Ray Turner’s Day in Country Music History
October 1st: On this day
1929
Born on this day in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was country singer Bonnie Owens who was married to Buck Owens and later Merle Haggard. In 1965 Haggard and Owens recorded the song “Just Between the Two of Us”, a duet and probably Owens’s best known hit. She died on April 24, 2006.
1964
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian by Johnny Cash was released in the US. His twentienth album release was a concept album, with the tracks on the album focusing exclusively on the history of and problems facing Native Americans in the US. Cash had been convinced that his ancestry included members of the Cherokee tribe, and this partly served as inspiration for recording Bitter Tears, but later on as he began researching his ancestry, he actually had no Cherokee ancestry, but Scottish, English, and Scots-Irish ancestry.
1974
Olivia Newton-John was at #1 on the country album chart with If You Love Me, Let Me Know. The title track ranks as Newton-John’s highest charting single on the country charts, reaching #2, although she would have many more top 10 hits to come. The album spent eight weeks at the top of the charts.
1982
Born on this day in Roanoke, Virginia was Ross Copperman the Grammy nominated American singer-songwriter and producer. Copperman has penned and produced hits for Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood., Dierks Bentley, Eli Young Band, Kenny Chesney and others.
1985
Ronnie Milsap was at #1 on the US Country charts with, “Lost in The Fifties Tonight (In The Still of the Night)”, also known simply as “Lost in The Fiftes Tonight”.
1995
The 10th Anniversary of Farm Aid was held at the Cardinal Stadium, Louisville, Kentucky. Held to raise money for family farmers in the US, the concerts which were organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young had been spurred on by Bob Dylan’s comments at Live Aid in 1984 when he said he hoped some of the money would help American farmers in danger of losing their farms through mortgage debt. Artists who appeared included: Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, BlackHawk, John Conlee, The Supersuckers, Steve Earle, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young.
2007
Keith Urban was unhurt whe he skidded off his motorbike after a photographer followed him near his home in Sydney, Austalia. In a statement released by his publicists, Urban said the incident was “the result of one person’s desire to do his job and my desire to maintain my privacy.” Urban said he tried to avoid an oncoming car and dropped his bike and the photographer came to his assistance without taking photos.