The Forced Brotherhood of Brooks and Dunn: How a Label Exec Built Country's Biggest Duo
Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn each spent years grinding toward solo stardom, playing dive bars and shopping songwriting tapes. When the big break finally came, a record executive delivered a twist: inste...
13 Juni 18min
The Real Sarah Cannon Behind Minnie Pearl: The Drama Major Who Played a Country Spinster
For decades, audiences howled at Minnie Pearl: the straw hat with the dangling $1.98 price tag, the frilly dress, and that signature "Howdy! I'm just so proud to be here." She played a simple, boy-cra...
13 Juni 18min
Trisha Yearwood From Country Star to Cookbooks: The Single Brand Behind Platinum and the Kitchen
Trisha Yearwood became the first female artist in her genre to sell a million copies of a debut album, a record-shattering start to a country career. Two decades later, she was just as famous for an E...
13 Juni 20min
Vince Gill From KISS to 22 Grammys: A Booed Bluegrass Opener Turned Country Royalty
On March 4, 1976, a teenage bluegrass band took the stage to open for KISS. The face-painted crowd, primed for pyrotechnics and distortion, booed and threw things at the acoustic kids almost immediate...
13 Juni 20min
Why Bobbie Gentry Walked Away From Fame: The Star Who Dethroned the Beatles, Then Vanished
In 1967, a debut single from a woman raised on a Mississippi farm with no indoor plumbing knocked the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper off the top of the charts. Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" made her an ov...
13 Juni 20min
Why Dan + Shay Almost Quit Music: From Emo Bands and T-Pain to Country Stardom
On paper, Dan + Shay should never have existed. Dan Smyers studied finance at Carnegie Mellon and fronted an emo band on the Vans Warped Tour; Shay Mooney was a homeschooled kid from Natural Dam, Arka...
13 Juni 18min
Why Dolly Parton Said No to Elvis: The Publishing Deal That Made Her Fortune
In 1974, Elvis Presley wanted to record Dolly Parton's brand-new song. It should have been the ultimate golden ticket, until Colonel Tom Parker demanded she hand over half the publishing rights. So th...
13 Juni 19min
Why Nashville Couldn't Silence Loretta Lynn: Banned Songs and a Coal Miner's Daughter
Married at fifteen, a mother of six before she was old enough to vote, and raised in a remote Kentucky hollow, Loretta Lynn had every reason to stay invisible. Instead she wrote songs so honest about ...
13 Juni 17min
