music

This page is dedicated to some of my favorite musicians. Mostly country and pop

George Strait

This a picture of my favorite country singer George Strait. It was taken in 1987 in Arlington at Arlington Stadium after a Texas Rangers baseball game.

Not only was it the the first concert that I have ever been to, but was also the first Major League Baseball game that I have ever seen in the stadium.

Unfortunately, we had to cut out early on the concert so that we could catch the bus back to Redbird Airport. We were all so sunburned that we just couldn't stay there any longer either.

I may have been one of the person's in the background of this picture since we sat in the outfield for this game. My dad worked really hard so that he could afford the tickets to the baseball game and George Strait Concert. He went to all that trouble just because I wanted to see George Strait in concert.

George Strait is still my favorite country singer and one day I hope to be able to meet the man in person. He is the singer that I have always wanted to be like and maybe one day I will get to meet my favorite singer just like Eric got to meet his favorite singer.

George Strait is pictured here in a more recent photo. George has been awarded Country Music Association Awards (CMA) many times over his 20 year career in Country Music. That is as long as he has been with MCA Records.

I have some of George Strait's albums. I have been unable to collect all of them because of the rising costs of Compact Discs (CDs). I have Strait Country, Greatest Hits, Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind, and Something Special on vinyl album. I still listen to them on the Technics SL-BD 20 Automatic Turntable that was given to me along with an entire stereo by Lee Roberts. The sound is digital quality and I think sounds better than on a CD. My family stopped buying very much George Strait when it stopped coming out on the vinyl album. We couldn't afford a CD player and the CDs were very expensive. For more information on George Strait, visit his official website, George Strait Online.

Photo by: Tony Baker

This is another George Strait picture that I have found on the internet. I think it is a pretty good photo of him. Found on Yahoo! Music under George Strait.

Photo by: Tony Baker

Tom T. Hall

Tom T. Hall is another one of my favorite musicians. Not only does he sing but he writes songs. He has written songs for country artists such Jeanie C. Riley (no relation to me). The song that he wrote for her was a Harper Valley P.T.A. That song went to Number 1 on the country charts and prompted a movie and television series. Tom T. Hall is the favorite country singer of my family. At Christmas my grandfather got out his guitar and everybody wanted to hear a Tom T. Hall song. My brother and I used to think Papaw was adding the part about his name being "T," because Papaw's firt name is T.B. I listened to the album on the record player and found out that that was actually how the song went.

Tom T. Hall is also a writer of children's books and has written a couple of novels and an autobiography. He also wrote a song writer's handbook that teaches people how to write songs.

Tom T. Hall was known for writing songs that tell stories. Most of the stories are true.

There is probably a story about the two pictures that I have here on my website.

James Taylor

James Taylor is known for his easy going pop sound. Beneath the easy going exterior that many of his songs possess is a man who has literally seen "Fire and Rain." Some of his best songs were written about the times when he was down. Click on the picture of James playing guitar to go to James Taylor Online

The only song that he had go to Number One was "You've Got A Friend" which was written by Carole King. James Taylor recently released a second Greatest Hits album after nearly 25 years after his first greatest hits album was released.

James has written some of the greatest soft rock and pop songs ever written. I wish that he had more of them go to number one becuase they are sure deserving of it.

The Band

The Band could be considered as a Southern Rock band. What is weird about this very talented group is that only one member is actually from the South. The other members are from Canada.

The one member from the South, Levon Helm, still performs as a solo artist. Steve Hatton and I had been talking about how we wanted to go see Levon Helm in concert. The funny thing is that he was in Dallas three days prior to our conversation about it. We'll catch him next time, Steve. We will be catching Levon Helm in October in Arkansas.

The Band performed such songs as "The Weight," "Up On Cripple Creek," and "The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down."

The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Flying Burrito Brothers have a sound that is all their own. The group originated in the 1960s as a group to join the elements of Country Music and Rock and Roll into a unique package.

The group only lasted for about four years with A&M Records. In that time they wrote and recorded some good music. Most of the 40,000 albums produced of the first album (The Guilded Palace of Sin) fell into the hands of musicians. Therefore, this group has gone onto influence such musicians as Emmylou Harris, The Eagles, The Desert Rose Band, and even the Rolling Stones.

The Burrito Brothers is the result of a meeting between two former members of The Byrds in a Los Angeles bank.

Those two former members of The Byrds were Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons. Unfortunately, Parsons's career came to a tragic end in the early 1970s. And the group never had any hits at all. Hit records were damned. The Flying Burrito Brothers consisted of Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, "Sneeky" Pete Kleinow, Michael Clarke, Bernie Leadon, Chris Etheridge, and Rick Roberts. Despite the funny attire worn by the Burrito Brothers, they still hold a special place in my music library.

You might recognize Chris Hillman, however. Hillman and his Afro went on to form the country group The Desert Rose Band in the 1980s. Hillman is the one pictured in the blue rhinestone suit on the album cover to the left.

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Levon Helm and the Barnburners

I had the opportunity to go to Helena, Arkansas on October 6, 2001 to see Levon Helm and the Barnburners. I really just went to see Levon Helm.

Helena is about 3 miles from the Mississippi River and is close to Levon Helm's hometown of Marvell, Arkansas. The event that he played at is an annual event called the King Biscuit Blues Festival. I bought a t-shirt there for $20. It was cool to be able to see Levon live in concert.

Unfortunately, Levon doesn't sing anymore because he had throat surgery two years ago. The surgery has left him unable to sing.

Steve and I were behind the stage during the concert because that is where we were able to see best. One of the highlights was that Levon actually looked back at where we were standing and smiled at us. That is the coolest thing.

Levon Helm and the Barnburners still perform live performances all over the United States.

The Oak Ridge Boys

I finally got to see The Oak Ridge Boys live on October 27, 2001 at the Texas A&M University-Commerce Homecoming. They performed a concert for students, alumni and others that wanted to see them in person. They are awesome.

I thought they were really cool. They give a high energy show at their conert. They have been giving it all they have for over 25 years in the lineup they are in now featuring (left to right) William Lee Golden, Joe Bonsall, Duane Allen, and Richard Sterban.

The Oak Ridge Boys have always loved children. In 1982, they recorded a song written by Eddy Raven called "Thank God for Kids." In 1983, they did a video for the song in Irving, Texas at Sesame Place. Sesame Place was a place for children to go to that resembled the set on the popular television show "Sesame Street," that many children have watched. The place was closed down shortly after the video was made and I was on of the few children to get to go to it.

Oak Ridge Boy Duane Allen (lead singer) is from Texas and graduated from East Texas State University (ETSU) in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. ETSU is now known as Texas A&M University-Commerce.

The Oak Ridge Boys got their start in Southern Gospel over 55 years ago and have changed personnel many times since then.

In 1977, The Oak Ridge Boys made their big change from Southern Gospel to Country. With the change followed a string of country, pop, and gospel hits. But they never left their gospel roots and still perform gospel music at all of their live shows.

All pictures of the Oak Ridge Boys were obtained at their official website.