton and a once-discouraging letter from Tony that turned into a golden opportunity. The episode takes you through their first meetings, rehearsals, and the magical moment when their harmonious chemistry was discovered.Ever wondered how McBride and the Ride's distinctive sound was crafted? We explore the evolution of their harmonies and the creative process behind hits like "Can I Count on You" and "Burning Up the Road." From initial rehearsals that clicked instantly to studio sessions under Tony Brown's influential eye, the band's journey is a testament to how natural vocal blends of tenor, baritone, and falsetto can create something truly special. Hear firsthand how they honed their sound, setting themselves apart in the music industry and defining their identity.Take a nostalgic trip with us as we reminisce about recording studio memories and life on the road. From working with songwriting legends like Harlan Howard and Guy Clark to the hilarious antics that only happen on tour, this episode is filled with stories that will make you laugh and appreciate the camaraderie that fuels McBride and the Ride. We also touch on their recent projects, including a live EP recorded at Handlebar J, showcasing how their musical journey continues to evolve. Don't miss out on these epic band adventures and the unsung heroes behind the scenes who made it all possible.LinksJay Franze: https://JayFranze.comMcBride & The Ride: https://www.mcbrideandtheride.com/ Support the Show.

Legendary Nashville songwriter, Harlan Howard is purported to have coined the expression “three chords and the truth” and friend and colleague Bob Dylan is also remembered for the great line “All I need is my red guitar, three chords and the truth”. Well that's all this riff is. Three chords. No passing chords, no fancy inversions or suspended notes. Just three chords - D A E. Mike Campbell was and is famously prolific in his writing and brought all of that work to Tom in case there was something there that connected. In this case, Tom saw the truth in those three chords and decided to write a masterpiece. It may have taken a while for the final brushstrokes to arrive, but when they did, they truly transformed a young girl with a faraway look in her eye into the Mona Lisa. This episode includes a conversation with musician, writer, and former guest, Jeff Slate.If you want to listen to You Wreck Me before the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/-3aGZZueg08 If you'd like to listen to the fantastic version released as a part of the Fillmore box set, you can find that here: https://youtu.be/aPV745BKtr8If you have any interest in Van Halen, please check out my friends Corey and Mark over on And The Podcast Will Rock. You can find the show here: https://shows.acast.com/podcastwillrockDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectTwitter: https://twitter.com/TomPettyProjectInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectAll music other than the piano version of Wildflowers, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you're looking for Tom's music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul RobertsSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colt and David sit down with singer/songwriter Brian Davis.Originally from North Carolina, Brian Davis' first deal in the industry was offered to him by legendary writer Harlan Howard, who was a huge influence on Davis' songwriting.  Brian has co-written two #1 songs – “One Hell Of An Amen” by Brantley Gilbert and “Memory I Don't Mess With” by Lee Brice.  His songs have also been recorded by Jason Aldean, Jerrod Niemann, Tyler Farr, Gretchen Wilson, Jason Michael Carroll, and many others. Instagram: www.instagram.com/briandavisliveTwitter (X): www.twitter.com/briandavisliveFacebook: www.facebook.com/BrianDavisLiveYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bdliveSupport the showCheck out our socials and follow us!Facebook: www.facebook.com/TwangTownPodcastInstagram: www.instagram.com/TwangTownPodTwitter: www.twitter.com/TwangTownPodWe would love your support to continue to bring listeners amazing content!Cash App: www.cash.app/$TwangTownPodBuzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2232176/support

In this episode, Phil and Susie "dig" into the power of music.  Harlan Howard in the 50's used the phrase “3 chords and the truth” to describe his genre of country music and many other artists have used this phrase and allowed it to be their philosophy of songwriting.  This phrase is funny because most worship songs are 3 chords and purports to be truth, but what is the truth that is actually being conveyed? How does music actually work to affect our emotions and how is this exploited in worship/Xtian music and sold as the “Spirit”? Can “secular” music do the same thing that Xtian music does?  We will talk (and even sing) about some of the tactics that are used and even how chord structures and musical formulas can elicit certain responses.   Show Links and Resources: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/29/1190374074/these-scientists-explain-the-power-of-music-to-spark-awe?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social  https://languageandreligion.com/2022/04/20/emotional-manipulation-in-worship-music/  https://blog.landr.com/emotional-chord-progressions/  https://reckersworld.jimdofree.com/religion/recker-s-writings-to-enlighten-and-entertain/how-churches-use-music-to-manipulate-you/  https://capuzzler.medium.com/emotion-effect-in-religious-music-9d383b34b24e  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17470218221075330 https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/choir-singing-improves-health-happiness-%E2%80%93-and-perfect-icebreaker  https://www.praisecharts.com/blog/the-nashville-number-system-chart-for-bands/  Genetically modified skeptic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7btz0ocXDeg Faith Free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoaknMByfRs *From the Inside Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9mUDbGsEk Closing Poem: https://www.joniroseblog.com/post/strings-the-use-of-religious-song   Please subscribe and review us wherever you are listening to our podcast. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @flawedtheologypodcast  Join our Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/dangerousquestions      *We do not own the rights to the music in this episode. 

Howard va ser un dels grans compositors del country durant sis d

En el episodio de hoy traemos dos discos que van a protagonizar la mayoría de los minutos del podcast. Por un lado, la última obra de Marc Broussard, cuatro volumen de un proyecto que ha ido recopilando parte de su esencia como músico. Y por otro, Willie Nelson, la leyenda. A punto de cumplir 90 años este caballero tejano sigue fiel a su amor por la vida y por la música. En esta ocasión rindiendo tributo a un gigante de la escritura musical, Harlan Howard. Habrá hueco para recordar a dos maestros que se nos han marchado y alguna novedad. Gracias por acompañarnos. 💙 Apoya este proyecto desde 1,49€ al mes. Tan solo tienes que pulsar el botón azul que tienes en la cabecera de este canal 💙 Gracias infinitas. Síguenos en Twitter: @CDSradioShow o si lo deseas súmate a nuestro grupo de Telegram: https://t.me/CDSpodcast para charlar sobre música, libros, películas... de todo un poco.

On this week's show, we... bid adieu to David Crosby & Tom Verlaine spend quality time with the new Joe Henry record spin fresh tracks from boygenius, Fucked Up & Nickel Creek  all this & much, much less! Debts No Honest Man Can Pay is over 2 rock-solid hours of musical eclectica & other noodle stories. The show started in 2003 at WHFR-FM (Dearborn, MI), moved to WGWG-FM (Boiling Springs, NC) in 2006 & Plaza Midwood Community Radio (Charlotte, NC) in 2012, with a brief pit-stop at WLFM-FM (Appleton, WI) in 2004.

Jim Reeves, Harlan Howard, Chet Atkins, and me.

Harlan Howard is a legendary songwriter with a career spanning six decades. Here we get a glimpse of his writing process along with his approach to the ever changing music industry.

El 8 de septiembre de 2019 murió Camilo Sesto Y hoy hace 90 años nació Patsy Cline y hace 125 años el trovador pionero de Misisipí Jimmy Rodgers y hace 95 años otra gran figura del country: Harlan Howard… Ron Pigpen McKennan, fundador de Grateful Dead, hubiera cumplido hoy 77 años de no haber fallecido a la edad fatídica de 27 años. Benjamin Orr hubiera cumplido los mismos años de no haber muerto en 2000 a los 53. Y también es el cumpleaños de Neko Case, Aimee Mann, Ray Wilson (Stiltskin y Genesis), el gran bajista Will Lee, la estrella Pink. Y el 8 de septiembre de 1841 vino al mundo Antonín Leopold Dvořák… DISCO 1 ANTONY DVORAK Sinfonía nº 9 (4)  DISCO 2 PATSY CLINE Crazy (ESCA) DISCO 3 PATSY CLINE Waling After Midnight (1) DISCO 4 HARLAN HOWARD I Fall To Pieces (ESCA) DISCO 5 JIMMY RODGERS Frankie & Johnny (ESCA)  DISCO 6 NEKO CASE Theis Tornado Loves You (1) DISCO 7 AIMEE MANN The Moth (10) DISCO 8 GRATEFUL DEAD (Ron “Pigpen” McKennan) Good Morning, School Girl"  DISCO 9 THE CARS (BENJAMIN ORR) Drive (4) DISCO 10 RAY WILSON (GENESIS) Calling All Stations (1) DISCO 11 WILL LEE Giorgy Porgy (ESCA) DISCO 12 PINK Family Portrait (7) DISCO 13 CAMILO SESTO Llueve sobre mojado (CD 1 - 4) Escuchar audio

Follow award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar on a road trip across East Tennessee's Music Pathways, from the Great Smoky Mountains to Bristol and the birth of country music. Along the way, we will hear traditional Appalachian Music as it would have been performed more than a century ago; find out about the Bristol Sessions, a seminal recording that happened here in 1929 and went on to change the world. We'll get a tour of Dolly Parton's hometown with one of her childhood friends and see the theme park which holds her name. Opening and closing the show is acclaimed songwriter Ed Snodderly with a live performance you won't forget. Harlan Howard famously said: “Country music is three chords and the truth.” We're looking for that truth, where it comes from, why it connects with us and where it's headed today.  Produced in a documentary style, the Tennessee Music Pathways series takes listeners on a more than 1,000-mile road trip, from Bristol and the birth of country music to Memphis and the start of rock n' roll. Along the way, listeners will hear bluegrass played fast as lightning and traditional Appalachian music performed live in the Great Smoky Mountains. Follow along as Millar shops in Elvis' favorite clothing store, bangs drums in the studio that made Uptown Funk, learns to play the spoons and drinks whiskey in a distillery housed in a more than 100-year-old former prison. Join us on an audio adventure across seven genres of music home to Tennessee. “This is the story of America, from its roots in traditional fiddle music brought over by immigrants to the New World and enslaved individuals stolen in Africa, to the spark of rock n' roll and soul that started here, united a nation, and spread across the world, Tennessee is the soundtrack to the evolution of America itself.” Aaron Millar, presenter of the Tennessee Music Pathways podcast Thank you to our guests and musicians: Ed Snodderly www.edsnodderlymusic.com  Amber Rose www.dollywood.com/ Boogertown Gap www.boogertowngap.com Ruth Miller www.visitsevierville.com Rene Rogers www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/ Explore Bristol www.explorebristol.com Listen to historical recordings of the artists and songs we mention in this episode on our specially curated Spotify playlist: Tennessee Music Pathways  From the largest cities to the smallest communities, the Tennessee Music Pathways is a guide that connects visitors to the rich musical heritage of our state. Visitors can curate their own path based on interests using an interactive guide at www.TNmusicpathways.com. Follow the conversation on social using or searching hashtag #tnmusicpathways. TNvacation.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube This series was produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry www.armchair-productions.com

T. Graham Brown rose to country stardom through the uniquely Southern phenomenon of beach music, a party-ready mix of old-time rock & roll, R&B, country, and blues. Born in Arabi, Georgia (his real first name is Anthony), he got his start performing while attending the University of Georgia, as part of the beach music duo Dirk & Tony. He then joined the outlaw country band Reo Diamond, and retooled his image as a hairy, tattooed wildman in a ten-gallon hat. Moving on in 1979, Brown formed his own R&B band, Rack of Spam, and officially settled on T. Graham Brown as his stage name. He moved to Nashville three years later, where, with the help of Harlan Howard, he found work singing demos and commercial jingles. In 1983, he signed with CBS as a staff songwriter, and went on to join the Tree International publishing firm in the same capacity. Meanwhile, he also landed a deal as a recording artist with Capitol, and released his debut album, I Tell It Like It Used to Be, in 1986. Partly recorded at Alabama's legendary Muscle Shoals studios, the record spawned a number one country single in "Hell or High Water," and both the title track and "I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again" went Top Ten. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.

