“The Race Is On” is a song co-written by George, and I always loved to hear it on the old radio. The song was often featured after we heard the DJ’s voice, like after the weather or a commercial. DJ’s liked to cue up the song and you could hear the beginning, and knew what was coming up.

Here is George Jones in a Youtube video singing “The Race Is On”. Some people say he looked like Jim Carrey

This song is from the outstanding Dottie Jack CD “I Can’t See Texas From Here”

Here is Dottie Jack on YouTube singing a great honky tonk song in a soft mellow way, as we enjoy “The Wife Of The Party”

We started building the traditional country music video library about three months ago, so this promises to be one largest collections of traditional country music videos, country classics, and truck driving song collections anywhere.

What makes this collection of music videos unique? Simply said, we try to stay away from country music that isn’t country, while adding country music videos from around the world. There’s great country music in other countries, and while we can’t promise that you’ll understand the words to some songs, the music is great in any language.

When you play a country music video we make a note of it, so your choices move videos into the top ten most-played videos and popular videos categories.

Bring the music to life by visiting our dedicated country music video libraries

Classic Country Jukebox

Truck Driving Songs

Stars of Texas Collection

The Old 97, a Southern Railway train enroute to Spencer, N.C., derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, on September 27, 1903, killing 11. This photograph was taken from the original glass negative and was copyrighted by the Williams Studio of Danville in 1960. Here is a website with newspaper articles and much more information.

Jack Edwards then said:

Brian Burns does a true story train wreck song “Crash at Crush”. Crush is near Temple, Texas (I think). It was a staged wreck. Two locomotives were run together head-on for an audience. Unexpectedly, the spectacle was so violent that a good number of spectators were killed or injured.

Tim Blake said “Jack, we are about a mile from Missouri’s Katy Trail, a route abandoned by the Katy railroad, which staged the Crush event. MKT Railroad was Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. I noticed their historic record does not highlight the crash.”

Bobby Dixon replied:

I live near Danville Va, and there is a lot of information about that wreck at a museum in old downtown. There’s a state history sign that marks the spot it fell. An old rail bridge is there now and it’s quite a drop. One hundred feet or more.

Sylvie Winter then said “I just love the story’s relating to the songs and people! keep it up. It makes you want to know more!”

Historian Buck Helton said:

Thanks Tim, I do the historical thing with Cowboy music, and I love to find the stories behind Bluegrass and traditional Country songs as well

As the discussion continued I replied “Thanks Buck. I appreciate what you do and have heard kind words about you from Teresa. Still trying to find a niche, I feel I have a responsibility, both here and over on the fan page. Both are very important to me. You are always welcome here and at the website.”

There are many interesting discussions on Facebook. Consider joining The Country Classics on Facebook.

This is Boxcar Willie in a Youtube video of the “Wreck Of The Old 97″, but only one or two pictures are from the wreck. Pictures do accurately represent hazards of railroads during the period.

While some services did not respond to our email requests, many did. Let’s take a look at some services that can help artists:

Airplay Direct

Airplay Direct is a highly secure and a solid radio station database. Radio professionals have access to material submitted by artists, but the general public does not. Getting music to radio stations for airplay is important, and a primary goal. Cost effectiveness for artists is very important. If an artist wants global airplay and currently mails CD’s to radio station professionals, an initial production run of 3,000 CD’s – and this is just an example – could be reduced to 1500.

Visit the Airplay Direct website. You can send secure broadcast-quality music & digital press kits to radio stations, booking agents, promoters and music supervisors worldwide. AirPlay Direct protects your music. Only you can decide who has access to download your music.

The company has sign-up forms for radio stations and a different form for artists.

CD Tex Music Delivery Service

The CD TEX Music Delivery Service is a download delivery of new singles for Radio and Media. Each week CD TEX delivers new singles to over 1500 domestic and international radio, broadcast programs, print, and web media. Here at The Country Classics we receive music from CD Tex.

The service is specialized. The target airplay markets for the CD TEX Music Delivery Service are stations and broadcasts programs that play Country, Texas, or Red-Dirt music. All Radio Stations that are signed up for this service receive the download deliveries. Since we focus on traditional country music CD Tex is a good fit and we appreciate their highly professional service and solid reputation in servicing the radio and music industry with the latest Independent Country, Texas, and Red-Dirt releases. Visit their website for more information.

CD Baby

CD Baby does not specialize in traditional country music, but is an easy friendly distribution network for artists. Visit the CD Baby website for artists for more information. CD Baby only asks for five copies of your CD to start, or one copy if you only want to sell digital downloads. The company said:

Not only do we make your CDs and downloads available for sale on cdbaby.com, we send your music worldwide to our digital partners, including iTunes, Rhapsody, and eMusic. Before we send your music over to our partners, we lovingly inspect every piece of information you tell us about your album, to ensure that it meets our partners’ requirements and’ll be available for sale on their sites as soon as possible.

