Country music legend Mel Tillis will receive IFCO's Tex Ritter Award at the 2008 IFCO Fun Fest Show. The Award is given most years in honor of a life-long contribution to country music, the music community, and fans everywhere. This year's show will be held Wednesday, June 4th at 7:00 p.m. at Cadillac Ranch (305 Broadway) in Nashville, TN. ••• Mel Tillis began performing in the early fifties with The Westerners while serving as a baker in the United States Air Force, stationed in Okinawa. In 1956, Webb Pierce recorded a song written by Mel titled "I'mTired" and it launched Mel¹s career. In 1976, Mel was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame, and that same year, he was named the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year. Also, for six years in the seventies, Mel won Comedian of the Year. In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. named Tillis the Songwriter of the Decade. Mel was the recipient of the Golden Voice Entertainer Award for 2001 and the 2001 Golden R.O.P.E. Songwriter Award. And, the Grand Ole Opry inducted Mel as a member on June 9, 2007.••• Mel has written well over 1,000 songs, and approximately 600 have been recorded by major artists, including: "Ruby, Don¹t Take Your Love To Town" Kenny Rogers, "Detroit City" Bobby Bare, "Emotions" Brenda Lee, "I Ain't Never" Webb Pierce, "Burning Memories" Ray Price, "Thoughts of a Fool" George Strait, "Honey (Open That Door)" Ricky Skaggs.••• In 2001, Mel received a Special Citation of Achievement from BMI for 3 Million broadcast performances of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town." As an artist Mel has recorded more than sixty albums. He has had thirty-six top ten singles, with nine of them going to number one "Good Woman Blues," "Coca Cola Cowboy," and "Southern Rain," to mention a few. In 1993, he recorded his first gospel album, Beyond the Sunset. One of Mel's most popular recordings is the Old Dogs album with Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, and Jerry Reed. It was released in July of 1998, and received a nomination for the 1999 Vocal Event of the Year by the CMA.••• Mel has been in the entertainment business for more than fifty years. He and his band, the Statesiders, have worked concerts in all fifty states, Canada, England, and other countries. He has appeared on such television shows as 20/20, The Tonight Show, The 700 Club, Prime Time Country, 60 Minutes, Crook & Chase, David Letterman, and he has served as host for the Music City News Awards and Music City Tonight. He has appeared in many feature films including Every Which Way But Loose with Clint Eastwood, W.W. & The Dixie Dancekings, Cannonball Run I and II, Smokey and the Bandit II with Burt Reynolds, and the lead role with Roy Clark in Uphill All the Way. He has starred in several television movies including Murder in Music City and A Country Christmas Carol. He has also been the spokesman for and done commercials for companies such as Badcock Furniture, Fina Oil Co., and Whataburger, and was the 1998 spokesman and honorary chairman for the Stuttering Foundation of America. Mel Tillis is also a proud member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Kenny Chesney was in obvious pain Saturday night (April 25) after bones in his foot were crushed during an equipment malfunction as his performance began during the opening show of his Poets & Pirates stadium tour. Luke Bryan, Gary Allan, LeAnn Rimes and Brooks & Dunn had already performed before Chesney took the stage, which extends into the audience. His performance was to begin with him emerging via a lift that elevates him onto a section of stage in the middle of the crowd. With the band playing the opening riffs of "Live Those Songs," his foot apparently became lodged between the lift and the stage. It took some manuvering for him to pry himself loose as he squatted down on the stage while the band continued to play an extended introduction of the song. When he finally freed himself, Kenny stood up and kept holding his hand on his knee as he began to sing. He never acknowledged the problem during the early part of his performance. By the time his show was over, Chesney was visibly limping and seemed to rest near a drum riser while leaning over and holding his knee during the instrumental breaks of his songs. A team physician from the University of South Carolina waited nearby. Upon leaving the stage, Chesney's boot was cut off, and the doctor treated the injury to minimize damage. "I took one look at those fans, and there was no way I wasn't going on," Chesney said in a written statement issued following the concert. "Sometimes the energy and the adrenalin pull you through. They had come to rock, and there was no way I was sending them home with anything less than the best of what me and my guys came to do -- put it all out there and give them back at least as good as they gave us.... Honestly, through the pain, through all of it, Columbia, S.C., totally got me through."
