May 29th:
1962
At the 4th Annual Grammy Awards held at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York Jimmy Dean won Best Country & Western Recording for “Big Bad John.”
1966
Jim Reeves was at #1 on the US Country charts with “Distant Drums.” This was Reeves’ only UK #1 hit – albeit posthumously – in 1966, some two years after his death in a plane crash on 31 July 1964. The song remained in the UK charts for 45 weeks.
1975
Freddy Fender was at #1 on the US country chart with Before The Next Teardrop Falls. The album included the #1 hits “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.”
1991
Garth Brooks was at #1 on the US country chart with his third studio album, Ropin’ the Wind. The album repelaced his previous album No Fences at the #1 postion, where it enjoyed a combined 18 weeks at the top of the charts.
2009
Chris Young held the #1 position on the country singles chart with “The Man I Want to Be”. Written by Brett James and Tim Nichols, it was the third single from his second studio album, also titled The Man I Want to Be.
2009
Country singer John Rich was charged with assault and harassment in an ongoing dispute with a former Nashville Star contestant. Rich turned himself in to Nashville police to face the charges filed by Jared Ashley, a contestant during the fourth season of the TV show on the USA network. The 35-year-old was charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault and one misdemeanor count of harassment. He was released on $3,000 bond.
2012
Doc Watson, American guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music died aged 89. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded. The first song he learned to play on the guitar was “When Roses Bloom in Dixieland”, first recorded by the Carter Family in 1930. He performed with his son Merle for over 15 years until Merle’s death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm.
