Bonnie Raitt - 75 anos

Bonnie Lynn Raitt (Burbank, California, November 8, 1949) is an American songwriter, blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk, and country. She was also a frequent session player and collaborator with other artists, including Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, the Pointer Sisters, John Prine, and Leon Russell. 

 

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Mother Maybelle Carter morreu há 46 anos...

  

"Mother" Maybelle Carter, born Maybelle Addington (Nickelsville, May 10, 1909 – Hendersonville, October 23, 1978) was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.

 

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Bob Weir nasceu há 77 anos

Robert Hall Weir, né Parber (San Francisco, California, October 16, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. Dead & Company's last performance occurred on 16 July 2023 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang many of the band's rock & roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. 

 

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June Carter Cash morreu há vinte e um anos...

   

June Carter Cash (born Valerie June Carter; Maces Spring, Virginia, June 23, 1929 – Nashville, Tennessee, May 15, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter and dancer. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was professionally known as June Carter and occasionally was still credited as such after her marriage (as well as on songwriting credits predating it). She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle (née Addington) and Ezra Carter. Her parents were country music performers and she performed with the Carter Family from the age of 10, in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters" with her daughters, Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell) - Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively, known as "The Virginia Boys", joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for Red Star Flour, Martha White, and Thalhimers Department Store, just to name a few. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. She attended John Marshall High School during this period.^[4] June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent —comedy.^[5] A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. With her thin and lanky frame, June Carter often played a comedic foil during the group's performances alongside other Opry stars Faron Young and Webb Pierce. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural-born clown, if there ever was one". Decades later, Carter revived Aunt Polly for the 1976 TV series Johnny Cash & Friends.

After Doc and Carl dropped out of the music business in late 1946, Maybelle and her daughters moved to Sunshine Sue Workman's "Old Dominion Barn Dance" on the WRVA Richmond station. After a while there, they moved to WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they met Chet Atkins with Homer and Jethro.

In 1949, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, with their lead guitarist, Atkins, were living in Springfield, Missouri, and performing regularly at KWTO. Ezra "Eck" Carter, Maybelle's husband and manager of the group, declined numerous offers from the Grand Ole Opry to move the act to Nashville, Tennessee, because the Opry would not permit Atkins to accompany the group onstage. Atkins' reputation as a guitar player had begun to spread, and studio musicians were fearful that he would displace them as a 'first-call' player if he came to Nashville. Finally, in 1950, Opry management relented and the group, along with Atkins, became part of the Opry company. Here the family befriended Hank Williams and Elvis Presley (to whom they were distantly related), and June met Johnny Cash.

June and her sisters, with mother Maybelle and aunt Sara joining in from time to time, reclaimed the name "The Carter Family" for their act during the 1960s and '70s.

While June Carter Cash may be best known for singing and songwriting, she was also an author, dancer, actress, comedian, philanthropist, and humanitarian.^[6] Director Elia Kazan saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and encouraged her to study acting. She studied with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Her acting roles included Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1998 movie The Apostle, Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character Kid Cole, on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–97), and Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957. She was notable as Mayhayley Lancaster playing alongside husband Cash in the 1983 television movie Murder in Coweta County. June was also Momma James in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James. She also acted in occasional comedy skits for various Johnny Cash TV programs.

As a singer, she had both a solo career and a career singing with first her family and later her husband. As a solo artist, she became somewhat successful with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s such as "Jukebox Blues" and, with her exaggerated breaths, the comedic hit "No Swallerin' Place" by Frank Loesser. June also recorded "The Heel" in the 1960s along with many other songs.

In the early 1960s, June Carter wrote the song "Ring of Fire", which later went on to be a hit for her future husband, Johnny Cash. She co-wrote the song with fellow songwriter Merle Kilgore. June wrote the lyrics about her relationship with Johnny Cash and she offered the song to her sister Anita Carter, who was the first singer to record the song. In 1963, Johnny recorded the song with the Carter Family singing backup, and added mariachi horns. The song became a number-one hit and went on to become one of the most recognizable songs in the world of country music. In her autobiography, “I Walked the Line”, Johnny's first wife Vivian Cash disputes the myth that June Carter co-wrote the song, "Ring of Fire". Vivian relates the story that Johnny told her in 1963 that he wrote the song with Merle Kilgore and Curly while fishing and that he was going to give June half credit because “She needs the money. And I like her.”

