Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY (Thurs., May 2) Advertisement Margaret Walters -- "Sally" of the Grand Ole Opry comedy team Sarrie & Sally -- was born in 1903. R.C. Bannon was born in 1945. Gatlin Brother Larry Gatlin was born in 1949. Elvis Presley recorded "Jailhouse Rock" in 1957. Ty Herndon was born in 1962. Marty Robbins' "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife" topped the chart in 1970. Roy Lee Centers died in 1974 at age 29. A fully clothed Dolly Parton popped out of a cake at the grand re-opening of her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in 1987. Millie Good of the Girls of the Golden West died in 1993. MUSIC AND MORE DIXIE CHICKS: SWITCHING LABELS? Are the Dixie Chicks switching record labels from Sony-owned Monument to Capitol Records? Their spokeswoman, Kathy Allmand, and a representative from Capitol aren't saying, but CMT.com reports Chicks singer Natalie Maines' husband, Adrian Pasdar, may have spilled the beans. In a column published last Wednesday at creators.com, Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith quote Pasdar saying the trio is "planning 40 dates for the end of the year and a big tour for next summer." Beck and Smith suggest later in the column that the Chicks have left Monument for Capitol, but the information is not offered in a direct quote from Pasdar. Advertisement At a concert in February, Maines said the group had been making an acoustic and bluegrass album with her father, Lloyd Maines, producing. "Now," she said, "we have to find a nice label to put it out." FORGOTTEN STAR GETS OVERDUE BIOGRAPHY Unless you're a devotee of the Grand Ole Opry, you likely don't know who DeFord Bailey was. He was the first black country music star. A singer and musician, Bailey was with the Opry beginning with "day one" in 1925. He remained a staple on the broadcast until the 1940s, when a flap over performance rights and new music made him a "man in the middle" and he was fired. Now Nashville public TV station WNPT has put together a documentary on Bailey and has chosen singer Lou Rawls to narrate. The station says that Rawls, who has one of the richest voices in music, brings a kind of "back porch, down-home" flavor to the narrative. The program, "DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost," looks at a unique contributor to country music. It contains rare footage of Bailey performing as well as interviews with surviving family members. By the way, Bailey returned to the Opry in the mid-1970s for a series of four guest appearances. He died at age 82 in 1982. Advertisement WNPT says it will offer the documentary to other PBS stations, so continue to check local listings. (Thanks to UPI's Dennis Daily)
