tag:davidball.com,2005:/blogs/newsNews2021-12-08T16:01:11-06:00David Ballfalsetag:davidball.com,2005:Post/68342582021-12-08T16:01:11-06:002023-12-10T11:40:58-06:00"New" Music Videos Released!<p>If you are watching our <a contents="Facebook " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/DavidBallMusic/">Faceb</a><a contents="Facebook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/DavidBallMusic/">ook</a>,<a contents=" Instagram" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.instagram.com/davidballmusic/"> Instagram</a> & <a contents="Twitter " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://twitter.com/davidballmusic">Twitter </a>pages, you have heard about the new record <a contents="Mighty Fine: An Austin City Limits Tribute To Walter Hyatt" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/mighty-fine/"><em>Mighty Fine: An Austin City Limits Tribute To Walter Hyatt</em></a>. Growing up in South Carolina, Walter & his duo partner Champ Hood, were the main reason I wanted to play music seriously. Together we made a lot of great music in<a contents=" Uncle Walt's Band." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://unclewaltsband.com"> Uncle Walt's Band.</a></p>
<p>Tragically, we lost Walter in the 1996 ValueJet plane crash that took the lives of all passengers and crew. Lyle Lovett helped organize tribute concerts to benefit Hyatt’s wife and children. In 1997, <em>Austin City Limits</em> broadcast one of those tributes featuring friends and fans including Lovett, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Junior Brown, Marcia Ball, Allison Moorer, David Halley, Shawn Colvin, and his Uncle Walt’s Band partners, Champ Hood & myself. </p>
<p>Almost 25 years later, the eleven songs from that original broadcast are available on CD and Digital for the first time as <em>Mighty Fine: An Austin City Limits Tribute To Walter Hyatt,</em> including the song "Houston Town." Six bonus tracks recorded for, but not shown on the broadcast, are also on this record, including "Message In A Bottle," a great song Walter & I wrote. To make this collection even more special, four previously unissued Hyatt recordings make their debut.</p>
<p>Thankfully, ACL let us dig the music videos out from the archives. Never before seen until NOW! Click on the images and enjoy. Get the full album<a contents=" here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/mighty-fine/"> here.</a></p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Syq4EUeSg&list=RDa9Syq4EUeSg&start_radio=1"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/316683/1ca6422145511b70203dde9adf88c1719cb32b3f/original/houston-town.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eth-TNUkiA"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/316683/9f0ac3f9919e8c8efb3442b348b5a01c3be0e05e/original/screen-shot-2021-12-08-at-3-54-44-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p> </p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/67187202021-08-16T16:20:46-05:002021-08-16T16:20:46-05:00"Riding With Private Malone" Released 20 Years Ago! 8/13/01<p>It was 20 years ago that "Riding With Private Malone" was released to Country Radio. Many associate it with the patriotism that followed the 9/11 attacks, though the song had been on the charts almost a month prior. Written by Thom Shephard and Wood Newton, David first heard it on a songwriters show at the Opry. He asked those two writers if he could record, so he went home & worked up a little version in his home studio. He had already finished recording the "Amigo" album for Dualtone Records, but decided to sneak that song onto the album at the last minute.</p>
<p>Attached here is the cover art of the single. Enjoy!</p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/60645282020-01-06T13:20:51-06:002021-02-11T11:15:45-06:00Title Track From "Come See Me" Released As New Single<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Grammy Award winning artist David Ball, releases new single “Come See Me,” the title track from his tenth studio album. A magnificently gripping ballad, “Come See Me” gives chills to the listener, in the same spirit as “When The Thought of You Catches Up With Me” (#7 Billboard Hot Country Singles, 1994,) and his most covered song, “Don’t You Think I Feel It Too” (1970) which was recorded by Jessie Colter, Shawn Colvin, Toni Price, Lyle Lovett and Carson McHone. </p>
