Today In Country Music History

Today is the 31st birthday of the guy who won many hearts on the second season of American Idol.  Josh Gracin came in fourth that season.  He signed a deal with Lyric Street records after he completed his service with the United States Marine Corps.  Since then, he's been able to chart 9 singles on the Billboard Country Singles chart.  One of those nine went all the way to #1.

Clint Black came on the country scene in 1989 with his debut album, "Killin' Time."  He released 5 singles from that CD.  Four of them climbed to the top of the Billboard Country Singles Chart.  The other one topped out at #3.

With the CMA's quickly approaching, it's kind of weird to think that it's been almost 30 years since Alabama won their very first Entertainer Of The Year Award from the CMA.  They also won 2 other awards that year...

October 8th is a big day in history for Keith Urban for a couple reasons.  The first happened in 2002.  The other happened 2 years later in 2004.  Can you guess what happened?

Happy 59th birthday goes out today to Gary Baker.  You may be scratching your head trying to figure out who he is.  But I'm sure you know his music.  He's a guy who was born right here in Niagara Falls, NY.  Gary is most well known for a song that he wrote for John Michael Montgomery called, "I Swear."  It was also recorded by pop group All-4-One.

It was today back in 2008 when Jerry Reed, also known as The Guitar Man, died from complications due to emphasema.  For those of you who are new to country music, Jerry Reed was a singer, guitar player, song writer, and an actor.  You may have seen him in movies like 'Smokey And The Bandit I, II and III' 'Stroker Ace'  and for something a little newer, the Adam Sandler comedy 'The Waterboy'. Read