Country Music

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The last time Sonny Osborne played the banjo, he knew it was over before the song had even ended. It happened in Myrtle Beach in November 2003. The Osborne Brothers were performing “Ruby” when, about two-thirds of the way through, Sonny’s left shoulder suddenly gave way. His arm dropped to his side. He looked across the stage at his brother Bobby and said quietly, “I think I’m done.” They still finished “Ruby.” Then the group closed with a quick “Rocky Top.” Sonny would never play the banjo again. Doctors found that muscles and tendons connected to his rotator cuff had torn loose. Surgery could repair some of the damage, but not all of it. The injury ended Sonny’s life on the road and brought the Osborne Brothers’ half-century musical partnership to a close. For more than 50 years, that banjo had been beside Bobby’s voice. Then one night, in the middle of “Ruby,” Sonny’s hands were forced to say goodbye before he was ready.

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When Sonny Osborne Knew the Banjo Had Reached Its Last Song In November 2003, on a stage in Myrtle Beach,…

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DON GIBSON WROTE “OH LONESOME ME” AND “I CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU” ON THE SAME DAY. ONE BECAME HIS NO. 1 HIT. THE OTHER WAS PUT ON THE B-SIDE — AND GREW INTO ONE OF THE MOST RECORDED COUNTRY SONGS EVER WRITTEN. In 1957, Gibson was living in a trailer park north of Knoxville, Tennessee. Sitting down to write a lost-love ballad, he came across one line he had already written: “I can’t stop loving you.” He looked at it again and realized he had his title. That same day, he also wrote “Oh Lonesome Me.” On December 3, Gibson recorded both songs for RCA with producer Chet Atkins. “Oh Lonesome Me” became the A-side and reached No. 1 on the country chart. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was placed on the other side of the record. But the B-side refused to stay there. Over the years, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was recorded more than 700 times. In 1962, Ray Charles took it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Don Gibson had written two classics in one day. The song placed second on the record may have traveled the farthest.

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The Day Don Gibson Wrote Two Country Classics In 1957, Don Gibson was living simply in a trailer park north…

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Gary Allan had gone more than eight years without a No. 1 country hit. Then a song called “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” brought him back — and gave him something he had never achieved before. Allan’s previous chart-topper, “Nothing On but the Radio,” had reached No. 1 in December 2004. He continued recording and touring, but another No. 1 never came. Years passed while country radio changed around him. Then came “Every Storm,” written by Allan with Hillary Lindsey and Matt Warren. The message was simple: bad times do not last forever. In February 2013, the song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, ending an eight-year, two-month gap between chart-toppers. It became the fourth No. 1 of Allan’s career. But the comeback was even bigger than one song. That same week, his album Set You Free reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — the first time Gary Allan had ever topped the all-genre album chart. After eight years waiting for country music to bring him back to No. 1, Gary Allan returned with a song whose title seemed to explain the entire journey.

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Gary Allan’s Long Wait Ended With “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” For more than eight years, Gary Allan kept…

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David Lee Murphy had gone nearly 23 years without a No. 1 of his own. Then Kenny Chesney heard a song Murphy thought Chesney should record — and instead helped put Murphy back behind the microphone. Murphy had been one of country radio’s familiar voices in the 1990s. “Dust on the Bottle” reached No. 1 in 1995, followed by more hits, but eventually his recording career slowed. He never disappeared from Nashville. He simply moved behind the scenes, writing songs other artists took to the top, including Kenny Chesney’s “Living in Fast Forward” and Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor.” Years later, Murphy brought Chesney “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” a song he had written with Chris Stevens and Jimmy Yeary. Murphy originally hoped Chesney might record it. Chesney had another idea: Murphy should make a new album himself. Chesney and Buddy Cannon helped produce No Zip Code, and Chesney joined Murphy on the song. In June 2018, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” reached No. 1 on Billboard Country Airplay — Murphy’s first chart-topper since “Dust on the Bottle,” nearly 23 years earlier. Five months later, Murphy and Chesney won CMA Musical Event of the Year. It was Murphy’s first CMA nomination — and his first CMA Award. For more than two decades, David Lee Murphy had helped other singers find hits. Then one of those singers helped make sure country music heard his voice again.

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How Kenny Chesney Helped Bring David Lee Murphy Back to the Front of Country Music For a long stretch of…

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TWENTY YEARS AFTER JOHNNY CASH DIED, HIS GREATEST INHERITANCE WASN’T WRITTEN IN A WILL — IT WAS SITTING ON A SHELF, WAITING FOR HIS SON TO FIND IT. September 12, 2003. Complications from diabetes. Johnny Cash was gone at 71, less than four months after June Carter Cash. He left behind “Ring of Fire,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” multiple Hall of Fame inductions, and one of the most recognizable voices American music ever produced. But John Carter Cash would eventually inherit something the public had never heard. Back in 1993, Johnny had recorded an album’s worth of his own songs at LSI Studios in Nashville. Then he met Rick Rubin, began the American Recordings chapter of his career, and those tapes were shelved. Nearly three decades later, John Carter rediscovered them. He stripped the recordings back to his father’s voice and acoustic guitar, then brought musicians who had actually played with Johnny — including Marty Stuart and Dave Roe — into the Cash Cabin to finish the music with producer David “Fergie” Ferguson. On June 28, 2024, Songwriter arrived: 11 Johnny Cash songs, all written by him, released more than twenty years after his death. The awards were already on the shelf. The legend was already secure. But John Carter found something better — eleven chances to hear his father speak again.

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Twenty Years After Johnny Cash Died, His Greatest Inheritance Was Sitting on a Shelf When Johnny Cash died on September…

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THE OLD MAN IN “DESPERADOS WAITING FOR A TRAIN” WAS REAL. HIS NAME WAS JACK PRIGG, AND HE RENTED A ROOM IN GUY CLARK’S GRANDMOTHER’S HOTEL IN MONAHANS, TEXAS. Rossie Clark ran a thirteen-room shotgun hotel that took in oilmen, drifters and bomber pilots. Prigg was a wildcatter and oilfield worker, and he was Rossie’s boyfriend. With Guy’s father overseas during the war, Prigg became the male figure in the boy’s life — and he took him into oil fields and pool halls and the Green Frog Cafe, where old men sat over dominoes and told whatever version of their lives sounded best that night. Clark said Prigg let him drive the car home from Odessa years before he had a license. Then Clark watched him get old. He wrote the song after Prigg died and called it a eulogy, as true as he could make it. Jerry Jeff Walker cut it first on Viva Terlingua in 1973. Rita Coolidge, David Allan Coe and Tom Rush all recorded it in 1974, before Clark finally released his own version on Old No. 1 in 1975. Ten years after that, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson released it as the Highwaymen and carried it to No. 15 on the country chart. Four of the most famous voices in American music, on a stage in front of thousands, singing about an old oil driller from a West Texas town almost none of them had heard of — a man who had been dead for years, and who never once heard his own name in the song.

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The Real Old Man Behind “Desperados Waiting for a Train” Long before “Desperados Waiting for a Train” became one of…

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Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White did not light a unity candle when they married. They sang to each other instead. On August 4, 1981, the two country musicians stood together for their wedding ceremony when their pastor suggested something that fit them better than the traditional candle. Ricky could sing a verse to Sharon, Sharon could sing one back, and then they could join together. They chose Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You.” It sounded simple, but Sharon later admitted it was difficult to get through because both of them were so emotional. The song became their own wedding symbol — two voices beginning separately, then meeting together. That moment lasted far beyond the ceremony. Ricky and Sharon continued making music together, raised a family, and decades later recorded “If I Needed You” again. More than forty years after that wedding, the song still carries the memory of the promise they made when their marriage was just beginning.

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Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White Chose a Song Instead of a Unity Candle On August 4, 1981, Ricky Skaggs and…

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WAYLON JENNINGS SANG “ONLY DADDY THAT’LL WALK THE LINE.” CONNIE SMITH HEARD IT — AND GAVE THE WOMAN HER SIDE OF THE STORY. In 1968, Waylon Jennings released “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” and the song climbed to No. 2 on the country chart. One of the things that caught Connie Smith’s ear was Wayne Moss’s guitar playing on Waylon’s recording. That same year, Connie recorded the song from a woman’s point of view as “Only Mama That’ll Walk the Line” for her album Sunshine and Rain. She even brought Wayne Moss in because she wanted that guitar feel from Waylon’s version. Connie later remembered that she recorded the song in a different key, which made Moss’s job harder — but he still pulled it off. Waylon gave the song its swagger. Connie kept that spirit, changed the perspective, and made it sound like the woman finally got to answer back.

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Waylon Jennings Gave the Song Its Swagger — and Connie Smith Answered Back In 1968, Waylon Jennings released “Only Daddy…

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BEFORE THE HIGHWAYMEN, JOHNNY CASH AND WAYLON JENNINGS STOOD TOGETHER AND SANG FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF A MAN BEHIND BARS. In 1978, Cash and Jennings released “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” written by Hal Bynum and Dave Kirby. The song appeared on Cash’s album I Would Like to See You Again and became one of their earliest major recorded collaborations. The story is simple. A prisoner writes home to his mother and tells her what life behind bars has taught him. Cash takes the lead, while Waylon’s rougher voice joins him on the chorus. There is humor in the warnings, but underneath it is a man realizing that some lessons come too late. Released as a single in May 1978, it climbed to No. 2 on Billboard’s country chart. Years before Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson joined them in the Highwaymen, Cash and Waylon already sounded like two men who understood exactly how an outlaw song should feel.