<p>According to David, “'Come See Me' is a throwback to the George Strait era of a great melody and lyric, but done in a very sparse & real setting. Willie did some of this with Red Headed Stranger. There’s no place to hide in this song. Like they say in Carolina, ‘raw & with no slaw.’” </p>
<p>“Come See Me” is available for download and streaming on all digital music platforms <a contents="here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://smarturl.it/davidballcomeseeme">here.</a> </p>
<p><strong>Radio Reacts: </strong></p>
<p>“Oh. My. God.” Bob Cole, KOKE FM, Austin TX </p>
<p>“Love the new single... stripped down, raw & David sounds great,” Charlie Mattos, WSM 650 AM, Nashville TN </p>
<p>"This music is not over-produced. It sounds like a personal concert to me. It’s the roots of country music." Charlie Chase, <em>Crook And Chase Countdown,</em> iHeart Radio </p>
<p>“I can hear your fingers on the guitar, I can understand the lyrics. It’s not auto-tuned and over-processed.” Eric Dahl, 98.3/1510 WLAC, Nashville TN </p>
<p><strong>Press Reacts: </strong></p>
<p>"'Come See Me'… a record that sounds like a raw, thoughtful sort of country music, just not the kind that comes through the radio. Decades later, he’s returned to the sort of independent approach to music that he took in the 1970s." Andrew Dansby,<em> Houston Chronicle </em></p>
<p>“He has been consistently good for more years than I care to remember…but I wasn’t prepared for just how wonderful a piece of work this is." Duncan Warwick, <em>Country Music People</em></p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/59687952019-11-21T19:14:19-06:002021-08-31T12:41:54-05:00"Thinkin' Problem" Reissued With Unreleased Tracks 11/15/19<p><em>Thinkin’ Problem</em>, the platinum selling debut album by legendary artist & songwriter David Ball, has been re-issued and released by Omnivore Recordings. The deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition contains a previously unreleased alternate title cut, seven additional songs from that period, and never before seen images from the original photo session, kept in the Warner Brothers vault for twenty-five years. Previously unreleased tracks are distributed for streaming and download on all digital platforms, with a physical CD available at independent record stores and online at <a contents="www.davidball.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://davidball.com">www.davidball.com</a></p>
<p>Thinkin’ Problem’s impact in Country music in 1994 garnered Ball a nomination for a Grammy Award in Best Country Male Vocal Performance as well as a nomination for CMA Horizon Award and Song of the Year. Watch the performance on the <a contents="1995 CMA Awards" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLfaRnhSAzQ">1995 CMA Awards</a>.</p>
<p>"David has one of the most Classic and sincere voices in country music- the first time I heard him, I thought, 'I believe what that guy is saying’ and after touring with him I knew for sure, he was the real deal – can’t wait to 'drop a needle' on this one!" Kix Brooks, states in the liner notes of <em>Thinkin’ Problem</em> reissue. </p>
<p> “...he glides between swing, honky-tonk, blues, and even a touch of Tex-Mex with the ease of George Strait, the difference being Ball composes his own material.” writes the <i>Austin Chronicle.</i></p>
<p>David Ball’s music is available for streaming and download on all online digital platforms including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify, iTunes and his website davidball.com. </p>
<p>Omnivore Recordings is an independent record label founded in 2010, specializing in CD and vinyl reissues of previously out-of-print albums by notable artists.</p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/58837872019-09-06T21:17:08-05:002022-05-16T02:42:53-05:00David Ball Tops The Charts 25 Years Ago With “Thinkin' Problem” 7/25/19<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/316683/16593b7a7b7d3fa89cbfb14b70673a7b46c5aa3a/original/1.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. - (<strong>July 25, 2019</strong>) – Twenty Five years ago today, Grammy Award winner and multi-platinum selling performing Artist, David Ball, charted at number one on the <em>RPM100 Country Music Chart</em> with “Thinkin’ Problem.” A fan favorite, it also landed at number two on the <em>Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks</em> (now Hot Country Songs) chart. The popular song was produced by Blake Chancey and penned by David Ball, Allen Shamblin and Stuart Terry Ziff and released by Warner Bros. Nashville. The same year it received a nod for a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards in 1995. “Thinkin’ Problem” is available for streaming and download on digital music platforms Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes and Google Play or on his website davidball.com. </p>
