LORETTA LYNN Fan Website

Butcher Holler's twelve sharply delivered performances - nearly all under three minutes each - feature a handful of Lynn classic hits such as "Ain't Woman Enough (to Take My Man)" and "Don't Come Home Drinkin' (with Lovin' On Your Mind)", songs that helped define Lynn as a pioneer in music that praised strong-willed, confident women. Jewell also digs up lesser known tracks from the extensive Lynn songbook, presenting them with her own expressive vocals and backed by her fine longrunning band. The production is crisp and spare, with up-right bass, pedal steel and electric tremelo twang adding both timeless authenticity and surprisingly rootsy contemporary edge. Recommended.

Loretta 's 50th annv. road book is aval. check them out at the concerts and at the Lady Loretta store at the ranch. very nice book lots of unseen photos and a hand written letter from Loretta on the first page.

Jones notched 17 Top 10 hits during his tenure at Musicor and they're all collected here. Some of the most famous titles in that bunch are "Walk Through This World With Me," "A Good Year for the Roses," "Things Have Gone to Pieces" and "When the Grass Grows Over Me." Loretta Lynn earns a writing credit on "World of Forgotten People," while Tammy Wynette pulls double duty as composer and harmony vocalist on "Never Grow Cold." The liner notes by Colin Escott offer a keen perspective on this time in Jones' life, just before he married Wynette and recorded with producer Billy Sherrill at Epic Records.

Because of the spare production, the Musicor recordings don't feel dated. Instead, it's sort of like discovering a stash of sterling demo tapes. And the topics here are certainly timeless -- cheating, drinking, dying, lying and (occasionally) loving. Some of these songs became famous later, such as Emmylou Harris' soothing hit version of "Beneath Still Waters," Patty Loveless' emotional take on "If My Heart Had Windows" and George Strait's boisterous rendition of "Love Bug." But on these original versions, Jones proves himself as one of the most expressive vocalists that Nashville has ever known.

By Christine Miller Ford
Special to The Winchester Star

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — With Patsy Cline’s popularity still strong nearly a half-century after her death in a Tennessee plane crash, it’s hardly a surprise that those closest to her find themselves in the spotlight, too.

Jim McCoy, the 78-year-old West Virginia-born singer, songwriter, and disc jockey who put Cline on the radio when she was just 14, is the subject of a new book by John Douglas, a free-lance writer and the editor of Berkeley Springs’ weekly newspaper .

"Joltin’ Jim: Jim McCoy’s Life In Country Music’’ features anecdotes about McCoy’s long career, including his years of working with musical acts at the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester and decades of interactions with country music stars — not just Cline, but also Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, George Jones, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, and others.

The book includes photographs from McCoy’s collection that show him with Tubb (his idol and mentor since his teenage years), Little Jimmy Dickens (who these days shows up in music videos with fellow West Virginian Brad Paisley), Ray Price (the singer and songwriter who performed with Hank Williams, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Paycheck) — and others.

"Joltin’ Jim: Jim McCoy’s Life In Country Music’’ features anecdotes about McCoy’s long career, including his years of working with musical acts at the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester and decades of interactions with country music stars — not just Cline, but also Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, George Jones, Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, and others.

The story of how Cline — then known by her birth name, Virginia Hensley — won a spot on McCoy’s Saturday morning radio show on Winchester’s WINC, after an impromptu audition became something of a legend, but readers might not be aware of McCoy’s other ties to Cline.

Opry Video Classics is comprised of 120 performances from the 1950s to the '70s, featuring many live television appearances captured on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry for more than 30 years.

Most of the performances have never before been available commercially. The series is presented in eight thematic volumes, including Queens Of Country (Tammy Wynette, “Stand By Your Man”), Duets (Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, “After The Fire Is Gone”), Pioneers (Hank Snow, “I'm Moving On”), and Honky Tonk Heroes (George Jones, “The Race Is On”).