International Conferences and Conventions

95 percent of artist submissions for international music events and festivals are submitted the week before the event! As lead times for international music events are usually in the region of 12 months these artists sadly never stand any chance!

2011 begins with the world’s biggest annual music industry trade event/conference/showcases, MIDEM 2011. For the last 45 years MIDEM has been the “must attend” for all music business professionals. Anyone and everyone serious about the industry will be there, looking for new music, new artists and new opportunities!

Personally I do not have the time nor the resources to attend, but we can learn from the fine people at MIDEM. Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment said this in her blog:

In 2010, the most crucial key to an artist building a lasting career and fanbase is creating, growing and utilizing their e-mail list. In fact, until e-mail is replaced by a new primary source of communication, I can say that it is an artist’s retirement plan.

Artists can now create content without studios and/or expensive budgets. They can distribute their music worldwide via Tunecore, CD Baby, INgrooves, and other digital distribution platforms. However, making these tools available universally opens the floodgates to everyone. We all know that just putting out music, even if it’s great, will get lost in the ether of the internet without some sort of strategy, and even more so without at least a bit of engagement directly from the artist to their existing and potential fans.

Here at The Country Classics we use Fanbridge, a service that is easy to use. Mark Chesnutt alerted us to Fanbridge. For those just starting out Fanbridge costs nothing, but if you have many fans there is a monthly charge. If you use Facebook for social networking see how Mark Chesnutt compliments his efforts while keeping in touch with fans through Fan Bridge. If you don’t use Facebook, visit Mark’s website for a good example. Fanbridge is trusted with more than 50,000,000 fan relationships.

Music Videos and Their Importance

Many people search for music using search engines, and all search engines include links to Youtube music videos. For various reasons we caution against putting too many videos from a single CD on Youtube. Youtube is a valuable resource as people search for your music, but it is important to note that Youtube may place restrictions on countries and geographic regions where certain videos are playable.

In a perfect world people would hear a traditional country music song anywhere in the world, search the Internet, and immediately buy the CD or digital downloads. From a marketing standpoint Youtube videos from more than one CD would stimulate more music sales. However, there should be a direct link to a location where people can buy the music. Simply watching a Youtube video with no supporting information does not help. We recommend writing at least one link in video comments.

When articles and reviews are written, one must always ask where to send readers to buy the artist’s music.

Youtube is here to stay. Relative to making the business profitable, Daniel Ek from Spotify and Patrick Walker from YouTube were interviewed by Ted Cohen, who started off by asking about MP3tunes founder Michael Robertson’s view that ad-supported streaming can never be profitable. Is he right?

“I think he’s wrong,” says Walker. “At YouTube, we’re on track for that – it’s just a question of execution.” The company now has 75 of the top 100 advertisers running campaigns on YouTube, and signed up 500 new partners to run ads on the site in the last year. “Now we’re monetizing over a billion videos per week.”

Summary

If you are a music programmer perhaps this document provides options. Programmers should also consider playing traditional country music from countries other than the United States. Perhaps four hours of international music would be a great start. As evidenced by our music video libraries there is plenty of great traditional country music from around the world.

Clearly all business decisions are made on an individual basis by artists and radio stations. For those who responded to our original question this document only serves as a guide. For musicians entering the world of international marketing there are many choices. People quoted herein mention companies that we did not. There are many options, but suffice it to say that doing nothing is also an option, however, we do not recommend it.

The second song of the night was a great traditional country music song by Heather Myles titled “Mama’s A Star”. The song is from Heather’s CD titled “In The Wind”. Leslie Sloan’s harmony was beautiful as always.

Following Heather Myles was Justin Trevino with “When She Does Me Right” as the third song of the night. From Justins’s CD “Take One As Needed For Pain”, Justin’s delivery is strong and perfect. Traditional country music at it’s finest, viewers also saw Amber Digby singing harmony.

Justin Trevino continued with “I Just Lost My Favorite Girl”, again with help from Amber Digby. The dance floor was crowed, and the song highlighted Bobby Flores on fiddle followed by Jim Loessberg on steel guitar. A video of this song is on Youtube.

The final song of the night featured Heather Myles and Justin Trevino together, singing “This Time I Know We’re Gonna Make It”. Written by Guyanne McCall, the song is on Justin’s CD “Take One as Needed For Pain”.

As always the Tru Country band was perfect. Band members are Bobby Flores on fiddle, Jim Loessberg on steel guitar, Jake Hooker on upright bass, Bob Gothar on lead guitar, Larry Mitchell on drums, and Bodie (Bode) Barker on piano.

Many of the stars of Tru Country can be your friends on Facebook, and while you are there consider becoming a fan of The Country Classics. The Tru Country website is here.

