David Cantwell

Ray Price's chart career usually gets talked about as if it has two distinct periods. First there are the great honky-tonk years that included masterpiece singles such as "Crazy Arms", and then there's his crappy, post-"Danny Boy" countrypolitan hits like "

A haunting study in perpetual dissatisfaction, the life and career of Johnny Paycheck more than meet the stereotypical profile of a honky-tonk singer. He's been a rambling teenage drifter, an erratic grown-up drunk and a druggie. He's been in trouble with the IRS, too, and he&

According to her autobiography Stand By Your Man, Tammy Wynette was in the middle of a fight with her then second husband, Don Chapel, one August night in 1968 when a recently divorced George Jones showed up unexpectedly at their door. George and Tammy didn't know each other

"I want to show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll are really all just one thing. Those are the American music [sic] and that is the American culture." -- Etta James In many quarters, no doubt, Etta James' claim

Few country performers -- few performers, period -- have been blessed with the kind of talent and taste that Marty Robbins had. He could do it all, and thus never saw any reason why he shouldn't. Robbins recorded honky-tonk and postwar country, teen-dream pop, western, rockabilly, Nashville Sound,