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Country Music History – January 27

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JANUARY 27

1935: Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies held their first recording session in a new deal with Decca Records in Chicago. In the process, steel guitarist Bob Dunn became the first musician to play an amplified instrument on a country record.

1937: Steel guitarist Buddy Emmons was born in Mishawaka, IN. Emmons became an influential musician, playing for the likes of Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, George Strait, Linda Ronstadt, The Everly Brothers and Ernest Tubb.

1939: Piano player Joe Eddie Gough was born in Galveston, TX. He joined Gene Watson’s Farewell Party Band, appearing on such hits as “Memories To Burn,” “Got No Reason Now For Goin’ Home” and “You’re Out Doing What I’m Here Doing Without.”

1955: Cheryl White, of The Whites, was born in Wichita Falls, TX. The family trio earned bluegrass-influenced hits with “Hangin’ Around,” “You Put The Blue In Me” and “Give Me Back That Old Familiar Feeling.” They joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1984.

1955: Rhythm guitarist Richard Young, of The Kentucky HeadHunters, was born in Glasgow, KY. The rock-influenced band won the Country Music Association’s Vocal Group of the Year honor in 1990 and ’91.

1958: Despite a protest by “Heartbreak Hotel” writer Mae Boren Axton, who questioned his “moral character,” Canadian Hank Snow became an American citizen during a ceremony in Nashville.

1959: Johnny Horton recorded “The Battle Of New Orleans” during an evening session at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio on Nashville’s Music Row.

1967: Waylon Jennings made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

1968: Tracy Lawrence was born in Atlanta, TX. The deep-voiced singer notched a string of 1990s hits that features “Sticks And Stones,” “Time Marches On” and “Alibis.” He added additional hits, including “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” the next decade.

1973: “(Old Dogs-Children And) Watermelon Wine” took Tom T. Hall to #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.

1975: MCA released Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill.”

1975: Ray Stevens recorded “Misty” in Nashville.

1976: Marty Robbins recorded “El Paso City.”

1979: In the midst of filming “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Sissy Spacek appeared with Loretta Lynn on Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree radio show. 

1981: Columbia released Willie Nelson’s album “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

1986: MCA released Reba McEntire’s “Whoever’s In New England.”

1989: Columbia released Shenandoah’s album “The Road Not Taken.”

1994: Patty Loveless recorded “I Try To Think About Elvis” at Nashville’s Woodland Sound, namechecking Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, William Shakespeare, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones along the way.

2003: The Library of Congress put 50 recorded moments in a National Recording Registry documenting the 20th century. The list includes producer Ralph Peer’s Bristol sessions of 1927, with Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman and The Carter Family.