Patsy Cline is one of the greatest recording artists country music has ever produced. She had “the voice.” It’s the rare singer who can melt your heart and then restore it again in the space of three or four notes with virtually any song. Today’s crop of female singers – Faith Hill, Shania Twain, Wynnona Judd, the Dixie Chicks et al – need to sit in the back and take notes.

The trouble is they can’t. Patsy is dead. She died almost 40 years ago in a plane crash, and nobody has been quite able to pick up her fallen mantle since. Instead, we now get to go to one of the many nostalgia shows making the rounds.... The irony is that Patsy might not have been able to make it in today’s music scene, which thanks to music videos is more about shaking your booty than vibrating your vocal chords. Patsy could stand in front of a mike, not move, just sing, and cause a riot. She is to country what Janis Joplin is to blues.... Janis, too, died young. In fact, American culture is replete with dead heroes, often the best in their field, who burned brightly and then flared out too soon. Nostalgia, instead of being a quaint time-passer, is an industry. Necrophilia and estate licensing are stalwartly on the march....

Shani Hedden has both the honor and unenviable task of trying to fill Patsy’s shoes. It’s almost an impossible assignment. Even Jessica Lange had the songs dubbed with Patsy’s real voice when she played her in the movie version of her life. Jessica was no fool. No matter how well Hedden can sing, there is a gap if you have heard Patsy do the same songs.

While she should be applauded for her courage in stepping up to the mark and jogging the audience’s collective memory, someone needed to apply a little acting craft to make the role more than just a watered down imitation. As Patsy, the script doesn’t let Hedden do much besides sing, so she really needed to look deeper at what may have allowed Patsy to do what she did besides having fortunate vocal apparatus. There is also the nagging question of why did she have to leave us? Why did her talent have to leave us when we needed and still need it so desperately? Immense talent like that can elevate the entire culture.

Patsy's gravestone reads "Death Can Not Kill, What Never Dies...." I believe that the quotation is taken from "Some Fruits of Solitude," ("Union of Friends"), page 99:

"They that love beyond the world, cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill, what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship. If Absence be not Death, neither is theirs. Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; They live in one another still."
~ By William Penn (first published in May 1693)

Patsifans! Now, you can show the world just how Patsified! you are with your very own Patsy Cline E-Mail Account. Each Patsy Cline E-Mail Account comes with 3MB of web space, message editing tools and Spam filters. Other features include easy web access from any browser. Account upgrades, including Desktop and PDA access, are available for a nominal fee.

... Her vocal impersonation of the seminal country singer, who died at 30 in a 1961 plane crash (sic), is remarkable. But it also makes you realize why a violinist pays millions for a Stradivarius. Without the instrument, the music is sometimes going to be all technique. Cline had the instrument. Welch has the wail, the wobble, the yodel and the slide, but those won't carry the diehard Patsy Cline fan through 25 songs.... But, hey, if you're going to an actual honky-tonk, why not listen to Cline herself and that wide-open voice as big, fragrant and fertile as the vast apple orchards in her native Winchester, VA?

"I think the Internet has been our No. 1 problem," he said. "It has absolutely eroded the value of music to young consumers. You've got kids who have never bought a CD in their lives." But he doesn't absolve record labels from some blame, claiming they've priced many young consumers out of the market. "By abandoning singles as a legitimate format, the industry killed us," he said. "It was basically telling kids, 'We don't want you to shop in our stores anymore unless you've got 20 bucks'."

Thanks for your reply. I, also, don't understand the confusion regarding the rescheduling of the planning committee meeting. We have a neighborhood citizen's group that is opposed to the rezoning. At our Monday (July 15th) meeting, one of our members called to talk with Abbe Kennedy. She is the senior planner who has been assigned the duty of presenting this rezoning request to the planning commission. Although she was unavailable for the phone call, she called back and stated that the rezoning request would be considered at the August 21st meeting. Our group is planning strategy assuming that that is the meeting date. I have written the Winchester Star, yesterday. We'll see if they print my letter to the editor. Part of my concern is that others in Winchester who have loved ones buried at the cemetery are unaware of this situation. I certainly would be concerned if a strip mall or gas station was built next to my loved one's gravesite. The proposed business property is approximately 100 to 125 yards from Patsy's gravesite. The development will be within only a few yards of other people's gravesites. It is level land and whatever would be built would be in plain sight from all vantage points. We are also attacking this rezoning request on other grounds: overcrowded schools, negative impact on water and sewer, and traffic. It is a shame that some people want to pave over every parcel of land and slap a house or business on it. Well, I will keep the group informed as I find out new developments.

