TNS Video History- Johnny Cash Sings On Sesame Street

More New Music Friday- Crystal Shawanda Releases "Fight For Me"

Crystal Shawanda has just released her second single off of her upcoming sophomore album called "Fight For Me."  A native Ojibwe tribe member, Shawanda made waves in her native Canada after her 2008 release Dawn Of A New Day. She won the CCMA Female Artist Of The Year as well as the CRMA New Artist Of The Year Awards since. She has a brand new single that just entered the Canadian Country Music Single Charts and you can listen to it below.

New Music Friday- Eddie Bush From One Flew South Releases "Calloused Hands"

In 2006, Eddie Bush became a member of a new critically-acclaimed country music trio, One Flew South, and was signed to Decca/Universal. With collaborations from award-winning songwriters JD Souther, Darrell Scott and Marcus Hummons, One Flew South debuted its first album “Last of the Good Guys”, producing its first, and Eddie’s second, Billboard Hot Country single “My Kind of Beautiful”.

A passionate advocate of music education, in 2009, Eddie has also partnered with EdisonLearning and developed a curriculum focusing on the importance of songwriting and music. Eddie wrote EdisonLearning’s theme song “Power of You”, and travels to schools nationwide where he visits and sings with students, further encouraging their love and appreciation for music.

Eddie has released a solo single called "Calloused Hands," currently up for vote at www.ourstage.com, a site where indie artists can have their songs compete against one-another. This new song is currently #1 out of several hundered songs. Listen to the song below and then go to the site and cast your vote if you like it.

Eddie at OurStage  http://www.ourstage.com/profile/eddiebush

Vote for Eddie/Calloused Hands in New Country Artist contest 

http://www.ourstage.com/judge4?channel=412-country-artist-search

New Music Video From Taylor Swift- "Back To December"

Longtime Charlie Daniels Band Member Tommy Crain Passes Away

Charlie Daniels and Tommy Crain- circa 1978

Longtime Charlie Daniels band member Tommy Crain passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday it was announced by family.

Crain played in various local bands in high school, the best being Flat Creek Band in which his brother Billy also played guitar. This group eventually disbanded and Tom formed a group called Buckeye. Buckeye was the opening act at Charlie Daniels' very first Volunteer Jam at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium where he met Charlie Daniels and a lot of other southern rock musicians. About a year later , Charlie needed a guitar player and Tom was the man he called for the job. In a few weeks time in February of 1975, Tom married his sweetheart, Melissa, moved to a new apartment, and left on the road with the Charlie Daniels Band for a fifteen year run. Tom played on many CDB albums, co wrote over 60 songs with the band and won a Grammy for co writing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" which won a Grammy in 1980. Tom left the band in the summer of 1989 to pursue other interests and to raise his young daughter, Annie.

Charlie Daniels made this announcement on his website and on his Facebook account earlier today:

Tommy Crain will always be a part of the CDB family and his music will always be a part of the CDB sound. We have lost a good friend and the world has lost a unique, creative and precious human being. We send our deepest condolences to the family of our brother Tommy Crain. You were special, buddy. We’re gonna miss you.
CD

Award-Winning Bluegrass Band Cherryholmes To Split

In a post on their web site Wednesday afternoon, the group - parents Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes and children Cia, B.J., Skip and Molly - announced they will be splitting up this spring to enable family members to pursue other career goals. Cherryholmes released four albums on Ricky Skaggs' label. Cherryholmes was the recipient of the International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year award for 2005 and were nominated again in 2007. Other accolades include Grammy nominations in 2006, 2007, and 2008 for Best Bluegrass Album.

From the site:

"We want to let you all know that "Cherryholmes" (the group) is officially disbanding. Our final performances will be on May 6 at the Doyle Lawson Bluegrass Festival in Denton, NC and May 7 at Houstonfest in Galax, VA."

"Many of you have watched us from the beginning. You've seen our children grow into young adults. Though it is bittersweet, there comes a time in a family when seasons change. We've always known this season would come. Now that it has, we believe it is only right that our young folks be allowed to follow their own dreams and goals for the future. With spouses to consider and differing career aspirations, they deserve the freedom to choose their own paths without the extreme interdependence that exists in a family business."