Joseph Franklyn McElroy got a chance to interview our special guest this week, Jim Lauderdale. Jim won two Grammys, released 34 full-length albums, and took home the Americana Music Association's coveted Wagonmaster Award. But his forthcoming album Game Changer is convincing evidence that the North Carolina native is only continuing to hone his craft.Check out this episode to hear about how he's been making music, the strategies and techniques that help him stay inspired and focused on his craft, and what advice he'd have for other musicians in their own creative pursuits.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Also, we've got something special for all of you #music lovers, and it's a bit of a collaboration between Jim Lauderdale and friends. The #Songwriters Camp and Concert on August 12- 13,2022, will feature our own special guest Jim Lauderdale with Charles, Humphrey III, Darren Nicholson, Clay Mills, and Charles Chamberlain, who will be instructing on songwriting techniques and helping out with some live performances. This event is going to be jam-packed full fun, so be sure to check it out!https://meadowlarkmotel.com/event/songwriters-camp/#smokymountainsnationalpark #songwriter #northcarolina #maggievalley #podcast---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TRANSCRIPT00:00: 27--00:00: 47 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Howdy. Welcome to the gateway to the Smokies podcast. This podcast is about America's most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the surrounding towns, this area is filled with ancient natural beauty, deep-storied history, and rich mountain cultures that we explore with weekly episodes. 00:00: 48--00:01: 01 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  I am Joseph Franklin McElroy, a man of the World, but also with deep roots in these mountains. My family has lived in the Great Smokies for over 200 years. My business is in travel, but my heart is in culture.00:01: 02--00:01: 27 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: First a few sponsor messages and some events coming up. I want you to imagine a place evocative of motor courts of the past, yet modern and vibrant, with a chic Appalachian field. A place for adventure and for relaxation. Imagine a place where you can fish in a mountain heritage, trout stream, grill to catch on fire and eat accompanied by fine wine or craft beers.00:01: 28--00:01: 39 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Imagine a place with old-time music and world cultural sounds. There is no other place like the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Your Smoky Mountain Adventure Starts with Where you Stay.00:01: 40--00:02: 07 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Another sponsor is Smokiesadventure.com. That's smokies plural. Adventure, singular. The Smoky Mountains and surrounding area is a vacation destinations for all seasons. Some of the nation's best hiking trails, waterfalls, outdoor adventures, and family entertainment can be found right here. Start your adventure by using Smokiesadventure.com to explore all the wonderful features of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.00:02: 08--00:02: 18 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: The trails, the waterfalls, the caves, cove, the elk, and more. Then check out all the awesome family attractions and entertainment you and your family can enjoy.00:02: 19--00:02: 35 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Find lodging, find places to stay. Find places to eat. Find where you can do outdoor life events like weddings and honeymoons. It's all at Smokiesadventure.com, which is the leading information portal for adventure experiences in the Great Smoky Mountains.00:02: 36--00:02: 54 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  So, events coming up at the Meadowlark, August 12 to 13th we're having a Songwriters Camp it's a songwriter's camp in concert with Grammy-winning artists Jim Lauderdale and Charles Humphrey III, along with award-winning artists such as Darren Nicholson, Clay Mills, and Charles Chamberlain.00:02: 54 --00:03: 10 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  It's a two-day event of interactive songwriting instruction for world-class musicians, and a demo tape will be produced for each participant. And there'll be a concert of songs from the Rogue Band on Friday night and a barbecue dinner and also our concert on Saturday night.00:03: 10 --00:03: 50 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  This is going to be a unique event like no other, and space will be limited to ensure individual tension is given to all participants. The price is $675 per person, including all the activities and demo tapes and concerts, and barbecue dinner. And then there's special pricing for rooms, and there'll be room packages as well. Call 828-926-1717 for details. And there's also a limited amount of concert tickets available for the general public, and those are available on Friday and Saturday nights, and they're $30 each. And again, you can reserve your spot by calling 828-926-1717.00:03: 50 --00:03: 56 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  Welcome to the Gateway to the Smokies podcast with my guest Jim Lauderdale. Hey, Jim. How are you doing?00:03: 56 --00:03: 57 Jim Lauderdale:  Great, how are you?00:03: 57 --00:04: 01 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  I'm doing good. We're huge fans of yours.00:04: 01 --00:04: 02 Jim Lauderdale: Thank you.00:04: 02 --00:04: 16 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  And all the artists are coming to that songwriter camp. I'm really thrilled that this came up. Was the songwriter camp your idea, Bob's idea? You guys came up with it together or what happened?00:04: 16 --00:04: 30 Jim Lauderdale:  I think Bob approached Charles Humphrey about it and then he asked me. And so luckily, timing-wise, it worked out00:04: 30 --00:04: 36 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  cool. Yeah. I see that you do another couple of other camps, like one out west somewhere, don't you? 00:04: 36 --00:04: 49 Jim Lauderdale: I did. I did Steve Polt's camp out in Joshua Tree in May. And I just did the Swannanoa gathering and November00:04: 49 --00:05: 05 Jim Lauderdale:  I Believe it is. I'll be at Jorma Calconin's Fur Piece Ranch. Cool. Yeah. But I enjoy it a lot. I really do. Yeah.00:05: 05 --00:05: 19 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Cool. I have a friend of mine I think is going to make it who's been doing music for a number of years but really wants to learn from some real professionals. I got some people that are fairly excited. It's an exciting thing, I think, for people to get to work with some great artists like yourself. 00:05: 19 --00:05: 39 Jim Lauderdale: It's exciting for me to see people it means a lot to people that are writing songs, and I think they're just as valid as somebody that's been doing it for a long time.00:05: 19 --00:05: 39 Jim Lauderdale: And so, it's great to see that enthusiasm and the ideas and to see where these songs can go, too well.00:05: 39 --00:05: 49 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  it's nice to bring it to Western North Carolina. You grew up with Westville, right?00:05: 49 --00:06: 19 Jim Lauderdale: I lived around the Piedmont area and then in South Carolina for a few years not too far from Greenville in due west. And I've been coming to Flat Rock every summer of my life since I was born and have continued to come here a lot. 00:06: 19 --00:06: 36 Jim Lauderdale: And then other times in North Carolina. Winston Salem and Chap Hill for school. So, yeah, North Carolina is my home. Yeah.00:06: 36 --00:06: 43 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, I'm glad that you're bringing the art of songwriting here. So, when did you get involved in writing songs? Did you start pretty young?00:06: 43 --00:07: 03 Jim Lauderdale:  I guess I was going through my last year of high school and the idea came to me when I was visiting Troutman, North Carolina, where I lived my first five years.00:07: 03 --00:07: 34 Jim Lauderdale: And so, this melody and a title came to me in a few lines here and there. It was kind of an old, tiny, like, string band type thing. I'd been doing bluegrass banjo for a few years, but that type of melody hit me first, and then I had some melodies I gave to one of my classmates when I was a freshman at the North Carolina School of the Arts.00:07: 34 --00:07: 55 Jim Lauderdale:  And he wrote some lyrics. And from there then I started writing on my own and doing a few demos produced by a guitar-playing friend of mine named Zan McCloud, who I knew in Chapel Hill.00:07: 55 --00:08: 33 Jim Lauderdale: I had a duo when I was in high school with a mentor named Rick Bowley who started a music store called Oxpo Music. And I would travel around with him to festivals and help him sell stuff, and we played as much as we could. And then I went off to college, and these songs were coming to me. So Zan took me to a place kind of out in the country there, outside of Chapel Hill fella named Steve Grandback, who later moved to Charlotte and opened up a studio.00:08: 34 --00:09: 08 Jim Lauderdale: And I thought, just doing three songs and six songs, I thought, well, hey, a record deal is going to come any day. I'll be touring all over the place. I'll have to quit school, but this is what I want to do. I was naive about that process. Like everybody, it took a while, but that's where my passion for songwriting started, really. 00:09: 08 --00:09: 21 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: I've always wondered. I've been a visual artist, and I've done a few things as a visual artist. I learned that there are different kinds of visionaries.00:09:21 --00:09: 42 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: There's, like, people that are haptic and there are people that are not haptic and non- haptic. Non-Haptic are people get the vision of the painting in their head, and then they just go create the vision, whereas a haptic artist gets the idea and sort of the sense of a painting, but then they have to work it with their hands.00:09:42 --00:09: 50 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Haptic, they got to do it. Is that similar to songwriting? Do some people get, like, just the whole thing in their head and just put it on paper and other people have to work it? 00:09:50 --00:10: 25 Jim Lauderdale: That's right. It's different, really, for everybody. For me, a melody usually comes first, sometimes along with the title, but sometimes just a melody. I know some people who write down whole songs on paper and don't have a melody, or else then a melody comes to them or kind of simultaneously. So, it happens a lot of different ways.00:010:25 --00:10: 36 Joseph Franklyn McElroy That's interesting. So, in a songwriter camp, how would you help the different types of creators with the different ways of doing their creating of songs? How do you help them?00:10:38 --00:12: 33 Jim Lauderdale: I kind of feel like because usually these camps, there's so much to kind of cover in a short amount of time. I like to do things kind of spontaneously. I don't really have much of a format I follow. And it's kind of like that with me. With writing songs, if I'm co-writing or writing alone, it just kind of is spontaneous. And so, I kind of have to evaluate those writers in front of me at that time and ask them what they need, what do they need to learn, or to help them. And it's funny. My friend Steve Polts was saying at the start of this camp we did a few months ago, it's like, I can't teach you how to write songs, but I can help facilitate them, we'll kind of go through certain very briefly personal experiences of like well, this happened to me one time and that's how I got out of this block or something like that to help them. But I really make it about them. Usually, people have things that question of places where they need to work through.00:12:33 --00:012: 43 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Now, does every songwriter really need to practice the discipline or can they come and go from it? How does the discipline work in the songwriting craft?00:12:43 --00:014: 03 Jim Lauderdale:  I think it happens in all different ways too. Some people are super disciplined and I try to be putting and everything I've got into it, but I don't have necessarily set times. Like I don't have a schedule where I go okay, I'm going to get up at eight, have a cup of coffee, right, for 2 hours. Some playwrights and novelists and people like that. It's like I get up at five, I write for 3 hours, that's it. And some people I've also written really late at night with co-writers. We will have tried to write at nine and then we kind of plugging along and then as I'm about to leave or something, somebody will say something and an idea comes out. And then you stay till two or three in the morning. If you're on a role, it's good if you can go ahead and capture that magic.00:14:03 --00:014: 15 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  Now, when you are just going about your life and living, do thoughts for a song come to you all the time and you write them down and put them into snippets? Do you save those?00:14:03 --00:015: 25 Jim Lauderdale: My song ideas do come to me quite often in conversation or hearing something or just the thought will come into my head. So, I record them on my phone, on an app, on a voice memo app and refer to them later. I go back to them sometimes if I'm then though just playing also something comes out and then you've got your guitar there. But a lot of times I'll just hum the melody. I'm kind of old school. Instead of doing everything on my phone or computer as far as writing out lyrics, I write them down with a pen on if I have a notebook with me or just a scrap of paper. Sometimes I've lost a movie about that. Was there really somebody lost it.00:15:25 --00:016: 15 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  Some creative piece and they spent the whole movie trying to find it? Yeah, it was a silly movie, I'm sure. But it's true. When you're in the visual arts is the same thing. You wake up in the middle of night and think you have solved the mystery of the perfect painting. You write down the thing and then you lose that piece of paper and you're searching for it forever. the creative process is really interesting. If you do voice memos, how do you remember what to search for to find the thing that you went?00:15:25 --00:017: 23 Jim Lauderdale: I labeled them. I labeled them like if it's a bluegrass song, I say BG. If it's a country song, I say c. If it's for donna the buffalo, I say donna. Songs from the road band SFRB. So different thing. If it's a soul thing, I'll say royal or soul. I do have a bunch of unfinished things. I've recorded a few albums at royal studios in Memphis, which was a great sole studio. If I have a studio booked in advance and I'm trying to write for that outright, like, for instance, blackbird for blackbird studio for those sessions. So, I'm not very organized, but at least I can reference those. Then when I'm flipping through the phone, trying to find something to have ready,00:17:25 --00:18: 00 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: I mean the human database is the most complex and sometimes also the most infuriating product. We own mine, trying to remember what it was you had thought of. Yeah.So, given that you're going to be working with some people in a collaborative manner here at the Meadowlark Motel August 12, 13th, but then you also write by yourself, what do you prefer? Do you prefer to write solo or with a partner or with a group?00:18:00 --00:18: 40 Jim Lauderdale:  When you're writing with somebody else, I feel like you always come up with something that neither one of you could do alone, necessarily. There's some different strength about that collaboration, but I still like to write alone to kind of challenge myself to do it because it's harder for me to write a loan. It's slower and sometimes more tedious, but I enjoyed both.00:18:40 --00:20: 07 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Cool. You've written with some really great people, and I know that you have a podcast with another legend, Buddy Miller. Have you written with him? Yes. We've got a radio show on Sirius X outlaw country on channel 60 called the buddy and gym show. We have written it's been a few years. The last time we wrote, we did a record together, gosh, I think it was eight years ago, and we wrote for that record, and before that, we'd written some things for his albums. He'd usually save a song or two and say we'd work backwards. Usually somebody gives me lyrics and I put a melody to them, but he gave me melodies and I put lyrics to them, and then he'd be under a deadline, too, so I put deadlines on myself also. But he would be like, hey, I've got to finish this record. How are those lyrics coming along? You have to deliver in those situations,00:20:07 --00:20: 10 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Especially professional and the legend.00:20:10 --00:20: 12 Jim Lauderdale: Yeah, absolutely.00:20:12 --00:20: 15 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: You have a reputation to meet now. 00:20:15 --00:20: 17 Jim Lauderdale: Yeah, that's right.00:20:19 --00:20: 25 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  Is there any other people that you have co-written with that are sort of favorite co-writers?00:20:25 --00:21: 32 Jim Lauderdale Yes. The man I've probably written the most songs with is Robert Hunter, who used to write with Jerry Garcia and wrote kind of just so many of the grateful dead songs. And we've probably written about 100 together. And sadly, Robert passed a few years ago, and I've written a lot with John Levanthal, great writer and producer, guitar player, and a lot with OD Blackman and several songs with Harlan Howard, who was one of my songwriting heroes, and also Melbourne Montgomery and Charles Humphrey that will be there at the camp. I really enjoy riding with him a lot.00:21:32 --00:21: 36 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: He's a good guy. I've had him on the sales.00:20136 --00:22: 38 Jim Lauderdal: He really is. He's a good he really is. He's really a really great writer. And we have a few things. I did a bluegrass record at Echo Mountain a few years ago here, and my concept of it was to have North Carolina bands and North Carolina artists do tracks with me for this record. And so, Charles and I have a couple of cowrites on that. And then I've got a song coming up on a country record that's coming out in August of Charles. And I wrote that original I was thinking it was going to be more acoustic and bluegrass, and then now it's kind of more of a western not western swing, but slight swing thing. Well, I guess you could call it a western swing. Swing to it, right? Yeah. So that's going to be great to work with him at this camp.00:22:38 --00:22: 42 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Is the swing a hard thing to get into performing?00:22:42 --00:22: 52 Jim Lauderdale: No, it's good. Not think it breaks up the other grooves you might be doing. I really like it a lot.00:22:52 --00:23: 16 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah. The reason I asked is my wife is actually a Brazilian percussionist, a swing in that that you have to have or it's just no good. Right. She's done all right with that. It's an advocation, but she got to be on Saturday Night Live and that sort of thing. 00:23:17 --00:23: 18 Jim Lauderdale: Oh, that's awesome.00:23:18 --00:23: 20 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That's a great hobby.00:23:20 --00:23: 25 Jim Lauderdale:  Yeah, that's terrific.00:23:26 --00:23: 29 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Which do you prefer? Do you prefer writing or do you prefer performing?00:23:29 --00:24: 15 Jim Lauderdale: I like them both. They both have their attractions and fulfilling things about them. It's a great feeling to write a song and then it's great in those circumstances when you're on stage and then you get to do those songs and interact with people, interact with the audience. And if you're playing in a band setting, those other musicians. So, I wouldn't be able to choose one from the other.00:24:16 --00:24: 18 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Have you done, like, over 30 albums? Is that right? 00:24:19 --00:24: 22 Jim Lauderdale This will be my 35th coming out in August.00:24:22--00:24: 23 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Wow. Yeah. What's the name of that one coming out in August?00:24:23 --00:24: 24 Jim Lauderdale Game Changer. 00:24:24--00:24: 25 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Game Changer. And00:24: 32 --00:24: 56 Jim Lauderdale: it's a country record. I consciously I kind of go in different cycles with records, whether it's country, bluegrass, kind of singer-songwriter, soul or blues rock, or whatever. And this is a consciously focused country record.00:24:56 --00:24: 58 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That's fabulous. Of all your records, which one is your favorite?00:25:01 --00:25: 14 Jim Lauderdale: I can't decide. I mean, I really don't have a favorite because a lot of times the most current record is the favorite one.00:25:14 --00:25: 42 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  It said as the tea surpasses. People would ask the question, what's your favorite painting and they say, the last one. But I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yeah. When you hear a song or you see a song that you've written or listen to it, do you think, oh, I could improve it? There's something I should have done to improve it here? 00:25:42 --00:26: 10 Jim Lauderdale: Not really, no. I'm always if I hear somebody doing one of my songs, I'm just so elated that somebody else is doing, and I've never heard I've been asked before if I've ever been disappointed in a song offer, and I never have. It's always just real rewarding to hear somebody else's take on it.00:26:10 -00:26:14 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  Cool. Well, people come into the songwriter camp. What kind of things can we expect?00:26:17--00:26: 55 Jim Lauderdale: I think hopefully they'll walk away from that camp with a different take on their own writing and that they will be able to incorporate some of the tips and methods and things like that and suggestions and that. They'll walk out of there feeling more confident about their writing and their minds will be more open to things and their creativity, hopefully, will expand.00:26:55 -00:27:00 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: And will you give them insights on how to pursue a songwriting career and that sort of thing?00:27:00 --00:28: 59 Jim Lauderdale: I think first somebody's got to develop their catalog. They've got to have a body of work to and it doesn't have to be hundreds of songs or anything. You could have ten or 15 songs and go out there and try, but it's a process we won't get into because, see, the business part of things changes a lot all the time. But, basically my thing to people, and to myself, too, is that you have got to constantly challenge yourself. If you feel like, hey, this one song am I, this is it. This is going to change everything. It's going to change my life. This is going to open up the doors. That's terrific that you've got that song, but you've got to keep going and create another one and another one and another one. Not to just set that aside and go, well, Madison, but to build on what you're doing. And I feel like it might be naive or old fashioned or something, but I feel that when the songs are there, then those doors open. But it doesn't matter what kind of contacts you have or this or that. The songs have to be there. 00:28:59 -00:29:02 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, there's less than people write a good song, they can sing a good song, right? 00:29:02 -- 00:30:22 Jim Lauderdale Well, maybe, possibly, but sometimes it's mentioning that one song that somebody has. Some people have had careers, though, off of one song, but I think it's good to kind of be well rounded and have, let's say if you're outperforming, if you're a performing singer-songwriter, you've got to have a whole set of songs that you really feel are stand up to other people, other writers that you really like, and to your other good ones. And of course, that's a process. It doesn't happen all at once. It's like an art show. You've got to have a room full of art. You might have that one painting in the show. Yeah. And hopefully, those paintings in the room will be just as compelling.00:30:24 -00:30:31 Joseph Franklyn McElroy Your whole body of work. I know in other writing professions, there's writer's block. There's a writer's block in songwriting as well.00:30:32 -- 00:31:17 Jim Lauderdale: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yes. If we only had a series, we could do, Right? It would be a marathon. Yeah. I think that anybody that's riding something, will come across that rider block. That's one of the secrets I will talk about during this songwriter's workshop of how to break free of that rider's block.00:31:18 -- 00:31:19 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Oh, wow.00:31:21 -- 00:31:34 Jim Lauderdale I would say right now, but people will have to come to see that one time. 00:31:34 -- 00:31:43 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  That's the magic sauce, folks. Now you can learn, especially if you're starting out, you probably have riders block a lot.00:31:43 -- 00:32:45 Jim Lauderdale: Yeah, you do. But it takes practice and getting through growing as a writer, and you'll go through different steps and stages and things and just keepexpanding your abilities as time goes on. The more you do it, that 10,000. What is the expression when you do something for 10,000 hours, then you are good at something like that? Now you won't have to do that long, especially with the techniques people will be learning at this camp. They'll take a shortcut of 10 hours instead of 10,000.00:32:45 -- 00:33:06 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: There you, That's a big promise, man. I knew you had that big thing in you. Oh, that's great. And then you guys can have an all- star concert on the finale, right?00:33:06 -- 00:32:08 Jim Lauderdale: Yeah.00:33:08 -- 00:33:12 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: So, have you prepared to play this?00:33:012 -- 00:33:58 Jim Lauderdale: Yeah, we'll jam. I'm sure we'll talk about it before we get up there but on stage. But that's the cool thing about people can pick up. They can look at you while you're playing, or you can just say, Kia, this is like a one, four, five progressions. I'll kick it off. Whatever. It's fun to jam like that with people and hear what comes out.00:33:58 -- 00:34:25 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: So, it's going to be a fabulous time. I've got my whole family booked in at our motel, Meadowlark Motel, where it's going to be. That's great to be here because we're excited just to be around it. It's a two-day thing. It's two concerts. I imagine there'd be some jamming as well. Oh, yeah. Wonderful meals. I'm a cookie guy. Breakfast on Saturday morning.00:34:25 -- 00:34:28 Jim Lauderdale: Oh, nice. Yeah. Great. I'm a supporter of that. I'm a big breakfast guy. 00:34:28 -- 00:34:33 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Have your requests? What do you like for breakfast?00:34:33 -- 00:34:40 Jim Lauderdale: You know what? Whatever you have I'm sure will be delicious.00:34:43 -- 00:34:50 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, I can range from chicken fried steak to tomatoes with a smoked trout dip. Whatever slowed to you folk.00:34:50-- 00:34:52 Jim Lauderdale: Stop. You making me hungry.00:34:54 -- 00:34:56 Joseph Franklyn McElroy:  So, what's next for you?00:34:56-- 00:35:23 Jim Lauderdale:  I am working on my follow-up to the Game Changer record, and that's coming out, and several bluegrass things right now. And I have a fair amount of gigs coming up starting in September until the rest of the year.00:35:24 -- 00:35:36 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Okay. Yeah. Cool. And are there any shoutouts you want to do? Any websites or anything you want to mention for people checking things out?00:35:36-- 00:36:02 Jim Lauderdale:  I guess my website is Jimlauderdalemusic.com and then all the social media things, I've got stuff on those. Yeah. So that's kind of got the current things that will be happening on there listed.00:36:02 -- 00:36:19 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: I will be sure to follow some of that. That is exciting for us. I want to thank you for being on this podcast and also thank you for doing this campaign.00:36:20-- 00:36:56 Jim Lauderdale: Guess I'll say one more thing about the camp. When you're a kid and you went camping and how much you enjoyed it and everything, this camp will make those times when you're a kid look like a Greek tragedy. This camp is going to be even though it's short, we don't have time these days to go to a summer camp for two weeks. We cram all the gusto in two days.00:37:02 -- 00:37:35 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: In a day and two- days, it'll be the center of your life for the rest of your existence. That's right. It'll be the sun about which your life repeats. Yes. Well, that's fabulous. We are about to change people's lives and looking forward to it. Well, thank you. This has been the Gateway to the Smokies podcast. You can find us@ facebook.com GatewaytotheSmokies and also smokiesadventure.com and there'll be this episode as well as other episodes on that website that you can find. Thank you much. And that's it.00:37:35-- 00:37:36 Jim Lauderdale: Thanks a lot.Bye!

www.iconsandoutlaws.com    Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton was born June 22, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City, right here in the U.S., to Catholic parents, Fred and Catrine. Her mother was from Sicily. She has two siblings, a younger brother Fred (nicknamed Butch), and an older sister, Ellen. Her parents divorced when she was five.   Her earliest childhood days were spent in Brooklyn, but when she was about four years old, the family moved to Ozone Park, Queens, where she lived in a railroad-style apartment through her teenage years. Growing up, Lauper felt like an outcast. She grew up listening to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland. Then, at only 12 years old, she began writing songs and playing an acoustic guitar that she got from her sister.   Cyndi was primarily raised by her mother, who worked as a waitress to support the family. Mom loved the arts and frequently took Cyndi and her siblings to Manhattan to see Shakespeare plays or visit art museums. However, Cyndi did not do particularly well in school. She was reportedly kicked out of several parochial schools in her youth. Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Cyndi Lauper recounted in Boze Hadleigh's "Inside the Hollywood Closet" the time a nun attacked her after catching a nine-year-old Lauper scratching a friend's back: "A nun ran in, ripped me off her back, threw me against the lockers, beat the s**t out of me, and called me a lesbian."   As many kids do, she expressed herself with various hair colors and eccentric clothing. She took a friend's advice to spell her name as "Cyndi" rather than "Cindy." Unfortunately, her" unusual" sense of style led to classmates bullying her and even throwing stones at her.   Lauper went to Richmond Hill High School, where she was expelled but later earned her GED. In her book, Cyndi revealed that after her stepfather threatened to sexually assault her and her sister and then secretly watched her take a bath, she left home for good. Cyndi left Home at 17 to escape her creepy ass stepfather, intending to study art. Her journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually traveled to Vermont, taking art classes at Johnson State College and supporting herself by working odd jobs. Money was sparse, so she waitressed, served as an office assistant, and even sang in a Japanese restaurant for a time. At one point, her boyfriend at the time hunted and shot a squirrel, which she cooked up and ate. Lauper also faced an unplanned pregnancy, which she wanted, but her boyfriend did not. So, Lauper terminated the pregnancy.   "Nobody wants to run in and do that," She later told HuffPost. "It's just that I didn't want to have a kid that I love come into the world and not be able to share the kid with a dad." During this period, Cyndi got around by hitchhiking. Unfortunately, she put herself into close quarters with some potentially crappy individuals, such as the man who gave her a ride and forced her to perform a sexual act on him. "I just wanted to be able to live through it, get to the other side of it." On another occasion, she was assaulted by a bandmate and two accomplices.   Sometimes, it all understandably got too overwhelming for Lauper. "A lot of times I couldn't take it anymore, so I just lay in bed all the time," Lauper wrote. "When I really couldn't deal with anything, I used to get the shakes, just complete anxiety attacks." In 2019, Lauper gave the commencement address at Northern Vermont University-Johnson, the academic institution that now includes Johnson State. At this event, NVU awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.   In the early 1970s, Cyndi performed as a vocalist with several different cover bands. One of those bands, Doc West, covered disco songs and Janis Joplin. A later band, Flyer, was active in the New York metropolitan area, singing songs by bands including Bad Company, Jefferson Airplane, and Logan's favorite, Led Zeppelin. Although She was performing on stage and loving that part, she was not happy singing covers. One night, while singing a cover of Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me" in 1974, her voice gave out. But it came back shortly after, and Lauper continued to sing in cover bands and a Janis Joplin tribute act. Then, in 1977, Cyndi's pipes said no more. Her voice disappeared again, and doctors discovered that she'd suffered a collapsed vocal cord.   Recommended by her temporary replacement in the Joplin cover band, Lauper sought the help of vocal coach Katie Agresta. She helped heal Cyndi and provided her with the tools and techniques to prevent it from happening again. Agresta also helped her realize that she was singing the wrong music entirely, discovering that she was more suited to pop, not hard rock. As Lauper wrote in her memoir, "[I realized] what I was aching for — to sing my own songs, in my own voice, in my own style, that I made up myself." In 1978, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel, Combining a New Wave look with a '60s throwback sound, and recorded a demo tape of original music. Steve Massarsky, manager of The Allman Brothers Band, heard the tape and liked Lauper's voice. He bought Blue Angel's contract for $5,000 and became their manager. "The playing was bad. There was something interesting about the singer's voice, but that was all," he later told Rolling Stone. Massarky set up a few major label showcases, but they all thought the same thing; the band wasn't great, but the singer was something special. Lauper received recording offers as a solo artist but held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. She even turned down the chance to record a song by herself for the soundtrack to the MeatLoaf movie Roadie, produced by legendary disco song crafter Giorgio Moroder, the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. Blue Angel was eventually signed by Polydor Records and released a self-titled album on the label in 1980. Lauper hated the artwork, saying it made her look like Big Bird. Still, Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers (2003). Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly ("It went lead," as Lauper later joked), and the band broke up. The members of Blue Angel had a falling-out with Massarsky and fired him as their manager. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Cyndi into bankruptcy. She then temporarily lost her voice due to an inverted cyst in her vocal cord.   After Blue Angel broke up, Cyndi worked in retail stores, waitressing at IHOP (which she quit after being demoted to the hostess when the manager sexually harassed her), and singing in local clubs. Her most frequent gigs were at El Sombrero, which sounds like they have amazing chimichangas. Music critics who saw Her perform with Blue Angel believed she had star potential due to her four-octave singing range, which was not an easy feat. Then, in 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Cyndi met David Wolff. He took over as her manager and had her sign a recording contract with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. On October 14, 1983, Cyndi released her first solo album,"  She's So Unusual." The album became a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 4 in the U.S. and reaching the top five in eight other countries. She became extremely popular with teenagers and critics, partly due to her hybrid punk image, which was crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas.   Lauper co-wrote four songs on She's So Unusual, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop." On the songs she did not write, Lauper sometimes changed the lyrics. Such is the case with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard, which you can find on YouTube, and it's pretty awesome. She found the original lyrics misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women.    The album includes five cover songs, including The Brains' new wave track "Money Changes Everything" (No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Prince's "When You Were Mine." The album made Cyndi Lauper the first female artist to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 top five hits from one album. The L.P. has stayed in the Top 200 charts for over 65 weeks and sold 16 million copies worldwide.   Cyndi won Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards. She's So Unusual also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time"). She wore almost a pound of necklaces at her award ceremony. It also won the Grammy for Best Album Package, which went to the art director, Janet Perr.   The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, making Cyndi an MTV staple. The video featured professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Lauper's father and her real-life mother, Catrine, as her mother, and also featured her attorney, her manager, her brother Butch, and her dog Sparkle. She was a huge wrestling fan. In 1984–85, Cyndi appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone magazine, Time, and Newsweek. In addition, she appeared twice on the cover of People and was named a Ms. magazine Woman of the Year in 1985.   In 1985, she participated in "USA for Africa's" famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World," which has sold more than 20 million copies since then.   At the Grammys in 1985, She appeared with another professional wrestler, a Mr. Terry" Hulk" Hogan, who played her "bodyguard." "'The Grammy means a lot to me,' said Cyndi (in the arms of Hulk Hogan) after winning Best New Artist, 'Because I never thought I would amount to anything. I always wanted to make art.'" She would later make many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events and played Wendi Richter's manager in the very first WrestleMania event. Dave Wolff, Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy and helped set up the rock and wrestling connection.   In 1985, Cyndi released the single "The Goonies' R' Good Enough," from the soundtrack to the movie The Goonies and an accompanying video that featured several wrestling stars. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.   She then received two nominations at the 1986 Grammy Awards: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What a Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for Cyndi Lauper in Paris.   Cyndi released her second album, "True Colors," in 1986. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 42 and has sold roughly 7 million copies.   In 1986, She appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge, with a song called "Code of Silence." She is credited with having written the lyrics with Joel, and she sings a duet with him. In the same year, Cyndi also sang the theme song for Pee-wee's Playhouse, credited as "Ellen Shaw." In 1987, David Wolff produced a concert film called Cyndi Lauper in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO.   Cyndi made her film debut in August 1988 in the comedy Vibes, alongside a nobody named Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, and Julian Sands. She played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. To prepare for the role, Cyndi took a few finger-waving and hair-setting classes at the Robert Fiancé School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film flopped and was poorly received by critics but would later be considered a cult classic.   Cyndi then contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" for the Vibes soundtrack, but the song was not included. Instead, a high-energy, comic action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry video for the song was released. The song reached No. 54 on the U.S. charts, but did way better in Australia, reaching No. 8. Cyndi's third album, A Night to Remember, was released in 1989. The album had one hit, the No. 6 single "I Drove All Night," originally recorded by Roy Orbison, three years before his death on December 6, 1988. Cyndi received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards for That track. Still, overall, album sales for the album were down. A side note; The music video for the song "My First Night Without You" was one of the first to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. That record sold around 1.3 million copies.   Due to her friendship with a familiar name here at Icons and Outlaws, Yoko Ono, Cyndi was a part of the May 1990 John Lennon tribute concert in Liverpool. She performed the Beatles song "Hey Bulldog" and the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero." She was also involved in Sean Lennon's project, "The Peace Choir, "performing a new version of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."   Shortly after, the album was met with a dismal response, and she split with her boyfriend and manager, David Wolff. Cyndi lived alone in a New York hotel, emotionally drained and considering suicide. "I had come so far but felt like I had failed," she wrote in Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir (via Bullyville). "I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. I had to spend most of my time alone. I was grieving. I thought the sadness would never go away." Indirectly, it was Cyndi's best-known song that encouraged her to try to crawl out of her low place: "The only thing that always ­prevented me from suicide is that I never wanted a headline to read, 'Girl who wanted to have fun just didn't.'" On November 24, 1991, Cyndi married actor David Thornton, who's been in home alone 3, John Q with Denzel, and that god-awful tear-jerker, the Notebook.   Cyndi's fourth album, "Hat Full of Stars," was released in June 1993 and was met with critical acclaim but failed commercially, unsupported by her label. The album tackled topics like homophobia, spousal abuse, racism, and abortion, sold fewer than 120,000 copies in the United States and peaked at No. 112 on the Billboard charts. The album's song "Sally's Pigeons" video features the then-unknown Julia Stiles playing a young Cyndi. You may remember Julia from ten things I hate about you, alongside a young Heath Ledger.   In 1993, Cyndi returned to acting, playing Michael J. Fox's ditzy secretary in the movie Life with Mikey. She also won an Emmy Award for her role as Marianne Lugasso in the hugely popular sitcom Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. On November 19, 1997, Cyndi gave birth to her son, Declyn Wallace Lauper Thornton, who is now a trap rapper. Her fifth album," Sisters of Avalon," was released in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997. Just like "Hat Full of Stars," some songs on "Sisters of Avalon" addressed dark themes. The song "Ballad of Cleo and Joe" addressed the complications of a drag queen's double life. The song "Say a Prayer" was written for a friend who had died from AIDS. "Unhook the Stars" was used in the movie of the same name. Again without support from her label, the release failed in America, spending a week on the Billboard album chart at No. 188. This album also received much critical praise, including People magazine, which declared it "'90s nourishment for body and soul. Lauper sets a scene, makes us care, gives us hope." Let's just say it… her label sucks!   On January 17, 1999, Cyndi appeared as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken." She sang the National Anthem to the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" melody. That same year, she opened for Cher's Do You Believe? Tour alongside Wild Orchid. Yeah, that group with a young Fergie. Cyndi also appeared in the films "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and The "Opportunists." In addition, she contributed to the soundtrack of the 2000 animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, performing the song "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever." On October 12, 2000, Cyndi took part in the television show Women in Rock, Girls with Guitars performing with Ann Wilson of Heart and with the girl group Destiny's Child and the queen B herself!. A CD of the songs performed was released exclusively to Sears stores from September 30 to October 31, 2001, and was marketed as a fundraiser for breast cancer.   In 2002, Sony issued a best-of CD, The Essential Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi also released a cover album with Sony/Epic Records entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), which was released in 2003. At Last received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Unchained Melody." The effort was also a commercial hit, selling 4.5 million records.    In April 2004, Cyndi performed during the VH1's benefit concert, "Divas Live" 2004, alongside Ashanti, Gladys Knight, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, and Patti LaBelle. This event supported the Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America's public schools and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child's complete education. She made appearances on Showtime's hit show "Queer as Folk" in 2005, directed a commercial for the Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in 2006, served as a judge on the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards, and made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated "The Threepenny Opera" playing "Jenny." In addition, she performed with Shaggy, Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver/Stone Temple Pilots, Pat Monahan of Train, Ani DiFranco, and The Hooters in the VH1 Classics special Decades Rock Live. In 2006, she sang "Message To Michael" with Dionne Warwick and "Beecharmer" with Nellie McKay on McKay's Pretty Little Head album.   On October 16, 2006, Cyndi was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, she served as a guest performer on the song "Lady in Pink" on an episode of the Nick Jr. show, The Backyardigans. Cyndi's sixth studio album, "Bring Ya to the Brink," was released in the United States on May 27, 2008. Regarded as one of her best works when it was released, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has regarded the album track 'High and Mighty' as one of her essential songs. The album would be Cyndi's last release to date of original material, in addition to being her last for Epic Records, her label since her 1983 debut solo album. The album debuted at #41 on the Billboard 200, with 12,000 copies sold. Other projects for 2008 included the True Colors Tour and a Christmas duet with Swedish band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel." The song was released as a CD single and a 7" vinyl in Sweden. Lauper also performed on "Girls Night Out," headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the U.S.   On November 17, 2009, Cyndi performed with Wyclef Jean in a collaboration called "Slumdog Millionaire," on The Late Show with David Letterman. In January 2010, Mattel released a Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll as part of their "Ladies of the 80s" series.   In March 2010, Cyndi appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice with the then-future president, Donald Trump, coming in sixth place.   Cyndi's 7th studio album, Memphis Blues, was released on June 22, 2010, and debuted on the Billboard Blues Albums chart at No. 1 and at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200. The album remained No. 1 on the Blues Albums chart for 14 consecutive weeks; Memphis Blues was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. According to the Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo, the album had sold 600,000 copies worldwide by November 2010. In addition, Cyndi set out on her most extensive tour ever, the Memphis Blues Tour, which had more than 140 shows, to support the album.   Cyndi made international news in March 2011 for an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. A video was later posted on YouTube.   In November 2011, she released two Christmas singles exclusive to iTunes. The first release was a Blues-inspired cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Blue Christmas," and the second was a new version of "Home for the holidays," a duet with Norah Jones. In June 2012, Lauper made her first appearance for WWE in 27 years to promote WWE Raw's 1000th episode to memorialize "Captain" Lou Albano.   In September 2012, Cyndi performed at fashion designer Betsey Johnson's 40-year Retrospective Fashion show. She also released a New York Times best-selling memoir, "Cyndi Lauper A Memoir," which detailed her struggle with child abuse and depression.   Cyndi then composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with Harvey Fierstein writing the book. The musical was based on the 2006 independent film Kinky Boots. The musical tells the story of Charlie Price. Having inherited a shoe factory from his father, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen Lola to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business. It opened in Chicago in October 2012 and on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013. She won Best Score for Kinky Boots in May at the 63rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards. The musical led the 2013 Tony Awards, with 13 nominations and six wins, including Best Musical and Best Actor. In addition, she won the award for Best Original Score. Cyndi was the first woman to win solo in this category. After a six-year run and 2,507 regular shows, Kinky Boots ended its Broadway run on April 7, 2019. It is the 25th-longest-running Broadway musical in history. It grossed $297 million on Broadway.    In the summer of 2013, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her debut album "She's So Unusual," Cyndi embarked on an international tour covering America and Australia. The show consisted of a mix of fan favorites and the entirety of the She's So Unusual record.  She stated:"  It's been such an amazing year for me. When I realized it's also the anniversary of the album that started my solo career, I knew it was the perfect time to thank my fans for sticking with me through it all. I'm so excited to perform She's So Unusual from beginning to end, song by song and I can't wait to see everyone!" The tourtour grossed over $1 million   She was a guest on 36 dates of Cher's Dressed to Kill tour, starting April 23, 2014. In addition, a new album was confirmed by her in a website interview.   Cyndi hosted the Grammy Pre-Telecast at the Nokia Theatre, L.A., on January 26,  later accepting a Grammy for Kinky Boots (for Best Musical Theater Album).   On April 1 (March 1 in Europe), Cyndi released the 30th Anniversary edition of She's So Unusual through Epic Records. It featured a remastered version of the original album plus three new remixes. The Deluxe Edition featured bonus tracks such as demos, a live recording, and a 3D cut-out of the bedroom featured in the 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' music video with a reusable sticker set.   On September 17, 2014, Cyndi sang on the finale of America's Got Talent. Then, on September 25, as part of the Today Show's "Shine a Light" series, she re-recorded "True Colors" in a mashup with Sara Bareilles' "Brave" to raise awareness and money for children battling cancer. By October, the project had raised over $300,000.   The Songwriters Hall of Fame added Cyndi to its nomination list in October 2014. Also, her fourth consecutive 'Home for the Holidays' benefit concert for homeless gay youth was announced in October. Acts included 50 Cent and Laverne Cox, with 100% of the net proceeds going to True Colors United. In July 2015, She announced a project with producer Seymour Stein. She later told Rolling Stone it was a country album co-produced by Tony Brown.   On September 15, 2015, Kinky Boots opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End.   In January 2016, Cyndi announced she would release a new album on May 6, 2016. This record was made up of her interpretations of early country classics entitled "Detour." The announcement was supported by a release of her version of Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number" and a performance on Skyville Live with Kelsea Ballerini and Ingrid Michaelson. Then, on February 17, 2016, she released her version of Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love."   In February 2016, Cyndi was nominated for an Olivier Award for contributing to the U.K. production of the play "Kinky Boots" along with Stephen Oremus, the man in charge of the arrangements. In January 2017, this production's album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.   In May 2016, she was featured on "Swipe to the Right" from Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise by French producer Jean-Michel Jarre. This second album of the Electronica project is based on collaborations with artists like Tangerine Dream, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, and more.   In October 2016, her son Dex Lauper was the opening act for her in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, for her dates on her Detour Tour.   In January 2017, Cyndi was featured on Austin City Limits' 42nd season, performing some classic bangers alongside some of her country tunes from the "Detour." album. The episode aired on PBS.   In March 2018, it was announced that Cyndi and co- "Time After Time" songwriter Rob Hyman would compose the score for the musical version of the 1988 film "Working Girl." Ya know the movie that starred Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. She teamed up with Hyman because she wanted "the music to sound like the 80s". The musical would be staged by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley. A developmental production premiere of the musical is planned for the 2021/2022 season.   For Grandin Road, Cyndi exclusively designed her own Christmas collection, 'Cyndi Lauper Loves Christmas', available from September 2018. "I've always loved Christmas. It reminds me to find some happiness in the little things," she said.   Her annual Home For The Holidays concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York was held on December 8, 2018.   Cyndi guest starred, playing a lawyer in an episode of the reboot of the television series Magnum P.I.. The episode, titled "Sudden Death", aired on October 22, 2018.   On November 15, 2018, iBillboard announced that Cyndi would receive the Icon Award at the Billboard's 13th annual Women in Music Event on December 6 in New York City. According to Billboard's editorial director, Jason Lipshutz, "The entire world recognizes the power of Cyndi Lauper's pop music, and just as crucially, she has used her undeniable talent to soar beyond music, create positive change in modern society and become a true icon."    The song "Together" was featured in the Canadian computer-animated film Race time, released in January 2019. Originally written and performed in French by Dumas, Cyndi performed the English translation in the English version of the film initially titled La Course des tuques.   On June 26, 2019, she performed at the opening ceremony of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. Backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cyndi played two concerts on July 12 and 13, 2019, at the iconic Hollywood Bowl.   In September 2019, it was announced that Cyndi would star alongside Jane Lynch in the new Netflix comedy series described as "kind of The Golden Girls for today." However, as of March 2021, there have been no updates on this project. On April 23, 2020, Cyndi participated in an online fundraising concert to raise money for LGBTQ nightlife workers who struggled financially because of the coronavirus pandemic. Her finale was her performing "True Colors." The show was initiated by the Stonewall Inn Gives Back nonprofit organization of the historic Greenwich Village gay bar.    In November 2020, She dueted with former top ten "American Idol" finalist Casey Abrams on a cover version of the song 'Eve of Destruction.   In November last year, Shea Diamond featured Cyndi as a guest vocalist on the track 'Blame it on Christmas.' An official video was released in December.   She then performed at this year's MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute Show, honoring folk icon Joni Mitchell on April 1.   It was announced in May this year that Alison Ellwood will direct a career retrospective documentary about Cyndi. The project is already in production but does not yet have a release date. "Let The Canary Sing" will be the title of this career-spanning documentary produced by Sony Music Entertainment.   Still killing it after all these years!   "Shes So Unusual" ranked No. 487 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In addition, the album ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone's Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012.   "Time After Time" has been covered by over a hundred artists and was ranked at No. 22 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years and at No. 19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s.   "She Bop," the third single from She's So Unusual, is the first and only top ten song to directly mention a gay porn magazine. An ode to masturbation, it was included in the PMRC's "Filthy Fifteen" list, which led to the parental advisory sticker appearing on recordings thought to be unsuitable for young listeners. Rolling Stone ranked it the 36th best song of 1984, praising its unusual playfulness regarding sexuality.   "True Colors" is now considered a gay anthem, after which True Colors United, which advocates for runaway and homeless LGBT youth, is so “colorfully” named.   Info used from: Nickiswift.com Wikipedia.com

