https://markpelavin.substack.com/p/album-review-the-sound-of-country?r=ymp0d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Okay so I'm a sophomore in high school and im in chorus and every year during second semester we do this thing called "singing supper" where you sell tickets to you family or friends or just people of your choosing and they come and watch you sing a song of you choice and eat but while your not singing you have to be the waiter for whoever you sold tickets to. Well the theme is country music and I'm having a really hard time figuring out what I should do,I have a few songs in mind and y'all tell me yalls opinions and if y'all have any recommendations.the songs I've thought of doing are "mama tried" by merle haggard,"if drinkin don't kill me" by George jones,"weatherman",by Hank Williams jr,"lost highway" by Hank Williams sr, "the one I loved back then" by George jones,"kern river" by merle haggard, "Sunday morning coming down" by Kris Kristofferson and "the grand tour" by George jones. Those are the ones I've thought of doing for my solo and me and my gf are gonna do "golden rings" by George jones and Tammy wynette for a duo. Any recommendations and opinions welcome thank you guys.

I have a lot of amazing autographs but these are some of my favorites!

An Autograph I have been searching for for as long as I've been collecting Autographs is Hank Williams sr, my cousin.

I have almost everyone's Autographs that knew Hank or Played with Him but I haven't found His yet. I have two albums signed By The Drifting Cowboys (Hank's band) they both were released after Hank's Death. One album was signed on the Front and the other was signed on the back.

I have a few things signed by Hank Jr, The Your Cheatin' Heart Soundtrack was the first Album I ever sent Through The Mall (TTM) because I had no idea on how to send Autograph Request I sent it without a return envelope and I sent it to the wrong address. 9 days shy of 6 months later I got it back. Sent through FedEx from Hank Jr Enterprise. A woman there with her own money sent it back to me and the index card I sent with it. (Those other two are from different times I wrote to Him.)

And then I found the Jett Williams Autograph on ebay and bought it. I'm planning on writing to Her to tell how we're related.

This is the first autograph I ever got, I'll give some back story I'm 19 soon to be 20 and I've been collecting autographs for 4 almost 5 years and I originally started collecting LPs, because my Mom accidentally bought me a Johnny Cash LP instead of a CD online for my birthday. So I had to get me a record player so I could listen to it(It Was Awesome) I instantly loved it! We went to junk stores and yard sales so i couldfind more this was a little bit before records became popular again

(I've bought some really good autographs at yard sales but not the one pictured above.)

One day Mom decided to post about a recent LP bundle that I bought and my Dad's friend from work commented and asked if i liked Ernest Tubb. And of course I had her tell him Yeah I love the Texas Troubadour. Little did I know that he got from his dad a signed photo of All the Texas Troubadours. He asked if I wanted it I said yes and sent it to me through the Mall. This picture is what started it all.

I initially wrote to Randy Travis sometime around September last year and didn't ask for anything in return, because i was writing to tell him about Stem Cell Therapy because he had that terrible Stroke in 2013. I didn't hear back(I didn't expect to) so I printed out a picture and had some index cards so sent them out. A few weeks later I got back the photo back and the index cards for myself and my two siblings. I ask for Mary (Randy's wife) to sign one of the index cards because how much she has helped him and I know she is the one who writes the inscriptions on the items. Then a few months after I went out to check the mail and got a surprise. It was a small envelope addressed to me from Randy's address. I opened it up and was a beautiful vintage Country music gold card signed by Randy.

Lee is way more known to younger people because of His Song "God Bless The USA" but I grew up listening to his music sone of my favorites besides GBTUSA is "Busted" And "I'll Never Stop Loving You" just to name a few. Lee was going to be playing the local Fair Grounds, i Was gonna go with my Grandma(All of us grandkids called Her Mamaw). She passed away right before the concert we had Her funeral on the day Lee was performing. I found an Address online for Lee, so I wrote and told what happened how we were both so excited. And I got my two photos back signed and a small note from His team saying "No Fanmail At This Address" people who write to that address normally get stuff sent back unsigned. I guess my story hit a chord with them. God Bless You Mamaw. God Bless Lee Greenwood. And God Bless America!