"Nearly twelve years ago, God sent our family on an amazing adventure. We are blessed to have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, playing the music we've created and loved. We've seen the beauty of our great country as well as much of the world. We've met and made true friendships with our icons. It has been an honor to receive several Grammy nominations and Entertainer awards. Of course, the honor of regularly performing on the Grand Ole Opry is the pinnacle of our experiences. We all look forward to the next chapter of our adventure."

"First, we want to thank Ricky Skaggs and our friends at Skaggs Family Records for all they have done to help us - for believing in us, encouraging us, praying for us, and working long hours to help us get our music out. We want to thank our agent Toby Tumarkin and the staff at Columbia Artist Management for getting us into some of the most beautiful theaters in the country, for opening the doors to symphony performances, and for our wonderful experiences in the UK."

"Most of all, we want to thank all of you, our friends and fans, for your love and support over the years. It has been our privilege to be allowed to entertain you. Please check our schedule for performances through May 6 and 7. We hope to see you there or somewhere down the trail."

1950's Hollywood Starlet Mamie Van Doren Releases Country Music Album

1950s "sex kitten" Mamie Van Doren could act, but has always been known for being a pin-up girl first. She made her professional bow as a band singer, acting in stock companies before signing a contract with Universal Pictures in 1953. There would be a few A pictures in her future, notably the Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy Teacher's Pet (1958), but Van Doren's career was mainly devoted to tawdry exploitation programmers and drive-in quickies.

She became the resident Marilyn Monroe-type for fast-buck producer Albert Zugsmith in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starring in such films as The Beat Generation (1958), The Big Operator (1959), The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), and her signature film, Sex Kittens Go To College (1960). She also showed up in Born Reckless (singing five songs) and as a neurotic striptease artist in director Tommy Noonan's tickle-and-tease farce Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964).

Now nearly 80, she's released a country disc Still a Troublemaker, which is available for downloading on iTunes and at Amazon.com. The physical CD will come out in the spring. There are five original songs and covers of such well-known tunes as “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” She has a website, http://www.mamiecountry.com/, to publicize the disc, complete with a music video of “Troublemaker” featuring mostly cheesecake photos of her during her bombshell heyday.

Lynn Anderson and Linda Davis guest-star on the album.


You can check out a preview of the album in the video below:

New Music Video From Canadian Artist Marlee Scott- "Here To Heaven"

That Nashville Sound featured Marlee Scott way back in March of 2009 in our Up & Coming New Nashville and are happy to announce her success as a performing artist in her native country of Canada. This is her brand new music video from "Here To Heaven."

Full Details Emerge On New Johnny Cash Double-Disc Bootleg Album

Get ready for some new Johnny Cash. On February 22, Columbia/Legacy will release From Memphis To Hollywood: Bootleg Vol. 2, a double-disc collection of B-Sides and rarities. Check out the full press release below.

* * *

The musical treasures left behind by Johnny Cash at the House Of Cash estate in Hendersonville, Tennessee, continue to provide insight into his character as an American music icon – perhaps the American music icon. The rich backwoods archive first bore fruit on Columbia/Legacy nearly five years ago, with the release of Personal File aka Bootleg Vol. 1, a fascinating double-CD collection of 49 privately recorded, intimate solo performances dating from 1973 to 1982.

From Memphis To Hollywood: Bootleg Volume 2 continues the series, as compilation producer Gregg Geller focuses on the dawning of Johnny Cash’s recording career at Sun Records in Memphis from late 1954 to late ’57 (on CD One), into his first decade at Columbia Records in Nashville, from 1958 to 1969 (on CD Two). Bootleg Vol. 2 will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting February 22, 2011, through Columbia/Legacy, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Putting the Bootleg Vol. 2 collection in historical perspective is a carefully detailed essay written by Ashley Kahn, author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece (DaCapo Press, 2000), and other titles. Kahn also contributes to National Public Radio.

