HEARD ON THE GRAPEVINE

Rich Redmond

RICH REDMOND

Rich Redmond is the longtime drummer with Jason Aldean and has worked with many other artists throughout his career. He’s played on thousands of songs along the way, including over 25 No. 1 records. Redmond is also an actor, author, producer and educator. Now he’s launched a podcast — The Rich Redmond Show — featuring candid conversations with musicians, actors, comedians and authors. His guest list has included several Local 257 members, including producer Dann Huff, fellow drummers Eddie Bayers and Paul Leim, Garth Brooks’ bandleader Johnny Garcia, and bassist Dave Pomeroy. "I love creative people of all types and this show allows me to shine a light on them as they share hard-earned life lessons about their craft and journey. It's just one more extension of my commitment to ‘edu-tainment.’ The feedback has been so positive and my cohost Jim McCarthy and I are so happy,” Richmond said.

Visit www.richredmond.com for information on where to listen to the podcast.

KIX BROOKS

Local 257 member Kix Brooks and his duo partner Ronnie Dunn are the focus of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon tells the story of their early solo careers, how they became the best-selling country duo of all time, and their innovative approach to stage production and touring.

On display are awards, custom-built instruments and personal artifacts. Guitars include Brooks’ Les Paul electric guitar featuring rope shaped binding and ornamentation; mother-of-pearl cowgirl inlays, a hand-painted and hand-carved cowgirl on the lower bout, and a sterling silver engraved pickguard. Among the many other artifacts are early song lyric drafts and racing suits worn by Brooks and Dunn when they drove 5/8th-scale Legends race cars in the 1990s.

The exhibit will run through December 2020.

JIMMY BUFFET AND MAC MCANALLY

Local 257 members Jimmy Buffet and Mac McAnally are among several musicians who were inducted into the Mississippi Songwriters Hall of Fame Sept. 17. The two guitarists have performed together on stage for years, and have also been frequent cowriters. This year’s ceremony was held online. Buffet, famous for multiple No. 1 hit records including “Margaritaville” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” has had an incredible run as a performing artist, and toured regularly for decades. He’s also well known for his magnanimous charity work to benefit an assortment of causes. Buffet talked about joining the hall of fame. “It’s a long way from the Pascagoula run, and my early days growing up in Mississippi certainly had an impact on the way I wrote songs and what I wrote about. So, thank you, Mississippi, for that,” Buffet said. In addition to his performances on the road with Buffet, McAnally has had chart success as a solo artist, with 10 studio records to his credit. His latest, Once in a Lifetime, was released earlier this year. He has received an amazing 10 CMA awards for Musician of the Year and continues his work as a session player, which he started while still a teenager, as part of the Muscle Shoals players in Alabama. Additionally, McAnally has produced Sawyer Brown and Restless Heart, and in 1990 he had a minor hit with "Down the Road", a composition he re-recorded in 2008 as a duet with Kenny Chesney for the artist's Lucky Old Sun album. The single was McAnally's highest charting record — reaching No. 1 in February 2009.

McAnally, who was raised in Belmont, Mississippi, noted the impact of the state’s rich tradition of storytellers. “I don’t know that I’m particularly smart, but I was smart enough to shut up and listen” and the tight-knit community of his childhood. “You can see, in a small town, how we sort of need one another. A community figures out a way to get along with everybody, because it’s your community,” McAnally said.

Other artists who were inducted this year include Tommy Barnes, Reggie Bates, and the late B.B. King. The Mississippi Songwriters Alliance sponsors the Hall of Fame.

MARGIE SINGLETON

AFM life member Margie Singleton (Walton) has never stopped making and writing music throughout her seven-decade career. Last month the beloved artist celebrated her latest release, Never Mind, and her 85th birthday the week of Oct. 12. Born in Coushatta, Louisiana, she took up guitar and songwriting as a teen and has never looked back. She was releasing singles by 1957 and the following year debuted on the Louisiana Hayride. Her first hit record, “Eyes of Love” was released in 1959 on Mercury Records. She has had success as a solo artist, and duet partner with George Jones (“Did I Ever Tell You”) and Faron Young (“Keeping Up with the Joneses”). Her songs have been recorded by Tammy Wynette, Claude King, Charley Pride, Lynn Anderson, Trini Lopez, Jerry Lee Lewis, David Houston, The Newbeats, Dave Dudley, Brian Hyland, Red Sovine and “The French Elvis,” Johnny Hallyday. Singleton said her new five-song EP has come at the perfect time. “This is an incredible time in my life. I’m blessed and excited. It’s like I’ve come up for air one more time. We all need to be doing what we love to do — for me, it’s writing songs, making music and recording. This has been a labor of love for my son Steve and my bonus son Dexter Mathis for the past nine months. I hope that all of you will check this out,” Singleton said. Go to margiesingletonmusic.com for more information, or to purchase Never Mind.

TNM