Danny Rader (born November 1, 1981) is a musician from Panama City, Florida. Born into a musical family, he began to play drums at age 2 and branched out into bass, guitar and piano in his early teens. Later he incorporated bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, mandola, keyboards, accordion, melodica, and harmonica into his skill set.
Rader, along with the rest of his family, performed in The Ocean Opry Music Show in Panama City Beach, Florida, which operated from 1978-2005. With his family Rader performed over 200 shows a year, until moving to Nashville in 2004.
Rader toured with Jason Aldean, LeAnn Rimes, Gretchen Wilson, Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Julianne Hough. In 2010, he joined Keith Urban's touring band.
He has appeared on The Grammy Awards , The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , Late Night with David Letterman , The Today Show , Good Morning America , Country Music Television Awards and The Billboard Music Awards , among other TV appearances.
In 2014, Danny was nominated for the Academy of Country Music's "Specialty Musician of the Year" award. In 2016, Danny won the Academy of Country Music's "Specialty Musician of the Year" award. [1]
Danny Kaye was an American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, musician, philanthropist, and cook. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs.
Troyal Garth Brooks is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and pop elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the country music single and album charts, multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena.
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Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won at least nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year.
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth name that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York.
Kenneth Clark Loggins is an American musician, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His early soundtrack contributions date back to A Star Is Born in 1976, and he is known as the King of the Movie Soundtrack. As a solo artist, Loggins experienced a string of soundtrack successes, including an Academy Award nomination for "Footloose" in 1985. Finally Home was released in 2013, shortly after Loggins formed the group Blue Sky Riders with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman. He won a Daytime Emmy Award, two Grammy Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
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Sally Anne Struthers is an American actress and activist. She is best known for playing Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy awards, and Babette on Gilmore Girls. She was also the voice of Charlene Sinclair on the ABC sitcom Dinosaurs and Rebecca Cunningham on the Disney animated series TaleSpin.
Roy Linwood Clark was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and in helping to popularize the genre.
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David Liebman is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach.
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Erik Hokkanen is an American fiddler, guitar player, and composer living in Austin, Texas. Erik is known for performing and composing an array of musical styles, including gypsy music, western swing, surf rock, rock music, rockabilly, bluegrass music, and classical. He moves effortlessly among instruments, often playing violin while an electric guitar hangs down his back. A third generation Finn raised in Florida, Erik has toured extensively throughout Scandinavia, playing major festivals and clubs with top Finnish musicians.
Rickie Lee Skaggs, known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo.
Daniel Jay Gokey is an American gospel singer and former church music director from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the third-place finalist on the eighth season of American Idol. After his placing on the show, Gokey signed to 19 Recordings and RCA Nashville at the beginning of a career in country music, releasing the single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me.” His debut album, My Best Days, was released in March 2010.
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Abbey Rader is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his childhood and early career, he worked in New York City where loft jazz, bebop, and free jazz influenced him. He played and taught across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and then returned to North America to create music that combines free jazz, martial arts, and Buddhism. He has recorded over twenty-five albums as a leader and has worked with Dave Liebman, John Handy, Billy Bang, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and Mal Waldron in a career spanning over four decades.