By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — It took much longer than anticipated, but the man known as “The Genius” is now in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Charles was among the inductees announced last week along with Pete Drake, Eddie Bayers, and The Judds. Charles was announced as the annual Veteran Era artist. The Judds received the Modern Era Artist medallion. Bayers and Drake earned indction in the Recording/Touring musician category, with both receiving benefit of a tie vote, the first since 2010. The 2021 class brings the total Country Music Hall of Fame inductees to 146. Inductees are…
Author: Ron Wynn
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — There are many different specials coming from many networks chronicling the 20th anniversary of 9/11. As would be expected, native New Yorker Spike Lee has his own perspective on what happened and its impact, and he’s getting plenty of space on HBO to present it. His eight hour opus “NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021 ½“ debuted Sunday night and continues on successive Sundays leading up to the finale September 11. The first half of the opening episode focused interestingly enough on something else – the COVID-19 pandemic and summer of protests that followed George…
With pro football teams beginning preseason games this month and college teams having camps, both the NFL and the NCAA are cautiously hoping that somehow they can make it through this season without games being delayed and/or postponed and rescheduled due to COVID-19. That hope may prove overly optimistic looking at the soaring rates of infection across the nation, in particular throughout the South. The NFL has already announced that not only do they not have contingencies in place for teams that might not have enough players in place for a game, but if teams cannot take the field with…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — He may be gone, but the music of Prince retains plenty of popularity. His newest posthumous LP “Welcome 2 America” was only released last week, but it is already his 20th Top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart. It debuted at number 14 on Saturday, That feat makes Prince one of only 12 artists to have at least 20 Top 10 LPs in the charts’ 65-year history. Technically, “Welcome 2 America” is not a new album. Prince recorded it in 2010, but for whatever reason it has just now been released. It’s also…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — CBS News is hoping to get the same boost from having an athlete in a non-sports role as ABC did when it plucked Michael Strahan from the set of Fox’s NFL studio show and turned him into a major personality who currently co-hosts “Good Morning America” and also hosts the latest version of “The 100,000 Pyramid.” CBS announced last week that Nate Burleson would be joining their weekday broadcast “CBS This Morning” in September. Burleson becomes the third member of the on-air team along with Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil. Burleson had previously gotten…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — The most heavily anticipated Tennessee Titans season in many years gets underway Friday night in Atlanta. Coming off an 11-5 year that saw the Titans win the AFC South only to suffer a hugely disappointing home playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the team is the consensus pick among the national sports media to at minimum repeat as division title winners and have at least one more home playoff game. While no one has uttered the words “Super Bowl or bust,” the addition of heralded wide receiver Julio Jones to what was one of…
In the end, despite the prevalent threat of COVID-19 and constant controversy reverberating over whether the Tokyo Olympics should have been cancelled a second time, several amazing stories made these Games memorable in spite of all the problems. But none were more compelling than those of USA women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley and track star Allyson Felix. Their victories were part of an overall impressive showing by American women, but they also represented very special personal achievements for Staley and Felix. Staley became the first Black woman to coach an Olympic team, and (shockingly) only the third African American…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — It’s hard to categorize the music of “Yola,” an exciting vocalist who’s arrived in Nashville by way of Portishead, England. Her latest LP “Stand For Myself” (Easy Eye) has a little bit of everything from an idiomatic standpoint. Rich, exuberant lead vocals, heavy doses of country and blues influences, even bits of a rock and/or disco/dance music influence. This is her second LP, and all 12 tunes are expertly performed and produced. “Stand For Myself” was released July 30. Her LP is the latest in an impressive string of releases from Black women artists…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — The season didn’t end in the manner that they would have liked, but last week Tennessee basketball did enjoy a historic moment. For the first time in 44 years the Volunteers had two players selected in the NBA’s first round. Keon Johnson ended as the number 21 pick after being traded by the New York Knicks to the Los Angeles Clippers. Jaden Springer was the number 28 pick of the Philadelphia 76ers. While these weren’t quite as high as Bernard King (number seven) and Ernie Grunfeld (number 11) in 1977. But still, Tennessee and…
Even though the current Summer Olympic Games are occurring in 2021, they’re still being called the 2020 Olympics. That’s just one of several things that make these current Games very different from any of their predecessors. For one, they’re being conducted in a city where a large segment of the population doesn’t feel they should be happening with Japan in general and Tokyo in particular still under emergency COVID-19 precautions. Those precautions have prevented friends, family and fans from attending, turning these Games into strictly a television show. But more importantly, these games are another indicator that athletic talent exists…