Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins To Release Solo Album Under the Pepper Tree On March 26

Artist: Sara Watkins

Album: Under the Pepper Tree

Label: New West Records

Release date: March 26, 2021

Sara Watkins of the Grammy-winning groups Nickel Creek and I'm With Her, as well as The Watkins Family Hour, will release a family-friendly album of soothing songs called Under the Pepper Tree on March 26th via New West Records. 

The album reunites her Nickel Creek and I'm With Her bandmates & features guest appearances by Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, David Garza, and Watkins' three-year-old daughter.

Created with families in mind, the personal project encompasses songs Sara embraced as a child herself and brings storytelling, solace, and encouragement to the listener, no matter the age. In addition to two stunning original songs, the album includes Sara's renditions of "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, The Beatles' "Good Night," "Moon River" (originally sung by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's), and more. Under the Pepper Tree also reunites Sara's Nickel Creek bandmates Chris Thile and her brother Sean on "Blue Shadows on the Trail" (from the 1986 comedy The Three Amigos), Sara's I'm With Her bandmates Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O'Donovan on "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" (originally performed by Roy Rogers & Sons of the Pioneers), Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes on Harry Nilsson's "Blanket for a Sail," David Garza on Roy Orbison's "Beautiful Dreamer," and Sara's now three-year old daughter on her immensely sweet rendition of The Sound of Music's "Edelweiss."

Celluloid Country - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in Apache Rose

Movie title: Apache Rose
Starring: Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
Release date: 1947

A handful of old movies starring country music stars have (somewhat) recently fallen into the public domain. Summer being movie season, it makes sense to help share them here to watch at your convenience. Our fourth feature stars Roy Rogers is an oil prospector who wants to get rights to drill for oil on a promising piece of land. Dale Evans (as Billie) sails a local tugboat named "Apache Rose" and Olin Howlin is Mr. Rogers' lovable old codger friend "Alkali". Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers" are around when necessary. Gamblers aboard the boat "Casino Del Mar" aka "S.S. Casino" are the main adversaries, led by nasty George Meeker (as Reed Calhoun).

 

Riders In The Sky Put The Western In Country & Western With Upcoming Roy Rogers Dedication Album Release

Artist: Riders in the Sky
Album: Riders in the Sky Salute Roy Rogers: King of the Cowboys
Label: Riders Radio Records
Release date: Feb. 26, 2016

Longtime country music veterans and frequent Grand Ole Opry performers Riders in the Sky release a new album later this month and it's a dedication to one of the great Country Music Hall of Famers of all time. They salute iconic western movie, music and TV star Roy Rogers, the undisputed King of the Cowboys. The project features family-friendly favorites from Roy's long career that include "Don't Fence Me In," "Pecos Bill," "Happy Trails" and more wrapped up in the Riders' two-time Grammy-winning high yodeling style.

Riders in the Sky is made up of lead singer/guitarist Ranger Doug (Douglas B. Green), singer/fiddler Woody Paul (Paul Chrisman), singer/bassist Too Slim (Fred LaBour) and Joey the Cowpolka King (Joey Miskulin) on accordion. They usually introduce themselves as "Ranger Doug, The Idol of American Youth", "Woody Paul, the King of the Cowboy Fiddlers", "Too Slim, the Man of a Thousand Hats" and "Joey, the Cowpolka King".

Track listing:

  1. A Gay Ranchero
  2. Blue Shadows on the Trail
  3. Skyball Paint
  4. My Adobe Hacienda
  5. Pecos Bill
  6. Don't Fence Me in
  7. Roll on Texas Moon
  8. Hawaiian Cowboy
  9. Lights of Old Santa Fe
  10. Hadie Brown
  11. Let Us Now Praise Gabby Hayes
  12. Yellow Rose of Texas
  13. Along the Navajo Trail
  14. Happy Trails (To You)

Longtime Country Songwriter Charlie Craig Passes

 

Charlie Craig was born and raised in Watts Mill, South Carolina, a cotton mill village two miles from the city square in Laurens, South Carolina. He performed on a Saturday morning live radio show at age 15 in Laurens singing as a duet with a high school friend. Charlie began working clubs, high school auditoriums and theaters after graduating from high school. In 1968 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began a 40 year songwriting career that lasted until his passing last Friday, July 1, 2011.  He was 73 years old and still working in the music industry.