In this week's episode we're featuring a Conway Twitty album taken from smack dab in the middle of his hard country years (approx. 1965-1975): "Darling, You Know I Wouldn't Lie" (1969). Turning again to his go-to hardcore country lyricist Wayne Kemp (an old running mate from his days in Oklahoma City), Twitty scored his third consecutive Top 5 hit with the cheating-themed title track. A further exploration in song of Harlan Howard's "Life Turned Her That Way" theme presents itself on "Bad Girl", promptly followed by the corresponding "Bad Man". Interesting to note both tracks written by Twitty himself, who also added a dynamite hard country shuffle to round out Side A of the album in "Table In The Corner". Even the filler from this period in Conway's career is top-notch: a cover of Tom T. Hall's "Ballad Of Forty Dollars" rips as much as the original and even though it's hard to top a George Jones vocal, the Owen Bradley/Decca arrangement and production on "When The Grass Grows Over Me" and "Window Up Above" makes for superb listening. Quality stuff!

Pinkie Sings "Blame it on Your Heart"

Ronnie McDowell has an amazing string of hit songs that he has amassed over the years, but it is his riveting stage presence and genuine warmth that fills the seats again and again. Like all great entertainers, Ronnie McDowell has a personality that remains luminous long after the lights go dim. These qualities have inspired a nationwide network of fan-clubs with thousands of members, each one a devoted promoter of everything McDowell does. Following the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, Ronnie McDowell came out of nowhere to dazzle the world with his heartfelt and self-penned tribute song “The King Is Gone” on the independent Scorpion label. The record took off immediately, gaining airplay on country and pop stations across the country and around the world. To date, “The King Is Gone” has sold more than 5 Million copies. All of a sudden, the young Vietnam Veteran from Portland, Tennessee was a star, and he quickly proved that he wasn't just a one-trick pony. McDowell scored a second hit for the Scorpion label titled “I Love You, I Love You, I Love You” before being wooed and signed by CBS Records – Epic label in 1979. Ronnie McDowell charted a string of hit singles and albums for Epic between 1979 and 1986. Every single release with the exception of just one became a Top 10 Hit including the chart toppers “Older Women” and “You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation.” Other hits during his Epic years included “Watchin Girls Go By,” “Personally,” “You Made A Wanted Man Of Me,” “All Tied Up,” and “In A New York Minute.” McDowell toured constantly to support each album release and consequently built an astounding fan base throughout the country. He sought the advice of artists such as Conway Twitty who became, in essence, not only his mentor but his friend as well. Twitty helped the young singer with advise about touring, recording and most of all entertaining the fans. Twitty was certainly the master and Ronnie McDowell quickly became his prize pupil. Moving to Curb Records in 1986, his current label to date, McDowell scored a Top 10 hit with “It's Only Make Believe,” a duet with Conway Twitty on what was Twitty's breakthrough hit from 1958. Two years later Ronnie teamed up with Jerry Lee Lewis for a rocking duet that McDowell wrote titled,”You're Never Too Old To Rock N' Roll.” He also recorded yet another Top 10 hit with his version of the pop standard “Unchained Melody,” which also became a #1 country music video. To date, McDowell has scored over 30 top ten records. His entertaining abilities soared and he began to draw larger crowds. He started appearing in larger venues and touring with artists such as Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn before headlining his own shows.  Two of McDowell's most recent projects on Curb Records include an album of beach music with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters, entitled, “Ronnie McDowell with Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters”. The second project is a new country album titled “Ronnie McDowell Country”, a collection of six new McDowell penned songs, and a few country standards by such Legendary writers as Buck Owens, Harlan Howard and Dallas Frazier. Ronnie McDowell is still constantly in demand on the road and he tours relentlessly with his band. Additionally, he often tours with Elvis Presley's original sideman D.J. Fontana along with Ray Walker a longtime member of The Jordanaires staging a tribute to Elvis Presley's music. Ronnie McDowell sang 36 songs on the soundtrack “Elvis,” the Dick Clark-produced television movie that featured Kurt Russell as the performer. He also was the singing voice for the television movie “Elvis And Me”, the ABC television series about the early years of Elvis' career titled simply “Elvis” as well as, the 1997 Showtime special “Elvis Meets Nixon.” While Elvis Presley has played a big part in Ronnie McDowell's musical career over the years, 

BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp   And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.   Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE   Support our sponsors www.themidnighttraintrainpodcast.com/sponsors   Ep. 112 Haunted Venues   On today's episode we're going on tour!!! That's right Moody and myself are heading back out on the road and this time we're bringing Logan to carry our shit instead of us lugging everyone else's shit! Why are we heading out on tour you ask? Well it's because we are doing a tour of haunted music and theater venues throughout the world! This is an episode we've been wanting to do for a while especially because we've been to quite a few of these places! There's even one in our home town! Like we have at that certain Cleveland venue, we're sure some of our listeners have spent a ton of their time at some of the venues on the list. This is gonna be a fun one for us so hopefully you guys love it too! First up we've got a big one that will be on every list of haunted venues. The House Of Blues in Chicago. So the history of the building took a bit to find because every search for the house of blues in any city comes up with the main house of blues page but with a little digging we found some info on the building's history. The House of Blues is part of a complex called The Marina City complex. The Marina complex is also known as the Corn cob apparently, and looking at it… You can see why. If you're listening in Chicago and are like "what the fuck, nobody calls it that", will remember our mantra.. Don't blame us, blame the internet… Although we did find that reference in a couple spots. The Marina is a mix of residential condos and commercial buildings built between 1961-1968. The complex consists of two 587-foot, 65-story apartment towers, a 10-story office building which is now a hotel, and a saddle-shaped auditorium building originally used as a cinema. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina. WLS-TV (ABC Channel 7) transmitted from an antenna atop Marina City until the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) was completed. Marina City was the first post-war urban high-rise residential complex in the United States and is widely credited with beginning the residential renaissance of American inner cities. These days the complex is home to the Hotel Chicago, 10pin bowling lounge, and several restaurants including… You fucking guessed it... Dick's Last Resort bitches!!! Oh and also the complex is home to the house of blues. The house of blues was built in the shell of the cinema which was out of use for quite some time. The story is that the hob is haunted by the spirit of a little girl that died due to an illness. There are many reports of weird things happening. The most circulated story seems to be that of a little boy who was playing with some of his toys toys. As he was playing he stepped away for a moment and when he came back he saw a little girl playing with his toys. She asked him if he'd like to play with her. FUCK THAT SHIT!!!! The little boy screamed and the girl vanished. Oddly enough, I did find a comment on one website from a man named Skyler seeming to corroborate this story. The comment reads as follows:              " This can not be… no way… I have performed there 2 times. once was in 2013, and there was a boy in the back playing with his cars. a few minutes after he screamed and started to cry. I was feeling bad,, but this can't be him… also know that in 2015 in march i had another performance and all the lights turned off. This is too creepy."   Was this the same boy that the story is referring too? Who knows. We also found several comments from people staying in what we assume is the hotel Chicago as it's in the complex and pretty much right next to the house of blues. There's comment also claim the hotel is haunted. One of the claims says this:            "It's haunted!!! I saw a middle aged/older woman (dressed in clothing from a period long ago) in my room when I stayed there in 1999/2000. I woke in the early morning to see a woman staring at me. I went through a rational thought process of it being my female business colleague (who stayed in a separate room) and I thought, oh well she can sleep in the other bed (it was a double room & I was in the bed furthest away from the front door) and then quickly snapped out of it and said to myself she has her own room why would she be in my room, I opened my eyes again and that's when I could see it was a woman clearly (w/ angry face) staring at me. I then thought this is a stranger/intruder in my room – I laid there with my eyes just open enough to see – she was there staring at me & she still didn't look happy. I laid there thinking of what to do – I decided I was going to reach and turn the light on and then charge her or run after her when she ran for the door (fortunately, there was a switch right next to the bed). HOWEVER, when I reached for the light and turned it on she was gone. This is what makes this story interesting — I called the front desk and simply asked, ‘had anything significant ever happened at the site of the hotel' (b/c as the person above points out, its not an old or historic looking building (e.g. PreWar). I asked another question that any tourist could have just asked (I don't recall what it was right now). She said immediatley, “No, why did you see a ghost?” My response was, yea, I saw a ghost, I'm in my twenties and not some nut job.” I asked if anyone else had ever reported seeing a ghost and she said, “No.” Anyway, when I met up with my colleague, she could tell I was shaken up and I was pretty pale (like “I had seen a host.”). My story has never changed in all this time. I did stay at the hotel 1 other time after (not in the same room) & didn't see anything – but I slept with the bathroom light on… Scary & Cool experience for sure!"   Sounds spooky!    Next on our list of haunted venues we are heading to Milwaukee! Which is actually pronounced meely waukay, which is Algonquin for the good land. Now the Rave is amazing for several reasons: first it's the location of one of Moody's favorite tour stories which also involves Jon and our friend Brad from Voudoux.  2: it's huge and creepy as shit. 3: the pool... The Rave/Eagles Club is a 180,000 square foot, seven-level, live entertainment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building contains eight independent clubs with capacities ranging from 400 to 3500. The Eagles Ballroom is the building's showpiece, featuring a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) oval wooden dance floor, originally installed when the building was constructed, in addition to a large, old-fashioned domed ceiling and a stage on one side. Originally a ballroom, it has hosted everything from boxing matches to concerts to ethnic dances. The ballroom head hosted huge acts ranging from Bob Dylan to Green day, from the grateful dead to slayer and of course none other than Lil Pump.    Along with the eagles ballroom, the building houses the Rave hall, The eagles hall, the Rave bar, The Rave craft beer lounge, The penthouse lounge, and the eagles club.  Since its construction in 1926, the Eagles Club has known several incarnations. Prominently among them, it housed the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a notable organization whose considerable impacts on America's cultural landscape remain in effect today.   In 1939, the idea of using the building for music presentations took hold, reinventing its purpose. The grand ballroom became a popular venue for big band music, such as band leaders Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and their orchestras. Soon, other types of music, theatre and performing arts also offered shows and concerts in the large, elegant ballroom; from 1939 through the mid-sixties. Comedians like Bob Hope and Red Skeleton did stand-up comedy. In 1959, people who bought a $1.50 ticket to the Winter Dance Party, were treated to the music of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Big Bopper, Dion and the Belmonts, and Richie Valens. This would be the last show for buddy Holly before he died. In 1964, The Eagles Club had its first rock concert, with the Dave Clark Five performing on the ballroom stage. The 1970s brought even more famous groups and people, such as Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills and Nash and other rising rock stars.When the Athletic Club was closed, a homeless men's shelter opened up temporarily in the basement area, providing shelter for the destitute which is life-saving during the freezing winter months. By the late 1980s, The Eagles Club was in a state of disrepair and The Eagle Club put it out on the real estate market, after getting it listed on The National Register of Historic Places, in 1986.  In late 1992, the Eagles Club was rescued when it was bought by Wauwatosa businessman Anthony J. Balestrieri and his wife, Marjorie, who performed in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. They began the long process of restoring the historic beauty of the elegant ballroom and interior art, as well as the outside facade. They also restored and renovated other areas turning the building into the multi venue building it is today.    We wanted to include this history because: A. We love the history of places like this and B. It shows how many things this building way used for and how many people have passed through the building. We all know where there tons of history there tends to be ghost stories!    Let's get into the spooky shit! Remember the pool we mentioned earlier… Well at one point a 17 year old boy had a fucking heart attack and died in the pool. Later, at least two more children would die in the pool. This would ultimately cause the closure of the athletic club.  Also the man who ran the homeless shelter was said to be extremely cruel and abusive to the men staying there.    The basement area which is the home of the former men's shelter, is one of the more haunted areas. The shelter manager mentioned earlier is thought to be the reason behind the heavy negative energy felt there. Cold spots are often felt by staff in the late hours after closing. Shadow people have often been reported by staff as well as band members packing up after a show.    Next is the pool area, which we've seen and it's fucking creepy. A little girl is said to roam around the area. People have heard her laughter and have said her presence can bring a sense of dread. Staff have said they have heard shuffling footsteps and have smelled a strong odor of bleach in the pool area.    In the boiler room under the pool, a former employee still hangs and he doesn't like people in his area. "Jack" was once recorded telling a group on a ghost hunt to "get out, get out now" Apparently, you can find a video of this on YouTube, we'll try and find it to post on our page.   The ballroom has had its share of apparitions hanging around during sound checks and after shows when everyone has left. An employee told a story of when he was standing on the floor of The Eagles Ballroom, making sure that the people going to the roof patio didn't “get lost” and go into the Eagles Ballroom by design.  He said that one of his fellow workers had seen what they thought was a man, standing in one of the second floor boxes located above the Eagles Ballroom. He called security and when they approached this person, he ran down the aisle but disappeared before the staff person that was behind him and the security person cutting off his escape could try to grab him.    One other common theme is people hearing either happy laughing children or sad crying children. Some staff have stated they've seen entities of children playing in groups.    We've been here.. This place is awesome. Also another fun tidbit… not to far away from the Rave is the ambassador hotel. Which of you're up on your serial killers, you know is the place where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim in Milwaukee. Steven Tuomi was Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim in Milwaukee. Dahmer met Tuomi in September of 1987. At the time, Dahmer was out on probation after molestation charges of a minor. The two men spent the night together drinking heavily and visiting multiple bars. Later that night, they ended up in a room together in the Ambassador, room 507, which is a room some Dahmer historians have requested to stay in. Dahmer killed Toumi while he was in a drunken stupor. Upon waking up to find Tuomi dead, Dahmer put the body in a suitcase and took it to his grandmother's house where he was living. In the basement, he acted out necrophiliac desires and then dismembered the body. Supposedly when Dahmer awoke to find Tuomi dead, the body was in an awkward position hanging off the side of the bed. Some visitors have reported instances of waking up to discover their partner in a similarly awkward position.   Visitors to room 507 have reported a variety of experiences, such as a heaviness to the room that they can't quite explain. Some people get woken up in the middle of the night by odd circumstances. There's an extra little bit for ya!!!   Info on the Hauntings and most of the historical facts on the Rave was taken from an excellent article on hauntedhouses.com   Next up we're gonna head across the pond, so to speak. We're heading to London and the famous Royal Albert Hall! This place has a long and rich history behind it. The Royal Albert Hall was built on what was once the Gore estate, at the centre of which stood Gore House. The three acre estate was occupied by political reformer William Wilberforce between 1808-1828 and subsequently occupied between 1836-1849 by the Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay.   After the couple left for Paris in May 1851, the house was opened as the ‘Universal Symposium of All Nations', a restaurant run by the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, who planned to cater for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.   After the exhibition and following the advice of Prince Albert, Gore House and its grounds were bought by the Exhibition's Royal Commission to create the cultural quarter known as Albertopolis. A complex of public Victorian buildings were developed to house exhibits from the Great Exhibition and to further the study of art, science and industry. On May 20, 1867 7,000 people gathered under a purpose-built marquee to watch Queen Victoria lay the Hall's red Aberdeen granite foundation stone, which today can be found underneath K stalls, row 11, seat 87 in the main auditorium. The Queen announced that “It is my wish that this Hall should bear his name to whom it will have owed its existence and be called The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences”, as a 21 gun salute was heard from Hyde Park and a trumpet fanfare from HM Life Guards sounded. By December 1870 construction of the Hall had moved on so much that HM Queen Victoria and her daughter Princess Beatrice visited the Hall to listen to the acoustics.   Almost three months later, on 25 February 1871, the Hall's first concert was held to an audience for 7,000 people comprising the workmen and their families, various officials and the invited public. Amateur orchestra, The Wandering Minstrels, played to test the acoustics from all areas of the auditorium.    This place has been running as a venue for 150 years! Again… History breeds ghosts and Hauntings! There's so much history in this building that we are not going to be able to include but please check out the official website for the royal Albert Hall to really drive into the history of this place. You won't be sorry you did. We gave you the beginnings to show how long this place has been around. We're gonna get right into the spooky shit though!    On 13 July 1930 the Spiritualist Association rented the Royal Albert Hall for a seance for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, following the death of the Sherlock author on 7 July.   Conan Doyle was a spiritualist and believed in the existence beyond the grave. Upon his death 10,000 people gathered expectantly in the Hall to watch a medium take to the stage, hoping to witness some supernatural activity and hear a message from Conan Doyle from the other side…          Lady Doyle: “Although I have not spoken to Arthur since he passed, I am certain that in his own time and his own way he will send a message to us” Time Magazine, 21 July 1930   Lady Conan Doyle took to the stage alongside members of his family, with a vacant chair on her right reserved for her late husband.Time Magazine, who attended the seance, reports:   ‘Mrs. Estelle Roberts, clairvoyant, took the stage. She declared five spirits were “pushing” her. She cried out their messages. Persons in the audience confirmed their validity. Suddenly Mrs. Roberts looked at Sir Arthur's empty chair, cried: “He is here.” Lady Doyle stood up. The clairvoyant's eyes moved as though accompanying a person who was approaching her. “He is wearing evening clothes,” she murmured. She inclined her head to listen. A silent moment. Her head jerked up. She stared at Lady Doyle, shivered, ran to the widow, whispered. Persons nearby could hear: “Sir Arthur told me that one of you went into the hut [on the Doyle estate] this morning. Is that correct?” Lady Doyle, faltering: “Why, yes.” She beamed. Her eyes opened widely. The clairvoyant to Lady Doyle: “The message is this. Tell Mary [eldest daughter]…' Time Magazine, 21 July 1930   At this the audience rose in a clamor, and the great organ of the Hall began to peal, the noise drowning out the answer of Mrs Roberts.   But what was the message delivered to Lady Doyle that night? Did the ghost of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really visit the Royal Albert Hall on that night in 1930?   Seances are always fun and definitely work as we found out...yea...right….   Here's some more stories taken straight from the RAH website!   THE GIRLS Beneath the Door 6 foyer, in the carpeted basement area, there is one spot where two young women, known as ‘the girls', briefly appear each  November 2nd a little before 2am, when the building is almost deserted, except for some security staff.   Over the years, several staff members reported hearing ‘the girls' laughing, and seeing their animated and excited silhouettes appear, clothed in the fashion of slightly risqué Victorian ladies (extravagant long dark dresses embellished with lace from neck to bodice, with many ruffles, especially around the sleeves and hem, and their hair styled in cottage-loaf buns with ringlets hanging over their ears). The Duty Security Incident Book indicates that there had been appearances by ‘the girls' for the three years prior to 1991. They have been seen passing across the foyer space, which is bounded by double doors at each end, leading on one side to the staff canteen (where we still eat today) and on the other to the kitchen corridor, and then disappear. That is why some believe that ‘the girls' may be responsible for unexplained accidents, tappings and footsteps that occur behind locked doors late at night in the kitchens. Assistants Chefs, who have to clean the kitchen every night after use, often used to hear noises and have been frightened whilst in that area.    FATHER WILLIS Whenever restoration work is carried out on our organ, its original constructor Henry Willis, fondly nicknamed ‘Father Willis', returns as a stooped ghost wearing a black skull cap. When the organ was being reconstructed in 1924, workmen saw a little old man walk down the stairs late one afternoon. On returning to their workshop and relating the facts, their foreman asked what the man was wearing. When told that he was donning a black skull cap, the foreman decided it was the ghost of Father Willis, the original builder of the organ, long since dead, who would not approve of the alterations being undertaken. Since then there have been many reports of a sudden cold atmosphere in the area behind the organ.   When interviewed in 2018, Michael Broadway, the Hall's organ custodian was asked if he had ever seen signs of the legendary ghost of Henry Willis. He answered: “I remember the organ builder Clifford Hyatt telling me about this over forty years ago. The tuner […] was making the final visit of the Willis contract before the Harrison & Harrison rebuild in the 1920s. When he got up on to the Great passage board he saw Father Willis there saying ‘They shan't take my organ from me'. A lovely story, but I haven't seen him. There are many questions I would ask him and hopefully have his approval of the way I look after this instrument. Perhaps he has no reason to be disturbed.”    THE MAN IN WHITE During a Jasper Carrott comedy event in May 1990, the Duty Manager was ordered to clear the Middle Choir seats and to post a Steward at either end to avoid anyone entering as it is very distracting for a performer to have people walking across the back of the stage during the show. That's why a very angry Stage Manager demanded on radio to know why there was someone crossing the stage. The description was of a man dressed in white, walking oddly as if on drugs. The Stewards insisted no one had passed them and on further investigation no one except Jasper Carrott was onstage, but several people had seen the figure cross the stage from left to right.   THE VICTORIAN COUPLE A staff member during the 2000s reported having seen a couple in Victorian clothing walk across the second tier near to Door Six and vanish into a box. As a venue whose history is so closely tied to the Victorian times, this didn't seem particularly odd (people dress up sometimes…)   But in 2011, a Head Steward was finishing off his shift one evening and had made sure that all members of the public had left the second tier. On going downstairs into the auditorium, he noticed a couple sitting in the box so he returned to the second tier but found no one in the box. He assumed they had left while he was on his way back, so once again he returned to the auditorium… Only to see them again. So he went back to the second tier, and that's when he heard the couple chattering. He assumed they were in the box but on opening the door, there was no one there.   There are several more accounts on their website and tons and tons of stories all over the web about experiences at the historical venue. It sounds like it's one crazy place!!!   We've got a couple more for you guys.                Next up is another club we've been too, the Masquerade in Atlanta. The Masquerade features three indoor venues with capacities ranging from 300 to 1000, appropriately named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.  The Masquerade was founded in 1988 at the historic DuPre Excelsior Mill, a former excelsior mill at 695 North Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The venue had both indoor and outdoor concert space. It was sold in 2006 and moved in late November 2016 after it was made part of a new mixed-use development called North + Line. The building was designated as historic by the city and all of the original parts will be saved through adaptive reuse. The masquerade had hosted tons of national and local acts from cannibal corpse to the greatest entertainer in history, Weird Al Yankovic.     This night club is said to be visited by the spirits who died in fire and tuberculosis outbreaks long ago, both of which killed several members of the building's former staff. Apparitions have been seen and unexplained footsteps have been reported.One popular story is that of a large and tall black man who is always seen walking around the nightclub. The staff believes that it is this man who turns the musical amplifiers every night.   The staff has also reported hearing footsteps from unidentified sources, as well as cold spots all throughout the building. Horrifying screams can also be heard coming from the back of the stairs even when there is no one there. They believe that the screams come from the young woman who died in a freakish accident in the nightclub. Nowadays, there are rumors that real vampires come to the nightclub and even live there.  Some people believe that this rumor has been spread to promote business as vampires have suddenly become very popular.   Next up were heading to Nashville and a place the Moody had been to, but not for music, for the national beard and mustache competition. He did not place unfortunately. The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman, a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats.When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle. During the service, it was proposed the building be renamed Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was eventually built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery.[5] Upon the completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000. Though the building was designed to be a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early existence – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time.  Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in '49, Harry Houdini in '24, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname, "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman in its early years also hosted Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in '45, Little Jimmy Dickens in '48, Hank Williams in '49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in '54, Johnny Cash in '56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in '57, Patsy Cline in '60, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in '64, and Minnie Pearl in '64. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds of fans were often turned away. During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day and became a show known around the world. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman got the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it still holds to this day. The last Opry show at the Ryman occurred the previous evening, on Friday, March 15. The final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage. When the plans for Opryland USA were announced, WSM president Irving Waugh also revealed the company's intent to demolish the Ryman and use its materials to construct a chapel called "The Little Church of Opryland" at the amusement park. Waugh brought in a consultant to evaluate the building, noted theatrical producer Jo Mielziner, who had staged a production at the Ryman in 1935. He concluded that the Ryman was "full of bad workmanship and contains nothing of value as a theater worth restoring." Mielziner suggested the auditorium be razed and replaced with a modern theater. Waugh's plans were met with resounding resistance from the public, including many influential musicians of the time. Members of historic preservation groups argued that WSM, Inc. (and Acuff, by proxy) exaggerated the Ryman's poor condition, saying the company was worried that attachment to the old building would hurt business at the new Opry House. Preservationists leaned on the building's religious history and gained traction for their case as a result. The outcry led to the building being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Following the departure of the Opry, the Ryman sat mostly vacant and deteriorating for nearly 20 years, as the neighborhood surrounding it continued to see the increasing effects of urban decay.  In 1986, as part of the Grand Ole Opry 60th-anniversary celebration, CBS aired a special program that featured some of the Opry's legendary stars performing at the Ryman. While the auditorium was dormant, major motion pictures continued to be filmed on location there, including John Carpenter's Elvis (1979), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980 – Loretta Lynn Oscar-winning biopic), Sweet Dreams (1985 – story of Patsy Cline), and Clint Eastwood's Honkytonk Man (1982). A 1979 television special, Dolly & Carol in Nashville, included a segment featuring Dolly Parton performing a gospel medley on the Ryman stage. In 1989, Gaylord Entertainment began work to beautify the Ryman's exterior. The structure of the building was also improved, as the company installed a new roof, replaced broken windows, and repaired broken bricks and wood. In October 1992, executives of Gaylord Entertainment announced plans to renovate the entire building and expand it to create modern amenities for performers and audiences alike, as part of a larger initiative to invest in the city's efforts to revitalize the downtown area. The first performance at the newly renovated Ryman was a broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on June 4, 1994. Beginning in November 1999, the Opry was held at Ryman Auditorium for three months, mostly due to the success of the January shows, but partly due to the ongoing construction of Opry Mills shopping mall next door to the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry has returned to the Ryman for all of its November, December, and January shows every year since then, allowing the production to acknowledge its roots while also taking advantage of a smaller venue during the off-peak season for tourism and freeing the Grand Ole Opry House for special holiday presentations.The Ryman has also served as a gathering place for the memorial services of many prominent country music figures. Tammy Wynette, Chet Atkins, Skeeter Davis, Harlan Howard, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Block, George Hamilton IV, Earl Scruggs, and Jim Ed Brown have all been memorialized from the Ryman stage. In 2018, the Ryman was named the most iconic structure in Tennessee by Architectural Digest. And just because….On June 9, 2019, Wu-Tang Clan performed the first pure rap concert ever at the Ryman. The concert was sold out.   Again, we like to give history on these places for context and honestly it's just interesting to us so whatever. But this again illustrates the point that many crazy things happened here over the years as many many people have passed through this auditorium… Including Moody.   Ok, so let's get to the ghosts and spooky shit. Ryman's spirit was fine with most performances but would rise if the people onstage were getting a bit risqué. Apparently, he disrupted shows by stomping around the room so loudly that spectators were forced to leave. Famously, the ghost wreaked havoc while the opera Carmen was taking place. Probably because it tells the story of a gypsy temptress.    During the grand ole Opry period, rumors surfaced that the venue was cursed since apparently, most singers that performed there wound up dead. A total of 37 people met their fate in the most gruesome ways, dying from O.D.s, car accidents, fires, or slaughterings. Among the artists believed to have succumbed to the curse are: Stringbean Akeman, Patsy Cline, Texas Ruby, and many more. In a blog post by Virginia Lamkin titled Haunted Ryman Auditorium, the author explains that when the show relocated to the Opryland USA theme park, 14 additional acts died. It is believed that the curse followed because a large portion of the Ryman Auditorium stage was cut out and brought to the new location.   The spirit often referred to as “The Grey Man,” is believed to have been one of the Confederate soldiers who frequented the auditorium during post-war gatherings. Some say they've witnessed him sitting in the balcony while artists rehearse. He watches the stage steadily but disappears as soon as anyone gets too close.   ”The lady,” on the other hand, isn't a spectator; she's a performer. Believed to be the ghost of Patsy Cline, she has been heard singing by staff. Usually, her performance happens late at night as they prepare to close. Patsy Cline, who died tragically in a plane crash, has also been linked to the Opry Curse. Could the curse not only kill but also trap artists in the venue?   Speaking of Opry Curse victims, Hank Williams is said to have been another casualty. The successful singer/songwriter passed away in 1953, after mixing prescription drugs with alcohol. Similar to the other artists haunting the auditorium, Hank's voice has been heard clear as day by employees. They have also heard his songs being played onstage, without explanation. Along with Patsy, Hank Williams' soul has lingered in the old venue ever since he passed.   The info on the history of the ryman comes mostly from their own website while the stories of the hauntings we found on the website ghostcitytours.com   Next up is the Phoenix theater in Petaluma California. The club has been in existence since 1905 and has changed in both structure and purpose, mostly due to severe damage caused by several fires. Petaluma's Phoenix Theater has been entertaining Sonoma County residents for over 116 years. Hosting everyone from the likes of Harry Houdini to Green Day, the fabled teen center and music venue has a varied and interesting history.   The entertainment center opened in 1904 as the Hill Opera House. The structure was designed by San Francisco architect Charles Havens, who also designed Petaluma's Carlson-Currier Silk Mill in 1892. The Beaux Arts-style theater hosted operas, theatrical performances, high school graduations and music for over 15 years until the early 1920s when it was gutted by fire.   In 1925, the venue reopened as the California Theatre playing silent films accompanied by music. A Jan. 24, 1925, Press Democrat article proclaimed the showplace the “largest playhouse in Petaluma and one of the finest theaters of Northern California.” A packed house attended the opening night performance which include a double feature picture show and live entertainment.   The theater switched to movies with sound in later years and lost major sections of its roof to a second fire in 1957. Petaluma's Tocchini family bought the floundering venue in 1967 switching to a program of live music and entertainment.   In 1983, the theater was renamed the Phoenix - reflecting its ability to be reborn from the ashes. Tom Gaffey, a young man who had grown up in Petaluma and worked at both the California and the Showcase theaters, was hired as manager, a position he holds to this day. The theater gained unwanted attention after a late-night performance by the band Popsicle Love Sponge performed a questionable act with the body of what was believed to be a dead chicken. The late-night shows ended, but the movies continued for a short time.   Today the venue serves as a graffiti-covered teen center and venue for rock, punk, reggae and more. In 1996, it hosted the last show of the Long Beach ska band Sublime as well as rock and punk legends the Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, Metallica and Primus. The guiding principle of the Phoenix has always been that it's "everyone's building" and this was formalized in the early 2000's when the Phoenix became a 501(c)3 nonprofit  community center.   This place sounds pretty awesome. This following except it's taken directly from their website :               The Phoenix Theater is open seven days a week, generally from 3pm to 7pm, for drop-in “unstructured” use. Our building interior is large and soulful, with several rooms to accommodate a variety of activities. On a typical afternoon, you'll find kids playing acoustic music (we've got two pianos and a big stage), skateboarding (across the large wooden floor and up one of four quarter-pipe ramps), doing homework in the tutoring room, or sitting in one of the overstuffed sofas: reading, talking with friends, or napping. There's always a staff member onsite, but the atmosphere is casual.    On top of this they have free music programs from lessons to recording to production to podcasting to band management and everything in between. Also they have many programs for teens in the art community to hone their skills. Not only that they have a teen health center to help inform teens and help them make better, more  conscientious choices regarding their personal health. They also have services for  transitive health and STD help as well. We feel like every town needs a place like this. Especially if it's haunted!!! Speaking of which we found an interview that Gaffney did where he talks about some of his experiences and other things that have happened. The following was taken from petaluma360.com:   Gaffey began by talking about his earliest days. “It was my job to close the theater down. By 10:15 it would just be me, and whatever people were watching the movie. Near the end, I'd go up to the projection booth. After the audience exited, I'd turn off the projector, come down onto the stage where the sound equipment was, turn off the amps, check doors, balcony, bathrooms, lock the doors, hit the security alarm, then go out the door by the box office.”   On three separate nights, as he was leaving, the box office phone rang.   Gaffey explained the building had five phone stations. The light on the box office phone indicated the call was from the projection booth.   “I'd have to turn off the alarm and pick up the phone. ‘Hello? Hello? Hello?' But there was nobody there.   “You can't believe in ghosts when you're shutting down a theater. You have to check.   “Three times I mustered my courage, turned the lights back on and burst into the projection booth. There was no one there.   “That was my first experience, when I was an unknown here, a spooky ‘welcome back.'”   Gaffey is quick to temper his conversation with “it could have been” and “maybe someone playing pranks.” He keeps an open mind. Ghosts or explainable experiences: it's for the individual to decide.   “Blue lights have been seen floating through the building. There's the Little Kid: he'd been seen even when I was a kid working down here. And one night, sleeping on stage as a teen, I could hear and feel big footsteps. I never felt afraid.   “The big guy has been felt by many over the years,” Gaffey said. “We named him Chris. Big Chris. He's the only ghost - if there are ghosts here - who's not from a show business background.” He added that psychics who've visited the theater have talked about Chris dating to the livery stable-era and that someone was murdered on this spot, possibly with a knife.   But Gaffey continued firmly, “My experiences in this building have been warm and protective. “Chris had the spirit of the Phoenix before it became what it is. Chris may have loved this spot. I think it's one of the coolest corners in town.” He commented he sensed from the warmth he felt as he was talking that Chris was on stage, observing.   Then there's the Little Kid - a boy. “That's an interesting one,” Gaffey said. “Again - a psychic had come in. First off, he talked about the guy in the attic [the projection booth], said he seemed to be older, white hair and faded green, almost khaki, clothing; tall, thin with angular knees and elbows.   The older man, the psychic told Gaffey, is trying to make good on something wrong he felt he did to a child. The psychic added the old man hadn't, however, done anything.   “I'm wondering,” Gaffey said, “if it's the little boy. This was the fly area” - the area to the rear of the stage where backdrops hung. “With stuff hanging here and ladder work, maybe the kid was injured. He's been seen by many. He's got shaggy hair, maybe less than five feet, wearing shorts or knickers, a wool suit and a cap, from the 1920s.”   In the 1990s, a security guard for the thrash metal band GWAR got down off a ladder and asked, “Who's that little kid back there in the exit?” When no one could find the boy, the guard quit.    There is much more to the interview and we would definitely recommend checking it out! We've got one one more venue for you guys even though there are a bunch more out there. Some of the more well known and covered places like Bobby Mackey's in Kentucky, The Avalon in Hollywood, Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans, The rapids theater in Niagara falls NY among others we've left off but will definitely be back to cover at a future point as the history and Hauntings in these places is awesome.    So that brings us to our home town of Cleveland Ohio and to the World famous Agora Theater. Now this a place where we've both spent many nights jamming out to some great fucking shows. And yes.. Whether you like it or not… Here comes some history fuckers.    The first Agora in Cleveland, informally referred to as Agora Alpha, opened on February 26, 1966, at 2175 Cornell Road in Little Italy near the campus of Case Western Reserve University. In 1967, the Agora moved to a second building on East 24th Street near the campus of Cleveland State University. Once settled in their new location, the new Agora Ballroom, informally referred to as Agora Beta, played a role in giving exposure to many bands, both from the Cleveland area and abroad. Many artists such as Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Grand Funk Railroad, ZZ Top, Kiss and many others received much exposure after playing the Agora.[3] The Agora Ballroom was also the setting of the concert by Paul Simon's character in the opening minutes of the 1980 movie One-Trick Pony. The front facade of the Agora Ballroom was temporarily swapped for the one shown in the movie. It is also one of three locations used to record Todd Rundgren's live album Back to the Bars in 1978.   The East 24th Street building also housed Agency Recording Studios, located above the Agora. The onsite recording studio and the close proximity to radio station WMMS allowed for high-quality live concert broadcasts from the Agora. Some of these concerts were later released commercially, including Bruce Springsteen's “The Agora, Cleveland 1978”, the Cars' “Live at the Agora 1978”, Ian Hunter's “You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, Deluxe Edition” and Dwight Twilley Band's “Live From Agora”.   The popularity of the club led the Agora to expand during the 1970s and 1980s, opening 12 other clubs in the cities of Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown, Painesville, Akron, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Hallandale, Hartford, and New Haven. However, the Cleveland location is the only one still in existence today.   In 1984, the Agora was damaged by a fire and closed.   The building currently known as the Agora first opened on March 31, 1913, with an English performance of Aida as the Metropolitan Theatre. It was the brainchild of Max Faetkenheuer, an opera promoter and conductor who had also been involved in the construction of the monumental Hippodrome Theatre on Euclid Avenue five years earlier. The new opera house was well received and did well early on, but later struggled to stay profitable. Among various uses, the Metropolitan was home to a Cleveland's Yiddish theatre troupe in 1927. This brief episode in its history came to an end a few months later in 1928 after the troupe was involved in a bus accident on the way to a performance in Youngstown; the actors were too injured to perform and the venture went bankrupt. By 1932, the venue had turned into a vaudeville/burlesque house called "The Gayety," hosting "hoofers, comics and strippers." The Metropolitan returned to its original use for a short time during the mid-1940s staging comedic musicals, but by the end of the decade stage productions had ceased and the theatre became a full-time movie house. From 1951–78, the theater offices were home to radio stations WHK (1420 AM) and WMMS (100.7 FM); the theater itself was known as the WHK Auditorium. In 1968–69 the theater was known as the Cleveland Grande. In the early 1980s, it briefly re-opened as the New Hippodrome Theatre showing movies. Following the fire which damaged the Agora Ballroom on East 24th Street, club owner Henry LoConti, Sr. decided to move to the 5000 Euclid Avenue location. Following extensive renovations, the new Agora Metropolitan Theater, the third Cleveland venue to bear the Agora name, opened in October 1986. The Agora has two rooms: a 500-person capacity, standing-room-only ballroom with adjoining bar, and an 1800-seat theater.   As far as some spooky shit goes, we were able to get some info straight from the source! We spoke with Mike who works at the agora and we got some cool stuff from him. In an email mine related the following information.            "Prior to our merger with AEG Presents, I used to lead our ‘Ghost Tours' with a group called Black Sheep Paranormal.   While I didn't know what to expect, and I wasn't exactly familiar with paranormal investigations, that quickly changed working with the group.             One of the members of the Black Sheep Paranormal group was a retired police officer. Pretty easy to say he's seen some shit, and could be characterized as fearless. Another member told him to check out the men's room, where we have a utility closest between our sinks and stalls. From past experiences, we usually get some decent activity from that closest. However, nothing occurred this time. After giving up on this spot, the team member decided to use the bathroom. Seconds later, he hears **CLAP, CLAP, CLAP** from behind his neck, and he exited the bathroom about as white as a ghost.   Oh man… Good thing he was in the bathroom in case he pissed himself!! This next story is pretty crazy. He talks about "The Cleaning Lady"!             "One of the known spirits at The Agora, who we call “The Cleaning Lady,” as you could have guessed, was responsible for cleaning the venue many decades ago. While I'm not exactly sure what happened to her, she was said to have fallen off our balcony, and died. One night, during an investigation, we were sitting in silence at the top of our balcony on the left hand side. As we sat there, we started to hear sweeping sounds. As the broom sweeps started to happen for a few seconds, all of the sudden, the sound traveled from the left side of the venue, all the way to the right side of the venue. We couldn't really explain it, but that's exactly what happened."   Wow! That's awesome! This next one would probably freak a lot of people out… but it's definitely cool.           "Another occurrence was when we were up in one of the suite boxes up in the balcony. The venue was blacked out, and from where we were sitting, you could still see the bar area in our lower level. The bar had a mini fridge up against the wall that had lighting in it. We draped it off with a black table cloth, but there was still exposed light coming from the fridge. As we're sitting there, we see a shadow fading in, and fading out of the light. Almost as if a person was pacing back and forth. We were able to see this because of the light from the fridge. As this shadow figure is pacing back and forth for a good 30 – 60 seconds, one of our team members calls out “if anyone is over by the bar, please make a sound.” And I shit you not, with no hesitation, a stack of plastic cups falls off the bar and onto the ground. That was definitely one of my favorite experiences."   Hopefully we get some action like that on our ghost hunt! Mike goes on to say that he actually got to see an apparition as well!       "Over the years, we've heard and seen many things. We've had items that turn up missing, seen plenty of white anomalies, and other occurrences. Apparitions are rare, but sounds are usually constant. We've heard bangs on our doors, we've heard voices, we've even heard music; big band music to be specific. The apparition I've seen was an unreal experience. We were sitting in the balcony, and we just saw this shadow figure in one of the seats across/behind us. The figure was perfectly human-shaped, but you could see through it. It definitely seemed like it was staring at us the whole time. Sadly, my story telling doesn't do this moment very much justice.   He said that a lot of the investigation stuff was mainly communication based with the spirits. He said they would ask  questions and they frequently got answers. We asked about how the spirits would answer and he told us:             "Most of the time in our investigations, we used dowsing rods for the questions, and asked them to cross the rods in a ‘yes or no' type of questioning. They were always responsive in this form. As long as we got it started, we usually were able to keep the questions going. Obviously, noises would happen all the time. I remember one evening just working (no event going on), but we use to have these ‘garage' type doors for our balcony entry. And for whatever reason, the spirts would not stop banging on them. Like something out of a movie, non-stop banging. That was the same day where my coworker went to use the bathroom, and as she was coming back to the office she heard “There she goes…” in a whisper type voice.   Damn! That's some crazy shit! We would like to thank Mike for his time and this incredible stories of the strange stuff that occurs at the agora! Hometown spooky shit is always awesome!  Top ten horror movie musicals https://screenrant.com/horror-musicals-best-ever-imdb/

