Country Music Retirement Home More Popular

By: John Gerome
Associated Press

Marty Martel never had a gold record, but he's been in the country music business for 30 years, first as a singer and later as the owner of a small production and talent agency.

Now 64 years old and near the end of his career, Martel wants a little peace of mind.

He wants to see a long-discussed retirement home built for people in country music, a place where singers, producers, musicians and others can go, no matter how little money they have.

"I know that when my time comes I hope that I have everything in order and I don't need it," Martel said. "But I'd like to know that it's there."

Christie’s Auction House To Offer Cline Clothing

By: Stephanie M. Mangino
The Winchester Star

Christie’s auction house Popular Arts Department head Margaret Barrett recently dug out a Patsy Cline “Best Of” cassette bought 15-20 years ago and made a discovery when she looked at the cover photo.

“She’s wearing a pair of gold lamé boots that I’m selling,” said the Cline fan, who has assembled a Nov. 18 entertainment memorabilia auction at which the boots and 15 other Cline clothing items will be offered at Christie’s midtown Manhattan location.

In August, Winchester Circuit Court Judge John E. Wetsel Jr. ordered the sale of all of the Cline clothing items in the estate of her mother, Hilda V. Hensley, to cover the cost of its administration.

If the estate remains open through the end of 2004, estate administrator Charles R. Alton estimates in Winchester Circuit Court papers that the cost of handling the estate will be $43,671.18.

Bernard Schwartz, 85
Producer of Loretta Lynn Biopic

Myrna Oliver
LA Times Staff Writer

Bernard Schwartz, a film producer who prided himself on showcasing stories that demonstrated what he called "triumph of the human spirit," such as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Sweet Dreams," has died. He was 85.

Schwartz died Friday in Los Angeles of complications after a stroke.

Although he produced a score of successful motion pictures and television programs from the 1950s through the 1980s, Schwartz was best known for his biopic of country singing star Loretta Lynn in the 1980 "Coal Miner's Daughter."

The film earned him a Golden Globe Award for best musical or comedy, a Country Music Assn. award for best picture and an Academy Award nomination for best picture.

Sissy Spacek, then a little-known actress whom Schwartz fought to cast over studio executives' cries for a bigger name, earned an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn. Other actors in the film, Tommy Lee Jones as Lynn's husband and Beverly D'Angelo, who played country singer Patsy Cline, also were nominated for Oscars.

After that film's success, Universal executives asked Schwartz, "Hey, is there a story in this Cline woman?"

The Pro-Tools Debate

A number of leading country artists sing off key. But a magical piece of software - Pro-Tools - makes them sound as good as gold.

By: Michael McCall

When Jack White came to Nashville to produce Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, he refused to work in any of Music Row's state-of-the-art studios. "We weren't going to use Pro Tools or any kind of trickery to make it sound perfect," he said. "I wanted it to be soulful. I didn't want it to sound like a modern Nashville country album."

Allison Moorer put it just as bluntly in the credits of her 2002 album Miss Fortune. In large type, she stated that Pro Tools had not been used in the recording of the album.

So what is this demon Pro Tools? It's a digital recording system at the center of the debate about how technological advancements affect the sound and creation of music. The most heated issue involves a specific device, the auto-tuner--digital computer software that allows a note that's sung off-pitch to be corrected or, as common parlance has it, "fixed in the mix."

". . .An enhanced version of Patsy Cline's '12 Greatest Hits' re-enters Top Pop Catalog at No. 12. That repackaging coincides with an all-star tribute to Cline -- featuring Diana Krall, Lee Ann Womack and Michelle Branch, among others -- which enters Top Country Albums at No. 8, the big chart at No. 78. . . ."

The Multifaceted Man In Black

By: PETER COOPER
Staff Writer

Somehow, Johnny Cash is dead.

Battling ill health for years and without his longtime companion since wife June Carter Cash's death in May, Mr. Cash's frailties of body and heart made him seem no less indomitable. Fans and fellow musicians likened him to a force of nature: an iconic, elemental figure, more granite and fire than flesh and blood.

But Friday morning about 2 a.m., Mr. Cash passed away at Baptist Hospital, succumbing to respiratory failure brought on by complications from diabetes. He was 71 years old, and his life altered the course of American popular music.

"No body of work comes close to what his particular body of work is," said Emmylou Harris, whom Mr. Cash called his favorite female singer.

Speaking at a 1999 tribute concert, rock star Bruce Springsteen asserted that Mr. Cash "took the social consciousness of folk music, the gravity and humor of country music and the rebellion of rock 'n' roll and told all us young guys that not only was it all right to tear up all those lines and boundaries, but it was important."