The trove of archival material on Bootleg Vol. 2 begins with a 15-minute live radio broadcast from KWEM in Memphis, hosted by Johnny Cash, who worked for Home Equipment Company, the show’s sponsor right across the street from the radio station. The date was Saturday, May 21, 1955, in the same month that Cash recorded his first Sun single, “Cry! Cry! Cry!” b/w “Hey Porter.” In addition to his lively palaver, Cash and the Tennessee Two – guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant – performed a handful of tunes, including the honky tonk “Wide Open Road,” a cover of “One More Ride” (from the Sons Of the Pioneers), the gospel “Belshazzar,” and the guitar showpiece, “Luther’s Boogie.” The broadcast is followed by a one minute spot advertising an upcoming show at the Overton Park Shell, starring Webb Pierce, Red Sovine, Elvis Presley, Cash, and other country acts.

CD One continues with a dozen historically-significant, pre-Sun demos by Cash, 11 of them previously unreleased. These rare home-recorded demos served as blueprints to such enduring Cash originals as “I Walk The Line,” “Get Rhythm” and “Country Boy,” and provide new insight into Cash’s songwriting. Two of these demos would soon turn into rockabilly hits for Roy Orbison (“You’re My Baby”) and Warren Smith (“Rock And Roll Ruby”).

Under the heading Sun Rarities are seven outtakes produced between late 1954 and late 1957 by Sam Phillips and Jack Clement. In addition to familiar Cash titles (“Big River,” “Wide Open Road”), there are covers of tunes by Jimmy Rodgers (“Brakeman’s Blues”), Marty Robbins (“I Couldn’t Keep From Crying”), and Lead Belly (“Goodnight Irene”), an indication of Cash’s abiding interest and love for the burgeoning folk music movement, whose embrace of him was a hallmark of his career. CD One concludes with two final demos, “Restless Kid” (later recorded by Ricky Nelson), and “It’s All Over.”

The 25 tracks on CD Two span Cash’s first 11 years at Columbia Records; he was ultimately with the label for 28 years, through 1986. This disc presents a fresh gathering of Columbia non-album singles, outtakes, and B-sides being released digitally for the first time in the U.S. (11 of them previously unreleased in the U.S.).

The move to Columbia also meant a move to Los Angeles for Cash and his family as he developed a taste for film and television work, both as a songwriter and as an actor. In the Golden Age of TV westerns and movies, Cash was a natural. His larger-than-life presence boosted the popularity of the gunfighter ballads and Americana tales that became a pop music genre at the end of the 1950s and into the ’60s, exemplified by such titles as “Restless Kid,” “Johnny Yuma Theme,” and “Hardin Wouldn’t Run.” Another example is “Shifting, Whispering Sands,” a spoken-sung collaboration with Lorne Greene, better known as Bonanza TV patriarch Ben Cartwright.

The musical passions of Johnny Cash – from traditional gospel and folk, to Tin Pan Alley and Music Row, among many other sources – were given full rein in 1969, when The Johnny Cash Show became a weekly event on ABC-TV. It is at that point, with the evocative theme of the show’s central feature, “Come Along And Ride This Train,” that Bootleg Vol. 2 concludes.

“To know the tree,” Kahn sums up, “one should begin at the root – so goes an old saying. Yet one is well advised to take in all the branches as well. From Memphis To Hollywood: Bootleg Vol. 2 offers the opportunity to hear Johnny Cash’s earliest performances plus a wealth of unreleased and unfairly forgotten recordings, to grasp his commanding, old-growth legend in full.”

FROM MEMPHIS TO HOLLYWOOD: BOOTLEG VOL. 2 by JOHNNY CASH (Columbia/Legacy 88697 60051 2)

CD ONE: THE 1950s

A. On The Air

1. KWEM Announcements and Advertisements • 2. Johnny Cash Show Intro and Theme • 3. Wide Open Road • 4. Home Equipment Company Advertisement • 5. One More Ride • 6. Home Equipment Company Advertisement/Luther Perkins Intro • 7. Luther’s Boogie • 8. Belshazzar Intro • 9. Belshazzar • 10. Closing Comments and Theme • 11. Overton Park Shell “Country Music Jamboree” Advertisement by “Texas” Bill Strength, broadcast August 4, 1955. (Tracks 1-10 recorded May 21, 1955 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Tracks 1-11 previously released as bonus CD in limited edition of The Legend boxed set, 2005.)