For your information and per the Director of Planning and Development, the Casey Rezoning was tabled indefinitely at the July 1st PC meeting; therefore, this item WILL NOT be going to the Board on Aug. 14th. Planning staff are waiting for the applicant to re-submit a revised application; then it has to go back to the Planning Commission.

I have recently attended a Frederick County Planning Commission meeting where there is an attempt to rezone the property directly adjacent to Shenandoah Memorial Gardens where Patsy is buried. Those of us who live in this area are very concerned, since the landowner is intent on building 63 houses and putting a business on this site. Currently, this property is open field, with the exception of a florist shop that is situated in an old farm house on the property. It is our concern that this rezoning will degrade the solemnness of the cemetery and Patsy's gravesite. There is a request for business rezoning for the portion of the property that is most noticeable. The request is for B-2 general business. This can include hotel/motels, automotive dealerships, gasoline service stations, restaurants, car washes, golf driving ranges, commercial batting cages, utility facilities (gas, water, electric, telephone), general merchandise stores, veterinary offices, home furniture stores, etc. As you can see, any of these businesses destroy the setting for all of those buried in this cemetery. Frederick County/Winchester residents (especially Patsy Cline fans) and government have been making a concerted effort to tell the world about Patsy Cline and preserve her memory. It would be a shame to visit her gravesite and have to contend with the noise, commotion, and visual pollution of a housing subdivision or a fast food restaurant, car wash, or any other business. If you are as concerned as I am, I encourage you to send an e-mail regarding "Rezoning Request #07-02 of Doris F. Casey" to the board of supervisors and the members of the County Planning Commission. We were able to convince the planning commission to table the request until the next meeting which is scheduled for August 5, 2002. Please help us stop this degradation of an important spiritual and historical site.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

Robert Van
vancross@visuallink.com

Board of Supervisors:

Richard Shickle	rschickle@shentel.net
Harrington Smith	ctanner@co.frederick.va.us
Linda Tyler	bosetyler@yahoo.com
Robert Sager	bobsager@shentel.net
Margaret Douglas	ctanner@co.frederick.va.us
Sidney Reyes	sreyes@visuallink.com
Gina Forrester	ginaf@visuallink.com

Planning Commission Members:
Send e-mails to them via ctanner@co.frederick.va.us:
Charles DeHaven, Marie Staub, Pat Gouchenour, Cardell Watt, Gregory Unger,
Robert Morris, John Light, Roger Thomas, Richard Ours, George Kinz,
Gene Fisher, Charles Triplett, William Rosenberry.

Women of the West Get Their Own Museum

By: Kathryn Jones

The cowboy is enshrined as an icon at the 37-year-old National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Now the cowgirl is getting her due at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, which opened in Fort Worth on June 9.

The museum has expanded the meaning of cowgirl to include gritty, independent women who lived in the West. So while it pays homage to such rodeo stars as Tad Lucas, the museum also celebrates the influence of the writers Willa Cather and Laura Ingalls Wilder, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, the singer Patsy Cline, the former slave and humanitarian Clara Brown and even a Supreme Court justice. Sandra Day O'Connor, an El Paso native who grew up on an Arizona ranch, is one of five people the Cowgirl Hall of Fame inducted this year. She joins 158 honorees inducted since 1975, when the hall was in its first location in the Texas Panhandle. The Hall of Fame moved to Fort Worth in 1994 and got a permanent home when the new museum opened.

The two-story, 33,000-square-foot museum, in the Fort Worth Cultural District, tells their stories in five gallery areas. Artifacts such as the outfit and boots of the sharpshooter Annie Oakley (on loan from the Garst Museum in Ohio) are on display. In the gallery called "Into the Arena," visitors can watch filmed "great rides" by performers like Lucas. Then, would-be cowgirls can hop onto a bronc (on a spring) for a ride that is videotaped, sped up and inserted into footage from an old-style rodeo. General admission is $6. The museum, at 1720 Gendy, is closed Monday; (817) 336-4475; www.cowgirl.net.

