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  1. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    For 15 years, starting in 1982, Alabama began sponsoring the June Jam, a music festival staged in their home town of Fort Payne, in the Appalachian corner of N.E. Alabama, close to the Tennessee border. Headlined by the group, this event drew as many as 60,000 fans at a time to the small town...
  2. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    From 1982 until 1984, Alabama won the CMA’s most prestigious award, the Entertainer of the Year. Alabama’s run as a dominant force in the music industry constantly saw chart-topping hit after another without fail. As we have seen, Alabama’s early work was much a mix of mountain harmonies...
  3. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Clean through most of the 1980s, Alabama established itself as more than just some country band named after its home state. Thanks to their sudden and enormous rise in popularity, Alabama left Myrtle Beach’s Bowery venue after regularly performing there for about 7 years. At first, the cousins...
  4. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Time for more country music history as we head back once again to 1980. As we’ve already seen, in the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s, country groups had come to the fore, with the Southern Gospel inspired quartets, The Statler Brothers (posts # 949-952) and The Oak Ridge Boys (# 961-964) and...
  5. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    So I’m back after some much travel again and almost ready for some more history. But before I get back to that, today I’m paying a nod to my 2 favourite American rock bands. Both were very heavily influenced by country music and these days, much of their music is described as country rock. But...
  6. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    He searched for and found the beautiful. His potted story and music can be found from posts #560-570. He is long gone now, but his protege he took under his wing and tutored in harmony, Emmylou Harris, is still with us and she still speaks of how Gram opened her eyes and educated her to the...
  7. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    As one might discern from some of my comments yesterday, I have to admit I wasn’t really a fan of Johnny Lee’s music. as we saw yesterday, he came to prominence in 1980 via the Urban Cowboy movie and the country-pop crossover smash ‘Lookin’ For Love’. Prior to that breakthrough, he had played...
  8. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    So I’m back for the next history instalment, as we once again journey back to 1980 and the famous (or infamous, depending on your POV) Urban Cowboy era. As I’ve already written in previous posts, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, musicians and producers were only too keen to distance themselves...
  9. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    I‘m glad to be service! There’s no doubt David Bellamy, who wrote most of the songs they recorded, is really the one responsible for their success, driving his brother along for the ride. And though their biggest commercial success was in the early part of their career (which is typically the...
  10. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Yes, sad news - he was a country music giant from the mid 1990’s to c2010 and worked right up ‘til he could no more due to his terminal cancer. I’ll admit to not having been such a fan at his prime - apart from Hank III, I wasn’t so much into country at all back then, but have matured and grown...
  11. Professor Knowall

    Beatles- Now and Then released

    It was 60 years ago today ... … 9/2/64 in the U.S. (but 10/2/64 in Australia), that the Beatles conquered America with their historic appearance on the Ed Sullivan show - and an unprecedented 45 million sets and 78 million viewers tuned in. Not that they knew at the time, but American (and thus...
  12. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Compared to the two brotherly duo’s previously covered in this history - The Louvin Brothers (posts # 294-294) and The Everly Brothers (# 393-399), which were both raised in the Appalachians and imbued from childhood in the incredibly tight harmony (in the case of The Louvains, unsurpassed, and...
  13. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    I’ll start today’s segment in the Bellamy Brothers looking at their sing-writing, given that David in particular, has long been one of the most prolific. Though the brothers became interested in music by singing with their father and in church, it wasn’t long before David says he was making up...
  14. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    You might wonder why I chose the Bellamy Brothers as the group to open the 1980’s, when by 1980 they’d already scored a massive work-wide pop hit with 1976’s ‘Let Your Love Flow’ (which would now be classified as country), and then, after a couple of frustrating years battling the L.A. sharks...
  15. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Yes, I’m back again for the next history instalment, with a trip back to the 1980’s - we’ll actually, the music part starts with a huge pop hit of 1976 (though it now would easily be passed off as being traditional country). After the hard core, totally non mainstream music but masterly...
  16. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Thank you. This all started as what I thought would be a little project to fill in time just to stop me going (more) crazy being cooped up by the seemingly endless Melbourne Covid lockdowns - I had no thought at all of taking it any further (and I nearly chose to do blues instead of country)...
  17. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Sorry for the late reply … the trouble for me is that I usually don’t know in which part of the country I’ll be more than 1-2 weeks ahead. I had given up on seeing this Texan troubadour (that I’ve followed for some years) when his first Melbourne concert sold out, but now I see another concert...
  18. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Much appreciate your generous words, Pats. In regards to Fred Eaglesmith, I am much indebted to you for putting me “onto” him in the first place … now I feel honoured to be welcomed into the Fredhead Fraternity!
  19. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Normally, when doing this potted history I select the songs from the artists biggest hits - though sometimes omitting ones that have dated badly - and maybe sneak in a more obscure song or two if I really like them as a “captains call”. But with Fred, whose songs had never been played on...
  20. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    I’ve been thinking today of which artists in this history that could be compared to Fred Eaglesmith - artists who were great song-writers but usually with “limited“ vocals (as Fred self-describes his own), and were generally outside the mainstream - though pretty much all the names here weren’t...
  21. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Listening to old-time Canadian country singer, Wilf Carter and the Cowboy Singers first inspired Eaglesmith. Then, his interest in music "catapulted" with Elvis, but it was John Prine (posts # 685-691) who most influenced his songwriting - "He was a sardonic writer and it wasn't pretty, but it...
  22. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    It’s a been a long day but eventually I’m back to continue Fred Eaglesmith‘s story and music. Efforts to pin down Fred to a particular genre appears to be (amusingly to me) in vain. I’ve read descriptions starting with the basics - country, folk, rock - then applying these to all the possible...
  23. Professor Knowall

    Remembering Elvis

    Replying 16 years later ... Yes, I think a pilgrimage to Gracelands at least once in one’s life should be made an obligation :cool: And like you, I found it surprisingly tasteful and even moving, which I didn’t expect. I cut my single at the renowned Studio B in Nashville, the very studio Elvis...
  24. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    I’m back for some more history. The calendar might say it’s 2024, but here we’ve just stepped into 1980. I originally hadn’t intended to introduce our next artist until I reached the 1990’s, when he finally irrevocably committed to being a full time musician and came to some prominence. However...
  25. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Well it turns out I was kidding myself when last here I said I should have time to squeeze in a special artist before Christmas. I never came close to having the spare time (I should’ve known better), so the next feature had had to be put back until a little after the new year. Meanwhile...
  26. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Though many of T.G. Sheppard's hits in the early 1980’s sometimes drifted toward soft rock, particularly when he adopted a subdued disco beat for songs like ‘Do You Wanna Go to Heaven‘ and ’I Loved 'Em Every One’, he finds it ironic he is now regarded as a traditional country act (confirmed by...
  27. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    Alrighty, I’m back once again from the wilderness for just a few days, just enough for the next history instalment - and this one will be the last that broke through in the 1970’s (it’s only taken about 2 years for me to get through the rich country 1970’s era). An assured, honey-voiced singer...
  28. Professor Knowall

    Funniest Songs In Rock

  29. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    When pundits habitually bemoan both the homogenisation and the dilution of country music over the past 10-20 years, it is all too easy to forget that 40-45 years ago the genre was, at least based on many of the major charting hits of the time, also in a doubtful state. Nashville seems to at...
  30. Professor Knowall

    Country Music

    By the time Eddie Rabbitt broke through to stardom in 1976 as a performer in his own right and not just a song-writer, he was in his mid thirties and a seasoned pro in the music industry. Working closely with producer David Malloyand also forging a close working relationship with fellow...
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