B. Early Demos

12. I Walk The Line (demo) • 13. Get Rhythm (demo) • 14. Train Of Love (demo) • 15. Country Boy (demo) • 16. My Treasure (demo) • 17. Belshazzar (demo) • 18. He’ll Be A Friend (demo) • 19. When I Think Of You (demo) • 20. I Just Don’t Care Enough (To Carry On) (demo) • 21. I’ll Cry For You (demo) • 22. You’re My Baby (demo) • 23. Rock And Roll Ruby (demo, recorded probably late 1955; West Memphis, Arkansas, courtesy of Sun Entertainment Corporation.)

(Tracks 12-22 previously unreleased, recording dates and locations unknown.)

C. Sun Rarities

24. Wide Open Road (recorded late 1954; produced by Sam Phillips)
25. Leave That Junk Alone (recorded August 4, 1957; produced by Jack Clement)
26. Brakeman’s Blues (incomplete) (recorded April 2, 1956; produced by Sam Phillips)
27. Big River (recorded November 12, 1957; produced by Jack Clement)
28. I Couldn’t Keep From Crying (recorded probably 1955; produced by Sam Phillips)
29. New Mexico (recorded probably 1955; produced by Sam Phillips)
30. Goodnight Irene (recorded November 12, 1957; produced by Jack Clement)
(Tracks 24-30 recorded in Memphis, courtesy of Sun Entertainment Corporation.)

D. More Demos

31. Restless Kid (demo) • 32 It’s All Over (demo). (Tracks 31-32 previously unreleased, recording dates and locations unknown.)

CD TWO: THE 1960s

1. All Over Again
2. You Dreamer You
3. I’ll Remember You
4. Johnny Yuma Theme (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
5. Five Minutes To Live (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
6. The Losing Kind (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
7. Locomotive Man
8. Girl In Saskatoon
9. There’s A Mother Always Waiting (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
10. Johnny Reb (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
11. Shifting, Whispering Sands-with Lorne Greene (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
12. Send A Picture Of Mother
13. Hardin Wouldn’t Run (demo)
14. Thunderball (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
15. One Too Many Mornings (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
16. The Frozen Logger (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
17. Foolish Questions (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
18. Bottom Of The Mountain
19. Put The Sugar To Bed
20. You Beat All I Ever Saw
21. On The Line (previously unreleased in the U.S.)
22. Roll Call
23. The Folk Singer
24. Six White Horses (demo) (previously unreleased)
25. Come Along And Ride This Train (demo) (previously unreleased).

(Tracks 1-6 recorded in Nashville, produced by Don Law.)
(Tracks 7-12, 14-21 recorded in Nashville, produced by Don Law and Frank Jones.)
(Tracks 22-23 recorded in Nashville, produced by Bob Johnston.)

New Music Video From Ashton Shepherd- "Look It Up"

Pam Tillis Headed Back Into The Studio For New Album

The list of new anticipated country music albums in 2011 just got one longer as Pam Tilis announced that she'll be going back into the studio early this year to cut a new album. In an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press:

And despite the emergence of country pop over the past decade, Tillis's last album, 2007's Rhinestoned, was an authentic slice of Grand Ole Opry-inspired C&W, and that's what fans can expect more of when she returns to the recording studio this year, she says over the phone from her Nashville home.

 "The older I get, the more mature I get, the more I appreciate my heritage and roots. Gosh, I wish more people would go back and listen to old country music. Young kids should go on YouTube and listen to the classic old-school guys; they would be surprised how cool the music was. It wasn't all done with bells and whistles and Auto-Tune; it was real and heartfelt. That's what inspired me," she says.

 "Sometimes it's so damn funny: I think it's a lot, then I look at somebody else's bio and think I'm a slacker. We all do what we can, and do what God gives us. I've had a lot of support over the years and I'm a pretty energetic person. I think I get that from my parents," she says.

She had always performed a song or two of her dad's in concert and, in 2002, she recorded a complete set of her father's material on It's All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis.

"It was really organic; I don't like to be calculating. I always like to shoot from the hip and the heart. . . . I also felt confident enough as an artist. That was important for me to wait. I never wanted to ride on his coattails; I wanted to approach that project with some credibility of my own," she says.

TNS Video History- Reba McEntire- "Whoever's In New England"