AUGUST 14
1941: Connie Smith was born in Elkhart, IN. The Grand Ole Opry powerhouse debuted with 1964’s “Once A Day,” making hits consistently for nine years. In 1997, she married fellow Opry star Marty Stuart. In 2012, she joined the Country Music Hall of Fame.
1941: David Crosby was born in Los Angeles, CA. He co-founded The Byrds in 1964, establishing a band that played a seminal role in the rise of country-rock, although he left the group in 1967, creating Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young a year later.
1942: Record producer Brent Maher was born in Great Bend, KS. His credits include The Judds’ “Why Not Me,” Dottie West’s “A Lesson In Leavin’,” Michael Johnson’s “Bluer Than Blue” and Tanya Tucker’s “Some Kind Of Trouble.”
1945: Comedian Steve Martin was born in Waco, TX. The banjo-playing “wild and crazy guy” employs The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the role of the Toot Uncommons when he recorded a million-selling single, “King Tut.” He also won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year in 2011.
1960: Watermelon Park in Berryville, MD, hosted the first all-day, multiple-act bluegrass festival. The lineup featured Bill Monroe, Mac Wiseman, Reno & Smiley, The Osborne Brothers and fiddler Scotty Stoneman.
1964: Johnny Burnette drowned in a boating accident on California’s Clear Lake. With his Rock ‘N’ Roll Trio in the mid-1950s, he helped define rockabilly.
1964: Roy Rogers had a nine-hour surgery to repair vertebrae in his back damaged by years of riding his horse, Trigger.
1965: Bobby Bare joined the Grand Ole Opry.
1971: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concluded recording for the “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” album at Woodland Sound Studio in Nashville with fiddler Vassar Clements and bass player Junior Huskey.
1977: Waylon Jennings recorded “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want To Get Over You),” one of just two songs in a marathon, 23-hour session at Nashville’s American Studios.
1978: Merle Haggard recorded “Red Bandana” and “Leonard,” a tribute to Tommy Collins, at the Glaser Studios in Nashville.
1980: Five months after they started dating, Glen Campbell proposed to Tanya Tucker. She said yes, though a marriage never happened.
1995: Shania Twain was certified double-platinum for the first time in her career, with “The Woman In Me.”
2001: Rounder released Alison Krauss + Union Station’s “New Favorite” album.
2006: Johnny Duncan died from a heart attack in a Fort Worth hospital. His career, which included a number of duets with Janie Fricke, peaked with a series of mid tempo songs in the 1970s.
2012: Ricky Skaggs was added to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Hendersonville, TN, along with Aretha Franklin and four other acts.
2017: A North Carolina judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit brought against Alan Jackson by songwriter Timothy Arnett, who maintained that Jackson’s hit “Remember When” ripped off his own “Remember Me.”