Tru Country from the Circle T Arena in Hamilton Texas is on RFD TV every Friday at 12:30pm and 10:30pm CST, with replays on Sunday at 1:30pm and 2:30pm EST. The show features traditional country music at its best. You can order CD’s by calling 1-800-371-4121, or by mail. The address is TruCountry, PO Box 1422, Brady TX, 76825. You can also go to the Tru Country website to hear previews and to order.

If you want to watch almost ten minutes of Tru Country watch this video, on file in our country classics video library.

The “Living Legend” award is completely fan-based, so cast your vote today! There are many other nominees in many other categories as well. Cast you vote at the Southern Gospel Music Fanfair website.

The SGM Fan Awards ballot includes these categories: Male Quartet, Mixed Quartet, Trio, Duet, Soloist, Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Band, Musician, Song, Album, Video/DVD, Lead, Baritone, Bass, Alto, Tenor, Soprano, Young Excelling Individual Award, New Excelling Artist Award and the Naomi Sego Living Legend Award.

Visit the Singing Cookes the Cooke Brothers website to learn more about them.

Here is a Youtube video of Janet and The Singing Cookes performing “I Feel Like Running My Last Mile Home” recorded live at the Dayton Memorial Auditorium. The song was written by Kenneth Tanner of the Tanner Boys, Nebo, WV 25141

Our readers certainly will enjoy all of Richard’s videos on his Youtube Channel. Wynn Stewart, Amber Digby, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Landon Dodd, Johnny Paycheck – the list of great videos on Richard Booth’s channel is amazing. His assistance in bringing real country music back in the spotlight is to be commended.

Professionalism is often the key to success. We invite you to visit the indefatigable Richard Booth on Myspace. Notice the nice professional Myspace design. You’ll also see Richard’s work with Miss Leslie Sloan and others. Richard says

It’s time to start an award for “Real Country Musicians, Singers and Songwriters here on myspace and elsewhere. The AMERICAN REAL COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD, it will have its own myspace. Those individuals who receive an award will have links posted to their myspace page and their music posted to the Music player playlists…

Be sure to check out his Myspace page for more from Richard Booth. You can see videos, play songs with the music player, and read much more. If you are on Facebook visit Richard and add him as a friend, because he sure is a friend of traditional country music. Richard works hard to promote the artists we know and love, bringing the songs to life with great music videos.

Darrell McCall opened the show, after an introduction by Tracy Pitcox, with “There’s Still A Lot Of Love In San Antone”, followed by “Dreams Of A Dreamer“, as song in our music video library. Darrell was great as always.

After the break viewers saw a brief interview with Darrell and Mona McCall, followed by Mona McCall’s performance of “Keeper Of My Heart”.

Darrell performed “Lillydale” if you read the graphics. When you search for the song the actual title is “Lily Dale”, the title track of the CD “Lily Dale” by Darrell McCall. As always, we put the title in this article both ways to help you locate the great song “Lily Dale”. On Youtube the song is referred to as “Lilly Dale” as well.

Honky tonker Heather Myles was up next with a perfect song loved by fans of real country music. “Nashville’s Gone Hollywood” could be the theme song for traditional country music fans everywhere. Miss Leslie Sloan sang harmony on the “Nashville’s Gone Hollywood”. The song is on our music video library.

Heather Myles spent years on the road to get where she is today. Her tireless dedication is also the motivation behind Tru Country on RFD TV. The show is a Mylestone production.

Heather Myles performed the last song of the night which was “Sweet Talk, Good Lies”, another honky tonk favorite.

As always the Tru Country band was perfect. Band members are Bobby Flores on fiddle, Jim Loessberg on steel guitar, Jake Hooker on upright bass, Bob Gothar on lead guitar, Larry Mitchell on drums, and Bodie (Bode) Barker on piano.

As a traditionalist I am glad to see these artists on television. I’ve written about all of them in previous articles, and received a copy of Bode Barker’s CD today. Yesterday I heard from Bobby Flores, and many of the stars of Tru Country can be your friends on Facebook.

The TruCountry website is here. The show was taped in Hamilton Texas at the Circle T Arena.

1995 — Honorary doctorate of music from the Berklee College of Music, Boston, 1995.
2000 — Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2000.
2000 — Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 2000.
2003 — The Chapel Hill Museum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina opened a permanent exhibit dedicated to Taylor. At the same occasion the US-15-501 highway bridge over Morgan Creek, near the site of the Taylor family home and mentioned in Taylor’s song “Copperline”, was named in honor of Taylor.
2004 — George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.
2004 — Ranked 84th in Rolling Stone’s list of “The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
2006 — Honorary Doctorate of Music from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

James Taylor is a very talented musician that many people remember for “Fire And Rain”. Although he is not country overall, his ability to perm country songs should not be overlooked. In case you missed the link to James Taylor’s version of “She Thinks I Still Care” here it is again.