MUSIC NEWS: FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015
COUNTRY SINGERS PAY TRIBUTE TO LITTLE JIMMY DICKENS
Vince Gill says when you're young and someone is kind to you, you never forget it, and that's what it was like the first time any Grand Ole Opry newcomer met Little Jimmy Dickens.
Gill was one of several hundred people who celebrated Dickens' life at the Opry yesterday. Carrie Underwood says her mother warned her about Dickens because he liked pretty girls, but she says he always kissed her hand and had a little piece of her heart. Brad Paisley led a group in singing ``Will The Circle Be Unbroken,'' a tradition he says Dickens started. Paisley choked back tears and said, ``At 94, your journey has ended, but we'll take it from here, little buddy.''
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$300K ELVIS RECORD
Three-hundred grand for an Elvis record.
That's what someone has paid for an acetate recording of the ballad ``My Happiness.'' It's the first song Elvis Presley ever recorded.
An undisclosed buyer placed the winning bid yesterday evening at Graceland, Presley's former home in Memphis. Bidding began at 50-thousand dollars. Presley recorded it in 1953 at Sun Records, the Memphis studio operated by Sam Phillips. Presley, then 18, paid four-dollars for the recording.
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KRAFTWERK IS SUBJECT OF ACADEMIC STUDY
Aston University in Birmingham, England, will hold an international academic conference to discuss the fine points of Kraftwerk. Former Kraftwerk drummer Wolfgang Flur will do a question-and-answer session. Other sessions include topics such as ``Kraftwerk and the Cultural Studies of Cycling,'' ''Fun Fun Fun on the Autobahn: Kraftwerk Challenging Germanness`` and ''Kraftwerk and the Issue of Post-Human Authenticity.`` The conference begins Wednesday.
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ROBERT PLANT IS A LAST-MINUTE PERFORMER
Robert Plant doesn't make much use of his dressing room before his concerts. Plant says he likes to get to a gig as late as possible. He doesn't want to see the stage and he says he likes to just walk out and ``not know what's round the back of the naughty curtain.'' Plant says he's always been that way. He says in the '70s Led Zeppelin were so spontaneous they sometimes didn't show up to a gig at all.
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COUNTRY STARS TAKE ROLES IN CIVIL WAR MINI-SERIES
An upcoming Civil War mini-series will have a lot of familiar faces in it, if you follow country music. ``To Appomattox'' includes Dwight Yoakam as Union General George Meade, Kix Brooks as Union General Winfield Scott Hancock and Trace Adkins as Confederate General John Gregg. Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts and Laura Bell Bundy also have roles. It will run sometime this year, but an air date and a channel have not been announced.
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CARRIE UNDERWOOD LEADS FORMER ``IDOLS'' IN EARNINGS
Carrie Underwood is still the top-earning former ``American Idol'' contestant. Forbes magazine estimates her earnings in the last year were 10-million dollars -- and that's a pay cut from the 31-million she made the year before. Kelly Clarkson is second. She pulled in eight-million last year. Phillip Phillips is third with five-million. Taylor Hicks and Scotty McCreery are tied for fourth, with 3.5-million dollars each.
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TOTO PREPARE NEW MUSIC
In the minds of Toto, their ``Toto 14'' album is actually the follow-up to ``Toto 4.'' Keyboardist Steve Porcaro says they are treating their upcoming ``Toto 14'' album as if it was ``Toto 5.'' He says that means, ``Be true to ourselves and make the best music we can.'' It will be Toto's first album in a decade.
``Toto 4'' was the 1982 album that had the singles ``Rosanna,''
''Africa`` and ''I Won't Hold You Back.`` ''Toto 14`` will come out March 24.
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OBIT-ANDRAE CROUCH
Andrae Crouch, a legendary gospel artist, has died. Elvis Presley and Paul Simon performed his songs. He helped arrange the Michael Jackson song ``Man in the Mirror,'' and his arrangement for the film ``The Color Purple'' earned an Oscar nomination. His publicist says Crouch died yesterday at a hospital in Los Angeles, where he was admitted Saturday after suffering a heart attack. Crouch was 72.