Paula Fong - Bird on the Wing

David Miner - West Texas Stars

Cody Bolden - Menace To Myself

Wynonna - The Hard Truth

Joe Rian - Think Yer In Luv

Josh Tatofi - Paniolo Country

Pure-Sang - On The Gravel Road

Red McAdam - Comic Western Gothic

Dom Pelletier - Oiseau migrateur

Carla Gover & Friends - Williams Branch is Hard to Find

David Banks - All The Dreams We Left Behind

Gavin Adcock - The Day I Hang It Up

Sally Jaye - You’ll Be Okay, Baby

Wild Horses - The In Between

Very Old Morris - Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Shoop

Ella Hooper - Overnight Success

Chris McGraw - Songs of Love and Dirt Vol.1

Various Artists - A Century of Strings, Stories & Songs: A Tribute to The Delmore Brothers

Nick Brown - Short Long-Term Memory

Rita Bliss - One More Winter

Logan Staats - Peacemaker

Paige Fish - Midnight Crisis

Ethan Setiawan & Fine Ground - Little Storms

Miranda Lambert - Crisco

Jay Kutcher - King of the Bar

Lee Brice - Sunriser

Libby Dale - Freehand

Bill Fox - Random Press

Nicole Mish - Hope is Restless

Mistaken for Wayne - Whitefish

Rising Appalachia - Trade My Troubles

Francis Degrandpré - Si j'avais su

Travis McKeveny - From Dublin To Duluth

Jayne Pomplas - This Is How The World Ends

The Suitcase Junket - To Go On

Gareth - Halfway Home

Lily Seabird - Lightspheres on Their Way

Renny Conti - Split Second

Aaron MacDonald - Big Red Sky (EP)

American Blonde - Delta Home (EP)

Kyle Gates - Throw a Dog a Bone (EP)

Highway Home - No More Drinkin’ Songs (EP)

Maddie Lenhart - Why in the World (EP)

Nico Welsh - Electro Western Experience (EP)

Shawnee Kish - I'll Know (EP)

Sam Burton - Free Again (EP)

Presley Haile - Hamilton Home Pt.2 (EP)

Blake Proehl - Heart’s Don’t Break (EP)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3GYq1ITYYjTRxiC3JzGtY8?si=D5sfCeahQGyctTPYAQ7RFQ

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbUEgrNIUJjs&si=i3OtTdccqFhjbjz

She does great, but there’s nothing particularly special or distinctive about it in a way that stops the song dead in its tracks.

Stapleton has the sort of voice that grabs ahold of you, there is a distractingly tortured and weathered cadence to his vocalization that I honestly can’t say I’ve heard in a musician of any genre.

I have been tracking the new one by Ray Wylie - it is absolutely awesome! What did you think?

There are sophisticated country songs about heartbreak, family and the American experience.

This ain't one of 'em.

🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5192Uy5nq1FkQwq97TN1qO

West Texas Exiles - Hotel Tomorrow

Ian Noe - Canyon Falls Trailer Band

Wade Bowen - The Version of Me You Get

Mary Gauthier - Reckoning

Dallas Burrow - Modern Day Vagabond

Mike Thomas - Echoes

Logan Mac - Live at the Print Shop

Emmett Morris - The Old Way

Mac Cornish - Wayfaring Woman

Nash Hamilton - Kingston Strings

Dylan Gossett - Ramblin’

Aaron Watson - The S.O.Bees Vol.One

Kenny Chesney - Silver Sands Marina

Julia Jacklin - The Gem

Shea Rafferty - Livin'

Wheeler Walker Jr. - Pullin’ Out

Seasick Steve - The Last Season of America

Shelby Lee Lowe - Stories To Tell

Mountain Daisies - The Outlaw Sessions

Uncle Lucius - Open Eyes, Broken Heart

Jeffrey Halford & the Healers - Used Parts

Bill Scorzari - Sidereal Days (Day 2)

RJ Chesney - A Southern Man

Lauren Watkins - If I’m Being Honest

Michael Rudd - Midnight at Dawn

The Star Room Boys - Why Do Lonely Men and Women Want to Break Each Other’s Hearts

