Monday, March 19, 2012

Where I'm from....


When I was 15, I was convinced I was either a punk or a goth or a metal head...anything but a country boy…I would listen to anything provided it wasn't country music.  I would take the occasional side trip into some Hank Williams (senior, of course) but for the most part I rejected all things Nashville.  I guess, a big thing was being surrounded by it…Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry were all with-in fifteen minutes of my house, yet I considered myself completely separated from it all.

Looking back on it now I realize how silly that was but at the time I couldn’t be swayed otherwise and so much of my youth was spent denying my regional music roots.  As I have grown older, I have come to appreciate (almost) everything Nashville represents. I am proud that a good portion of the birth of popular music took place here and that when many a singer/songwriter has a dream they don’t look to the north or to the west coast but pack up everything they have and move to Nashville in hopes of being the next big thing. 

I have also embraced the artists that at one point I would’ve hate…everyone from Faron Young to Steve Earle to Miranda Lambert find a regular place in my music queue and I love them all. 
 
So recently I have started making an effort to see as many of the famous country singers/songwriters who have left this mortal coils graves as possible…I will, from time to time, post pictures from these trips and a little information and a music video about for the artists that I visit. 

 Name: Roy Acuff
Birth: 15 September 1903
Death: 23 November 1992
Age at Death: 89 years, 2 months and 8 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter, co-owner of famed Nashville Publishing Company Acuff-Rose


 Name: Fred Rose
Birth: 24 August 1898
Death: 1 December 1954
Age at Death: 57 years, 3 months and 7 days old
Interment: Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Songwriter, co-owner of famed Nashville Publishing Company Acuff-Rose


Name: Jimmy Martin
Birth: 10 August 1927
Death: 14 May 2005
Age at Death: 77 years, 9 months and 5 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Bluegrass Musician, nicknamed the "King of Bluegrass"
 


Name: Hank Snow
Birth: 9 May 1914
Death: 20 December 1999
Age at Death: 85 years, 7 months and 11 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter
 
 



Name: Pete Drake
Birth: 8 October 1932
Death: 29 July 1988
Age at Death: 55 years, 9 months and 21 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Record Producer, Steel Guitar Player





Name: Billy Walker
Birth: 14 January 1929
Death: 21 May 2006
Age at Death: 77 years, 4 months and 8 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter
 


Name:Vern Gosdin
Birth: 5 August 1934
Death: 28 April 2009
Age at Death: 74 years, 8 months and 24 days old
Interment: Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter, nicknamed "The Voice"



Name: Keith Whitley
Birth: 1 July 1954
Death: 9 May 1989
Age at Death: 34 years, 10 months and 8 days old
Interment: Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville, TN
Occupation: Singer, Songwriter