Her first notable studio performance with Johnny Cash occurred in 1964 when she duetted with Cash on "It Ain't Me Babe", a Bob Dylan composition, that was released as a single and on Cash's album Orange Blossom Special. In 1967, the two found more substantial success with their recording of "Jackson", which was followed by a collaboration album, Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter. All these releases antedated her marriage to Cash (upon which event she changed her professional name to June Carter Cash). She continued to work with Cash on record and on stage for the rest of her life, recording a number of duets with Cash for his various albums and being a regular on The Johnny Cash Show from 1969 to 1971 and on Cash's annual Christmas specials. After Carryin' On, June Carter Cash recorded one more direct collaboration album, Johnny Cash and His Woman, released in 1973, and along with her daughters was a featured vocalist on Cash's 1974 album The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me. She also shared sleeve credit with her husband on a 2000 small-label gospel release, Return to the Promised Land

Although she provided vocals on many recordings, and shared the billing with Cash on several album releases, June Carter Cash only recorded three solo albums during her lifetime: the first, Appalachian Pride, released in 1975, Press On (1999), and Wildwood Flower, released posthumously in 2003 and produced by her son, John Carter Cash. Appalachian Pride is the only one of the three on which Johnny Cash does not perform, while Press On is notable for featuring June Carter Cash singing her original arrangement of "Ring of Fire".

One of her final appearances was a nonspeaking/nonsinging appearance in the music video for her husband's 2003 single, "Hurt", filmed a few months before her death. One of her last known public appearances was on April 7, 2003, just over a month before her death, when she appeared on the CMT Flameworthy awards program to accept an achievement award on behalf of her husband, who was too ill to attend.

She won a Grammy award in 1999 for, Press On. Her last album, Wildwood Flower, won two additional Grammys. It contains bonus video enhancements showing extracts from the film of the recording sessions, which took place at the Carter Family estate in Hiltons, Virginia, on September 18–20, 2002. The songs on the album include "Big Yellow Peaches", "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea", "Temptation", and the trademark staple "Wildwood Flower". Due to her involvement in providing backing vocals on many of her husband's recordings, a further posthumous release occurred in 2014, when Out Among the Stars was released under Johnny Cash's name. The album consists of previously unreleased recordings from the early 1980s, including two on which June Carter Cash provides duet vocals.

Her autobiography was published in 1979, and she wrote a memoir, From the Heart, almost 10 years later.

Carter was married three times and had one child with each husband. All three of her children went on to have successful careers in country music. She was married first to country singer Carl Smith from July 9, 1952, until their divorce in 1956. Together, they wrote "Time's A-Wastin". They had a daughter, Rebecca Carlene Smith, professionally known as Carlene Carter, a country musician. June's second marriage was to Edwin "Rip" Nix, a former football player and police officer on November 11, 1957. They had a daughter, Rosie Nix Adams, on July 13, 1958. The couple divorced in 1966. Rosie was a country/rock singer. On October 24, 2003, Rosie, aged 45, died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She and bluegrass musician Jimmy Campbell were on a school bus, which had been converted for travel. Several propane heaters were being used to heat the bus.

Carter and the entire Carter Family had performed with Johnny Cash for a number of years. In 1968, Cash proposed to Carter during a live performance at the London Ice House in London, Ontario. They married on March 1 in Franklin, Kentucky, and remained married until her death in May 2003, just four months before Cash died. The couple's son, John Carter Cash, is a musician, songwriter, and producer.

She also gained four stepdaughters from her third husband’s previous marriage to Vivian Liberto; including Cindy and Rosanne.

Carter's distant cousin, the 39th U.S. president Jimmy Carter, became closely acquainted with Cash and Carter and maintained their friendship throughout their lifetimes. In a June 1977 speech, Jimmy Carter acknowledged that June Carter was his distant cousin.

Carter was a longtime supporter of SOS Children's Villages. In 1974, the Cashes donated money to help build a village near their home in Barrett Town, Jamaica, which they visited frequently, playing the guitar and singing songs to the children in the village.

June Carter Cash also had close relationships with a number of entertainers, including Audrey Williams, James Dean, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Jessi Colter, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Robert Duvall and Roy Orbison.

Carter died in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73, from complications following heart-valve replacement surgery, surrounded by her family, including her husband of 35 years, Johnny Cash. At Carter's funeral, her stepdaughter Rosanne Cash stated, "If being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role." Johnny Cash died four months after Carter's death, and Carter's daughter, Rosie Nix Adams, a month after that. All three are buried at the Hendersonville Memory Gardens near their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

  

  

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Bonnie Raitt - 74 anos

Bonnie Lynn Raitt (Burbank, California, November 8, 1949) is an American songwriter, blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk, and country. She was also a frequent session player and collaborator with other artists, including Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, the Pointer Sisters, John Prine, and Leon Russell. 

