Johnny PayCheck was an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member notable for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a force in country music's "outlaw movement" popularized by artists Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Merle Haggard. In 1980, PayCheck appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, though in the ensuing decade, his music career slowed due to drug, alcohol, and legal problems. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s, and his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000. In autographs, PayCheck signed his name "PayCheck" with the camel case C.
Leon Eric Brooks III, better known by his stage name Kix Brooks, is an American country music artist, actor, and film producer best known for being one half of the duo Brooks & Dunn and host of radio's American Country Countdown. Prior to the duo's foundation, he was a singer and songwriter, charting twice on Hot Country Songs and releasing an album for Capitol Records. Brooks and Ronnie Dunn comprised Brooks & Dunn for twenty years, then both members began solo careers. Brooks’ solo career after Brooks & Dunn includes the album New to This Town.
Karl Martin Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish songwriter, record producer, and singer. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s with production credits on a string of hit singles, namely Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time" (1998), the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" (1999), Céline Dion's "That's the Way It Is" (1999) and NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" (2000).
Phillip George Vassar Jr. is an American country music artist. Vassar made his debut on the country music scene in the late 1990s, co-writing singles for several country artists, including Tim McGraw, Jo Dee Messina, Collin Raye, and Alan Jackson. In 1999, he was named by American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) as Country Songwriter of the Year.
Keith Lionel Urban is an Australian and American singer, guitarist, and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves International Award, thirteen CMA Awards, and six ARIA Music Awards. Urban wrote and performed the song "For You" from the film Act of Valor, which earned him nominations at both the 70th Golden Globe Awards and at the 18th Critics' Choice Awards in the respective Best Original Song categories.
Hank Locklin was an American country music singer-songwriter. He had 70 chart singles, including two number one hits on Billboard's country chart. His biggest hits included "Send Me the Pillow You Dream On" and his signature "Please Help Me, I'm Falling". The latter also went to number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart. Billboard's 100th anniversary issue listed it as the second most successful country single of the rock and roll era. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.
Rodney Crowell is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt. He has also written songs and produced for other artists.
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1997.
Donald Ralph "Skip" Ewing is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active since 1988, Ewing has recorded nine studio albums and has charted 15 singles on the Billboard country charts.
John Rich is an American country music singer-songwriter, hit record producer and successful entrepreneur. From 1992 to 1998, he was a member of the country band Lonestar, in which he played bass guitar, wrote his first #1 song called "Come Cryin'To Me" and alternated with Richie McDonald as lead vocalist. After departing from the band in 1998, he embarked on a solo career on BNA Records in the late 1990s, releasing two singles for the label and recording Underneath the Same Moon, which was not released until 2006. In 2001, he self-released Rescue Me, an album he was inspired to record by a cancer patient named Katie Darnell. By 2003, he joined Big Kenny to form the duo Big & Rich, who released three albums on Warner Bros. Records as well as ten singles, including the Number One "Lost in This Moment". After Big & Rich went on hiatus in 2007, Rich began work on a third solo album, Son of a Preacher Man, which produced two more chart singles including the Top Ten song "Shutting Detroit Down." In 2011, Rich released two extended plays, Rich Rocks and For the Kids, before re-establishing Big & Rich in 2012. Big and Rich launched "Big and Rich Records" in 2014 and scored big hits with "Look At You", "Loving Lately", and "Run Away With You."
Jamey Johnson is an American country music singer and songwriter.
Lyman Corbitt McAnally Jr., known professionally as Mac McAnally, is an American singer-songwriter, session musician, and record producer. In his career, he has recorded ten studio albums and eight singles. Two of his singles were hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and six more on the Hot Country Songs chart. His ninth chart entry came in late 2008-early 2009 as a guest vocalist on Kenny Chesney's cover of his 1990 single "Down the Road".
Rebecca Lynn Howard is an American country music artist. She has charted seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and has released three studio albums. Her highest-charting single, "Forgive", peaked at No. 12 on the country music charts in 2002. She is a founding member of the country-rock group Loving Mary.
Lisa Ann Brokop is a Canadian country music singer/songwriter and actress. Active since 1990 in the country music field, she has released a total of seven studio albums and has charted more than twenty singles on the country music charts in her native Canada. Several of these singles have also crossed over to the American country music charts, although she has not entered the Top 40 in the U.S.; her highest-charting songs, "Give Me a Ring Sometime" and "Take That", both peaked at No. 52 in 1994. Her highest chart single is the No. 8 "Better Off Broken" from 1999 in Canada.
Steven McClintock is an American singer, songwriter, and a music producer, with almost 20 million records sold to his credit. He has written top 40 hit songs in country, pop and AOR. He has been a part of the music group Fertitta & McClintock since the mid-1970s. He also has done solo work like the song "Maybe Love" on the Jetsons: The Movie soundtrack, as well as "Edge of a Dream", the soundtrack to the movie Space Mutiny, which was memorably lambasted by the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the song was likewise mocked when it appeared in the closing credits as "Music rejected by the band Survivor," with the 'bots "singing along" using lyrics from other tracks. In January 2009, the track was finally released commercially through McClintock's official Myspace website.
Patricia Conroy is a Canadian singer-songwriter. In her career, she has released five studio albums, and one compilation album. She has also released 25 singles, including the RPM Country Tracks number one singles "Somebody's Leavin'" (1994) and "What Else Can I Do" (1995). As a songwriter, Conroy has written singles for several artists including Steel Magnolia, Emerson Drive, and Lady A.
Sharon Lenore Anderson is a Canadian country music singer. During the late 1980s Anderson was a member of country group Trinity Lane, who charted three singles on Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1988. In 1991, she signed to Capitol Nashville and released her solo debut album, The Bottom Line, the same year. The album produced two singles that charted on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. Another album, Bringing It Home, was released on Royalty Records in 1995.
"That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You" is a song recorded by American country music artist Aaron Tippin. It was released in August 1995 as the lead-off single from the album Tool Box. It peaked at number one in the United States, and No. 10 in Canada. Paul Jefferson, who co-wrote the song, later recorded a rendition as the B-side to his 1996 debut single "Check Please." It was written by Sally Dworsky, Jefferson and Jan Leyers.
Jeffery David Stevens is an American country music singer, songwriter and record producer. He recorded two albums on Atlantic America Records with his brother Warren Stevens and Terry Dotson as Jeff Stevens and the Bullets, and later as a solo artist on the Atlantic label. Since the early 1990s, Stevens has largely worked as a songwriter and producer for other artists.
The Mayor of McLellan, Florida is a studio album by American country music singer–songwriter Hank Locklin. It was released in November 1972 via RCA Victor Records. Consisting of ten tracks, the album was co-produced by Chet Atkins, Jerry Bradley, Danny Davis and Ronny Light. It was Locklin's final studio release for the RCA Victor label and contained among his final single releases.
