John Denver Wrote “Annie’s Song” in 10 Minutes — But Annie Named a Different Song as Her Favorite
Ten Minutes on a Ski Lift In January 1973, John Denver’s marriage was in trouble. He and Annie Martell had…
People once expected Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard to clash. Nearly fifty years later, Kris stood at Merle’s funeral and sang him home. When they first met, Kris was the long-haired songwriter some in Nashville saw as a hippie. Merle was already one of country music’s biggest stars. People expected them to be at odds. Kris remembered it differently. “From the first handshake we were best friends,” he later said. That friendship lasted for decades. They toured together, and less than two months before Merle died, they were still sharing a stage in California. Merle died on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday. Three days later, at his private funeral, Kris picked up his guitar and sang “Sing Me Back Home.” It was one of Merle’s most personal songs, drawn from his memories of San Quentin and a fellow inmate facing death. Nearly fifty years after that first handshake, the man everyone expected Merle to clash with was there for one of his final goodbyes.
The Night Kris Kristofferson Sang Merle Haggard Home People once expected Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard to be rivals. In…
CONWAY TWITTY FINISHED A SHOW IN BRANSON ON JUNE 4, 1993. BY THE NEXT MORNING, IT HAD BECOME HIS LAST. That Friday night, Conway was still doing what he had done for decades — standing in front of a country crowd and singing the songs that had made him one of Nashville’s biggest stars. After the show, he climbed aboard his tour bus for the trip back toward Tennessee. Nashville’s Fan Fair was ahead. He never made it. During a rest stop in southwest Missouri, Conway collapsed on the bus. He was rushed to a Springfield hospital, where doctors operated after an abdominal aneurysm ruptured. On June 5, Conway Twitty died from complications following surgery. He was 59. There had been no farewell tour. No announcement that Branson would be the last time. The audience had simply watched Conway Twitty sing, applauded, and gone home. By the next morning, they were part of a farewell none of them knew they had witnessed.
Conway Twitty’s Last Night in Branson On the evening of June 4, 1993, Conway Twitty walked out and did what…
In 1982, Conway Twitty built a place where his wife, his mother and his grown children could all live close to him. A few years later, the marriage at the center of it was over. Twitty City opened in Hendersonville, Tennessee, as Conway’s enormous nine-acre home and tourist complex. Fans could walk the grounds, visit exhibits about his career and sometimes even see Conway himself. But it was also a family compound. The property included the home Conway shared with his longtime wife, Temple “Mickey” Medley, along with homes for his mother and his four adult children. After decades on the road, Conway had created a place where the people closest to him could literally live within walking distance. From the outside, it looked like everything had finally come together. But Conway and Mickey had already survived years of strain, including an earlier divorce and reconciliation. By the mid-1980s, their marriage ended for good. Twitty City remained. So did the houses, the records and the crowds. But the woman who had known Conway before “It’s Only Make Believe,” before the No. 1 hits, and before there was ever a Twitty City was no longer beside him.
Twitty City and the Family Conway Twitty Built Around It In 1982, Conway Twitty opened Twitty City in Hendersonville, Tennessee,…
In 1987, Dwight Yoakam walked unannounced into Buck Owens’ Bakersfield office and asked a country legend who had spent years away from recording to sing with him that very night. Buck said yes. Yoakam was playing the local county fair, and his band already knew Buck’s songs. For the first time in years, Owens found himself back onstage singing the music that had once made him one of country’s biggest stars. That one night led to something neither man could have predicted. They began performing together, and eventually turned to “Streets of Bakersfield,” a Homer Joy song Buck had recorded back in the early 1970s without making it a major hit. This time, Dwight recorded it as a duet with his hero. Pete Anderson gave it a lively Tex-Mex arrangement, with Flaco Jiménez’s accordion running through the track. In 1988, “Streets of Bakersfield” reached No. 1. For Buck Owens, it was his first chart-topper in 16 years. Dwight had grown up admiring the Bakersfield Sound. Then he helped the man who created it find his way back to the top.
How Dwight Yoakam Helped Buck Owens Return to the Top with “Streets of Bakersfield” In 1987, Dwight Yoakam arrived in…