Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Country music/Archive 2

Grand Ole Opry Star Del Reeves Dead at 73
Del Reeves, the Grand Ole Opry star who delighted audiences for decades with his full-throated vocals and comic impressions of fellow artists, died Monday (Jan. 1) at his home in Centerville, Tenn. He was 73. The cause of death has not been announced.

A fixture on the charts throughout the 1960s and '70s, Reeves made his first big splash in 1965 with the whimsical "Girl on the Billboard," his only No. 1. He followed it with the equally leering "The Belles of Southern Bell" and "Women Do Funny Things to Me." His other major hits included "A Dime at Time," "Looking at the World Through a Windshield," "Good Time Charlie's" (which also provided him the name of his band), "Be Glad" and "The Philadelphia Fillies."

Franklin Delano Reeves was born July 14, 1933, in Sparta, N.C. He learned to play the guitar at an early age and had his own radio show by the time he was 12. After a brief period at Appalachia State College in Boone, N.C., he joined the U.S. Air Force, a move that took him to Travis Air Force Base in California.

It was in California that Reeves got his professional start in music, first by appearing on a local TV show and then by recording a series of singles for Capitol Records, none of which charted. However, Reeves showed early promise as a songwriter. His "Sing a Little Song of Heartache," became a No. 3 hit in 1963 for Rose Maddox, and he also had other songs recorded by Carl Smith, Roy Drusky and others. Reeves penned his own 1963 charter, "The Only Girl I Can't Forget."

In 1961, Reeves signed to Decca Records. This union yielded him his first charted single, "Be Quiet Mind," which rolled to No. 9. Following very brief stops at Reprise and Columbia Records, Reeves settled in at United Artists in 1965 and stayed there for the next 13 years.

Encouraged by songwriter Hank Cochran, the tall, gangly Reeves moved to Nashville in 1962 and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1966. A talented mimic, he enlivened his shows with physical and vocal impressions of performers as disparate as Little Jimmy Dickens and Johnny Cash.

Reeves appeared in eight movies, including Sam Whiskey, a 1969 film starring Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson and Ossie Davis. Other titles conveyed their dramatic standing, including Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar, Forty-Acre Feud, Gold Guitar and Cotton Pickin' Chickenpickers. Reeves also established his own syndicated TV series, The Del Reeves Country Carnival, which ran for four years in the early '70s.

After "The Philadelphia Fillies," which peaked at No. 9 in 1971, Reeves never had another Top 20 record, but he did continue to chart sporadically into the 1980s on the Koala label. His last charted single came in 1986 with "The Second Time Around" on Playback Records.

Reeves had a hand in launching the careers of two younger stars. Lee Greenwood first gained wide exposure playing in his band, and Billy Ray Cyrus relied on Reeves to make Nashville contacts for him when he was seeking his first record contract.

Reeves made his last Grand Ole Opry appearance in August 2002. He is survived by his wife, Ellen, and daughters Anne, Kari and Bethany. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. &mdash; CMT/CMT.com Reports

Alakey2010 January 10, 2007 2:09 pm (CDT)

FYI. Alison Krauss is Featured Article!
Alison Krauss is the Featured Article in Wikipedia. She is the first country artist to reach that honor. It is a day to celebrate for us country music fans! Chris 14:35, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Pop! Goes the Country
I joined the project today. When I checked the tasks I found that Pop! Goes the Country was a requested article. I don't have any special knowledge of the progam, but I have enjoyed watching reruns on RFD TV. I did some preliminary research and gave a stub-quality basically internet research, found the dates of the series run, and started the article.

It does need a citation, the information for the citation is found on the article's discussion page.

SonPraises

Articles + succession tables for the #1s?
I was surprised to see that there appears not to be an infobox/succession table for the Country #1 singles the way there is for the Billboard Hot 100 (see, for example, the bottom of this article). It would be great if we could create one of these.

Also, it seems as if we should have a separate stub template for country musicians, maybe showing a cowboy hat or a lasso? (preferably something appropriate both to men and to women) Lawikitejana 20:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added succession tables for many of the more recent #1's on here (including Last Dollar (Fly Away), When I Get Where I'm Going, etc.). I've also added some for songs that were also pop songs (e.g. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing). TenPoundHammer 17:09, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Article suggestions
I have several article suggestions. Please consider adding these to the template (unless I can add them myself).

Create

 * Robert Ellis Orrall (songwriter, had Top 20 in 1993 with "Boom! It Was Over". Briefly formed a duo called Orrall & Wright; the other half was Curtis Wright, below.)
 * Curtis Wright (songwriter, teamed up with Orrall a lot, now lead singer of Shenandoah, wrote "Next To You, Next To Me" for the same group way before he became their lead singer)
 * "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" (we REALLY need a page on this song, seeing as the song deals with 9/11)
 * "Where Were You" has been started. I'm sure more can be added to it, but I wanted to get it out there. Cheemo 11:09, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Expand
(okay, I wrote those articles myself; I have no shame) TenPoundHammer 17:09, 14 April 2007 (UTC) (I put an template on this article, but that is where my interest begins and ends... ;~] LessHeard vanU 23:13, 20 April 2007 (UTC))
 * Bomshel
 * Jeff Carson
 * Brett James
 * Gene O'Quin

ACM Announces Pioneer Award Recipients
Dolly Parton, Don Williams and the late Harlan Howard and Waylon Jennings have been named the recipients of this year's Pioneer Awards from the Academy of Country Music. They will be honored at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on June 20 at a ceremony hosted by Marty Stuart. In addition, the late Buck Owens will be remembered with the Jim Reeves International Award, and record promotion veteran Jack Lameier will receive the Mae Boren Axton award for his 28-year tenure on the ACM's board of directors. &mdash; Alakey2010, 20 April 2007, 08:11pm (CDT)
 * The topic of Pioneer Awards (as presented at the annual Academy of Country Music awards show) might make a good article. In a way, this honor is similar to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, it is very prestigeous and many legendary performers have been honored. This will be added to the requested articles page. Briguy52748 19:45, 8 May 2007 (UTC)]]

Reba discography
I would appreciate your help. On the Reba McEntire discography page, could y'all please help me check each album page for the following:


 * Type is properly listed (i.e. "studio", "live", "greatest", "remix", whatever instead of "Album". I swear, some people just don't know how to read directions.)
 * Reviews copy-pasted from All Music Guide are removed (I snipped most of them out)
 * Each album should be listed under (Year) albums, country albums and Reba McEntire albums.

Thanks! Ten Pound Hammer • (((Actions • Words))) 21:51, 5 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The problem that I see with your discography is that you are using album covers which are not fair use when used in lists and galleries like discographies. Could you please reformat the article to leave off the images?  Thanks. ~  Bigr  Tex  17:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I didn't make the discographies. Ten Pound Hammer  • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 18:48, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

If You're Reading This
(also posted at Talk:2007 in country music) I know that (at least for now) I'm kind of bending the unofficial "top 25" rule for "Other major hits", but I ask that an exception be made in the case of If You're Reading This. However, I ask that an exception be made in this case, since the song is highly notable for the ACM performance, and the unusual situation of the song's telecast charting.

Furthermore, I propose that any song that has an article should be included under "Other major hits", regardless of chart position. Otherwise, the Top 25 limit remains in place. Any other comments? Ten Pound Hammer • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 15:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Time to replace Infobox Guitarist?
There have been a growing number of Wikipedians questioning the need for a separate infobox for guitarists. The Guitarist infobox was created by WikiProject Guitarists, and it easily survived a deletion nomination back in September of last year, but that was before Infobox musical artist (which is supported by WikiProject Musicians) became a widely accepted standard. Both infoboxes are currently endorsed by WikiProject Biography, but recent discussions between some members of the Guitarist and Musician Wikiprojects have concluded that it may be time to deprecate the guitarist infobox, and start replacing it. (Unfortunately, this is not a task for bots, and will have to be done manually.)

Before making any final decision on the matter, we would like to get feedback from the broader community, so I am posting this notice to several Wikiprojects which may be affected. Comments should be posted to Template talk:Guitarist infobox. If you have strong feelings about this infobox, one way or the other, please feel free to let us know. Thanks, Xtifr tälk 12:22, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Genrebox traceback
Hi all. In the interests of those who like to trace the roots of a style of music, I've been starting with electric folk and, by clicking the "stylistic origins" sections of the genre infoboxes, I've been tracing them backwards, and adding new genreboxes any time I found some missing. This is turning out to be a bigger project than I expected, and I was wondering if anyone at WP Country music was interested in tracing the genreboxes for the origins of country music the same way.

-- TimNelson 12:48, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating new pages
Come on, people, we've got plenty of new pages to create yet. I've been doing my part (see this page), and I don't want to have to do all the work on country music myself. Ten Pound Hammer • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 04:02, 1 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I've been chipping in lately with a number of articles about No. 1 songs (and other well-known songs), mainly from the 1970s and 1980s (and a few 1990s-later). For instance, notice all the songs by Alabama I've created; more to come.
 * What I'd like to see to some of those pages is either video stills and/or pictures of the actual 7-inch single/single cover ... provided we can get free use. Briguy52748 20:28, 19 July 2007 (UTC)]]

Country Weekly article started
I finally created a page on Country Weekly. It's not much, but strangely, there's not a whole lot out there on the 'Net about Country Weekly. Expansion of the stub is greatly appreciated. Ten Pound Hammer • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 04:58, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Country music song articles and succession boxes
I've been creating a number of articles lately about various country music songs, most of them No. 1s (some well-known, others not-so-well-known but notable nonetheless). I've also been going through some of the existing song articles with infoboxes and noticed something I'd like to address.

Many of these articles have the succession box added to them, and they'll list the previous, then-current and successor No. 1s, along with the chart (usually, a Billboard magazine country chart) on which the song attained the honor. Many times, they'll list the name of the chart as Hot Country Songs, regardless of when the subject song went No. 1 (i.e., it could be a song from 1963, 1975, 1995, 2003 or 2007, and the chart name in the succession box will be given as "Hot Country Songs").

Really, when the succession box is added, the chart name referred to should be the one in use at the time the song went to No. 1. That is, if a song went to No. 1 on Billboard before April 30, 2005, the name of the chart is Hot Country Singles & Tracks; anything on April 30 and after is Hot Country Songs.

Here is a sample box, as seen on the page for Chains (Patty Loveless song):

The rule of thumb I recommend:


 * October 20, 1958-October 27, 1962: Hot C&W Sides.
 * November 3, 1962-February 10, 1990: Hot Country Singles
 * February 17, 1990-April 23, 2005: Hot Country Singles & Tracks
 * April 30, 2005-current: Hot Country Songs

Hope this helps, and feel free to post any questions. Briguy52748 20:24, 19 July 2007 (UTC)]] (P.S. — I realize this discussion may have taken place on other discussion pages, so I apologize if this issue has been resolved there. If it has and there's a link, let me know and I'll eat crow! ;-) )


 * BTW — I haven't decided yet how to handle the pre-"Hot C&W Sides"-era No. 1 songs – that is, the multiple chart No. 1s (for Best Sellers, Disc Jockeys and (until 1957) Jukebox No. 1's, as not every No. 1 song topped all the charts. For instance, "I Walk the Line" was one of the most famous No. 1's ever, yet it only topped the Disc Jockeys and Jukebox charts in 1956 (Cash's song stopped at No. 2 on the Best Sellers). I guess there, my question would be should there be an "official" chart and if so, which one? Briguy52748 12:33, 20 July 2007 (UTC)]]

List of (U.S.) Billboard country chart chart achievements
I have started a new article to chronicle notable chart accomplishments and milestones on the various Billboard magazine Hot Country Songs (and all titled predecessors) chart, based upon the article List of Hot 100 (U.S.) chart achievements and trivia. I am inviting people who are aware of notable chart accomplishments and milestones to contribute and/or update the list as needed. I've started off the article with a few of the major categories, so perhaps some of you can come up with some important categories. Please note that I am not looking for trivial categories just to get a favorite artist nominated (unless his/her accomplishment is truly notable; I do not want to see this article become little more than cruft). Also, it might be a good idea to include Hot Country Albums chart accomplishments as well; currently, only the Hot Country Songs (et. al) charts are documented. Anyway, have fun and let's make this article something good — and show the Wikipedians how a good list is made! Briguy52748 14:43, 31 July 2007 (UTC)]] (P.S., a banner has already been added to the new article's talk page)

Newest Members of the Country Music Hall of Fame Announced!
Ralph Emery, Vince Gill and Mel Tillis as Newest Members of Country Music Hall of Fame

Announcement Made at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum With Special Guests Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell

NASHVILLE – The Country Music Association announced today that influential radio and television personality Ralph Emery, multi-award-winning entertainer Vince Gill and legendary singer/songwriter Mel Tillis will become the newest members of the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame.

Emery will be inducted in the “Non-Performer” category, which is awarded every third year in a rotation with the “Career Achieved National Prominence Prior to World War II” and “Recording and/or Touring Musician Active Prior to 1980” categories. Gill will be the third artist inducted in the “Career Achieved National Prominence Between 1975 and the Present” category, which was created in 2005. Tillis will be inducted in the “Career Achieved National Prominence Between World War II and 1975” category.

“Induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame is the highest musical honor a Country Music artist and industry veteran can attain,” said Tammy Genovese, CMA Chief Operating Officer. “All three of these extraordinary men are highly deserving of this honor.

“Ralph Emery brought more than just Country Music into our homes via radio and television. His entertaining and thought-provoking interviews have always provided a unique glimpse into the personal side of our favorite performers.

“As a singer, songwriter and performer, Mel set a high standard for all entertainers. His presence in movies and TV alongside the top actors of that time gave Country Music a higher profile in the ‘70s and made Mel a pop culture icon.

“Vince is the ultimate triple threat: a singer with the voice of an angel, a songwriter who conveys the joys and heartbreaks of life with every word he writes, and a consummate musician, who is equally at home playing guitar with Chet Atkins or Eric Clapton. As the longtime host of the CMA Awards, Vince also represented Country Music with dignity and humor for 12 years.”

Emery, Gill and Tillis will be officially inducted in October during the traditional, invitation-only Medallion Ceremony at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum.

“It is with great pride that CMA will induct these three outstanding artists and personalities into the Country Music Hall of Fame, where they will join a small yet monumental group of entertainers and industry veterans whose influence on Country Music is enormous,” said Genovese. “The Country Music Hall of Fame’s Medallion Ceremony, which takes place during the annual reunion of the membership, has historically been the occasion where new inductees are presented the keepsake medal commemorating their ownership of Country Music’s paramount honor,” said Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Director Kyle Young. “The medals traditionally are presented by a member of the Hall of Fame during an intimate and emotional evening of homecoming, storytelling, music, memories and fellowship.

“We are honored that CMA sees our ceremony as the appropriate setting for the official induction of new members. Including the formal induction as part of the evening will certainly seal the event’s reputation as Country Music’s most prestigious night.”

The announcements were made this morning at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in a press conference hosted by Genovese. Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell congratulated the new inductees on behalf of Music City U.S.A. Emery was introduced by his longtime friend and former two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year, Barbara Mandrell. Gill was introduced by Young, while Tillis was introduced by his good friend and Country Music Hall of Fame member Brenda Lee.

All inductees are chosen by CMA’s Hall of Fame Panel of Electors, consisting of more than 300 anonymous voters appointed by the CMA Board of Directors. Emery, Gill and Tillis will increase membership in the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame from 98 to 101 inductees.

Expert review: Bob Style
As part of the Notability wikiproject, I am trying to sort out whether Bob Style is notable enough for an own article. I would appreciate an expert opinion. For details, see the article's talk page. If you can spare some time, please add your comments there. Thanks! --B. Wolterding 11:32, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Portal
I have created a base portal for the Country Music WikiProject. Anyone who wants to help edit, please feel free! Fl1942 16:28, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Drumtar AfD input requested
I have nominated the Drumtar article for deletion. The drumtar is a sort of guitar-banjo hybrid incorporating a snare drum. One of the participants in the discussion has suggested that the discussion would benefit from more input from people who are knowledgeable about music. So I mention it here in the interest of getting more input from the project members. Please visit the discussion to weigh in. Thank you. Nick Graves 00:03, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Peer Review
I have just requested a peer review for Diamond Rio. Please feel free offer any input to the article's improvement at the review. Thank you. Ten Pound Hammer • (Broken clamshells•Otter chirps•Review?) 18:20, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Notability of Rank Strangers question
There is a relatively new article on the Rank Strangers, an Australian bluegrass band from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I was wondering if anyone here could verify some of the claims in the article and/or the band's notability?

There are several red flags for me here, however these could just be errors of new editors. For example, the article cites the book by David Latta titled "Australian Country Music" as being written by the publisher, i.e. "Random House’s 1991 book Australian Country Music declared the Rank Strangers to be among the major figures of the 1990s Australian music scene...". While this is a real book, I do not have access to it - does anyone who could check it?

The article also claims the group was the subject of a feature article in the magazine Bluegrass Unlimited before they had released any albums, and that it reviewed all three of their albums. The issues are listed, does anyone have these and if so could you look them up? The article also lists the Bluegrass Unlimited and International Bluegrass Music Association websites as external links, but I could find no mention of the group at either website (and precious little about them on Google).

There appears to be an error in the article as it claims that "In 1988, the Rank Strangers swept the Australian Gospel Music Awards in Tamworth, New South Wales, winning Best Group, Best Male Vocalist, and Best Composition." but a check of the Australian Gospel Music Awards web page says "Technically, the AGMAs were launched in Sydney in 1994." so it appears there were no awards to win in 1988 or for six years after.

Finally, the book rather prominently plugs a book by a former member of the band (complete with ISBN), but fails to give the names of bands formed by other former members. The band member has an article too, and his notability seems to hinge on the notability of this band (and both articles were written by the same editors, who seem to be single purpose accounts).

I am reasonably certain this band existed, but lots of bands exist that are not notable enough to have articles here. I am asking this question both at WikiProject Country Music and WikiProject Australia in the hopes that someone can verify these claims.

Thanks in advance for any help, Ruhrfisch &gt;&lt;&gt; &deg; &deg; 22:16, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I heard from Bluegrass Unlimited and while the albums were reviewed, there was no feature article on it. `Ruhrfisch &gt;&lt;&gt; &deg; &deg; 00:56, 12 December 2007 (UTC

Asleep at the Wheel
Hi all, I took a look at the Asleep at the Wheel page and felt it need some improvements. If anyone is interested (before I post it and possibly make someone mad, check out what I have done here User:Fitzharry/sandbox. If there are no objections, I will post it in a week (December 19, 2007). I have also posted this on the talk page for AATW. Fitzharry (talk) 15:51, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Song articles and single infobox
This is regarding the single infobox attached to articles about songs. Where it lists albums, my recommendation is that when a song is from an album (not all songs are), whenever possible we should include the original album that it came from. Only if that original album is a greatest hits album should that album be listed. Verification should be rather simple (I recommend the All Music Guide Web site; just type in the name of the song or singer and you can easily be led from there).

This is not about availability — note that many of the albums that will be listed are long out of print and available only at used record stores or second-hand retail shops, through eBay, etc. Rather, it's about creating an encyclopediac article, and in doing so, whenever possible, it should provide the first, original place once could find a given song.

In addition, the original label should be used in the infobox (not a current distrubtor's label, for example). If the label number is available (or at hand when you type the information in), try to include that as well. And try to get the release date if possible; often, if a song begins its Billboard chart run in early January, chances are the song was released in December of the previous calendar year.

Also, be sure to include any additional information you may have about the song for which the article is being written. Not all information may be available or at hand, so if you don't have it, just wait until you get accurate info. As well, any historical information you can get about a song through verifiable sources is always appreciated. Most often, this will include notable achievements by either the song itself or the performer (e.g., his first No. 1, whether it kicked off his/her popularity or was his/her only major hit, etc.), but also interesting facts should also be considered, such as why did someone write or record a song. I understand we're not trying to be Casey Kasem, but I want to see good articles about songs, and this means telling the story about the song. Sometimes that's not always possible — that is, all that can be provided for now is a simple two- or three-sentence article, which would then be classified as a stub and can be expanded later as you come across verifiable sources.

Hey, I'm happy to see all the articles being written about country music (and all genre) songs lately. Let's keep up the good work. Briguy52748 (talk) 13:29, 13 December 2007 (UTC)]]


 * P.S. — see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Country_Music for information about adding succession boxes to articles about songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Remember to include these at the end of every song article where it topped the Billboard country chart (and be sure to remember any other charts it may have topped, such as the Billboard Hot 100). Briguy52748 (talk) 16:23, 13 December 2007 (UTC)]]

George Jones
I was just looking at the George Jones page, and it is a complete and utter mess. I mean, really unacceptable quality for someone so important. It gives no real information as to his career aside from an odd timeline for the last three years and a huge trivia section. I don't really know a lot about George, but someone needs to step in and probably completely rewrite the whole page. MikeND05 (talk) 19:52, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

3 more suggestions
by--I7114080 (talk) 05:32, 2 January 2008 (UTC)i7114080

1. Separate singles and album cut songs What is album cut songs? One thing is for sure: they are not singles. So why should they put together? It confuse me a long time. I hope that all single charts will organize as following example. It makes people understand more.

Also, space is not a problem!


 * A "Skin (Sarabeth)" had originally charted earlier in 2005 as "Skin", based on unsolicited airplay that brought it up to #38 on the Billboard country charts prior to the single's release.
 * B "Life Is a Highway" was not released to country radio, but reached #18 on the country charts based on unsolicited airplay. It was released to all other formats on which it charted. The song is also available on later presses of Me and My Gang.
 * C Current single.

Album Cut Singles
These songs were charted from unsolicited airplay on Billboard Hot Country Song Chart.
 * A Later release as a single
 * B Did not release to country radio

2.I try to organize the top hits on 2008 in country music page. I add some chart positions and make it into table form. It has some pros:

(1)It is well organized. Don't look so messy like some other articles.

(2)It includes its peak positions on this chart, for both US and Canada.

(Some country articles are "US only," and it is so unfair!)

I tried to organize it before, but it didn't approved. I hope everybody accept my version.

3.I hope we can list all music videos that is made in discography like in Rascal Flatts page. It is very important to let everybody knows that what songs is made to music videos.