Country Music News Round-Up- Clement's Fire, Campbell's Disease & New Music Videos Galore

The Pistol Annies

* This past Saturday, famed producer Cowboy Jack Clement's house was severely damaged in an attic fire. Clement referred to the place as The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa. Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold and John Prine were among the many who spent time there and the house was the home to masters for recordings from Patsy Cline and Cash.

“I’m sure we’ve lost some other memorabilia,” said Clement as he sat in his backyard on a picnic table bench wearing Elvis-print pajamas

* Pistol Annies, comprised of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, have officially signed to Columbia Nashville (a division of Sony Music Nashville), according to Country Aircheck. Amen. Hallelujah. Can't wait.

* Sony/ATV is releasing four albums from the new Hickory Vintage masterpiece series, a lineup of country music’s most celebrated artists and their classic recordings. Drawn from historic Hickory Records, now owned by Sony/ATV, the albums, feature early recordings from country icons Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard and Patsy Cline. Being released are Willie Nelson's The Demos, Conway Twitty's The Hits, Merle Haggard's Hag: The Hits Vol.1 and Patsy Cline's Classics Vol. 1. 

*  In an interview with CMA member Charles Haymes, crossover singer/songwriter TG Sheppard shares how Waylon Jennings got him into country music.

“To be honest, Waylon played a major role in mme getting back into performing. Waylon gave me a box-shaped guitar and that was a big inspiration for me. It gave me the boost that I needed to start thinking about a career in country music.”

* Guest stars including Rodney Crowell, Shawn Colvin, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Vince Gill, Jack Ingram, and Kris Kristofferson will be just a handful of the artists that will pay tribute to the legendary Guy Clark with the November 1 release of This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark. 

“Guy’s songs are literature,” says Lyle Lovett. “The first time I heard Guy Clark, I thought it made everything I’d heard up to that point something other than a song. His ability to translate the emotional into the written word is extraordinary.”

* Ronnie Milsap is preparing a brand new album titled country again and will be releasing a music video for the first new/old single off of the album. You can listen to "If You Don't Want Me To" below.



* In an interview with Guitar International, Terri Clark talks about her new album that will be coming out on July 26th. It will be distributed by EMI in her native Canada and The Orchid down here in the US.

"Yeah, this album is definitely a more mainstream, contemporary country sound, but it’s also really traditional stuff, there’s lots of steel guitar, there’s fiddle. I do think it revisits the first 5 years of records I made in my career. There’s one song with triple fiddles, and it’s a waltz. It sounds like it’s something that could have been written in 1930. It’s got a very retro country, old-school sound to it. Tonya Isaacs came and sang on that.

And there are a couple that are more mainstream, country-pop sounding, “Northern Girl’s” probably one of ‘em. I don’t know. Some really cool stuff that’s got an older country sound to it. I’m very excited about it. It’s very eclectic musically. It’s got a couple of songs that are very rootsy and folky. It covers a lot of ground."

Clark just released her music video for the first single "Northern Girl." You can watch it HERE.

* Speaking of music videos, several artists have released new music videos in the last few days including:

     - Big and Rich- "Fake ID"
     - former Cross Canadian Ragweed lead singer Cody Canada and the Departed- "Staring Down the Sun"
     - Country Strong's Amanda Shires- "Swimmer"
     - David Adam Byrnes- "She Only Wanted Flowers"
     - Steve Azar's moving video set to military homecoming photographs- "Soldier's Song"

* It's a few days old, but I'd be remiss not in mentioning the terrible announcement that Glen Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. With one last final tour being planned, Glen and his wife Kim decided to go public with news of Campbell's condition.

Kim told People Magazine, "Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer. But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn't want people to think, 'What's the matter with him? Is he drunk?'"

* Evidently, we should abolish country music.

*  Average Joe's Entertainment artists Kevin Fowler ("Pound Sign") and Josh Gracin ("We Weren't Crazy") both have new singles at radio and you can listen to both below:

Kevin Fowler- "Hell Yeah, I Like Beer"


Josh Gracin- "Long Way To Go" (Live Acoustic Version)


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