This week's episode features Dr. Joel Snider and focuses on 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a.God May Forgive You (But I Won't)  Sung by Iris Dement lyrics by Harlan Howard and Bobby Braddock © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC Well, the kids had to cry for you I had to try to do things that the Dad should do since you've been gone Well, you really let us down You may be Heaven 'bound but you've left one hell of a mess here at home Yes, Jesus loves you, but I don't  [...] God may forgive you, but I won't and I won't even try Iris Dement is an Americana singer. The Americana genre blends everything from folk, country, blues, zydeco, and rock. Dement has performed with such notables as John Prime and Emmy Lou Harris.The lyrics of this song struck me for their raw honesty about following Jesus and our relationships with others. Other Christian commentators have called it satanic, but I think she actually captures the spirit of Paul's opening verses to 1 Corinthians 13, known as the "Love Chapter." Today's sermon challenges those of us who possess a loveless faith - the kind that can move mountains, but doesn't care for other people. The kind that claims heaven, but denies family. The kind of faith captured in the words of this song.  

The Benny Goodman Quartet [00:27] "Stompin' at the Savoy" Made in Japan Capitol Records ST 2282 1965 A recording of a performance from February 25, 1964 in Tokyo. Rounding out the quartet are Dick Shreve on piano, Colin Bailey on drums, and Monty Budwig on bass. Madness [04:32] "Night Boat to Cairo" Madness Geffen Records GHS 4003 1983 The boys 1979 single added here to their 1983 US self-title compilation. Madonna [07:47] "Lucky Star" The Immaculate Collection Sire 1-26400 1990 Number smash hit on the dance club charts, and number 4 on the Hot 100 in 1983. Badfinger [11:24] "Come and Get It" Magic Christian Music Apple Records ST-3364 1970 Badfinger do a fine job with song that Paul McCartney originally recorded as a demo during the Abbey Road sessions. Pearl Charles [15:11] "What I Need" Magic Mirror Kanine Records KR242LP-C1 2021 Easily one of my favorite albums this year on magical blue vinyl. Super dig the electric piano vibes on this track. Sarah Vaughan [18:34] "That Old Black Magic" The Magic of Sarah Vaughan Mercury Wing MGW 12280 1959 (1964 reissue) A fine rendition of the Arlen/Spencer classic from Sarah Vaughan's last album on Mercury Wing. Zamfir [21:26] "Just the Way You Are" The Magic of Zamfir Heartland Music HL1017 1984 Master of the Pan Flute! Probably the only time you will hear either Zamfir or Billy Joel on Vinyl-O-Matic is when this album comes up in rotation. Deerhoof [25:46] "The Devil and His Anarchic Surrealist Retinue" The Magic Polyvinyl Record Company PRC-315 2016 Lucky number 13! Yes that's right, this is the 13th studio album from one of my favorite bands on awesome white and purple starburst vinyl. Thou [30:16] "The Changeling Prince" Magus Sacred Bones Records SBR205 2018 One of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite albums from 2018. An awesome silver vinyl release with wax-sealed screenprinted sleeve. Gerry Mulligan and his Sextet [36:43] "Ain't It the Truth" Mainstream of Jazz EmArcy MG 36101 1956 A fine West Coast Jazz rendition of a Count Basie number. Recorded January 25, 1956 in New York featuring Mulligan on baritone sax, Zoot Sims on tenor sax, Bobby Brookmeyer on trombone, Jon Eardley on trumpet, Bill Crow on bass, and Dave Bailey on drums. Wham! [42:04] "Careless Whisper" Make It Big Columbia FC 39595 1984 Number one hit from a number one album with an iconic sax riff. Burt Bacharach [49:53] "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" Make It Easy on Yourself A&M Records SP 4188 1970 For you photography nerds out there: cover photo by Gary Winogrand. Leon & Mary Russell [52:59] "Now Now Boogie" Make Love to the Music Paradise Records PAK 3066 1977 Ok... I'm boogie-ing! Charley Pride [55:55] "Above and Beyond (the Call of Love)" Make Mine Country RCA Victor LSP-3952 1968 A mighty fine rendition of this Harlan Howard's classic from Charley's 4th studio album, which also happened to reach the number 4 spot on the country charts. The Bobbleheads [58:02] "Turn the Radio On (the Perfect Song)" Make Yourself Happy Poppop Records poppop 14002 2014 Some outstanding power bubblegum from San Francisco. Turn it on! Music behind the DJ: "Come and Get It" by Terry Baxter and his Orchestra

Summary: Grand Ole Opry legend Jeannie Seely. a Grammy winner who placed nearly 30 singles on the Billboard country charts as an artist, joins us to chat about her craft as a BMI award-winning songwriter whose compositions have been recorded by Merle Haggard, Ray Price, Irma Thomas, Rhonda Vincent, Faron Young, Connie Smith, Dottie West, Willie Nelson, and others. She talks about co-writing with Randy Newman and Glen Campbell, shares her perspective on Nashville’s songwriting community as the former spouse of Hall of Fame songwriter Hank Cochran, tells us what she learned from Porter Wagoner, and sheds insights on the challenges women of her generation faced while making their way as respected country songwriters.   PART ONE: The guys chat about Paul's recent songwriting success with artist Lauren Daigle and look ahead to what they have planned for Women's History Month.PART TWO: Our in-depth interview with Jeannie Seely.ABOUT JEANNIE SEELY:Singer, songwriter, producer, actress, author and radio show host Jeannie Seely has been a staple of the Grand Ole Opry cast for more than five decades, and is now the Official Ambassador for the Opry. She rose to prominence with the #1 hit “Don’t Touch Me,” a multi-million selling single written by her ex-husband, songwriting legend Hank Cochran, that earned her a Grammy award and recognition from Billboard, Cashbox and Record World magazines as the Most Promising Female Country Artist. Earning the nickname Miss Country Soul, Seely placed nearly 30 songs on the Billboard country chart, including “It’s Only Love,” “A Wanderin’ Man,” “I’ll Love You More (Than You Need),” “Can I Sleep in Your Arms Tonight Mister,” the Grammy-nominated Jack Greene duet “Wish I Didn’t Have to Miss You,” and the self-penned songs “Farm in Pennsyltucky” and “He Can Be Mine.”Before she hit the charts as an artist, Jeannie found early pop songwriting success with “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand),” a pop and R&B hit for Irma Thomas that she co-wrote with Randy Newman. Soon, country artists such as Connie Smith and Dottie West began recording Jeannie’s songs. Since then, her compositions have been recorded by Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Little Jimmy Dickens, Tex Williams, Merle Haggard, Lorrie Morgan, Doyle Lawson, and Faron Young, who scored a Top 10 pop hit with “Leaving and Saying Goodbye,” which earned Jeannie a BMI award.  Recording for the Monument, Decca, MCA and Columbia labels, Seely is credited with breaking barriers for women in country music, and the four-time CMA Awards nominee hasn’t slowed down. She hosts her own radio show on Willie’s Roadhouse on SiriusXM, and co-wrote “Like I Could,” a recent bluegrass chart topper recorded by Rhonda Vincent. Her recent albums include Written in Song, which spotlights her own compositions, and American Classic, her most recent album which features “Not a Dry Eye in the House,” a duet with Willie Nelson that was released on Jeannie’s 80th birthday in 2020.    