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Before the Highwaymen, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings Already Sounded Like Outlaws Long before Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,…

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WAYLON JENNINGS ASKED HANK WILLIAMS JR. ABOUT HIS FATHER. HANK JR. HAD BEEN ONLY THREE YEARS OLD WHEN HANK WILLIAMS DIED. “The Conversation” wasn’t written like an ordinary duet. Waylon Jennings asks the questions, and Hank Williams Jr. answers them — about his father, his mother Audrey, the Driftin’ Cowboys, and the complicated man behind the legend. Hank Sr. died in 1953, before his son was four, leaving Hank Jr. to grow up surrounded by his father’s music and reputation. Hank Jr., Waylon and drummer Richie Albright wrote the song together. It first appeared on Hank Jr.’s 1979 album Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound. Four years later, it was released as a single from Waylon’s Waylon and Company and reached No. 15 on the country chart. What makes it memorable is how little it feels like a performance. It sounds like Waylon simply asking an old friend about the father country music never stopped talking about.

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Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., and the Song That Felt Like a Real Conversation Some songs sound written for a…

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The last time Sonny Osborne played the banjo, he knew it was over before the song had even ended. It happened in Myrtle Beach in November 2003. The Osborne Brothers were performing “Ruby” when, about two-thirds of the way through, Sonny’s left shoulder suddenly gave way. His arm dropped to his side. He looked across the stage at his brother Bobby and said quietly, “I think I’m done.” They still finished “Ruby.” Then the group closed with a quick “Rocky Top.” Sonny would never play the banjo again. Doctors found that muscles and tendons connected to his rotator cuff had torn loose. Surgery could repair some of the damage, but not all of it. The injury ended Sonny’s life on the road and brought the Osborne Brothers’ half-century musical partnership to a close. For more than 50 years, that banjo had been beside Bobby’s voice. Then one night, in the middle of “Ruby,” Sonny’s hands were forced to say goodbye before he was ready.

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DON GIBSON WROTE “OH LONESOME ME” AND “I CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU” ON THE SAME DAY. ONE BECAME HIS NO. 1 HIT. THE OTHER WAS PUT ON THE B-SIDE — AND GREW INTO ONE OF THE MOST RECORDED COUNTRY SONGS EVER WRITTEN. In 1957, Gibson was living in a trailer park north of Knoxville, Tennessee. Sitting down to write a lost-love ballad, he came across one line he had already written: “I can’t stop loving you.” He looked at it again and realized he had his title. That same day, he also wrote “Oh Lonesome Me.” On December 3, Gibson recorded both songs for RCA with producer Chet Atkins. “Oh Lonesome Me” became the A-side and reached No. 1 on the country chart. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was placed on the other side of the record. But the B-side refused to stay there. Over the years, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was recorded more than 700 times. In 1962, Ray Charles took it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Don Gibson had written two classics in one day. The song placed second on the record may have traveled the farthest.

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Gary Allan had gone more than eight years without a No. 1 country hit. Then a song called “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)” brought him back — and gave him something he had never achieved before. Allan’s previous chart-topper, “Nothing On but the Radio,” had reached No. 1 in December 2004. He continued recording and touring, but another No. 1 never came. Years passed while country radio changed around him. Then came “Every Storm,” written by Allan with Hillary Lindsey and Matt Warren. The message was simple: bad times do not last forever. In February 2013, the song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, ending an eight-year, two-month gap between chart-toppers. It became the fourth No. 1 of Allan’s career. But the comeback was even bigger than one song. That same week, his album Set You Free reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — the first time Gary Allan had ever topped the all-genre album chart. After eight years waiting for country music to bring him back to No. 1, Gary Allan returned with a song whose title seemed to explain the entire journey.

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David Lee Murphy had gone nearly 23 years without a No. 1 of his own. Then Kenny Chesney heard a song Murphy thought Chesney should record — and instead helped put Murphy back behind the microphone. Murphy had been one of country radio’s familiar voices in the 1990s. “Dust on the Bottle” reached No. 1 in 1995, followed by more hits, but eventually his recording career slowed. He never disappeared from Nashville. He simply moved behind the scenes, writing songs other artists took to the top, including Kenny Chesney’s “Living in Fast Forward” and Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor.” Years later, Murphy brought Chesney “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” a song he had written with Chris Stevens and Jimmy Yeary. Murphy originally hoped Chesney might record it. Chesney had another idea: Murphy should make a new album himself. Chesney and Buddy Cannon helped produce No Zip Code, and Chesney joined Murphy on the song. In June 2018, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” reached No. 1 on Billboard Country Airplay — Murphy’s first chart-topper since “Dust on the Bottle,” nearly 23 years earlier. Five months later, Murphy and Chesney won CMA Musical Event of the Year. It was Murphy’s first CMA nomination — and his first CMA Award. For more than two decades, David Lee Murphy had helped other singers find hits. Then one of those singers helped make sure country music heard his voice again.