<p>...Yes, I admit I've got a thinkin' problem <br>She's always on my mind <br>Her memory goes round and round <br>I've tried to quit a thousand times <br>Yes, I admit I've got a thinkin' problem <br>Fill the glass up to the top <br>I'll start with lovin' her <br>But I don't know when to stop <br>I keep on remembering <br>How good it used to be <br>Gettin' stoned all alone <br>On my favorite memory.. </p>
<p>“"I’m so grateful for all the things that happened to me, all the fantastic people I’ve met over the years, from this collection of songs. To all the people, from Warner Brothers Nashville, to my record producer Blake Chancey, my sincere thanks for making it happen,” said David Ball. “It was a blast for sure." </p>
<p>Deborah Evans Price, of <em>Billboard</em> magazine reviewed the song favorably calling it a "perfect combination of retro sensibility and '90s production, and a pure honky-tonk delight." </p>
<p>Ball is currently on his <em>Thinkin’ Problem</em> 25th Anniversary Tour, playing more music than ever before from that landmark debut album. You will also hear songs from his 10th studio album, <em>Come See Me</em> (2018), available for download on digital platformsAmazon Music here and iTunes, here and can be ordered from his website davidball.com. </p>
<p>David Ball Tour Dates: <br>7-26-19 - Tulsa, OK - Hard Rock Hotel And Casino <br>7-27-19 - Madisonville, TX -National Day of the Cowboy <br>8-9-19 - Springfield, MO - Southbound <br>8-10-19 - Pocola, OK - Gilly’s <br>8-24-19 - Fyffe, AL - Fyffe Park Days <br>9-7-19 - White Bluff, TN - Bibb Event Center <br>9-10-19 - Nashville, TN - The Station Inn / Americana Fest <br>9-14-19 - Shelby, NC - The Don Gibson Theater <br>9-19-19 - Crossville, TN - Palace Theater <br>10-5-19 - Port Charlotte, FL - Over The Bridge <br>10-7-19 - The Villages, FL - Savannah Center <br>10-10-19 - Spring, TX - Dosey Doe Big Barn <br>10-11-19 - Coupland, TX - Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall <br>10-12-19 - Kendalia, TX - Kendalia Halle <br>10-15-19 - Nashville, TN - American Legion Post 82 <br>11-2-19 - Green Bay, WI - The Meyer Theater <br>11-3-19 - Sauk Rapids, MN - Rollie’s Rednecks & Longnecks <br>11-14-19 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler Theater <br>11-15-19 - Austin, TX - The 04 Center</p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/58837612019-09-06T21:02:25-05:002023-12-10T11:06:25-06:00"'Come See Me' … a record that sounds like a raw, thoughtful sort of country music, just not the kind that comes through the radio." Houston Chronicle 3/26/19 <p><strong>David Ball Still Honoring Uncle Walt’s Sound</strong></p>
<p><em>By Andrew Dansby March 26, 2019</em></p>
<p>David Ball brings up sound time and again when talking about Uncle Walt’s Band, the beloved South Carolina trio he played in for much of the ‘70s. The group was a roots music anomaly at the time, falling in line with no trends of the era — the string-laden Nashville sound nor the ragged, Texas-influenced outlaw thing. Rather Uncle Walt’s Band swung back in time when country music was dance music, a sort of Hot Club of France reimagined with gorgeous three-part harmonies. </p>
<p>“It’s interesting thinking back on it now,” Ball says. “Because there were a lot of struggles. Making things sound right. Finding ways to take the songs on our records and make them work in front of a crowd.” </p>
<p>Ball has sound on the mind because Uncle Walt’s Band’s debut album — released independently in 1974 as “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” and re-released a few years later as “Uncle Walt’s Band” — is being reissued this week. The album is a fascinating listen decades later, a bellwether of sorts for the intricate sort of pop-minded Americana that has been embraced over the past two decades. Various folk-minded indie-rock clearly sprouted as leaves on branches of a tree that led back to a band Ball formed with singer/guitarist Walter Hyatt and guitarist/fiddler DesChamps Hood years ago. </p>
