Outlaw Music Hall of Fame Unveils Its First Class Of Inductees

The first inductees into the new Outlaw Music Hall of Fame were announced yesterday in conjunction with the 1st annual Outlaws and Icons Charity Ride and Concert held in Altamont, Tennessee. Founded in August of 2013 as a grassroots effort, The Outlaw Music Hall of Fame is dedicated to those musicians and songwriters whose work best exemplifies the qualities of the Outlaw country movement that first began in the 1970s. 17 inductees will go in on the inaugural class under two different categories: Pioneers/Innovators (Pre-1970), and Highwaymen (1970-1990). The new museum also announced a third category called the Guardian Award. This award isn't a Hall of Fame induction, but a one-year honor that identifies the artist or group's work, commitment to their music and that they honor the music and traditions that came before them. This third award will be fan-voted in coming years. The initial inductees are:
Pioneers/Innovators Pre-1970

• Hank Williams Sr.
• Loretta Lynn
• The Carter Family
• Bobby Bare
• Chris Gantry

Highwaymen (1970-1990)

• Willie Nelson
• Waylon Jennings
• David Allan Coe
• Kris Kristofferson
• Merle Haggard
• Johnny Cash
• Johnny Paycheck
• Sammi Smith
• Steve Young
• Jessi Coulter
• Hank Williams Jr.
• Billy Joe Shaver

Guardian Award

• Dallas Moore
• Wayne Mills
• Hank Williams III
• Jamey Johnson
• Whitey Morgan

The Hall of Fame will be dedicated to those artists, both musicians and songwriters, whose work best exemplifies the qualities of the Outlaw movement that first began in the 1970s and has gained renewed momentum as an alternative to the current Nashville pop country scene.  In doing so it will place the spotlight on music firmly attached to the roots of country.  Moreover, the Hall of Fame will educate the public about Outlaw country, memorialize founders of the genre—such as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Jessi Colter—recognize current Outlaw artists, and provide a platform for them and for the independent record labels who currently have little if any voice in the industry. The facility encompasses more than 5,000 square feet and under the direction of architect Thomas Bartoo will feature a state-of-the-art layout, including interactive displays.  There will also be a studio to allow for live broadcasts to be streamed over the Internet.

Located right on the town square in Lynchburg, the Outlaw Music Hall of Fame will sponsor a concert series each April to November to showcase independent roots country artists. Along with the Hall of Fame, there will be established the Outlaw Music Association.  It will bring together independent artists, songwriters, and record executives to promote roots country.  It will also recognize accomplishments by each of these.

David Allan Coe Releases New Album, DAC's Back

Outlaw country singer, David Allan Coe, is releasing his first country studio-recorded album in almost a decade, DAC's Back, containing 17 never-before-released originals by Coe and three live recordings of songs co-written with Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker.
The album, which contains the new single, "Single Father," a Kid Rock co-write, was recorded primarily in Coe's tour bus studio while on tour over the last few years.

It is his first studio album release since his 2004 heavy metal Rebel Meets Rebel collaboration with the late "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, legendary rock guitarist and co-founder of the rock/metal band Pantera.

The project has been released digitally on Coe's own independent label, DAC Records/1617 Virtual, and is currently only available at CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) but will soon be available soon through all major Internet retail outlets. The CD version should hit shelves within the next 60 days. A broadcast-quality version is now available to radio via AirPlay Direct(www.AirPlayDirect.com.

Coe, 72 , is still active, performing on the road recently with Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker, and Toby Keith. Possible tour dates with Willie Nelson are also in the works.

Deemed by some as the original outlaw, Coe came on the country music scene with his 1969 release, The Penitentiary Blues, having spent time in Ohio's state corrections system. His first real chart successes came with "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," which rose to the Top 5 in 1974 and is now considered a country standard by many. He later had another Top 5 in 1982 with "The Ride" and followed that up that next year with the No 1 hit "Mona Lisa's Lost Her Smile." His greatest success, however, is probably as a songwriter, having penned the country classic, "Take This Job And Shove It," a No 1 by Johnny Paycheck, and "Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone," a chart-topper by Tanya Tucker.

The Top Tens- Ten Spooky Country Music Songs For Halloween

It's Halloween tomorrow and as a result, I've put together a collection of ten great spooky country music songs to get you in the mood. Boo!

10. "Devil Went Down to Georgia" - Charlie Daniels
The Devil decides to challenge Johnny to a fiddle-playing contest, confident that he is more skillful than the young boy. The terms of the duel are that should Johnny win, he will be given a fiddle made of solid gold, but should the Devil triumph, he gains Johnny's soul. Johnny accepts the terms, proudly telling the Devil that he will regret it as he is "the best there's ever been". The duel commences, with the Devil performing a sinister and powerful piece with the backing of demon musicians. Despite this, the Devil is squarely defeated when Johnny takes his turn to perform. Take that, Devil!

