Country Music News

TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

(Tuesday, March 18)

Charley Pride born in Sledge, Miss., 1938.

Lynn Anderson's first Top 10 song, "If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away)," is charted, 1967.

Flatt & Scruggs record "The Legend Of The Johnson Boys," 1962.

John Andersons' "Swingin'" enters charts, 1983.

Mary Chapin Carpenter's "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" hits No. 1, 1994.

Clay Walker tops Billboard country chart with "This Woman and This Man," 1995.

MUSIC AND MORE

BILL CARLISLE DEAD AT 94

"Jumpin'" Bill Carlisle, whose country music career spanned more than 70 years, has died from complications of a stroke suffered last week. He was 94.

Carlisle joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1953 and made his last appearance at the Opry on March 7.

Carlisle's songs include "Too Old To Cut the Mustard," "What Kinda Deal Is This?" and "Is Zat You, Myrtle," the Grand Ole Opry said on its Web site, opry.com.

The "Jumpin'" nickname came from a comedy act Carlisle performed with his brother Cliff, an accomplished singer and steel and dobro player, in the early 1950s.

HAGGARD SETTLES TAPE FIGHT

Merle Haggard has dropped a lawsuit against a woman he claims stole an audiotape of some of his unreleased songs from his tour bus in 2001, the Nashville Tennessean reports.

Haggard got the tape back from concert promoter Kathy Schroeder but other terms of the settlement were not made public.

Schroeder claims Haggard left the tape at her home and denies stealing it. She tried to sell the tape on eBay for $325,000 to recover $80,000 she lost when Haggard canceled a show in October 2001.

TOBY: DIXIE CHICK HAS 'BIG MOUTH'

Toby Keith has weighed into the backlash over Dixie Chick Natalie Maines' comment about President Bush.

Keith told reporters in Oklahoma City last weekend, "She's come after me before. She's got a big mouth," LAUNCH reports.

Last August Maines said she hated Keith's No. 1 single, "Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue," saying "it makes country music sound ignorant."

Last week Maines said at a Dixie Chicks concert in London, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

The remark caused some radio stations to stop playing Dixie Chicks music and triggered a firestorm of criticism of the trio. The group has since apologized.