<p>“This new record sounds really good,” Ball says. “We struggled to get the sound right when we released it the first time. There were times we sounded like the Chipmunks. But what we wanted to do was capture the sound of this band acoustic and as it was, and not at the mercy of a sound man. Where you could hear the instruments and the voices.” </p>
<p>Austin instead of Nashville </p>
<p>The group formed essentially in a basement in Spartanburg, S.C., which might be why the intricacies of its sound were so pronounced. The three musicians worked in such close proximity that each couldn’t help but listen closely to the other two. Hood was a renowned guitarist in Spartanburg then, and he and Hyatt had a band together. Ball would go see them play at a local Italian restaurant, thinking about what he could bring to their harmonies. He learned to play stand-up bass, and ended up in the band. </p>
<p>Uncle Walt’s Band gave Nashville a shot, but it didn’t stick. The group had caught the ear of the great Texas singer and songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey, who encouraged them to give Austin a go. Texas proved a welcoming environment, especially because the trio had learned to take the intricacies of its music and project them in a big, broad way. Ball says the band was comfortable with a muted approach when opening shows for players like the legendary folk singer Doc Watson. But when Uncle Walt’s Band found itself opening for Marshall Tucker Band, it had to make modifications. </p>
<p>“Putting the record across live was a challenge,” he says, laughing. “I remember seeing Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers with just two big mics on stage. That was it. And I love that format. So this music from the basement, this mid-tempo music, with beautiful harmonies, we had to find a way to make it work four nights a week in the clubs. Otherwise it wouldn’t go over. I’m not sure Uncle Walt’s Band was intended to be a bar band. But it’s what we had to do.” <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/316683/543152d2a5693a3855258a154e2ca78eb2096716/original/new-web-pic.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Last year Lyle Lovett — a longtime Uncle Walt’s admirer — told me, “What I remember is just how big they sounded, even though it was only three guys.” </p>
<p>Ball describes Uncle Walt’s Band creating a scene of its own. </p>
<p>“It’s funny, we were living in Austin and playing regularly in Houston but I completely missed the ‘Urban Cowboy’ thing,” he says. “It was right there. I was totally unaware. We had our little thing, and that’s what we did. We explored anything that caught our ears.” </p>
<p>The group’s vocal and instrumental prowess created gorgeous architecture around Hyatt, a songwriter of great depth who effortlessly melded elements of swing, country, soul, blues, pop. Hyatt could’ve become a star in Nashville if only the city’s music industry machinations were calibrated for developing novel talent rather than replicating prior successes. </p>
<p>“Walter wasn’t aware of different ‘kinds’ of songs,” Ball says. “He was a bona fide folk singer but he didn’t let that define what he did. He was always just deep into the idea of a song.” </p>
<p>Never found success </p>
<p>Beloved in Texas, particularly, Uncle Walt’s Band never cashed in on its sound and eventually splintered. Ball headed back to Nashville and enjoyed some hit songs as a solo artist. Hood became a pillar in Austin’s music scene. Hyatt made two beautiful records that proved just too different for country radio. He died in 1996 in the ValuJet crash in Florida. Hood died of cancer in 2001. </p>
<p>At that point Uncle Walt’s Band, long inactive, truly became a mythological thing, especially as its recordings became increasingly difficult to find. </p>
<p>Ball was the youngest member of the band. He’s 65 today, and though he still resides in Nashville, he’s largely given up on country music radio. He released “Come See Me” last year, a record that sounds like a raw, thoughtful sort of country music, just not the kind that comes through the radio. Decades later, he’s returned to the sort of independent approach to music that he took in the 1970s. </p>