Carrie Underwood, will become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry May 10 live on GAC. The cable channel will also present Road To The Opry: Carrie Underwood, a half-hour special that capsulizes her journey from Oklahoma college student to stardom. at 7:30 PM ET the same evening.
Platinum selling artists, Little Big Town will sign a multi-album recording contract with Capitol Records Nashville. As part of this deal, Capitol will also acquire the band's two previous records, originally released on Equity Records, the 1.3 million selling, Grammy-nominated The Road To Here, as well as A Place To Land, which was just released in November. Capitol will assume the marketing and promotion of A Place To Land, and will be releasing a new single to country radio immediately.
The Academy of Country Music has announced that superstars Rodney Atkins, Dolly Parton, Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood will perform as part of the 43rd Annual ACM Awards. The ACM Awards is dedicated to honoring and showcasing the biggest names and emerging talent in the country music industry. The show is produced for television by Dick Clark Productions and will be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network. R.A. Clark is executive producer, Barry Adelman is producer and Bob Bardo is executive in charge of production. For more information, please visit acmcountry.com and ACM Charitable Fund.
Trace Adkins, Bucky Covington, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sara Evans, Little Big Town, Montgomery Gentry, Craig Morgan, James Otto, Kenny Rogers and Randy Travis are added to the performance lineup for the Nightly Concerts at LP Field. The four-day festival takes place Thursday thru Sunday, June 5-8, in Downtown Nashville. Among artists previously announced to appear: Rodney Atkins, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Jewel, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood and Dwight Yoakam. For more information, please visit CMAfest.com
Andy Griggs will headline the International Fan Club Organization's annual IFCO Fun Fest Show on Wednesday, June 4 (7:00 pm) at Cadillac Ranch in Nashville, TN. The lineup also includes Lynn Anderson, Lane Brody, David Church, Emma Mae Jacob, Benita Hill, Moore & Moore, Michael Peterson and Jimmie Van Zant. The evening will include presentation of the annual IFCO Tex Ritter Award (honoree to be announced). Order tickets (MasterCard or Visa) online or phone 615.371.9596. Robert K. Oermann will be the night's host. IFCO band leader is Joe Bob Barnhil. IFCO welcomes new show sponsor, DigitalRodeo.com, an online country music community created for recording artists and fans of country music to network globally.
Dierks Bently will headline some of the biggest music festivals in the U.S. as well as Canada, Ireland, England, Norway, France and Japan before the summer is over. He is the only country act scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago. ••• Willie Nelson kicks off his Spring tour Apr. 21 in Amsterdam, Holland, then moves on to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK, Scotland, Belgium, and ends at the Grand Rex Theatre in Paris, France on May 16. ••• Dismal ratings on the premier episode (April 8) of Secret Talents of the Stars prompted CBS to cancel the series. Clint Black appeared as a standup comic on the first show, which also featured Star Trek actor George Takei singing Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", actor Danny Bonaduce, singer Mya and TV personality Ben Stein.
EVENTS Calender 2008:
• May 3-4 - Stagecoach Festival, Indio, CA
• May 18 - ACM Awards, Las Vegas, NV
• Jun. 3 - IFCO-DigitalRodeo.com Luncheon (invitation only)
• Jun. 4 - IFCO Fun Fest, Nashville, TN
• Jun. 5-7 - BamaJam Music & Arts Festival, Enterprise, AL
• Jun. 5-8 - CMA Music Festival, Nashville, TN
• Jun. 8 - Sunday Morning Country, Nashville, TN
• Jun. 12-15 - Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, TN
• Jun. 26-29 - Roots Music Festival & Awards, San Antonio, TX
• Jul. 10-13 - Craven Country Jamboree, Craven, Sask.
• Jul. 25-27 - Craponne Country Music Festival, France
• Aug. 2-3 - UTV Country Festival, Ireland
• Sept. 12-14- Country Night Gstaad, Switzerland
• Oct. 16 - Inspirational Country Music Awards, Nashville. TN
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This page last update April 29, 2008