Branch, Jones Honor Cline
Patsy Cline Tribute To Feature Covers of Her Twelve Best-Known Songs

By: ANDREW DANSBY

Michelle Branch, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Lee Ann Womack and Natalie Cole have recorded songs for Remembering Patsy, a Patsy Cline tribute album to be released later this year on MCA. The release will be roughly timed to coincide with what would have been Cline's seventieth birthday, September 8, 2002. The array of artists representing country, pop and jazz captures the impact of Cline's brief recording career, during which she brought the sounds of pop into Nashville and the sounds of Nashville onto the pop charts.

The tracks for Remembering Patsy will be the dozen songs initially selected for her 12 Greatest Hits album, which had sold more than 9 million copies and spent 766 weeks on Billboard's Country Albums chart.

Krall takes on what is decidedly Cline's most popular song, the Willie Nelson-penned "Crazy," which forty-one years ago crossed over onto the pop charts, climbing as high as Number Seven. Legendary Nashville scribe Hank Cochran had the best luck writing for Cline. Four of his songs made Cline's 12 Greatest and are being re-cut for Remembering Patsy: "She Got You" by Lee Ann Womack, "Why Can't He Be You" by Jones, "I Fall to Pieces" -- co-written with Harlan Howard -- by Cole, and "You're Stronger Than Me," by an as-yet-confirmed artist. Branch will take on "Strange," a song penned by Mel Tillis and Fred Burch, while lang sings Wayne Walker's and Webb Pierce's "Leavin' on Your Mind."

The performers for the other six songs, which include "Walkin' After Midnight," "Sweet Dreams," "Back in Baby's Arms" and others, will be confirmed in the next few weeks.

Cline died on March 5, 1963 in a plane crash in Tennessee.

Very good weather and crowd for the concert that ran from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Financial results will be announced by July 1st. CPC, Inc., will receive 50% of the net proceeds to purchase and/or renovate Patsy's home located at 608 South Kent Street....

Tastes, Tunes, Blues Punctuate Revelry
‘Chilling’ To The Blues

By: Tim Allen
The Winchester Star

For an event promoting the blues, there were a host of smiling faces and happy sounds Saturday coming from the old Zeropack plant on North Cameron Street.

“I think most people are just chilling and having fun,” said Anna Thomson, executive director of Preservation of Historic Winchester Inc., the group organizing the Crazy for the Blues festival.

While Bill and Wanda Largent from Martinsburg, W. Va., had a little trouble finding the location of the show in the old industrial area of north Winchester, they were glad they made it when they did.

“I think The Nighthawks are coming on next, and I really want to see them, but she’s really good, too,” said Bill Largent, referring to Mary Ann Redmond, whose blues tunes got people jamming to her soulful notes.

Sony Gets Rights To Classic Country; Acuff-Rose Sold By Gaylord For $157M

By: RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer

The world's first music publishing company devoted to country music changed ownership yesterday, along with some of the most notable songs in America.

Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Co. sold Acuff-Rose Music Publishing to Sony/ATV Music Publishing for $157 million. As part of the deal, Sony/ATV also acquires three Music Row buildings. The deal is subject to approval from federal antitrust regulators.

"I don't anticipate a problem there," said Donna Hilley, Sony/ATV's president and chief executive officer.

Hilley has long sought Acuff-Rose's catalog, which includes songs written by Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and many others. The catalog has about 55,000 songs.

"I got my wish," Hilley said. "I feel like I'm truly blessed. … It was a Nashville-grown company, and it's going to a Nashville-grown company."

Peggy Lee Class Action Royalty Deal Approved In LA

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday approved a $4.75 million settlement of a class action royalties suit led by late singer Peggy Lee, despite 11th hour objections by actor Larry Hagman.

Lee had accused Decca Records, now a unit of Vivendi Universal, of underpaying royalties to her and hundreds of other artists for some four decades. About 160 artists -- many of whom are now dead -- were part of the class action, including Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bill Haley.

Tentative settlement of the two-year-long court case was reached in January, just days before Lee's death at the age of 81.

But Hagman, executor of the estate of his mother Mary Martin, best known for her roles in the Broadway musicals "South Pacific," and "The Sound of Music", objected last month saying the figure was too low and unfair to some artists.