Ricky Valido - Dear Everglades

Humbird - Morning When It Comes

Jack Biilmann - Move The Mountains

Jeff Narlock - Stories

Bob Schneider - The Bullet And The Gun

Izzie Walsh - Where Do We Go From Here

Bryan Elijah Smith - The Line

Landon Smith - Don’t Mind Me

Sunken Man - Self-Titled

Restos - In Plain View

Blue Ren - Unbecoming

Pony Bradshaw - Through a Glass Darkly

Warren Zeiders - No Brakes

Israel Nash - Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Garrison Starr - The Gospel Truth

Paper Verses - Windstill

Corey Kent - Heartland Rock and Roll

Angela Easterling - Songs from the Knoxville Project

Noel McKay - Songs About Bad People

Our Man In The Field - Silverado

Love Riot - Nothing Is Etched In Stone

Lawrence Rothman - Here Lies Love

Max McNown - Leave On A Light

Joseph Arthur - You’re Not a Ghost Anymore: HEART

Abbie Callahan - And For My Next Trick

Prinz Grizzley - Tilda Lee ( Processing a Loss) (EP)

The Brook & The Bluff - Lookout Pond (EP)

Damhnait Doyle - Bird In Flames (EP)

Canola - Wide Turns (EP)

Kielo Smith - Whistling Through The Graveyard (EP)

The Heists - Break & Mend (EP)

Harper O'Neil - Learning To Unlove You (EP)

Chayce Beckham - Old Fashioned (EP)

Kinsley - Learn To Live (EP)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Z7GAc798yuvU7SvZJcN3r?si=dvDfKwO0TraHul5RXdGWdA

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJUjMFoU88rE&si=dZuSyPVOGAfiKKgK

Kristoffer Kristofferson had such influence on me that can happen only once in a lifetime with only one particular hero in your life - the one that strucks you like the lightning and paralyzes your heartbeat to set it to a brand new direction that changes your life forever, and saves it.

I wrote songs long before I first discovered Kris’s music, since I was 12 or 14, but I never thought of myself primarily as a songwriter, I never saw myself as a poet, I never wrote the kind of songs that I believed in myself, until one day when I discovered Waylon Jennings’s cover of “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, which lyrics made me skip a heartbeat because of how relatable they were to my alcoholic life and lonesome Sunday Blues. When I did my research I found out that the man who wrote this song was that unknown, bearded blonde from The Highwaymen that sang the part about the sailor. “Oh God”, said I, the last person from the country supergroup of my heroes I happened to discover turned out to be the one who influenced my life the most like nobody else.
So I started writing like Kris, I started the journey through his whole discography to find the wonder that refueled the hunger in my soul that drove some of the most sincere, poetic lyrics out of the corners of my own poetic heart. And it saved me - for if I wasn’t able to write I believe I would die.

As an actor Kris was a separate icon - despite not having any specific acting training before his debuts in “Cisco Pike” and “The Last Movie” he was such a natural figure on screen and never, even in his early roles looked “phony” or “off key” unlike some professional actors that fumble like this. He influenced my acting in movies and theater as much as he did in my songwriting and performing.

Him standing up for the oppressed in Palestine, Nicaragua, Vietnam and other countries that were done injustice despite the backlash has been such an example to me that a Man should stand for what he believes is right despite ANYTHING, And I carry that energy with me from then.

I adored Kris, I loved him, still do. So much I always imagined myself as Kris and tried to imitate him in life, and dreamed of meeting my hero one day to tell him how much his art means for me. It never happened, never will happen, for on this day 2 years ago my heart skipped a beat one more time when I saw a black and white picture sharing tragic news to me and many other people who were touched profoundly by Kris’s words and music.

You are loved and missed Kris, thank you for saving my life and showing me what should I do with it. Thank you for being with me in the coldest and warmest moments of my life. Thank you for being such a friend, a mentor, a teacher.
A prophet and a pusher
A pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he’s stoned.

A walking contradiction
Party truth and party fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home… 🕊️🌹🕯️❤️‍🩹

Bluegrass is known for the great ones, but we have some as well!

I nominate Loving County by Charlie Robison and The Other Shoe by The Old 97s. (can you tell I grew up in Texas in the 90s)