March 7th: On this day

1944
Born on this day in Fort Worth, Texas, was Townes Van Zandt singer-songwriter. His music has been covered by such notable and varied musicians as Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Cowboy Junkies, Andrew Bird, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch. He died on January 1, 1997.

1960
Born on this day was American guitarist Chris Rodriguez. He worked with many artists including Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Wynonna Judd, Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton and Shania Twain.

1964
Ernest Ashworth was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. He recorded two studio albums in his career and charted several singles on Billboard Hot Country Songs, including the #1 "Talk Back Trembling Lips" and seven other top ten hits. In 1992, Ashworth was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

1973
A song from the movie Deliverance called "Dueling Banjos" by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel became one of the few 1970s instrumentals to be awarded a Gold record. The record had topped the Cash Box Magazine Best Sellers list and reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1980
The film Coal Miner's Daughter, the biography of Loretta Lynn and starring Sissy Spacek opened. Spacek won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Lynn; Tommy Lee Jones and Beverly D'Angelo also play leading roles in the film, which was a huge success with critics and at the box office.

1983
The Nashville Network (TNN) was launched from the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park near Nashville, Tennessee. Country Music Television (CMT), founded by Glenn D. Daniels, beat TNN's launch by two days, robbing TNN of the claim of "first country music cable television network".

1991
Dolly Parton released her thirty-first solo studio album Eagle When She Flies which peaked at #1 on the Country charts. Parton's duet with Shelton, "Rockin' Years", from the album also topped the country singles charts.

2000
Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski who became better known as Pee Wee King died of a heart attack in Louisville, Kentucky, aged 86. The American country music songwriter is best known for co-writing "The Tennessee Waltz", which was a hit for both Cowboy Copas, Patti Page and Petula Clark.

2013
Claude King, died of natural causes aged 90. The singer, songwriter is best known for his million selling 1962 hit "Wolverton Mountain" which was written together with Merle Kilgore and was based on a real character, Clifton Clowers, who lived on the mountain, north of Morrilton, Arkansas. The song spent nine weeks at the top of the Billboard country chart.

2020
Jimmie Allen's "Make Me Want To" topped the Billboard Country Airplay chart in its 58th week, setting a record for both the slowest ascent to the top and the longest overall run in that chart's history.

2020
American country singer-songwriter Jim Owen died age 78. Several artists had chart hits with his songs. These included "Too Lonely Too Long" and "One More Drink" (both Mel Tillis), "Little Boy’s Prayer" (Porter Wagoner), "Sweet Baby On My Mind" (June Stearns), "Southern Loving" and "Broad Minded Man" (both Jim Ed Brown), "The Telephone" (Jerry Reed) and arguably the best-known of all, "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn).