SEPTEMBER 25
1889: David “Dad” Carter was born in Milltown, KY. He founded The Chuck Wagon Gang, an influential Southern gospel act. The group’s “After The Sunrise” ranks among country’s 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation’s “Heartaches By The Number.”
1933: Ian Tyson was born in British Columbia, Canada. The folk singer and rodeo cowboy wrote Bobby Bare’s “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon,” a Judy Collins pop recording that became a minor country hit for Moe Bandy in 1982 and for Suzy Bogguss in 1991.
1934: Royce Kendall was born in St. Louis, MO. His duo with daughter Jeannie, The Kendalls, uses gospel harmony to create a series of suggestive singles, including “Heaven’s Just A Sin Away,” “Pittsburgh Stealers” and “Teach Me To Cheat.”
1961: Ray Price recorded “San Antonio Rose,” the first tribute album to honor Bob Wills. The band included Willie Nelson.
1961: Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By” spent the first of 19 weeks at #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.
1962: Loretta Lynn joined the Grand Ole Opry.
1963: The Jim Reeves movie “Kimberley Jim” had its world premiere in South Africa.
1974: Willie Nelson recorded “Remember Me (When The Candlelights Are Gleaming).”
1981: The Association of Country Entertainers closed its offices due to lack of funding. ACE had been established in 1974 when numerous Nashville performers were unhappy over the infiltration of pop stars into country music.
1987: RCA released Baillie & The Boys’ self-titled debut album.
1993: Capitol released Suzy Bogguss’ “Something Up My Sleeve” album.
1993: The Postal Service issued a series of stamps honoring four important country music acts: Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Patsy Cline and Bob Wills.
1998: Cas Walker died in his sleep in Knoxville, TN. The host of a Knoxville television show, he provided the first television exposure for numerous country artists, including Dolly Parton.
2001: Lost Highway released “Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute,” featuring performances by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams III, Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, Mark Knopfler and Lucinda Williams, among others.
2003: Fourteen years after Cash Box chart manager Kevin Hughes was killed on Music Row in Nashville, a former fellow employee, Richard D’Antonio, was convicted of the murder. Hughes had declined to participate in a chart kickback scandal and threatened to take it public.
2016: Grand Ole Opry member Jean Shepard died in Nashville. A 2011 inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame, she used a honky-tonk sound to become a pioneer among female country acts, best known for the singles “Slippin’ Away,” “Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)” and a Ferlin Husky duet, “A Dear John Letter.”
