August 23, 2021, Issue 770
Remembering Hall & Everly
Country Music Hall of Famers Tom T. Hall and Don Everly of The Everly Brothers passed over the weekend (read full Chronicle stories here and here, respectively). Below are remembrances from a few of their industry peers. • Publisher Tom Collins: Out of the deal I made to acquire his catalog, I not only received some great copyrights, but I also got two of my best friends in life: Tom and Miss Dixie, his wife. They were a special couple, and Tom was a true friend. Whatever he said, that’s the way it was. He was a genius in writing through simplicity and heart. Who else could come up with a line like “I flew over our house last night”? He told my daughter Courtney one time, “You’ll really like your dog once it has you trained.” And when Bob Dylan was [disparaging] his song “I Love,” Tom said, “I don’t understand why this Don Everly guy’s putting me down for ‘little baby ducks.’ I wrote the song in 10 minutes. And, hell, I’ve never met the guy!” He had a great sense of humor and is in every hall of fame there is. He was a great man and a great friend. • Country Music Hall of Fame’s Peter Cooper: When I was four years old, Tom T. came out with an album of songs he subtitled “for children of all ages.” At the time, he Tom T. Hall was one of the most successful singers and personalities in country music, but he made an album to which four-year-olds could relate. He made it with some of the top session musicians in Nashville and at a level of sonic quality equal to anything else coming out at the time. He didn’t talk down to children; there was no funny voice or sound effects. But he sang about things a four-year-old, a 44-year-old and an 84-year-old mind could understand and appreciate. He sang with empathy. An artist at the top of their career doing an album ostensibly for children just wouldn’t happen today. They wouldn’t be advised to do it, nor should they be. (continued on page 7)
Face The Fax: Stoney Creek’s Frank Ray visits the Beasley corporate office. Pictured (l-r) are the company’s Marie Tedesco and Caroline Beasley, Ray and the company’s Justin Chase and Heidi Raphael.
Friends And Heroes Kicks Off
It was 524 days between the March 12, 2020 date when Warner/WMN’s Blake Shelton canceled his Friends And Heroes Tour while sitting on his bus in Omaha and the official relaunch of the tour Aug. 18 in the same city. iHeartMedia KXKT/Omaha PD/midday personality Hoss Michaels and Alpha KZKX/ Lincoln, NE PD/afternoon host Rob Kelley were on hand for the opening night and tell Country Aircheck about the tour. Following a 30-minute opening set from Stoney Creek’s Lindsay Ell “showing off her guitar skills and totally slaying it,” according to Michaels, Shelton’s band kicked off at approximately 8:15pm, and Shelton walked out on a ramp to begin the show with “Neon Light.” Staging included an extended runway onto the floor bringing Lindsay Ell and Shelton and his “friends and heroes” Hoss Michaels close to the crowd. Large screens were
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