Nirvana [00:33] "Scentless Apprentice" In Utero DGC DGC-24607 1993 The one track on In Utero with writing credit to all three band members. Stiff Little Fingers [04:21] "Alternative Ulster" Inflammable Material Rough Trade ROUGH 1 1979 Another one of my go-to selections on the Downtown Beirut jukebox. Ray Charles [07:04] "Busted" Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul ABC-Paramount ABCS-465 1963 Ain't it the truth though? Written by Harlan Howard and originally recorded by Johhny Cash the year prior. Stevie Wonder [09:12] "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" Innervisions Tamla T 326L 1973 This song made it to number 16 on the hot 100 in 1974. Stevie plays piano, drums and Moog bass; Yusuf Roahman handles the shaker, and Sheila Wilkerson plays the bongos an Latin gourd. Paul Horn [15:30] "Akasha" Inside Epic BXN 26466 1968 Recorded INSIDE the Taj Mahal. Monty Python [17:20] "How Do You Tell a Witch" Instant Record Collection - The Pick Of The Best Of Some Recently Repeated Python Hits Again, Vol. II Arista AL 9580 1981 Stick that in your logical fallacies and smoke it. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos [20:07] "Buckaroo" The Instrumental Hits of Buck Owens and his Buckaroos. Capitol Records T 2367 1965 TextExpander will be very happy to suggest adding a shortcut for me so I don't have to type out Buck Owens and his Buckaroos everytime. The Album Leaf [22:06] "Always for You" Into the Blue Again Sub Pop SP 708 2006 Some fine SoCal electro indie pop. Sean Lennon [28:20] "Photosynthesis" Into the Sun Grand Royal GR053 1998 A fine latin groove from some groovy Downtown Jazz cats. Strings Unlimited [34:11] "Flight of the Bumble Bee" Introducing Strings Unlimited Tempo Records TS 1001 Buzz buzz baby. Daedelus [35:35] "Quiet Now" Invention Plug Research PR340202LP 2002 Always a pleasure to see perform live. This track features words by the equally excellent Busdriver. Jaco Pastorius [39:07] "Fannie Mae/Eleven" Invitation Warner Bros. Records 9 23876-1 1983 Recorded while touring Japan. John Lee Hooker [43:30] "Boom Boom" Is He the World's Greatest Blues Singer? Vee-Jay Records VJS 8502 1965 Can't get much more classic than this. Grace Jones [46:02] "Love Is the Drug" Island Life Island Records 7 90491-1 1985 A look at her 9 years on... Island Records! I love this version of the Roxy Music hit, remixed by E.T. Thorngren. Three Dog Night [52:07] "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" It Ain't Easy ABC/Dunhill DS-50078 1970 Written by Randy Newman (https://youtu.be/wR0D6HJms8w) for Eric Burdon (https://youtu.be/tH47sJIFK0U), taking the song to it's highest success. Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and his Orchestra [55:25] "Fly Me to the Moon" It Might as Well Be Swing Reprise Records FS-1012 1964 Moon yes, Mars... I'm not too sure about that one. Music behind the DJ: "Holiday for Strings" by Strings Unlimited

Kenny Hess has now been a part of the music industry since the 80's when he started a life of making music for a living. Born in Outlook Saskatchewan, music was always a part of his life and at just 15 Kenny started traveling the country singing the songs of such greats as Charlie Pride, Don Williams and Merle Haggard and it wasn't long before he was singing his own songs and sharing the stage with those very same great artists. A prolific songwriter, Kenny was noticed by Nashville' legendary songwriter Harlan Howard and soon Kenny began writing for Harlan Howard songs one of the most prestigious publishing houses in the country. This also led to a publishing and recording deal with Curb records Nashville. Though he has been blessed with a huge voice and songwriting skills, Kenny' real strength has always been his ability to hold a crowd of any size in the palm of his hand whether it be with his voice, his sense of humor, or his heartfelt songs of life. His show is comprised of a combination of classic country songs that have inspired him, some of the songs that Kenny has written for other artists or for himself as well as some fantastic stories of his life and loves in music. Kenny has had a very successful career with several songs reaching the top 40 nationally over 100 of his original songs recorded and 14 critically acclaimed CDs to his credit. He has also won or been nominated for several Canadian Country Music Awards and BC country music awards including Male vocalist of the year, Songwriter of the year, producer and Album of the year. In fact along with all of the other awards Kenny is the 8-time traditional country artist of the year and in 2014 Kenny was honored with the Entertainer lifetime achievement award. In 2015 Kenny was called back home to BC where he was given the honor of being inducted into the Country Music hall of Fame The last few years have been busy seeing Kenny not only perform his usual slate of dates as the headline act but also had him working shows and opening for artists like Brad Paisley, Randy Travis, Big and Rich, Dwight Yoakam, Reba, Merle Haggard and many more… This past august Kenny had the extreme privilege of being asked by Mr. Willie Nelson to join him on stage… An honor Kenny will never forget. “A natural born entertainer with a huge voice and great songs makes for a very special show. If you have never seen him perform, please go grab a seat, sit back and enjoy a little taste of good ole country music… Kenny Hess style!

Born on September 8, 1927, Harlan Howard is one of the great Songwriters in the history of Country Music. Our broadcast on this day featured a pile of songs from Harlan along with some of his biggest written hits from some notable beautiful country music singers. This was a fun one to put together!  BOOTS & SADDLE - September 8. 2020 | A Tribute to Harlan Howard 1. Legion Of The Lost - Harlan Howard (Harlan Howard Sings Harland Howard - 1961) 2. I Fall to Pieces - Patsy Cline (Single - 1961)  3. Pick Me Up on Your Way Down - Charlie Walker (Single - 1958) 4. Heartaches by the Number - Ray Price (Single - 1959) 5. Grey Eyes Know You - Harlan Howard (Mr. Songwriter - 1967) 6. The One You Slip Around With - Amber Digby (Music from the Honky Tonks - 2007) 7. The Streets of Baltimore - Bobby Bare (Streets of Baltimore - 1966)  8. I've Got A Tiger By The Tail - Buck Owens (I've Got a Tiger By the Tail - 1965) 9. Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache) - The Mavericks (From Hell to Paradise - 1992) 10. Foolin' Around - The Royal Hounds w/ Sierra Farrell (youtube) 11. Another Bridge to Burn - “Little” Jimmy Dickens (Single - 1963)  12. Take It and Go - Harlan Howard (Mr. Songwriter - 1967) 13. Yankee Go Home - Goldie Hill & Red Sovine (Single -  1959) 14. Chain Gang - Johnny Cash (Blood Sweat & Tears - 1963) 15. Above and Beyond - Dwight Yoakam (Dwight Sings Buck - 2007) 16. Everybody's Baby - Harlan Howard (Mr. Songwriter - 1967) 17. Busted - Johnny Russell (Catfish Johnny - 1982) 18. Wrong Company - Wynn Stewart feat. Jan Howard (Single - 1960)  19. Watermelon Time in Georgia - Vernon Oxford (Woman, Let Me Sing You a Song - 1966) 20. I'm Tired - Harlan Howard (Mr. Songwriter - 1967) 21. Odds and Ends (Bits & Pieces) - Warren Smith (Single - 1961) 22. She's Gone, Gone, Gone - Willie Nelson (To Lefty from Willie - 1975) 23. Just Another Girl - Jean Shepard (Single - 1958) 24. He's Just A Little Meaner - Harlan Howard (Harlan Howard Sings Harland Howard - 1961) 25. Key's in the Mailbox - Patricia Maguire (Dixie Darlin' - 2017) 26. Down to My Last Cigarette - Billy Walker (Single - 1963) 27. Heartaches for a Dime - Waylon Jennings (Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan - 1967)  28. Heartbreak U.S.A - Kitty Wells (Single - 1961) 29. Put Me Back Together Again - Harlan Howard (Harlan Howard Sings Harland Howard - 1961) 30. Has Anybody Seen Me Lately - Hank Cochrane (The Heart of Hank - 1968) 31. She Called Me Baby - Harlan Howard (Harlan Howard Sings Harland Howard - 1961) 32. I Wouldn't Buy a Used Car from Him - Norma Jean (Pretty Miss Norma Jean - 1965) 33. You Comb Her Hair - George Jones (Single - 1963) 34. Life Goes On (I Wonder Why) - Harlan Howard (Harlan Howard Sings Harland Howard - 1961)

We’ll be honoring the songwriting prowess of Harlan Howard this week on Deeper Roots. A country songwriter and performer whose career spanned six decades and wrote some of the classic songs of the Golden Age, turning formula into phrasing and stories of true life as he saw it. After a few minor successes, his song Pick Me Up on Your Way Down became a No. 2 hit for Charlie Walker in 1958 and Heartaches by the Number for Ray Price the following year,his name appeared at the forefront of songwriting talent of the time. His songs were performed by everyone from Merle Haggard to The Kingston Trio and Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. This week’s show will feature songs written by Harlan Howard and we’ll get to hear him perform many of his own. He coined the oft-quoted phrase “Country music is three chords and the truth”. Tune in for the festivities.

Welcome to the illegal episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast! This episode commemorates two illegal acts, both of which were captured on tape and involved live rock and roll. The first of these two acts happened in 1987 when Paul “Bono” Hewson vandalized a public sculpture with spray-paint during U2’s Save the Yuppies concert in San Francisco. The second illegal act took place six years later, in 1993, when Timothy Paul “Definitely Not Bono” Jones rehearsed and recorded music in a condemned house on Fairchild Avenue in Manhattan, Kansas. One of the cassettes that Timothy’s band recorded there has been unearthed to provide the closing song for this week’s episode. Despite the flagrant illegalities in the second half of this week’s program, the first half manages to remain completely licit, lawful, and full of C.S. Lewis. That’s due solely to the heroic efforts of Dr. Dan DeWitt, director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity at Cedarville University. Dr. DeWitt—artist, author, and all-around very legal person—helps us to understand why the apologetics methods employed by C.S. Lewis still matter today. The question that Dr. DeWitt faces from the Infinity Gauntlet is a DC and Marvel mashup that throws the most righteous superhero in each universe into a battle that will shatter one of them forever or until the next reboot. But then we get to the second half of the program, and everything pretty much goes to heck in a herd of hand-baskets. Bono’s illegal act in San Francisco triggers not only a citation for violating California Penal Code 594PC but also an exploration of the eschatology of U2’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower,” the very song that gave this podcast its name. But, even though it was Bono who added the words “three chords and the truth” to Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” it wasn’t Bono who coined this phrase in the first place. “Three chords and the truth” can be traced back to one of the greatest composers in the history of country and western music, Harlan Howard. This excursion into music history leads to some unexpected links to soul artist Curtis Mayfield and to Ms. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” herself, Cyndi Lauper. After an exploration of the differences between the eschatologies of Bono and Bob Dylan, the sordid story of Timothy’s illegal rehearsals emerges and forever besmirches his previously-pristine reputation. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS. In this Episode Dan DeWitt, Ph.D., is associate professor of applied theology and apologetics and the director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity at Cedarville University. Before joining the faculty of Cedarville University, Dr. Dan DeWitt served in academic and pastoral roles as Lead Pastor of the Campus Church of Highview Baptist Church, and as Dean of Boyce College. He is the author of several books, including Why God?, Life in the Wild, and Christ or Chaos. Follow Dr. DeWitt at @DanDeWitt. Questions to Discuss 1. Who was C.S. Lewis? 2. How has C.S. Lewis influenced your life? 3. What are some of C.S. Lewis' strongest apologetic arguments? Links to Click If you want to learn more about apologetics, one great place to start is Passionate Conviction, edited by William Lane Craig. To download a sample chapter, visit http://www.bhacademic.com B and H Academic "C.S. Lewis": website by HarperCollins Publishers Surprised by Joy: book by C.S. Lewis  The Problem of Pain: book by C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters: book by C.S. Lewis Miracles: book by C.S. Lewis "Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come": song by U2 "All Along the Watch Tower": song by Bob Dylan "All Along the Watch Tower": song by U2 "Pride (In the Name of Love)": song by U2 "Heartaches by the Number": song by Cyndi Lauper "People Get Ready": song by Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions ThreeChordsApologetics.com If you are interested in earning a master’s degree online or on campus that will equip you with the most comprehensive apologetics training available anywhere, go to http://www.sbts.edu/bgs/degree-programs/mdiv/apologetics/ How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that: 1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS. 2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show. 3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale. 4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise. 5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones  @GarrickBailey  @ApologeticsPod The Closing Credits Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by the band Vegan Friendly—even though neither Garrick nor Timothy has ever been vegan friendly. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. "The fair use of a copyrighted work ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, ... scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright" (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).  

Marty Stuart, a five-time Grammy winner, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, collector, preservationist, and fierce defender of country music’s rich traditions joins us to discuss his career, artistic rebirth, and ongoing artistry. EPISODE DETAILS: PART ONE  Scott and Paul chat about image, country music hair, Elton John’s new autobiography, and two Songcraft contests that give you the chance to win one of two new books by Marty Stuart and Lamont Dozier. PART TWO - 14:15 mark Scott sits down with Marty Stuart to find out how he left home at age 13 to hit the road; what he learned from Johnny Cash about the craft of songwriting; how he found the song that launched the best-known country music supergroup of all time; the three people he considers THE standard of country songwriting; the album that cost him a record deal, a band, a manager, and a publicist; why he had to leave “butt wiggling” songs behind; what he loved about the Dixie Chicks; how a photo of Louis Armstrong gave him a sense of mission for his band; why his greatest songwriting motivation is a deadline; the reason he used to send Harlan Howard and Ralph Mooney $100 at the start of every year; and the Patsy Cline artifact he found in a junk shop that launched his interest in collecting country music memorabilia.  ABOUT MARTY STUART Five-time Grammy winner Marty Stuart only had two professional jobs before launching his own artist career: playing in Lester Flatt’s bluegrass group, then spending five years in Johnny Cash’s band. As a solo artist, Stuart has scored seventeen Top 40 county singles, including Top 10 hits such as “Hillbilly Rock," "Little Things,” “Tempted,” “Burn Me Down,” and the Travis Tritt duets “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’” and “This One’s Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time).” Other Stuart songs that have hit the country chart include John Anderson’s recording of “Takin’ the Country Back,” The Dixie Chicks’ “Tortured, Tangled Heart,” and Clint Black and Martina McBride’s duet recording of “Still Holding On.” The release of Stuart’s concept album, The Pilgrim, in 1999 marked a turning point and creative renaissance where Marty, in his words, stopped following the charts and begin following his heart. He put together a highly-celebrated band, The Fabulous Superlatives, and has since championed the beauty and integrity of country music as a uniquely American art form. He is a frequent commentator for historically-oriented projects, including Ken Burns’ ambitious sixteen-hour Country Music documentary. His most recent effort is Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music, a Philadelphia, Mississippi-based museum, concert venue, educational and cultural facility that will house his personal collection of over 20,000 country music-related artifacts.  First and foremost, however, Marty is an artist and songwriter. His consistently well-reviewed albums over the last two decades are packed with original songs that celebrate country music’s roots without ever feeling dated. The Grand Ole Opry member’s songs have also been recorded by artists such as George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Wynonna Judd, Gary Allan, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Smith, Charley Pride, Porter Wagoner, Guy Clark, and Johnny Cash.

In this week's episode, we're featuring one of the best albums in the long career of Buck Owens: "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" (1961). Born in Detroit and barely receiving nine years of formal education, Harlan Howard relocated to Tucson then Los Angeles in the mid-fifties seeking a steady wage. It was there he was introduced to several early Bakersfield pioneers, including Wynn Stewart and Buck Owens. Extremely handy with a turn of phrase, Howard's stock skyrocketed when Charlie Walker cut "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down" and the following year Ray Price and Guy Mitchell's versions of "Heartaches By The Number" prompted a move to Nashville, where the songwriter earned the nicknames "The Irving Berlin Of Country Music", "Dean Of Nashville Songwriters" and "Mr. Songwriter". Few in country history have had as many hits with as many artists, and Howard's partnership with Buck Owens is legendary. This album, put out shortly after the third Owens/Howard hit in "Foolin' Around", has Buck covering several current hits from the pen of Harlan Howard, as well as many more from the deep songbook of the talented writer. Set in an era before the tele twang element of the Bakersfield sound had come to fruition and before Don Rich was let loose on harmony vocals - if you had to buy only one Buck Owens album, "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" may well be it.

In this week's episode, we're featuring one of the best albums in the long career of Buck Owens: "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" (1961). Born in Detroit and barely receiving nine years of formal education, Harlan Howard relocated to Tucson then Los Angeles in the mid-fifties seeking a steady wage. It was there he was introduced to several early Bakersfield pioneers, including Wynn Stewart and Buck Owens. Extremely handy with a turn of phrase, Howard's stock skyrocketed when Charlie Walker cut "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down" and the following year Ray Price and Guy Mitchell's versions of "Heartaches By The Number" prompted a move to Nashville, where the songwriter earned the nicknames "The Irving Berlin Of Country Music", "Dean Of Nashville Songwriters" and "Mr. Songwriter". Few in country history have had as many hits with as many artists, and Howard's partnership with Buck Owens is legendary. This album, put out shortly after the third Owens/Howard hit in "Foolin' Around", has Buck covering several current hits from the pen of Harlan Howard, as well as many more from the deep songbook of the talented writer. Set in an era before the tele twang element of the Bakersfield sound had come to fruition and before Don Rich was let loose on harmony vocals - if you had to buy only one Buck Owens album, "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" may well be it.

Big props to Belmonts, Curb College of Music for hosting the honest conversation on where women are at in having a chance for equality in music. Recorded live at Columbia Studio A, Cassadee Pope (The Voice and recording artist), Tracy Gershon (artist manager and c0-founder of Change the Conversation), and Leslie Fram (Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT and co-founder of Change the Conversation) all share their feelings on where we are as a community in accepting women as equals in business and in creativity. All three women brought their unique experiences and vocations into the conversation. We start with the purpose of Change the Conversation and the numbers behind the topic at hand. The double standards against women and has it always been like this? Then looking ahead is there a chance for women to not just survive but to truly thrive within music.  Change the Conversation is dedicated to improving the environment for women in music. Their goal is to become obsolete and “to never have this conversation again." In an attempt to turn their frustration into action and help level the playing field, Leslie Fram, Tracy Gershon, and Beverly Keel formed Change the Conversation in late 2014. Cassadee Pope; singer, song-writer, and musician was the lead vocalist of the rock band Hey Monday then embarked on a season of The Voice and became the first female winner. Her debut solo country album, Frame by Frame, was a top 10 Billboard 200 record and it debuted at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, with 43,000 copies sold in its first week. Today she is releasing new music and working on new material. Recently, she's released "One More Red Light" and "Take You Home" that you can download on Spotify or Apple Music. Be sure to go to  for tour dates, merch, and music and follow here @cassadeepope. Leslie Fram serves as Senior Vice President of Music Strategy and Talent for CMT, overseeing all music integration within the CMT brand, including original programs, CMT and music video airplay across all screens. Respected for both her hit intuition and hard-driving passion for music, Fram was the first woman to receive the TJ Martell Award in recognition of outstanding performance in the music industry in 2000 and was presented with the NARAS-Atlanta Chapter Heroes Award for her outstanding contributions to music and the music community.  In 2009, she was honored as a Lifetime Achievement Inductee in the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. She will also be one of the recipients of the very first ‘Innovation In Music’ Awards held June 6th in Nashville.  Leslie currently serves on the Board of the Academy of Country Music, the Recording Academy/ Nashville Chapter, Board of Directors for The Sports Authority, the Nashville Film Festival Music Committee,  and an alum of Leadership Music Class of 2014.  Fram is an avid philanthropist and spokesperson, using her voice to support numerous non-profits and causes. Tracy Gershon is a noted music business professional with a wide-ranging career discovering, nurturing and developing influential talent as an A&R and music publishing executive as well as an artist manager. During her A&R career at Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, Gershon signed award-winning platinum-seller Miranda Lambert and help guide the careers of Blake Shelton, Randy Travis, Gretchen Wilson, The Wreckers, Faith Hill , Big & Rich and Lori McKenna. As a creative executive at both Sony Music Publishing and EMI Music, she helped to secure hundreds of cuts while working with writers like Harlan Howard, Gretchen Peters, Tom Douglas, Carlene Carter, and The Mavericks. As head of the Nashville office of Warner Music Publishing, she inked award-winning artist Kacey Musgraves. While at Sony Music she served for two years as an on-air judge and associate producer on the USA Network's "Nashville Star." Gershon recently helmed the A&R department at indie label Rounder Records, where she signed or worked with artists as diverse as Blackberry Smoke, Sean McConnell,  and Jerry Douglas. Tracy, in association with Redlight Management, oversees the career of Country artist, Natalie Stovall. Gershon is also consulting the country division for Atlas Music publishing, as well as running One Riot Music. Gershon has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Nashville Business Journal's "Woman in Music City" in 2015, 2016 ,2017, and 2018 as well as Nashville Lifestyles Magazine's top ten "Women In Business" award in 2016.

