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21:17

"Bad Girl" Texas Songwriter Jo Carol Pierce

Pierce won the "Songwriter of the Year" award at the 1993 Austin Music Awards. A tribute album of her songs performed by other singers, "Across the Great Divide," won the Album of the Year Award. She's originally from Lubbock, Texas, and little known outside the state. Her songs are quirky, and spiritual. Pierce also wrote and performed the one-woman show, ""Bad Girls Upset About the Truth," told in story and song about her problems with men and Jesus.

Interview
22:07

Country Music Impresario and Publisher Buddy Killen

For many years Killen was the head of Tree International, Nashville's leading music publisher, writer and producer. Killen once played bass in Hank Williams' band for ten dollars a night; in 1989 he sold Tree to Sony for 50 million. He's worked with just about every star in the Country firmament: Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson; and many classics in the Country cannon: "King of the Road", "Okie from Muskogee" and the immortal "D-I-V-O-R-C-E". Killen's new autobiography is "By the Seat of My Pants."

Interview
22:04

Interview and Concert with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Singer/Songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore is in the studio for a concert. His music bears the influence of honky-tonk, Tex-Mex rhythms, and country and western. His spiritual influences include Hinduism and writers such as Aldous Huxley and W. Somerset Maugham. Gilmore is the kind of performer who defies definition, though he has been called the "Shaman of the Sagebrush." Gilmore's been playing music for over 20 years, first with the critically-acclaimed group the Flatlanders, then solo.

04:59

A Great Idea with Mixed Results.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker has a review of the latest compilation album, this one pairing country and soul singers, called "Rhythm Country & Blues".

Review
21:53

Texas-Born Musician and Nashville Songwriter Billy Joe Shaver.

Texas-born musician and Nashville songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. At 54, he plays with his son in a band called "Shaver" -- their new album is "Tramp on Your Street" (Zoo/Praxis), his first recording in ten years. Shaver's songs, as recorded by Waylon Jennings on the 1973 "Honky Tonk Heroes" album, began the "outlaw" movement in country music. Since then, his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.

Interview
21:02

Singer/Songwriter Iris DeMent

DeMent's music combines country and folk. Her latest album is called "My Life." She draws from her and her family's life experiences growing up in rural Arkansas, and Southern California. Her first album, "Infamous Angel' was released in 1992. Some of the music from it is used in the recent movie, "LIttle Buddha."

Interview
22:53

Hank Williams' Big Impact on Country Music

Writer Colin Escott talks about his new book, "Hank Williams, The Biography." He's also the author of "Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records & The Birth of Rock & Roll", and he produced and annotated the CD Collection "Hank Williams: The Original Singles Collection...Plus."

Interview
04:52

Webb Pierce Is a Litmus Test for True Country Fans

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "Webb Pierce: King of the Honky Tonk." Pierce's rough edge laid the groundwork for contemporary country music -- though Tucker says newer artists could use some of Pierce's passion.

Review
06:02

Elvis Lets Loose While the Tapes Roll

Rock historian Ed Ward takes us behind the scenes of the Million Dollar Quartet session, which featured Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others playing in the Sun Records studios in 1956.

Commentary

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