<p>And as the last member of Uncle Walt’s Band still standing, he’s quite appreciative about the new light put on that band’s limited recorded output. The record label Omnivore is among a handful of boutique record-making entities that feels moved toward preservation and presentation, treating old recordings with reverence that may have missed them during their day. </p>
<p>This time last year, Omnivore released an Uncle Walt’s Band anthology. And this month the label is putting out “Uncle Walt’s Band,” with a bunch of extras, including early demos of some of the songs. </p>
<p>And while Ball has his own career to think about, he also enjoys looking back to that first band that migrated from South Carolina to Nashville and then to Texas, picking up a dedicated cult audience along the way. Decades later, listeners can play “Uncle Walt’s Band” and hear the influence play out on years of subsequent music. </p>
<p>That brings Ball to Houston this weekend, where he’ll play a show with fiddler Warren Hood, DesChamps’ son, and Marshall Hood, Deschamps’ nephew — the closest we can get to an Uncle Walt’s Band reunion. </p>
<p>Last year Warren Hood marveled at his father’s old band, which started when he was just a kid. </p>
<p>He pointed out the trio’s affinity for all manner of music: folk, jazz, country, blues, soul, bluegrass. </p>
<p>“Nobody sounded like them,” Hood said, “before or after.”</p>
<p>https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/movies/article/David-Ball-still-honoring-Uncle-Walt-s-sound-13714543.php#photo-17122226</p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/54745482018-10-17T20:11:12-05:002021-11-12T18:47:12-06:00Country Music Hall of Fame Welcomes Ricky Skaggs, Dottie West, Johnny Gimble <p>The lineup of artists that welcomed Ricky Skaggs, Dottie West and Johnny Gimble into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville Sunday night (Oct. 21) could have filled the cavernous Bridgestone Arena, which sat just across the street from the Hall, many times over. </p>
<p>Instead, it was a private audience of a few hundred people who had the privilege of hearing songs and stories from Garth Brooks, Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton, Connie Smith, Larry Gatlin, Steve Wariner, Jeannie Seely, David Ball, Larry Cordle, mandolin wizard Sierra Hall, the Americana duo The War and Treaty, fiddlers Michael Cleveland, Kenny Sears, Larry Franklin, Joe Spivey and Deanie Richardson and guitarist Jeff White. West died in 1991, Gimble in 2015.</p>
<p>Stories of musical instruments that became magic carpets also loomed large during the evening — the fiddle Gimble began playing when he was 10, the cheap guitar West won when she was 12 by selling Smith’s Rosebud Salve door to door and the $5 mandolin Skaggs father bought him in a Lima, Ohio pawnshop and then transported lovingly back to Eastern Kentucky to place as a surprise beside his sleeping five-year-old. </p>
<p>Then there was Bill Monroe’s priceless 1923 Lloyd Loar Gibson F-5 mandolin taken from its glass case in the Hall of Fame museum and given to Skaggs to play during the evening’s traditional finale, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” closing the three-hour ceremony.</p>
<p>While the audience was gathering, screens above the stage showed the members of each year’s Hall of Fame “class” since the institution was founded in 1961. Gimble, West and Skaggs are the 134th, 135th and 136th members, respectively. </p>
<p>Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young hosted the proceeding, which has come to be known as the Medallion Ceremony because of the necklace-like medal awarded each new inductee. </p>
<p>Young chronicled Gimble’s rise from his youth in Tyler, Texas to the formation of his own bands to his inclusion in 1949 in Bob Wills’ superband, the Texas Playboys. He relocated to Nashville in 1968 and became an in-demand session musician, playing on the albums of such luminaries as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson (once a bass player in Gimble’s own band), Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, George Strait, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash and Randy Travis. </p>
<p>Characterized as “open minded and open hearted,” Gimble seemed to take great joy in his fiddling, always lighting up the stage and sessions with his grins. His tenure as a Texas Playboy earned him a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. </p>