The Ventures [00:35] a side: "Hawaii Five-O" b side: "Soul Breeze" Liberty Records 56068 1968 Their rendition made it all the way up to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom [04:52] a side: "He's Coming Home" b side: "Old Toy Trains" Chimney Rocks! Records PAD-002 2007 Britta with a fine variation on The Wailers' "She's Coming Home". Not those Wailers, the Seattle garage rock Wailers. Dean with a fine cover of a Roger Miller seasonal tune, with Omnichord! Speaking of which, yes that Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3). Vanity 6 [12:31] a side: "He's So Dull (stereo)" b side: "He's So Dull (mono)" Warner Bros. Records 7-29955 1982 Ugh... so dull. But so nice, I had to play it twice! And evidently can be briefly heard in "National Lampoon's Vacation". Who knew? Boston Spaceships [17:33] a side: "Headache Revolutions" b side: "Dementia Is Rising/Take That Off (and Put This On)/7 is the Hot Noose" Happy Jack Records HHRR21 2008 Yes indeed: Robert Pollard and Chris Slusarenko of GBV plus John Moen of The Decemberists and The Jicks and other Northwest bands. Psychedelic Furs [26:38] a side: "Heartbreak Beat" b side: "New Dream" Columbia Records 38-06420 1986 Feels like 1986. Climbed up to #26 on the Billboard Hot 100, evidently the only time they cracked the Top 40 in the US. Ray Price [35:40] a side: "Heartaches by the Number" b side: "Release Me" Columbia Records 4-33044 The first version recorded of this Harlan Howard classic. The original b-side was "The Same Old Me", but this is a "collectable" reissue so whaddya gonna do. The DeFranco Family [42:17] a side: "Heartbeat, It's a Lovebeat" b side: "Sweet, Sweet Loretta" 20th Century Records TC-2030 1973 Don't bore us, get to the chorus. Reached #3 on the Hot 100. Don Felder [47:56] a side: "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride) (stereo)" b side: "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride) (mono)" Asylum Records E-47175 1981 You say this guy used to play with the Eagles? I'll be damned... Music behind the DJ: "Trade Winds" by Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra.

PART ONE Scott and Paul go down the rabbit hole of why it's just not the same when certain famous musicians aren't accompanied by their indispensable musical compatriots. PART TWO - 8:15 mark Scott and Paul call up Matraca to get the lowdown on why she wanted to marry songwriter Red Lane when she was four years old; how she ended up with her first hit after crashing Bobby Braddock's party and sneaking into his music room; why she begged Deana Carter NOT to release "Strawberry Wine" as her first single; which of her songs she believes was partially inspired by Harlan Howard from beyond the grave; and why she doesn't want to be in the room with the producer or artist the first time she hears their version of one of her songs. ABOUT MATRACA BERG Matraca Berg landed her first #1 country single as a songwriter when she was just 18 years old. She went on to earn well over a dozen more Top 10 hits by artists such as Patty Loveless (who found success with “I’m That Kind of Girl” and “You Can Feel Better”), Trisha Yearwood (who scored with “Wrong Side of Memphis,” “XXX’s and OOO’s,” and “Everybody Knows”), and Deana Carter (who hit #1 with “We Danced Anyway” and “Strawberry Wine,” the latter earning the award for CMA Song of the Year). Other hits from the Matraca Berg songbook include Reba McEntire’s “The Last One to Know,” Martina McBride’s “Wild Angels,” The Dixie Chicks’ “If I Fall You’re Going Down with Me,” and Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter’s hit duet, “You and Tequila.” The list of others who’ve recorded Matraca’s songs includes Linda Ronstadt, Dusty Springfield, Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Ray Price, and Randy Travis. In addition to her success on the mainstream country charts, Berg is what All Music calls “an unclassifiable but utterly classy singer/songwriter and recording artist.” Her debut album, Lying to the Moon, spawned two Top 40 singles and earned her an ACM nomination for Top New Female Vocalist. Her Sunday Morning to Saturday Night album was named one of the Top 10 albums of the year by Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today, while The Dreaming Fields has earned rave reviews from Rolling Stone, NPR, The New York Times, and others. Berg has received three Grammy nominations for Best Country Song, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and received the prestigious ACM Poet’s Award in 2017. 

Watch the Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wb1pIc5YANw Get Ralph's Book, "Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting" here: https://amzn.to/2HPaTU9 ---------------------------------- Ralph Murphy has long been a favorite speaker, teacher, and mentor at the TAXI Road Rally. His insight into what makes a song a hit song is a deep dive into the art, craft, and maybe even a little bit of science thrown in for good measure. His decades of experience, research, and love of passing on what he’s learned from hit songwriters like Harlan Howard and many other Music Row legends is apparent every time Ralph beings to speak! Ralph is an artist, songwriter, producer, and music business executive, who has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic during his music career. He has served as president of NSAI, as well as VP, International/Domestic Membership Group for ASCAP, Nashville. He is currently a consultant to ASCAP via his company Murphy Music Consulting. His book, Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting, is a national and international best-seller, and is used as a part of the curriculum of Universities and Colleges worldwide. He’s had hits with artists like James Royal, Jeannie C. Riley, Crystal Gayle, and Ronnie Milsap, and continues to write songs and get cuts all over the globe! If you’ve always dreamed of writing a hit song, getting it cut, and watching it climb the charts, there are very few people who have as much detailed knowledge that they’ll share as Ralph Murphy! ------------------------------------ Learn More About TAXI: http://bit.ly/2mPVGYh Rub Elbows with Music Industry Pros at Our FREE Yearly Convention: http://bit.ly/2a9mwlp View Our Current Music Industry Opportunities: http://bit.ly/28JPUyd Listen on the Go with the TAXI TV Podcast: Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/2afebwW Google Play: http://bit.ly/2a7cCQX Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2FuSTJQ Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2icUDe0 TuneIn: http://bit.ly/2DCzKrd Connect With Us On... Facebook: http://bit.ly/2931C7x Twitter: http://bit.ly/2jJ0EnQ Instagram: http://bit.ly/2jcg7we

Some people think we have all these "authenticity tests" in country music. We don't. There's only one test. Wynonna passed it. Then, everyone thought she'd cheated. The answers lie somewhere in her past... From somehow surviving a childhood full of several types of abuse to a years-long reign over country music radio with her mother in The Judds, this path was not easy to travel and the end of it is only the beginning of another, much more treacherous road. Forget everything you think you remember. This isn't a Lifetime movie. It's rated R. This episode is recommended for fans of: Harlan Howard, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Asleep at the Wheel, Ashley Judd, guns, dysfunctional families and liars. Source

I was the last child and only girl born to the greatest parents, Dave and Joanne, and best older brothers, Jeff and Greg. I grew up on a hobby farm in the community of Dawson Creek, British Columbia. I began singing in church when I was 3, learned to play guitar when I was 12, and then began my curiosity with writing songs. I was obsessed with all things music and spent my entire childhood determined to be a star. However, in my senior year in high school, I received a scholarship to attend UNBC, which meant putting my move to Nashville on hold. I toughed out the 4 years of school to get my nursing degree, all while writing, touring, and making trips to Nashville. But when I got my degree in the mail showing I was an RN, I packed my bags. October 4, 2010, I loaded up my Honda Civic and headed south. I started knocking on doors, playing open mics and writers nights 7 nights a week. I wrote with anyone and everyone who would write with a green writer new to Music City. After a year and a half of persistence, one big door opened. Erv Woolsey (who manages my hero, George Strait), signed me as an artist/writer to his management/publishing company. After 2 years of honing my writing skills and getting my artist career on track, I was dropped and found myself knocking on doors once again. The office of legendary Hall of Fame songwriter, Harlan Howard, opened their doors and hearts to me. I played my entire catalog to the amazement of Harlan's widow, Melanie Howard, and she darn near signed me on the spot. In the year and a half that I have been a staff writer at Harlan Howard Songs, I have written over 200 songs with Music Row veterans like Craig Wiseman, Liz Rose, Paul Overstreet, and Stephony Smith, to name a few. In May 2016, in the midst of my long hunt to find the perfect producer to capture my quirky country style, Nashville's finest producer, Chuck Ainlay, came into my life. I invited him to come see me perform at the Bluebird Cafe and much to my surprise, he showed up. We had a meeting a few days later and decided this was exactly what we both needed and put the plan in motion. July came around and I found myself at the prestigious Sound Stage Studio on Music Row, recording my EP with the A-Team of studio musicians. Now here I am, starting a wild year, listening to my completed project. I am so proud of this EP and all the incredible people who contributed their time and talents to make it possible. I hope to be coming to your town and playing these songs for you live. I also hope to meet you, get a picture with you, and give you a hug, because it's people like you who make this all worthwhile. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. See you soon!

In this episode, we're featuring a good old-fashioned duet album from Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary: "American Grandstand" (2017). These two have been friends since the mid-90s when they were both labelmates at Giant Records - and this album has been years in the making. Now that the timing is right, the result is sublime. Singletary's baritone takes on a surprisingly good harmony vocal role on many of these songs, while Vincent's lead is pure and simple. These duets were recorded the old-fashioned way: both singers were in studio at the same time when the tracks were laid down, which leads to a wonderful result. Strong steel guitar and fiddles lead the listener through a collection of classic duet tunes, including the Jones/Wynette staple "Golden Ring", the Twitty/Lynn collaboration "After The Fire Is Gone", a surprisingly good "Above & Beyond (The Call Of Love)" from the pen of Harlan Howard and an original, "American Grandstand", written specifically for the album by Vincent is also a highlight. A deep knowledge and respect for the traditions of country music duet stylings from both singers make this one of the best releases of 2017.

In this episode, we're featuring a good old-fashioned duet album from Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary: "American Grandstand" (2017). These two have been friends since the mid-90s when they were both labelmates at Giant Records - and this album has been years in the making. Now that the timing is right, the result is sublime. Singletary's baritone takes on a surprisingly good harmony vocal role on many of these songs, while Vincent's lead is pure and simple. These duets were recorded the old-fashioned way: both singers were in studio at the same time when the tracks were laid down, which leads to a wonderful result. Strong steel guitar and fiddles lead the listener through a collection of classic duet tunes, including the Jones/Wynette staple "Golden Ring", the Twitty/Lynn collaboration "After The Fire Is Gone", a surprisingly good "Above & Beyond (The Call Of Love)" from the pen of Harlan Howard and an original, "American Grandstand", written specifically for the album by Vincent is also a highlight. A deep knowledge and respect for the traditions of country music duet stylings from both singers make this one of the best releases of 2017.

In this episode, we sit down with country music star, Sara Evans.  Born to fly, Sara began singing and headlining the Evans Family Band when she was just 5 years old.  As you'll hear, Sara was driven and determined to make it at all costs, even if that meant starting from the bottom. Subscribe and download on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Tune In, Stitcher. When she first got to Nashville, Sara made her mark as a demo singer.  She used this opportunity to meet some of Nashville's best songwriters while honing her craft and waiting for her big break.  That break would come as the result of meeting the Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter Harlan Howard, who thought she sounded like the legendary Loretta Lynn. In this episode, Sara tells candid stories while singing some of her top hits.  With her sister Lesley Lyons by her side, she belts out beautiful acoustic versions of her songs, filled with breathtaking harmonies. The series producer Brad Newman hosts this entertaining episode, which is an insightful look at how a girl with a beautiful voice made all her dreams come true. Like us on Facebook.  Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.  We want to know what you think.  Pitch us an artist, or simply spread the word and find out more about the series. #childrenofsong

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host. Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey! Southern-Sense.comJ.T. Cooper, A True Mountain Man. As part of the Army's elite 10th Mountain Division, JT was on the ground as part of the rescue forces during "Blackhawk Down" He received a CIB (Combat Infantryman Badge) and a Purple Heart for his injuries. He continued the line of duty started by his grandfather's, in service to his Country. Harlan Howard said country music was just 3 chords and the truth. JT is that truth. In a non-politically correct way JT tells stories in his songs and music that will leave you remembering what Grandpa said, ''God, Family, Country"Mr No Apology, will never be apologetic for his top 3. If those are in your top 5, DON'T Miss out on JT Cooper. JT is a True American. jtcoopermusic.com/ heartsongsforveterans.org/Dedication: PFC James Henry Martin, Jr., 10th Mountain Unit, 2/14 Infantry (QRF)Died On: 10/03/1993 in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia

Southern Sense is conservative talk with Annie "The Radio Chick" Ubelis, as host and "CS" Bennett, co-host. Informative, fun, irreverent and politically incorrect, you never know where we'll go, but you'll love the journey! Southern-Sense.comJ.T. Cooper, A True Mountain Man. As part of the Army's elite 10th Mountain Division, JT was on the ground as part of the rescue forces during "Blackhawk Down" He received a CIB (Combat Infantryman Badge) and a Purple Heart for his injuries. He continued the line of duty started by his grandfather's, in service to his Country. Harlan Howard said country music was just 3 chords and the truth. JT is that truth. In a non-politically correct way JT tells stories in his songs and music that will leave you remembering what Grandpa said, ''God, Family, Country"Mr No Apology, will never be apologetic for his top 3. If those are in your top 5, DON'T Miss out on JT Cooper. JT is a True American. jtcoopermusic.com/ heartsongsforveterans.org/Dedication: PFC James Henry Martin, Jr., 10th Mountain Unit, 2/14 Infantry (QRF)Died On: 10/03/1993 in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia

Not many artists come up with the best work of their career three decades in, but happily Lori Yates has done just that.  Sweetheart of the Valley, her 7th recording, shows that the honky-tonk heroine is at the very top of her game. This stellar collection of new songs showcase her twin talents as a compelling songwriter and the possessor of a voice that few can equal. When it came time to record a follow up to her award-winning acoustic "The Book of Minerva", she called in roots heavyweights & bandmates Hey Stella! - Bazil Donovan (Blue Rodeo, Doug Paisley), David Baxter (Justin Rutledge, Kim Beggs), Michelle Josef (Etta James, Prairie Oyster).  The results are being heralded as "An dark alt-country masterpiece." Lori Yates reclaims her title as queen of Canada's country singer-songwriters". (GR, Hamilton Spectator) This enigmatic, rebellious and hard to pin down veteran singer/songwriter, Yates adeptly blends country, folk, rockabilly and cow-punk to create her own award-winning sound and style of writing. (Songwriter of the Year & Alt-Country Album of the Year, Hamilton Music Awards 2007). One of Canada's roots/americana pioneers, she still has the same scrappy spirit and determination as she did when she first burst onto the Toronto Queen St. W. scene of the late '80"s as the "cowgirl singing her heart out in the rock clubs". Lori has been called "alt-country" long before the phrase existed. This is as artist who met Johnny Cash, hung out with Tammy Wynette, wrote with Guy Clark, jammed with Jerry Jeff Walker, partied with Harlan Howard, recorded with Greg Allman and ate jelly beans with Roy Acuff! 

Welcome back to the dHarmic Evolution podcast with me James Kevin O'Connor, singer/songwriter and master storyteller. On today's episode, I have with me a good friend of mine from the music scene, who is a phenomenal guitar player - Bob Cannon!    Bob tells me about his early influencers, such as Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Buddy Holly, and a lot more! And you could easily hear these people in his music. He also talks about his songwriting style and how he has traveled and moved all over the country - enhancing his music even more!   I tell you, this man is really talented and you should check him out now! You'll do yourself a favor.   On this episode: Writing is rewriting - that's what Bob says about songwriting! How true is that? He talks about his song Weapons of Mass Seduction - he has a great side story to it so you better listen in! He talks about being a journalist and how he traveled throughout the country Bob talks about wanting to take time and being a tourist in Nashville! Well, this one's interesting: Bob tells me about Chlamydia! Hold your horses, it's not exactly what you think. Check it out to learn more! Write a song like a crime novelist would! Ooh, that's something!   Bob Cannon Songs featured: Oh Cecelia Weapons of Mass Seduction Chlamydia Since You've Gone   Follow Bob: BobCannonMusic.com Souncloud: Bob Cannon Reverbnation: Bob Cannon   Don't forget!  Subscribe to dHarmic Evolution on iTunes  Please sign up on dharmicevolution.com for free bonus content! Follow dHarmic Evolution on social media                              

Melanie Howard talks about Harlan living with Buck Owens, writing Tiger By The Tail, Pick Me Up On Your Way Down, hanging out at Tootsie’s with Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Bobby Bare and Tom T. Hall, bowling with… Continue Reading →

Jon talks about growing up in near Harper Lee, Johnny Shines and Bear Bryant in rural Alabama, moving to Nashville, not quite meeting Albert Lee, Hank Williams stories, Jerry Reed stories, Harlan Howard’s house, hanging with Tom T. Hall, selling… Continue Reading →