 

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Mother Maybelle Carter morreu há 45 anos...

  

"Mother" Maybelle Carter, born Maybelle Addington (Nickelsville, May 10, 1909 – Hendersonville, October 23, 1978) was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.

 

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Bob Weir nasceu há 76 anos

Robert Hall Weir, né Parber (San Francisco, California, October 16, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. Dead & Company's last performance occurred on 16 July 2023 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang many of the band's rock & roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. 

 

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June Carter Cash morreu há vinte anos...

   

June Carter Cash (born Valerie June Carter; Maces Spring, Virginia, June 23, 1929 – Nashville, Tennessee, May 15, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter and dancer. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was professionally known as June Carter and occasionally was still credited as such after her marriage (as well as on songwriting credits predating it). She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle (née Addington) and Ezra Carter. Her parents were country music performers and she performed with the Carter Family from the age of 10, in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters" with her daughters, Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell) - Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively, known as "The Virginia Boys", joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for Red Star Flour, Martha White, and Thalhimers Department Store, just to name a few. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. She attended John Marshall High School during this period.^[4] June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent —comedy.^[5] A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. With her thin and lanky frame, June Carter often played a comedic foil during the group's performances alongside other Opry stars Faron Young and Webb Pierce. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural-born clown, if there ever was one". Decades later, Carter revived Aunt Polly for the 1976 TV series Johnny Cash & Friends.

After Doc and Carl dropped out of the music business in late 1946, Maybelle and her daughters moved to Sunshine Sue Workman's "Old Dominion Barn Dance" on the WRVA Richmond station. After a while there, they moved to WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they met Chet Atkins with Homer and Jethro.

In 1949, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, with their lead guitarist, Atkins, were living in Springfield, Missouri, and performing regularly at KWTO. Ezra "Eck" Carter, Maybelle's husband and manager of the group, declined numerous offers from the Grand Ole Opry to move the act to Nashville, Tennessee, because the Opry would not permit Atkins to accompany the group onstage. Atkins' reputation as a guitar player had begun to spread, and studio musicians were fearful that he would displace them as a 'first-call' player if he came to Nashville. Finally, in 1950, Opry management relented and the group, along with Atkins, became part of the Opry company. Here the family befriended Hank Williams and Elvis Presley (to whom they were distantly related), and June met Johnny Cash.

June and her sisters, with mother Maybelle and aunt Sara joining in from time to time, reclaimed the name "The Carter Family" for their act during the 1960s and '70s.

While June Carter Cash may be best known for singing and songwriting, she was also an author, dancer, actress, comedian, philanthropist, and humanitarian.^[6] Director Elia Kazan saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and encouraged her to study acting. She studied with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Her acting roles included Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1998 movie The Apostle, Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character Kid Cole, on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–97), and Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957. She was notable as Mayhayley Lancaster playing alongside husband Cash in the 1983 television movie Murder in Coweta County. June was also Momma James in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James. She also acted in occasional comedy skits for various Johnny Cash TV programs.

As a singer, she had both a solo career and a career singing with first her family and later her husband. As a solo artist, she became somewhat successful with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s such as "Jukebox Blues" and, with her exaggerated breaths, the comedic hit "No Swallerin' Place" by Frank Loesser. June also recorded "The Heel" in the 1960s along with many other songs.

In the early 1960s, June Carter wrote the song "Ring of Fire", which later went on to be a hit for her future husband, Johnny Cash. She co-wrote the song with fellow songwriter Merle Kilgore. June wrote the lyrics about her relationship with Johnny Cash and she offered the song to her sister Anita Carter, who was the first singer to record the song. In 1963, Johnny recorded the song with the Carter Family singing backup, and added mariachi horns. The song became a number-one hit and went on to become one of the most recognizable songs in the world of country music. In her autobiography, “I Walked the Line”, Johnny's first wife Vivian Cash disputes the myth that June Carter co-wrote the song, "Ring of Fire". Vivian relates the story that Johnny told her in 1963 that he wrote the song with Merle Kilgore and Curly while fishing and that he was going to give June half credit because “She needs the money. And I like her.”

