On This Week In Country Music April 16 – April 22

On This Week In Country Music April 16 – April 22
16 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1981 MCA releases Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” >> YouTube (1981)
1990 – Over 72,000 people gathered at London’s Wembley Stadium for an anti-apartheid concert honoring Nelson Mandela. Mandela had recently been released from prison. Bonnie Raitt and Canadian producer, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Daniel Lanois were 2 who performed on the bill.
1993 – Billy Burnette announced that he was leaving Fleetwood Mac to concentrate on recording country music.
1999 – Shania Twain became the first woman to be named as songwriter/artist of the year by the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Phil Vassar wins songwriter, and song of the year is a tie: “Holes In The Floor Of Heaven” and “Don’t Laugh At Me”
2001 Keith Urban secures his first gold album, with his self-titled solo debut
2002 – Sony Music Entertainment filed a complaint against the Dixie Chicks for breach of contract
2009 Jamey Johnson earns a gold album for “That Lonesome Song”
17 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1970 – Johnny Cash performed at the White House at the invitation of President Richard M. Nixon. He played “A Boy Named Sue.”
2001 Arista releases Brooks & Dunn’s “STEERS & STRIPES” album
2002 – Tammy Wynette’s four daughters reached a confidential agreement with Wynette’s doctor over her death. Wynette’s daughters filed a lawsuit that claimed the Pittsburgh doctor had contributed to Wynette’s death in 1998
2004 The Judds make their Grand Ole Opry debut, performing “Flies On The Butter (You Can’t Go Home Again)” and “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Old Days)”
2010 Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins’ “Hillbilly Bone,” produced by Scott Hendricks, wins Vocal Event of the Year from the Academy of Country Music at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas >> YouTube
Death
1992 – Hank Penny, country music singer, dies at 73 of heart failure
18 APRIL On This Day in Country Music
1939 – Gene Autry recorded “Back in the Saddle Again.”
1948 The late Earl Scruggs marries Louise Certain in Gaffney, South Carolina, two months after leaving Bill Monroe’s band.
She becomes the manager of Flatt & Scruggs
1981 Alabama takes “Old Flame” to #1 on the Billboard country chart >> YouTube (1981)
1998 – Diamond Rio was inducted into the Grande Ole Opry.
1998 – Jo Dee Messina says hello to the top spot in Billboard with the Phil Vassar-penned “Bye-Bye” >> YouTube
2010 – Lady Antebellum wins in three categories–Top Vocal Group and Single Record and Song of the Year, for “Need You Now”–during the 45th Academy of Country Music Awards from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas >> YouTube
19 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1969 – Glen Campbell goes to #1 on the Billboard country singles chart with the Jimmy Webb song “Galveston” >> YouTube
1980 – Crystal Gayle ascends to the top of the Billboard country chart with “It’s Like We Never Said Goodbye” >> YouTube
1988 – “STRAIT COUNTRY,” George Strait’s debut album, goes gold seven years after its release
2010 – The Zac Brown Band album “THE FOUNDATION” goes double-platinum
Births
Bekka Bramlett (1968) born. The daughter of Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, she has a short-term duet partnership with Billy Burnette, and sings back-up on records by Vince Gill and Faith Hill, including “Breathe” and was a backing vocalist for Belinda Carlisle on tour. (Photo 2009)
20 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1959 – Dolly Parton’s first single, “Puppy Love,” was released. >> YouTube
1977 The Glen Campbell hit “Southern Nights” goes gold
1993 – Shania Twain released her self-titled debut album
1993 – Mercury releases Toby Keith’s self-titled debut album. The album went on to sell more than one million copies in the United States, earning RIAA platinum certification.
2002 – Toby Keith’s “My List” begins a five-week run at the top of the Billboard country list >> YouTube
2006 – Martina McBride’s “MARTINA” album is certified double-platinum
Births
Wade Hayes (1969) born in Bethel Acres, Oklahoma. Traditionally influenced, he scores several hits in the mid-1990s, including “Old Enough To Know Better,” “On A Good Night” and “What I Meant To Say.
21 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1977 – “Annie” opened on Broadway.
1999 – Brooks & Dunn debuted their video “South of Santa Fe” while country.com simultaneously streamed the video.
It was the first time that a country video debuted simultaneously on TV and the Internet.
2007 – Carrie Underwood goes to #1 in Billboard with “Wasted” >> YouTube
Births
Ira Louvin (1924) -, Rainsville Ala, country singer ( Louvin Brothers)
Death
1978 – Sandy Denny, British Folk singer, dies at 37
22 APRIL – On This Day in Country Music
1968 – Herb Alpert debuted “This Guy’s in Love With You” on his CBS-TV special.
1969 – The Carpenters signed with A&M Records
1995 – John Michael Montgomery tops the Billboard country chart with “I Can Love You Like That” >> YouTube (2011 Live)
2000 – George Strait’s “The Best Day” takes the best position–the #1 slot–on the Billboard country chart >> YouTube
2011 – LeAnn Rimes marries actor Eddie Cibrian at a private home in Malibu, California (Wedding Photo)
Births
Kellie Coffey (1971), born in Moore, Oklahoma. She debuts in 2002 with the “Breathe”-like ballad “When You Lie Next To Me,” earning a nomination at the American Music Awards for favorite new country artist.
Glen Travis Campbell (1936), born in Delight, Arkansas. A session guitarist in the mid-1960s, he gains his own network television show and a string of crossover hits, ultimately inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Ray Griff (1940), is a Canadian country music singer and songwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia. Griff began songwriting in the early 1960s and had early cuts by Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves, and others. Griff moved to Nashville in 1964 to pursue his music career full-time. Griff’s success as a songwriter, however, has always overshadowed his recording work with over 700 songs recorded including the major hits “Canadian Pacific” for George Hamilton IV, “Who’s Gonna Play This Old Piano” for Jerry Lee Lewis, and “Baby” for Wilma Burgess. Others who have had major hit record with Griff songs include Faron Young, Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, Bob Luman, Gene Watson, and Johnny Duncan.
Roy Orbison (1936), born in Vernon, Texas. A 1987 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he lands on the country charts with his solo single “You Got It” and a duet recording with Emmylou Harris. Remakes of “Crying” and “Blue Bayou” also become country hits.

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