The Wilkinsons Reunite To Cover Vince Gill - "Go Rest High On That Mountain"

In celebration of “The 50th Annual CMA Awards,” Country Music’s biggest names and rising stars are paying tribute to some of the most nominated and awarded songs from the past five decades in the official “Forever Country Covers” series. Here, The Wilkinsons reunite to perform Vince Gill's 1996 CMA Song of the Year, "Go Rest High On That Mountain."

 

New Music Video From Small Town Pistols- "Can't Wait To Meet You"

New Music Video From Small Town Pistols- "Color Blind"

Flashback a few years and remember the family band called The Wilkinsons. They had a big hit with the song "26 Cents" and "Jimmy's Got a Girlfriend." The brother and sister, Tyler and Amanda Wilkinson, have started a new duo called Small Town Pistols and have released their first music video for "Color Blind."

Tyler and Amanda Wilkinson Form Small Town Pistols

Amanda and Tyler Wilkinson both will be remembered by country fans as 2/3 of the band that made the country hit "26 Cents" so popular back in 1998. That family band, The Wilkinsons (with their father, Steve Wilkinson), produced several albums before daughter Amanda went solo and son Tyler teamed up with his friends to form, rock group, Motion Picture Ending.

In 2011, Amanda set about writing for a new solo album and called up her brother and told him he needed to get himself to Nashville to help her write.  The writing session took a new life of its own and a new duo was born from the visit.

From that collaboration came Small Town Pistols (named for their Great-Grandma Ida, to whom Amanda is forever being compared, "You're just like Grandma Ida...she was a real pistol!")

Says Amanda, "Small Town Pistols feels 100%.  It’s the closest I've been to musically fulfilled in a long time.  Not that I didn't enjoy my solo process, but, there was still always an element throughout it that I didn't feel like I had full say.  I loved that record.  But it was a bit like pulling teeth through some of it (in order to get the end result.)  With Small Town Pistols we have full say.  But we also have invested a lot more.  This is our baby!  And I still hold to the fact that nobody can sing like family.  As blessed as we were to have that journey as The Wilkinsons…to be able to sing with, and hear my bro in full force like this, it’s like nothing else."

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

The Wilkinsons Continue Big Country Things In Canada With New Release

Greatest Hits… and Then Some is the first greatest album by Canadian country music group The Wilkinsons. The album was released in October by Angeline Entertainment. It features five new tracks and eight of The Wilkinsons' greatest hits, all of which have been newly recorded.

Founded in 1998, the group comprises lead singer Amanda Wilkinson, her brother Tyler Wilkinson, and their father, Steve Wilkinson. The Wilkinsons broke achieved success late in 1998 with the hit single "26 Cents", a Number One on the Canadian country music charts and Top 5 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although their U.S. success waned after "26 Cents", The Wilkinsons have continued to have singles in the charts in Canada. Lead singer Amanda Wilkinson has also created several solo recordings in addition to her career in The Wilkinsons.

The Wilkinsons were also the subject of a fictionalized "reality television show" on the CMT Canada network, The Wilkinsons. The show follows the family as they move back to Ontario, from Nashville. In 2006, the show was nominated for Country Music Program or Special of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards.

Their first single When I'm Old is currently nearing the Top 20 (and rising) on the Canadian country charts. You can listen to the new single here.

The track list for Greatest Hits... And Then Some is below:

"26 Cents" - 3:53
"Fly (The Angel Song)" - 3:43
"Paper Doll" - 3:49
"Boy Oh Boy" - 3:01
"When I'm Old" - 3:58
"You Heal Me" - 3:32
"L.A." - 3:15
"1999" - 3:35
"Diamonds" - 3:56
"Jimmy's Got a Girlfriend" - 3:33
"Your Car" - 4:13
"Shame on Me" - 3:49
"Little Girl" - 4:09