Charlie wrote his autobiography in 2009 and titled it Old Memories and Me.  It contains such things as him hiring Charlie Daniels to play guitar while he was still unknown, Charlie's relationship with Alan Jackson and how Charlie was the first songwriter in Nashville to co-write and pay Alan to sing a demo. Charlie and Alan collaborated on 11 songs over the course of Charlie's career.  It also includes the times Charlie spent with Roy Rogers, particularly when he introduced Roy to Johnny Cash. Charlie was directly responsible for the signing of The Wilkinsons to their record deal.

Charlie says in his book, "Looking back on my life in this dazzling world of country music, I sometimes wonder if I am somebody else and not that kid from Watts Mill, South Carolina that used to sit up on an iron rail across from the cotton mill and daydream about the life I have been living in this business of country music for more than forty years. How could I possibly have known that the Sears & Roebuck Silvertone guitar I got when I was about fourteen years old would lay the musical path to Nashville, Tennessee and pair me up with the likes of Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and a lot of other great stars. It still amazes me how this all happened. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I didn't know anybody important. I didn't even have a rabbit's foot. So why me? I don't honestly know. I do believe that God gave me a gift and something inspired me to take that gift and make it my craft."

Wanted - Alan Jackson
Bring on the Night - Alan Jackson
Tropical Depression - Alan Jackson
All American Country Boy - Alan Jackson
What a Day Yesterday Was - Alan Jackson
She's Single Again - Janie Fricke, Reba McEntire
Between an Old Memory and Me - Travis Tritt, Keith Whitley
Lay a Little Lovin' on Me - B.J. Thomas, Wayne Newton, Del Reeves & Bill Medley
I Would Like to See You Again - Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Don Williams & Del Reeves
Miss Mis Behavin' - Aaron Tippin
She's Got a Way - Aaron Tippin
Every Time it Rains - George Strait
Let's Get Over Them Together - Mo Bandy & Becky Hobbs
Following the Feeling - Mo Bandy & Judy Bailey
Chicken Every Sunday - Dolly Parton
Rainy Days and Stormy Nights - Billie Jo Spears
Leavin's Been a Long Time Coming - Shenandoah
The Generation Gap - Jeannie C. Riley
I'll Take The Memories- Lorrie Morgan, Tanya Tucker
Waking Up With You - Waylon Jennings
Love Is Alive - Mark Wills
I Think I'm In Love - Keith Stegall, Conway Twitty & Ed Bruce
Your Memory Finds A Way - Moe Bandy
Nickel Bar Candy - Kitty Wells
Every Step Of The Way - Kitty Wells

Rare Roy Rogers Guitar On Auction Block

A rare guitar owned by singing cowboy and actor Roy Rogers is hitting the auction block next month, the first of its kind ever to be offered at auction, Christie's said on Wednesday.

The C.F. Martin OM-45 Deluxe guitar is one of only 15 made by the Nazareth, Pennsylvania, company founded by a German immigrant in the 1830s.

Only 14 were believed to have been manufactured in 1930 but recent research brought to light a 15th, owned by Rogers since 1933 and the very first one produced.

The auction house expects the OM (Orchestra Model) guitar, last played by Rogers and in its original, unrestored state, to sell for $150,000 to $250,000 when it is offered along with three more of Rogers's guitars on April 3.
The guitars are being sold by The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri.

"Back in 1933, performing cowboys started going for the hand-tooled boots and handmade shirts, and Roy went out and purchased the flashiest guitar he could find," said Kerry Keane, Christie's musical instruments department head and specialist for the sale.

"That was this guitar," which still bears the green sash cord Rogers attached and a gold star sticker from a flour promotion campaign Rogers did in the mid-1930s. "It has all the sparkle and twang a Hollywood cowboy could ever want," said Keane.Rogers, who died in 1998, was a two-time inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame and starred in over 100 films plus a popular television show

Happy Birthday To The Late Roy Rogers- Born Way Back in 1911

Happy Birthday to the late Country Music Hall-Of-Fame Member Roy Rogers- singer and actor. He and his wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino horse Trigger, and his German Shepard Bullet, were featured in over one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show. The show ran on radio for nine years before moving to television from 1951 through 1957. For many Americans (and non-Americans), he was the embodiment of the all-American hero.

Listen along as Roy and Dale sing us the quintessential country song Happy Trails at the end of their television show: