Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music.
Michael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins in 1959. He has recorded the hit singles "Wildfire", "Carolina in the Pines", "What's Forever For", "A Long Line of Love", "What She Wants", "Don't Count the Rainy Days", and "Maybe This Time". Murphey is also the author of New Mexico's state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment". Murphey has become a prominent musical voice for the Western horseman, rancher, and cowboy.
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called Mark Twain Tonight! while studying at Denison University. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He continued to perform his signature role for over 60 years, only retiring the show in 2017 due to his failing health. Throughout his career, he also won five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in film.
Leonard Barrie Corbin is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Maurice Minnifield on the television series Northern Exposure (1990–1995), which earned him two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken is the seventh studio album by American country music group The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released in November 1972, through United Artists Records. The album was a collaboration with many famous bluegrass and country-and-western players, including Roy Acuff, "Mother" Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Merle Travis, Pete "Oswald" Kirby, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others. It also introduced fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience.
Red dirt is a genre of country music that gets its name from the color of soil found in Oklahoma. Many red dirt acts got their start in bars surrounding Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, a city considered to be the center of red dirt music. The genre also extends to music made south of the Red River in Texas. Outlaw country legends Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson have been associated with the distinctive Texas sound, while the late Oklahoma singer-songwriter Bob Childers is widely recognized as the Father of Oklahoma red dirt music. At one time, the distinction between the two genres was sonically obvious, but by 2008, that gap had diminished.
America's Music: The Roots of Country is a 1996 three-part, six episode documentary about the history of American country music directed by Tom Neff and Jerry Aronson and written by Neff and Robert K. Oermann. The film touches on many of the styles of music that make up country music, including: Old-time music, Cajun music, Folk music, Rockabilly, Western music, Western swing, the Bakersfield sound, Honky-tonk and the Nashville sound. Country music artist and actor Kris Kristofferson narrates the three-part series.
Thomas Linden Neff -, known as Tom Neff, is an American film executive, director and producer, born in Chicago, Illinois. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kim David Henkel is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He is best known as the co-writer of Tobe Hooper's horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Until its closing in 2010, Simon David was the oldest gourmet and specialty foods store in Dallas, Texas. Simon David was a long-time specialty retail brand and division of Tom Thumb Supermarkets. Tom Thumb became a division of Randalls in 1992, which itself became a 112-store division of Safeway Inc. in 1999.
Steam Powered Aereo-Takes is a collection of outtakes, demos and jam-sessions from John Hartford's groundbreaking 1971 album Aereo-Plain, released in 2002. The music is a blend of traditional bluegrass musicianship, and the hippie spirit of the '70s. The other members of the Aereo-Plain Band were Norman Blake, Vassar Clements, Tut Taylor, and Randy Scruggs.
Randy Lynn Scruggs was an American music producer, songwriter and guitarist. He had his first recording at the age of 13. He won four Grammy Awards and was named Musician of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards three times. He was the middle son of Earl Scruggs and Louise Scruggs.
Chances: The Women of Magdalene is a 2006 documentary film produced and directed by Tom Neff, and written by Neff and Barry Rubinow. The documentary features the socially conscious organization known as "Magdalene," located in Nashville, Tennessee. The system of recovery practiced at Magdalene is based on the twelve steps and twelve traditions of Narcotics Anonymous.
Barry Rubinow is a film executive and editor, born in Glen Rock, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Currently, he lives in West Hills, Los Angeles, California.
"Who Needs You Baby" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Clay Walker. It was released in September 1995 as the lead-off single to his album Hypnotize the Moon. It peaked at #2 in both the United States and Canada. The song was written by Walker, Kim Williams and Randy Boudreaux.
Andrew Shapter was an American film director, producer, writer and photographer. Shapter is known for his documentaries, Before the Music Dies (2006) and Happiness Is (2009), his feature film The Teller and the Truth (2015), his music videos with Willie Nelson and The Roots, and his U.N. Summit video on refugees, Refugees Are... Shapter completed cancer treatment in October 2014. Shapter was a partner at the creative production company Roadwings Entertainment, which has offices in Austin, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.
Rob Stone is an American director and former actor, best known for playing teen Kevin Owens on the 1985–1990 sitcom Mr. Belvedere. He later became a writer and director of documentary films, and also performed as part of a band.
Patrick "Pat" Jay Buchanan is an American guitarist, known for his work with the band Cameo and as a Nashville-based session musician.
Buddy is a free monthly music magazine serving the North Texas and Northeast Texas regions. It was first published in Austin, Texas, in October 1972 as a free bi-monthly. Stoney Burns (pseudonym of Brent Lasalle Stein; 1942–2011) and Rob Edleson (né Lewis Robin Edleson; born 1946) were the founders. The magazine's name is a tribute to Buddy Holly (1936–1959), who Burns said "changed my life." Buddy is described as a rock music magazine but, from its beginning, has included news and feature articles about performing artists and events of other genres, namely Texas progressive country, blues, jazz, folk, punk, and garage band music.
Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Scott Teems about actor Hal Holbrook's six decades performing his one-man show Mark Twain Tonight! The film was released in 2019. The idea for the documentary came from Dixie Carter, Holbrook's wife. It was shot in black and white.