9. "First Mrs. Jones" - Bill Anderson & Porter Wagoner
Sung by both these legendary artists, it's a scary song about a two-time matrimony killer. "Then next thing I recall was walking to the forest / Lookin' for a place to hide her bones /I dug and dug for hours and then I planted flowers / Right on the top of the First Mrs Jones"

8. "Ghost in the Guitar" - Keith Urban. With lyrics like: "And sometimes that old man he comes alive in my hands/ I feel the beating of his sad old broken heart/ Just like there's a ghost in this guitar /A ghost in this guitar", Keith Urban is possessed by the previous guitar owner.

7. "Ghost Riders in the Sky" - Johnny Cash
This song has an interesting storyline. The cowboy is riding out on a dark and windy day when he witnesses a herd of red-eyed cows thundering through the sky. Following the cattle are riders, who try to round them up, but never can quite reach them. This is their fate: to ride forever chasing the devil's herd across the skies. One rider warns the cowboy that if he doesn't change his ways, this too will be his fate.

6. "Midnight In Montgomery" - Alan Jackson
This song talks about a meeting with the Hank Williams' ghost at midnight in Montgomery, Alabama, on the anniversary of his death. Tomorrow, we'll have the music video for this great song on TNS.

5. "Phantom 309" - Red Sovine
A man is hitchhiking and gets picked up by a trucker who says his name is "Big Joe." They drive through the night and Big Joe lets the man off at a truck stop, giving him a dime to buy a cup of coffee on him. When the man goes in and orders his coffee, saying that it's on Big Joe, he learns the story that happened about ten years ago: "Big Joe," avoiding a bus full of children stranded on the highway, turned his wheel so he wouldn't kill them all and in the process was killed himself.

4. "Riding with Private Malone" - David Ball
The story of this song tells about a man who buys a used '66 Corvette and finds it comes with a ghostly soldier named Private Malone. One rainy night, while driving too fast, he misses the curb, and crashes the car. Witnesses to the crash say they saw a soldier pulling him out of the car.

3. "The Guitar" - Guy Clark
“The Guitar” tells of six-string divine intervention. It’s a talking story-song about discovering a pawn shop guitar predestined to be his. It is truly storytelling at it’s very best- the end of the song has the guitar owner bringing down a guitar case that has the new owners name already on it.

2. "The Ride" - David Allan Coe
This song tells another tale of meeting up with the ghost of Hank Williams. This time it's a hitchhiker on his way to Nashville, and the ghost gives him advice on his career, saying it's a long, hard ride.

1. "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" - Charlie Daniels Band
This great song features, murder, revenge and karma. One day, three greedy brothers decided to kill him & steal an old man's money, but when they tried to get away, they got caught in quicksand and are killed as well. Fifty years later, if you go back in the swamp by the shack where he used to live, you can hear the screaming of three young men, and the laughing of one old man.

New David Allan Coe Documentary Unveiled

Following a brief question and answer session, Shambhavi Kaul introduced her documentary, “Field of Stone,” an hour-long presentation that described the life of country music star David Allan Coe at Davidson College in North Carolina last week. Kaul noted the difficulty involved in depicting an accurate description of David Allan Coe in an interview with Independent Weekly.

“When I started making this film, the biggest realization was that I was trying to make an intimate portrait of a very complex person,” said Kaul. Insisting that the inclination to label the true outsider of the outlaw country movement as a racist or misogynist simply doesn’t work.

“But, on some level, this was going to be a film about not knowing, a film about not getting the answers. I still don’t know what he is,” she said.

Anyone who is familiar with David Allan Coe’s career knows that it has been a checkered one. A tattoo-covered ex-felon who is known to kick-off a live concert by riding on-stage on a Harley and screaming obscenities, Coe has collaborated and recorded with stars such as Willie Nelson and Tammy Wynette.

Kaul’s cinematic presentation of Coe followed him on tours and shed light on his personal life. The film also offered a critical look at Coe’s on-stage personage and the blue-collars fans who support his racist, rebellious behavior. Coe achieved his greatest popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. He has written and performed over 280 original songs throughout his career. As a songwriter, his best-known compositions are "Would You Lay with Me (in a Field of Stone)," originally recorded by Tanya Tucker, and "Take this Job and Shove It." The latter was a #1 hit for Johnny Paycheck, and it was later turned into a hit movie (both Coe and Paycheck had minor parts in the film).