Her first notable studio performance with Johnny Cash occurred in 1964 when she duetted with Cash on "It Ain't Me Babe", a Bob Dylan composition, that was released as a single and on Cash's album Orange Blossom Special. In 1967, the two found more substantial success with their recording of "Jackson", which was followed by a collaboration album, Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter. All these releases antedated her marriage to Cash (upon which event she changed her professional name to June Carter Cash). She continued to work with Cash on record and on stage for the rest of her life, recording a number of duets with Cash for his various albums and being a regular on The Johnny Cash Show from 1969 to 1971 and on Cash's annual Christmas specials. After Carryin' On, June Carter Cash recorded one more direct collaboration album, Johnny Cash and His Woman, released in 1973, and along with her daughters was a featured vocalist on Cash's 1974 album The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me. She also shared sleeve credit with her husband on a 2000 small-label gospel release, Return to the Promised Land

Although she provided vocals on many recordings, and shared the billing with Cash on several album releases, June Carter Cash only recorded three solo albums during her lifetime: the first, Appalachian Pride, released in 1975, Press On (1999), and Wildwood Flower, released posthumously in 2003 and produced by her son, John Carter Cash. Appalachian Pride is the only one of the three on which Johnny Cash does not perform, while Press On is notable for featuring June Carter Cash singing her original arrangement of "Ring of Fire".

One of her final appearances was a nonspeaking/nonsinging appearance in the music video for her husband's 2003 single, "Hurt", filmed a few months before her death. One of her last known public appearances was on April 7, 2003, just over a month before her death, when she appeared on the CMT Flameworthy awards program to accept an achievement award on behalf of her husband, who was too ill to attend.

She won a Grammy award in 1999 for, Press On. Her last album, Wildwood Flower, won two additional Grammys. It contains bonus video enhancements showing extracts from the film of the recording sessions, which took place at the Carter Family estate in Hiltons, Virginia, on September 18–20, 2002. The songs on the album include "Big Yellow Peaches", "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea", "Temptation", and the trademark staple "Wildwood Flower". Due to her involvement in providing backing vocals on many of her husband's recordings, a further posthumous release occurred in 2014, when Out Among the Stars was released under Johnny Cash's name. The album consists of previously unreleased recordings from the early 1980s, including two on which June Carter Cash provides duet vocals.

Her autobiography was published in 1979, and she wrote a memoir, From the Heart, almost 10 years later.

Carter was married three times and had one child with each husband. All three of her children went on to have successful careers in country music. She was married first to country singer Carl Smith from July 9, 1952, until their divorce in 1956. Together, they wrote "Time's A-Wastin". They had a daughter, Rebecca Carlene Smith, professionally known as Carlene Carter, a country musician. June's second marriage was to Edwin "Rip" Nix, a former football player and police officer on November 11, 1957. They had a daughter, Rosie Nix Adams, on July 13, 1958. The couple divorced in 1966. Rosie was a country/rock singer. On October 24, 2003, Rosie, aged 45, died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She and bluegrass musician Jimmy Campbell were on a school bus, which had been converted for travel. Several propane heaters were being used to heat the bus.

Carter and the entire Carter Family had performed with Johnny Cash for a number of years. In 1968, Cash proposed to Carter during a live performance at the London Ice House in London, Ontario. They married on March 1 in Franklin, Kentucky, and remained married until her death in May 2003, just four months before Cash died. The couple's son, John Carter Cash, is a musician, songwriter, and producer.

She also gained four stepdaughters from her third husband’s previous marriage to Vivian Liberto; including Cindy and Rosanne.

Carter's distant cousin, the 39th U.S. president Jimmy Carter, became closely acquainted with Cash and Carter and maintained their friendship throughout their lifetimes. In a June 1977 speech, Jimmy Carter acknowledged that June Carter was his distant cousin.

Carter was a longtime supporter of SOS Children's Villages. In 1974, the Cashes donated money to help build a village near their home in Barrett Town, Jamaica, which they visited frequently, playing the guitar and singing songs to the children in the village.

June Carter Cash also had close relationships with a number of entertainers, including Audrey Williams, James Dean, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Jessi Colter, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Robert Duvall and Roy Orbison.

Carter died in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73, from complications following heart-valve replacement surgery, surrounded by her family, including her husband of 35 years, Johnny Cash. At Carter's funeral, her stepdaughter Rosanne Cash stated, "If being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role." Johnny Cash died four months after Carter's death, and Carter's daughter, Rosie Nix Adams, a month after that. All three are buried at the Hendersonville Memory Gardens near their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

  

  

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O Grand Ole Opry faz hoje 95 anos!

  
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a division of Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.), it is the longest-running radio broadcast in US history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and internet listeners.

In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours. Broadcasting by then at 50,000 watts, WSM made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital." The Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that it is included as a "home of" mention on the welcome signs seen by motorists at the Metro Nashville/Davidson County line.

Membership in the Opry remains one of country music's crowning achievements. Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville, with an annual three-month winter foray back to the Ryman since 1999. In addition to the radio programs, performances have been sporadically televised over the years. 