<p>In recognition of Gimble’s love of the jazz element in western swing music, David Ball, accompanied by the Time Jumpers’ fiddlers Sears, Spivey and Franklin, offered a high-spirited but ultra-smooth rendering of the old classic, “Right or Wrong,” the same song Strait took to No. 1 in 1984, with Gimble on fiddle.</p>
<p>Next on stage was Cleveland, an 11-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Assn.’s fiddler of the year award, with his light-touch interpretation of Gimble’s own composition, “Gardenia Waltz.” White backed him on acoustic guitar. </p>
<p>Grand Ole Opry star and Hall of Fame member Connie Smith delivered the final musical tribute to Gimble, singing her 1972 hit, “If It Ain’t Love (Let’s Leave It Alone).” She had been so impressed by Gimble’s work on that record, she said, that she tried to get her label, RCA, to credit him as her duo partner. When the label refused, she sent a letter to disc jockeys asking them to take notice of his musical contribution. </p>
<p>Smith brought Gimble’s widow and children to the stage to participate in the unveiling of his bronze Hall of Fame plaque. </p>
<p>A series of videos and photos traced Dottie West’s progress from a gingham-wearing country girl to a spandex-clad Las Vegas vamp. In a voice-over narrative, Kenny Rogers, West’s frequent duet partner, declared, “Dottie was one of those people who believed what she sang.” </p>
<p>Young described West’s hardscrabble upbringing, dominated by an abusive father who was “a holy terror” and a mother so beaten down that she “practiced laughing in a mirror so she wouldn’t forget how.” </p>
<p>Ultimately, West (whose original name was Dorothy Marsh) put herself through college, married steel player Bill West, wrote lots of songs and began her slow march toward musical immortality. </p>
<p>That march would include duet pairings with Jim Reeves, Don Gibson, Jimmy Dean and finally Rogers and a wildly successful series of Coca-Cola ads that led to her 1973 hit, “Country Sunshine.” </p>
<p>Opry member Jeannie Seely, who West convinced to seek a career in Nashville, came to the stage to sing “Here Comes My Baby,” a song West and her husband wrote and one that earned her a Grammy in 1964 for best female country vocal.</p>
<p>Gatlin and Wariner, two talents West championed at the beginnings of their careers, followed Seely with a cool and casual reading of “Country Sunshine” that had the crowd clapping along. </p>
<p>West’s daughter, Shelly, who had her own country successes in the 1980s, chief among them her duet with David Frizzell, “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” sat in the front row with her brothers, gazing in rapt attention — and now and then raising her arm in affirmation — as Gatlin and Wariner sang. </p>
<p>The War and Treaty (Michael and Tanya Trotter) capped off the West segment with a hard-hitting cover of her 1980 hit — and her first No. 1 as a solo artist — “A Lesson in Leavin’.”</p>
<p>Hall of Famer Brenda Lee (both Country and Rock and Roll) emerged to induct West formally. “I’ve done a lot of this in my life,” she said, “but this is one of the most precious to me.” She credited West, Patsy Cline and songwriter Marijohn Wilkin for encouraging and nourishing her aspirations. Then she summoned to the stage Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Jeannie Seely, Jan Howard and Connie Smith. </p>
<p>“Come on, you female girls,” she cracked. “The reason I’m doing this is that it takes a village to induct this woman. . . . She had the biggest heart. She was a good woman.”</p>
<p>Likening her own impoverished childhood to West’s, Lee continued, “She and I felt the safest when we were on stage. We felt like we could be who we were then.” </p>
<p>Shelly West told the crowd that even though her mother and father were on the road a lot, she had a loving and charmed childhood — not to mention the company of such personalities as Roger Miller and Willie Nelson. She recalled often waking to see the floor littered with songwriters. </p>
<p>Her brother, Dale, recounted recording with his mother the tearjerker “Mommy Can I Still Call Him Daddy” when he was four years old — with Chet Atkins producing. </p>