Opry To Host "Remembering Patsy Cline: An Opry Tribute"

(Sept. 8, 2003) – The Grand Ole Opry confirmed today – what would have been Patsy Cline’s 71st birthday – that it will host an all-star line-up in tribute to the renowned artist on Saturday, Oct. 4. Grand Ole Opry Live makes its premiere on Great American Country (GAC) at 8 p.m. EST that evening, featuring one hour of the special Opry performance. Michelle Branch, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Lee Ann Womack and others are scheduled to participate in the tribute. The special performance kicks off the Opry’s month-long Homecoming Celebration, which will include other special shows and guest appearances as well as the Opry’s 78th Birthday Bash weekend Oct. 10-11.

An Opry member from 1960 until her untimely death in 1963, Patsy became the first female solo artist elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973. Her Greatest Hits compilation has sold nearly 10 million copies, and her classic “Crazy” has been named No. 1 jukebox single of all time by the AMOA jukebox association.

The MCA Records release, "Remembering Patsy Cline," is a celebration of Patsy's lasting mark on music. The album is an all-star event, bringing together a diverse array of some of the most talented female artists in music today as they interpret Patsy’s classic songs in tribute to an artist whose musical legacy truly transcends boundaries and labels. The diverse lineup of singers paying homage to Patsy Cline in the recorded project speaks for itself: Michelle Branch, Terri Clark, Natalie Cole, Amy Grant, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Martina McBride and Lee Ann Womack, among others. "Remembering Patsy Cline" will be in stores Sept. 9.

Opry tickets are available by calling (615) 871-OPRY.

Sweet Dreams: Artists Channel Patsy Cline

By: Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 10, 2003; Page C05

Patsy Cline died in a 1963 plane crash that also took the lives of Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. The Winchester, Va., native was a star when she died, an icon ever after, and a commercial surety still. Cline's "12 Greatest Hits," mostly ballads about broken hearts, was released in 1967 and has sold steadily enough to be approaching the 10 million mark. That's Shania Twain country -- appropriately enough, since Cline was the first female country star to achieve and sustain pop crossover success, thanks to producer Owen Bradley's lush string orchestrations and saccharine backing vocals by the Jordanaires. On her birthday -- Cline would have been 71 on Monday -- that hits collection has been digitally remastered by renowned engineer Bob Ludwig from the original three-track Decca recordings, and her vocals sound like yesterday rather than yesteryear.

With pianist Floyd Cramer and guitarist Hank Garland maintaining the country underpinning, Cline straddled the country/pop fence with a grace and confidence that countless singers have tried to find.

Witness the companion album put together by MCA Nashville: "Remembering Patsy Cline" features the same 12 songs interpreted by contemporary female singers representing a mix of country, pop, rock and jazz. Some bring a distinctive original take to the material; some simply emulate their inspiration. Among the latter: Lee Ann Womack's resigned "She's Got You" and Patty Griffin's exhausted "Faded Love." By contrast, honky-tonker Terri Clark livens up "Walkin' After Midnight," and Amy Grant turns "Back in Baby's Arms" into a spry western-swing jaunt.

Diana Krall transforms "Crazy" into a lazy lounge ballad that never quite taps into the song's emotional urgency, while Norah Jones's "Why Can't He Be You" is sprawling and unfocused (much better is her quirky reading of "Sweet Dreams" on guitarist Jim Campilongo's recent "American Hips" album). Most impressive is Natalie Cole's quiet-storm rendering of "I Fall To Pieces," with strings that are more Gordon Jenkins than Owen Bradley. The bravest reinvention is an a cappella "Sweet Dreams," where Martina McBride and Take 6 honor the Jordanaires as much as Cline.

Although Cline revivalists LeAnn Rimes and Mandy Barnett skip this tribute, k.d. lang is aboard. Lang, of course, has made a career of channeling Pasty Cline, calling her first band the reclines and bringing Bradley out of retirement to produce 1988's "Shadowland" album. Her languid reading of "Leavin' on Your Mind" is bluer than the original, a torch ballad smoldering in smoky passivity rather than an ember glowing dangerously in muted rage.

All-Star Tribute To Patsy Cline

By: Pat Nason
UPI Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- An all-star lineup of singers -- including Natalie Cole, Amy Grant, Norah Jones, k.d. lang and Martina McBride -- pay tribute to Patsy Cline in a new CD, 40 years after the legendary singer was killed in a plane crash at 30.

Cline -- who would have been 71 on Sept. 8 -- died in March 1963 in a crash that also killed country stars Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. As with other stars who died young, the tragedy intensified interest in Cline's music at the time -- and may well be a significant contributing factor to the enduring popularity of her catalogue.

Hollywood has paid homage to Cline from time to time. Jessica Lange earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as Cline in the 1985 feature "Sweet Dreams," and Beverly D'Angelo played Cline in "Coal Miner's Daughter" -- the 1980 feature in which Sissy Spacek won the Oscar for her performance as Loretta Lynn.