  

 

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Dvorak nasceu há 179 anos

   

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (Nelahozeves, 8 de setembro de 1841 - Praga, 1 de maio de 1904) foi um compositor checo do período romântico que usou nas suas obras muitas melodias populares da Morávia e da sua Boémia natal. Os seus trabalhos incluem óperas, sinfonias, coros e música de câmara. De entre suas obras mais conhecidas estão a Sinfonia nº9 "Do Novo Mundo", as Danças Eslavas, o Quarteto de Cordas "Americano" e Concerto para Violoncelo em Si menor.

   

Antonín Dvořák nasceu em 8 de setembro de 1841, na aldeia boémia de Nelahozeves, perto de Praga (então parte da Boémia no Império Austríaco, atual República Checa), onde passou a maior parte de sua vida. Foi batizado na Igreja Católica de Santo André, na mesma aldeia. Os anos que Dvořák passou em Nelahozeves nutriram a forte fé cristã e o amor pela sua herança boémia que tão fortemente influenciou a sua música. O seu pai, Frantisek Dvořák (1814-1894) foi um taberneiro, instrumentista profissional de cítara e talhante. Embora o seu pai quisesse que ele também fosse um talhante, Dvořák passou a buscar um futuro na música. Recebeu sua primeira educação musical na escola da aldeia, onde ingressou em 1847, aos seis anos. De 1857 a 1859 estudou música na única escola para organistas de Praga e, gradualmente desenvolveu-se, tornando-se um excelente instrumentista de violino e viola. Escreveu seu primeiro quarteto de cordas quando tinha vinte anos, dois anos após a graduação.

Ao longo da década de 1860, tocou viola na Orquestra Provisória do Teatro da Boémia, que em 1866 era regida por Bedřich Smetana. Quando tinha dezoito anos, Dvořák era um músico a tempo integral e recebia cerca de 7,50 dólares por mês. A constante necessidade de complementar sua renda levou-o a dar lições de piano. Foi através dessas aulas de piano que conheceu a sua esposa. No princípio, ele apaixonou-se por uma sua pupila, Josefina Čermáková, para quem compôs Cypress Trees. No entanto, ela nunca o amou e acabou por casar com outro homem. Em 1873, Dvořák casou-se com a irmã de Josefina, Anna.

O seu primeiro sucesso foi um hino baseado numa obra de Vítězslav Hálek, famoso poeta do seu país. Assim conseguiu a colocação de organista na Igreja de Saint-Ethelbert, que ocupou até 1877. Datam desses anos Stabat Mater e outras obras sinfónicas, vocais e, sobretudo, de câmara. Em 1875 obteve uma remuneração permanente do Estado.

A obra de Dvořák conheceu um sucesso cada vez maior: surgiram as Danças eslavas (1878), Quarteto op. 51 (1879) e as primeiras sinfonias. O compositor foi diversas vezes para a Inglaterra, onde recebeu o título de Doutor Honoris Causa da Universidade de Cambridge em 1891. Obteve o mesmo título também da Universidade de Viena e da Universidade de Praga.

Em 1892 aceitou o convite para dirigir o Conservatório de Nova York. Escreveu então algumas de suas obras mais famosas, como a Sinfonia do Novo Mundo (1893). No entanto, a saudade do seu país fez com que o compositor retornasse para o lugar de professor de composição que obtivera em 1891.

A obra de Dvořák constitui uma síntese do pós-romantismo alemão de Brahms (que o admirava) e da tradição folclórica eslava.

Na relação de suas obras encontram-se nove sinfonias, um concerto para piano, um concerto para violino, um concerto para violoncelo (o mais famoso dos seus concertos), poemas sinfónicos (O espírito das águas, Meu Lar, Waldesruhe), aberturas (Othello, Na natureza, Trágica), danças sinfónicas, suites (Checa, Americana) e as danças checas.

As composições de Dvořák têm estilos muito próprios, com grande riqueza melódica e colorido orquestral.

   

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O músico Delbert McClinton faz hoje 73 anos

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Delbert McClinton (Lubbock, Texas, November 4, 1940) is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist.

Active as a side-man since 1962 and as a band leader since 1972, he has recorded several major record label albums, and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock Tracks, and Hot Country Songs charts. His highest-peaking single was "Tell Me About It", a 1992 duet with Tanya Tucker which reached No. 4 on the Country chart. He has also had four albums that made it to No. 1 on the U.S. Blues chart, and another that reached No. 2.

He was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame, in March 2011, along with Lee Roy Parnell, Bruce Channel, Gary Nicholson, and Cindy Walker.

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