24 March 2014

Johnny Cash’s great niece has been found stabbed to death and stuffed into a box in her home in Tennessee after a fight with a family friend. Courtney Cash, 23, was discovered on Wednesday morning (March 19) in her house near Cookeville, about 70 miles east of Nashville. Putnam County Sheriff David Andrews has commented, saying that her body was discovered in a chest just inside the front door. A man identified as William Austin Johnson, Courtney Cash’s boyfriend, was being treated for stab wounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville. Johnson and Cash lived together in the house with their young child. Andrews confirmed that the pair had gone out with a friend before an altercation took place. Johnson escaped the attack and took the child with him before driving to the hospital, Andrews said. The friend, identified as Wayne Gary Masciarella, has been charged with first-degree murder. Andrews said that the suspect may have been trying to hide Cash’s body. He also indicated that the stabbings were likely connected to drugs. “This is a senseless, tragic death of a young lady whose life was probably taken as a direct or indirect result of drugs,” he said. In a statement about the loss of his granddaughter, Johnny Cash’s brother, Tommy Cash said: “We are completely heartbroken.” Masciarella is currently being held without bond. He has a court date scheduled for April 21st.

COVERS marks a sea change for Kimmie Rhodes. For the first time, the songwriters’ songwriter, puts down her pen to devote an entire album to the songs of other writers, whose music has provided key milestones during Kimmie’s acclaimed performing and recording career, and her personal life. Rhodes’ first studio adventure since the passing of long-time partner and collaborator Joe Gracey in 2011, Kimmie draws deep from a wide range of catalogues – Thiele and Weiss, Lennon-McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Jimmy Reed, Mark Knopfler, Dylan, Bono, Tom Petty, Leon Russell, Neil Young and Tom Waits, and channels close friends Townes Van Zandt and Rodney Crowell; telling each story in that clear, soaring songbird voice that takes ownership of every composition. Embellishing the voice is a dream team of pickers including son/collaborator Gabriel Rhodes, multiple Handy Award winner Marcia Ball, singer-songwriter-author Rodney Crowell, songwriter and performer Bill Carter, Delbert McClinton, daughter Jolie Goodnight, guitar hotshot David Holt (Joe Ely), singer-songwriter/producer Gary Nicholson, pedal steel ninja Tommy Spurlock, fiddler Richard Bowden (Joe Ely), Glenn Fukunaga (Joe Ely), Mike Thompson (The Eagles) and Brian Standefer (Alejandro Escovedo). The chemistry is explosive, and the music, perfect for all tastes. What’s your pleasure? Vintage pop from the Great American Songbook? ‘What a Wonderful World’. Beatles? ‘Yesterday’, ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’. Stones? ‘Moonlight Mile’, like you’ve never heard it before. Album rock? Neil Young’s ‘Birds’ or Kimmie’s duet with Marcia Ball on Mark Knopfler’s ‘Cannibals’. Low down blues? ‘Shame, Shame, Shame’, sung with the Delbert McClinton. Texas high lonesome singer-songwriter? ‘White Freight Liner’. Americana classic? Rodney Crowell’s poignant, ‘Adam’s Song’, with Rodney helping out on the vocals.

With the 49th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards quickly approaching, more and more performers are being added to the all-star lineup. Eric Church, Toby Keith and Lady Antebellum with Stevie Nicks are the latest acts to be named as performers on the show, which takes place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. Previously announced performers include Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Keith Urban, Florida Georgia Line and The Band Perry. The ACM is expected to announce additional acts and presenters within the next few weeks leading up to the awards. The 2014 ACM Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, will air live at 8 p.m. ET/delayed PT on CBS on Sunday, April 6. In addition to country music invading Las Vegas for the ACMs, numerous superstars will partake in the 2nd Annual ACM Party for a Cause Festival, taking place in Las Vegas before the awards on Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5. Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban will headline the two-day event at The LINQ. Others scheduled to perform during the event will include Brett Eldredge, Lee Brice, Justin Moore, Kip Moore, Tyler Farr, Danielle Bradbery, Cassadee Pope, Love and Theft, Florida Georgia Line, Parmalee, The Cadillac Three, Thomas Rhett, Chase Rice, Charlie Worsham, Will Hoge, Joe Nichols, Jerrod Niemann, Chris Young, Joel Crouse, Jon Pardi, Dan + Shay, Leah Turner and Austin Webb.

The final recording sessions of the late Ray Price are being made available for the first time on April 15. BEAUTY IS … will be released on AmeriMonte Records and feature duets with country superstars Vince Gill and Martina McBride. It will be available at Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel stores and online retailers. At the helm of the project was legendary record producer Fred Foster. “[Ray] called me in 2012 and said, ‘I think I have one album left in me; I’m not well, you know,’” Foster recalls. “He said, ‘I want to do one last one, and I want you to do it with me.’ The whole time we were working together, his state of mind was always really good. You would never know how sick he was to talk to him. What a classy guy.” In advance of the full-length album, which will be available for pre-order March 18, a three-song EP will be available digitally on March 16, featuring ‘Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder’ (with Vince Gill), “This Thing of Ours” and ‘I Wish I Was 18 Again.’ Foster brought the album’s new songs to the iconic singer and suggested the inspirational ‘I Believe’ while Price selected songs from two fellow Texans and Country Music Hall of Fame members Cindy Walker (‘Until Then’) and Willie Nelson (‘It Will Always Be’). His wife, Janie, chose the 1957 Vic Damone pop hit and movie theme tune ‘An Affair to Remember’. “Offstage, he was just the guy I love,” says Janie Price. “When that red light went on in the studio, or when he stepped onto the stage and they handed him that microphone, something happened. It was a higher power. This transformation took place in him. He turned into RAY PRICE.” The country legend died of complications from pancreatic cancer at his Mount Pleasant, Texas, home on December 16, 2013. He was 87. BEAUTY IS … track listing: Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder (with Vince Gill) This Thing of Ours I Can See You It Will Always Be No More Songs to Sing An Affair to Remember (with Martina McBride) Senses Until Then (with Vince Gill) Beautiful Dreamer I Wish I Was 18 Again Among My Souvenirs I Believe