<p>Skaggs was a prodigy who, by the time he was seven years old, had played mandolin on stage with Bill Monroe and on television with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. While still a teenager he, along with his good friend Keith Whitley, became members of Ralph Stanley’s fabled band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. These achievements proclaimed him a natural son to the main founding fathers of bluegrass music. </p>
<p>When Skaggs, signed to a major label and producing his own records, began regularly topping the country charts in the early 1980s, it became evident that his creativity ranged beyond bluegrass, even as the genre remained his musical core. </p>
<p>As Monroe lay dying, Skaggs often sat at his bedside. During one visit, he took the same mandolin Monroe had allowed him to play when he was six, and cheered the old man with a blazing romp through “Rawhide,” the instrumental Monroe had composed and made famous. </p>
<p>After playing in various other bluegrass configurations, Skaggs took a turn toward country as a member of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. There he reinforced Harris’ bluegrass underpinnings and dueted with her on “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn” on her 1980 Roses in the Snow album. </p>
<p>Brooks, Cordle and Hull kicked off the tribute to Skaggs with “Highway 40 Blues,” a song Cordle had written while he and Skaggs were still living in Eastern Kentucky and which Skaggs promised to record if he ever got a record deal.</p>
<p>He did better than that, arching the song to No. 1 in 1983 and turning it into a country and bluegrass standard. Brooks gave Cordle and Hull the spotlight, only occasionally moving forward to the microphone, his hands thrust in his pockets, to sing a verse or join in the harmony. </p>
<p>Next in line was Dierks Bentley, who fell in love with bluegrass during his frequent visits to Nashville’s Station Inn. He sang the mournful Skaggs hit, also from 1983, “You’ve Got a Lover.” </p>
<p>Bentley told the crowd that two of his band members had earlier worked in Skaggs’ band and that one of the first albums he’d bought while studying harmony was Skaggs and Whitley’s Second Generation Bluegrass. </p>
<p>“I’ll do what I can with this, Mr. Skaggs,” Chris Stapleton said humbly, as he launched into “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn.” And he did quite well, accompanying himself on guitar, as the Medallion Band seated behind him remained quiet. When he finished, he walked to the edge of the stage, leaned down and shook Skaggs’ hand.</p>
<p>Brooks returned to the stage to induct Skaggs. As usual, he presented himself as a bumbler, incapable, he claimed, of presenting Skaggs with the eloquence due him. Naturally, he was beyond eloquent. He described how Skaggs, Reba McEntire and George Strait had returned country music to its strongest roots while paving the way for the masterful Randy Travis. </p>
<p>He said there was “a thin line between craziness and genius” and that Skaggs’ apparent craziness — such as releasing the old Bill Monroe chestnut, “Uncle Pen,” as a single — became genius when the song soared to No. 1. </p>
<p>Brooks said all his teachers at Oklahoma State University boasted Ph. D. degrees but that none of them spoke to him, “a 19-year-old kid,” as forcefully as Skaggs’ music did. </p>
<p>Skaggs came up to claim his medallion and unveil his plaque that depicts him with the long-white hair he’s worn for the past several years. He lauded his mother and dad — not just for their musical encouragement but for their religious teachings as well. Then, gesturing toward his wife, Sharon White, he exclaimed, “And, oh, my sweet Sharon, how I love you always and forever.” </p>
<p>From there on Skaggs read through a list that included his two brothers, his children and grandchildren, all the members of his office staff, his attorney and publicist and various fundamentalist ministers, among whom were Billy and Franklin Graham and Bob Jones.</p>
<p>He said he could — and should — spend an entire evening thanking Harris for her help in bringing him to international attention. He said he was grateful, too, to country radio — “not now so much but back then.” </p>
<p>Finally, he directed his affections to Brooks. “Garth, you booger, you’ve done more for country music than anyone I know.” </p>
<p>Young told Brooks he should remove Skaggs’ medallion temporarily so it wouldn’t scratch Monroe’s treasured Gibson F-5, which he asked Skaggs to play as he led the crowd in “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” </p>
