March 29th: On this day
1909
Born on this day near Corrigan, Polk County, Texas was Moon Mullican, country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is associated with the hillbilly boogie style which greatly influenced rockabilly and in 1945, put together his own band, the Showboys. He scored the 1950 #1 hit "I'll Sail My Ship Alone." Mullican died on January 1, 1967 aged 57.
1924
Born on this day on Akron, Ohio was country musician and songwriter Jimmy Work best known for the country standard "Making Believe" recorded by many artists including Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, Don Gibson, Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizzell, Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Merle Haggard. He died on December 22, 2018, at the age of 94.
1943
Born on this day in Detroit, Michigan, was Randy Barlow. Between 1976 and 1983, he released four albums and charted twenty singles on the US country charts including "Slow and Easy", "No Sleep Tonight", "Fall in Love with Me Tonight", and "Sweet Melinda". He died of cancer on July 30, 2020, at the age of 77.
1963
Texas Ruby, of the duo Curly Fox and Texas Ruby, was killed in a trailer fire while Fox was performing in Nashville, Tennessee on the Grand Ole Opry. The singer had fallen asleep smoking in their mobile home and was killed in the resulting fire.
1969
Born on this day in Hamilton, Ohio, Brady Seals, (the cousin of Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts) and Dan Seals and Johnny Duncan. Seals made his debut in 1988 as co-lead vocalist and keyboardist in Little Texas, he later formed the band Hot Apple Pie who recorded a self-titled debut album for DreamWorks Records and charted three country singles, including the #26 hit "Hillbillies."
1970
Johnny Cash was at #1 on the Country album chart with Hello, I'm Johnny Cash, his 33rd album release. The album featured "If I Were a Carpenter", the famous duet with his wife, June Carter Cash, which earned the couple a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1971.
1980
Conway Twitty was at #1 on the Billboard country singles chart with "I'd Love To Lay You Down", his 24th Country #1.
1982
Dolly Parton released her twenty-fourth solo studio album Heartbreak Express. The album returned Parton to a more fully realized country sound (a process she had begun on the previous year's 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs), after her late 1970s pop recordings.
1997
Reba McEntire was at #1 on the Billboard country chart with "How Was I To Know", the second single released from her album, What If It's You.
2002
The American thriller film Panic Room directed by David Fincher was released. The film stars Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart as a mother and daughter whose new home is invaded by burglars, played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam.
2011
Sara Evans was at #1 on the Country chart with her sixth album Stronger, the first studio album to be released by Evans in nearly six years. During this six-year period, Evans was involved in a high profile divorce with, her now ex-husband Craig Schelske. "A Little Bit Stronger" was released as the album's lead-off single which became a #1 hit.
2019
American country music, rockabilly singer, songwriter and music entrepreneur Margaret Lewis died age 79. She wrote "Mountain of Love", a country hit for David Houston in 1963 and "Reconsider Me", which charted for at least four different artists.
2020
Grammy-winning country music star Joe Diffie died age 61 from complications of COVID-19. Diffie charted 35 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, five of which peaked at number one. He also co-wrote singles for Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, and Jo Dee Messina, and recorded with Mary Chapin Carpenter, George Jones, and Marty Stuart.
2022
Eric Church made headlines after cancelling a show at the AT&T Center to attend a college basketball game in North Carolina. Church released a statement announcing his intention to watch the Tar Heels vs Blue Devils, longtime rivals who have never faced off in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, with his family, expressing that it is the most "selfish" thing he has ever done. The decision drew intense criticism from fans who had paid to attend the concert.