APRIL 7
1932: Cal Smith is born in Gans, OK. He played rhythm guitar and opened for Ernest Tubb for six years, then developed his own solo career, where his “Country Bumpkin” earned the Country Music Association’s Single of the Year honor in 1974.
1935: Bobby Bare was born near Ironton, OH. He earned a reputation as a champion for songwriters and for quality songs, garnering hits with “500 Miles Away From Home,” “Marie Laveau” and “Detroit City,” which earned him a Grammy in 1963. He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
1948: Jim Reeves got a win pitching for the Henderson Oilers. An injury made it the final game of his baseball career.
1952: Capitol released Faron Young’s debut single, “Tattle Tale Tears.”
1956: Carl Perkins took “Blue Suede Shoes” to #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.
1959: Marty Robbins recorded “El Paso” and “Big Iron” in the same recording session at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville while cutting the entire “Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs” album in a single day.
1970: John Wayne won the only Oscar of his career for the movie “True Grit.” The picture was the first to feature Glen Campbell in an acting role.
1977: Vern Gosdin recorded “Till The End” during an evening at Nashville’s Sound Stage.
1978: Bill Anderson became the first country artist to appear on a soap opera, playing himself on ABC’s “One Life To Live.” He sings “Sometimes.”
1979: Rosanne Cash married Rodney Crowell.
1998: “The Oak Ridge Boys Live From Las Vegas” debuted on The Nashville Network. The first weekly prime-time show to emanate from Vegas, its inaugural guests were Lou Rawls and John Schneider.
2001: Jessica Andrews’ “Who I Am” netted a #1 country single in Billboard.
2009: The theatrical version of “9 To 5,” with music written by Dolly Parton, debuts on Broadway at New York’s Marquis Theatre.
2020: Singer/songwriter John Prine died of complications from COVID-19 at Nashville’s Vanderbilt Medical Center. A 2019 inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he earned a Top 5 country album with “The Tree Of Forgiveness” and wrote Don Williams’ “Love Is On A Roll” and George Strait’s “I Just Want To Dance With You.”