<p>Holding the mandolin in front of him, Skaggs talked to it as if it were alive. “You look great,” he said. “What about [my] hair? Like a Shetland pony? Yeah, I’ve heard that.” </p>
<p>As he concluded the song and the crowd started drifting out of the auditorium. He said to the mandolin, “I know it’s lonely in there” [the glass museum case]. “No, I’m not going to drop you.” </p>
<p>Last month, Skaggs was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and in 2016 to the Musicians Hall of Fame. </p>
<p>Once the ceremonies were over, most of the crowd retreated to the museum’s sixth floor, overlooking downtown Nashville, where table after table of food, drink and desserts awaited them. </p>
<p>The Gibson F-5 did not attend. </p>
<p>As usual, the Medallion Band was the evening’s musical backbone. Its members were Biff Watson (bandleader and acoustic guitar), Eddie Bayers Jr. (drums), Thom Flora and Tania Hancheroff (vocals), Paul Franklin (steel guitar), Brent Mason (electric guitar), Carmella Ramsey (vocals and fiddle), Michael Rhodes (bass), Deanie Richardson (fiddle and mandolin), Matt Rollings (keyboard) and Jeff White (acoustic guitar and vocals).</p>
<p><em>For many wonderful pictures, see original post here: </em>http://www.cmt.com/news/1800178/country-music-hall-of-fame-welcomes-ricky-skaggs-dottie-west-johnny-gimble/</p>David Balltag:davidball.com,2005:Post/54745462018-10-17T20:10:18-05:002022-04-11T07:21:37-05:00Hear David Ball Return With 'I Got a Broken Heart in the Mail'<p>Honky-tonk revivalist David Ball just released the single "I Got a Broken Heart in the Mail." It's the first hints of what's on <em>Come See Me,</em> his first album in close to eight years. Ball recorded the album at his Franklin, Tenn. home and is being described as his "most personal record yet." That's namely due to the fact that he wrote, produced and played nearly every instrument on the album.</p>
<p>"I Got a Broken Heart in the Mail" finds Ball picking up right where he last left off as a honky-tonk country crooner. There's some Tex-Mex flair in his guitar picking and the thumping bass line. As evidenced by the title alone, Ball's "I Got a Broken Heart in the Mail" is an old-school country break-up ballad. </p>
<p>In typical Ball fashion, it's built around a feel-good groove and a mighty memorable chorus. He offers lines such as "looks like a lot of lonely nights are heading my way" with almost a wry smile--perhaps to keep from a few tears rolling down his cheeks. </p>
<p>Still, there's a feel-good spirit nestled within the song. That primarily comes out of Ball's bare-bones recording approach. It isn't bogged down by unnecessary instrumentation. There's a down-home spin that feels light, airy and with a touch of sweet natural rawness. </p>
<p>Ball, who had major hits with the likes of "Riding With Private Malone," "Thinkin' Problem," "Look What Followed Me Home" and "Honky Tonk Healin," is currently running a PledgeMusic campaign for <em>Come See Me.</em> There he says that bare-bones approach was carried out through the entire album. "This is under-produced, non-corporate country music," says Ball in the introduction. </p>
<p><em>Come See Me</em> is slated for a September 7 release date via Private Records. </p>
<p>"I Got a Broken Heart in the Mail" Lyrics </p>
<p>The mailman came walking down the street, reached in his sack. <br>He brought me a letter, but now I wish he'd take it back. <br>I tore it open and read the words in disbelief <br>I never thought that you would send this to me </p>
<p>I got a broken heart in the mail today <br>Goodbye, good luck is all you had to say <br>Looks like a lot of lonely nights are heading my way <br>Cause I got a broken heart in the mail today </p>
<p>Like a fool, I thought everything was OK <br>I thought you were sending all your love my way <br>As I watched the mailman walk up to my door <br>But now I see that you don't love me anymore </p>
<p>I got a broken heart in the mail today <br>Goodbye, good luck is all you had to say <br>Looks like a lot of lonely nights are heading my way <br>Cause I got a broken heart in the mail today </p>
<p>Yeah, I got a broken heart in the mail today</p>
<p>https://www.wideopencountry.com/david-ball-i-got-a-broken-heart-in-the-mail/</p>
<p> </p>David Ball