craighavighurst

The Ryman Auditorium is known world-wide as the Mother Church of Country Music. But many fans and scholars have long known the former home of the Grand Ole Opry enjoys a more specific status as the birthplace of bluegrass. Last week, music greats gathered to unveil a historical marker that recognizes that accomplishment and its far reaching consequences. s.

Soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays three nights of concerts at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center starting tonight, and he shouldn’t have any complaints about the Steinway concert grand piano under his fingers. Not only because the Nashville Symphony invested more than $100,000 dollars in the new instrument, but also because Thibaudet is the one who selected it.

When the Nashville Symphony’ s late music director Kenneth Schermerhorn was conceiving the opening night concert for the new center that bears his name, he wanted to program a new work with Nashville origins. So he turned to bass player Edgar Meyer and banjoist Bela Fleck, who had composed for the symphony in the past. They in turn brought in a third collaborator – world-famous Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain. The resulting work, which premieres tomorrow night at the gala opening of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, marries musical motifs from East and West. WPLN’s Craig Havighurst reports.

It’s Ray Price season in Nashville. The 80-year-old country music legend is the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. And on September 29, he performs at the Ryman Auditorium. It’s a good opportunity to get re-acquainted with a Texan who changed Nashville and country music not once, but twice. WPLN’s Craig Havighurst reports.

As in other music genres, most country radio hits come from the four biggest record companies: Universal, Sony/BMG, EMI and Warner Bros. But from time to time in the history of Nashville’s music business, independent labels with no ties to major corporations have enjoyed waves of success. Now is one of those times, as WPLN’s Craig Havighurst reports.

The Dixie Chicks first major tour in three years is underway, but relations between the most popular country band of the early 2000s and the Nashville country music industry are worse than ever. The feud exploded when lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed President Bush was from Texas on the eve of the Iraq war. Three years later, instead of putting the controversy behind them, the band reemerged from a hiatus and picked up the fight where it left off.

Chet Atkins, who died five years ago this summer, may be the only Nashville musical icon with a living, music-making memorial. Every year in July, hundreds of his fans and guitar-playing protégés gather to pay homage to the man they regard as the greatest guitar player that ever lived.

bob develanteSinger songwriter Bob Delevante struck out on his own in the late 1990s after years performing in a duo with his brother. His newest album, “š”Columbus and the Colossal Mistake,” is notable for its songwriting and for the samples of his art photography tucked into the CD’s sleeve. The album is earning strong reviews, and Delevante’s photos now have a stage of their own.

In Nashville, they say it "all begins with a song," but hit records also depend on musicians – whose work is often much better known than they are. This month, local businessman Joe Chambers announced a new hall of fame devoted to the artists who have worked behind the scenes, in Nashville and other music cities around the world. WPLN’s Craig Havighurst reports.