Barry Mazor News Today

A show at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum follows the singer and 2023 inductee from her Kentucky roots to her early performances and later Nashville success.

News, reviews and analysis from WSJ, including books, movies, art, food, music, history, television and theater.

WESTERLY — Layng Martine Jr. — the 81-year-old Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame songwriter whos written songs for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Reba McEntire and the Pointer Sisters —

Latest from “Music Review” in The Wall Street Journal

Latest from “Exhibition Review” in The Wall Street Journal

Country music’s place as a permanent fixture of American life and culture is a direct result of the Bristol Sessions.

The career of Grand Ole Opry member Connie Smith is celebrated on a new box set, 'Latest Shade of Blue.'

Bear Family Records® proudly announces the release of the third and final CD box set in their retrospective of Connie Smith's RCA and Columbia recordings, The Latest Shade Of Blue: The Columbia Recordings 1973-1976, out November 19th. The limited-edition, 4-CD set includes all of the tracks from the second chapter in Connie Smith’s epochal recording career as she moved to the Columbia Records label from RCA Victor in 1973—and the first reissue of the majority of them.

Country music’s place as a permanent fixture of American life and culture is a direct result of the Bristol Sessions. Over 12 days between July 25 and Aug. 5, 1927, in Bristol — a city on the border of Virginia and Tennessee — Victor Talking Machine Company record producer Ralph Peer recorded blues, ragtime, gospel and traditional Black and European folk songs for commercial release. The sounds, styles, techniques, intonations and lyrics committed to vinyl during those two weeks — every...

Tweet Jason EskridgePhoto: Eric England The devastating global impact of COVID-19 dominated both news and cultural headlines throughout 2020, but Nashville’s jazz, blues and roots music communities responded by displaying a resolute spirit of perseverance and adaptation. Artists continued making vibrant music, and doing whatever they could to help offset a pandemic that shuttered music venues and ground tours and live shows to almost a total halt. Before that happened in March, Music ...