The Oak Ridge Boys

The band was originally formed by another country band called Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers, who were booked to play a show at a nuclear research plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the staff and their families. The group went down so well that they were invited back time and time again, until the band decided to pay tribute to them and changed their name to The Oak Ridge Quartet. By 1947, this new, acapella incarnation group had made such a name for themselves that they had performed their first slot at the Grand Ole Opry, and been invited into the studio for album releases and radio sessions. However, this didn't stop every member of the band save for Fowler himself leaving in 1949 to set up their own group Curley Kinsey and the Tennessee Ridge Runners.

After hiring an existing vocal troupe, the Calvary Quartet, to carry on as The Oak Ridge Quartet, Fowler retired from the band in 1952, and then sold the rights to the name The Oak Ridge Quartet in 1957 to group member Smitty Gatlin. However, it wasn't until 1962, the change of their name to The Oak Ridge Boys their first album on Warner Bros. Records “With Sounds Of Nashville” that the band broke through into the mainstream. Ever since then, the irony of The Oak Ridge Boys has been that while the music has continued to stay pretty much the same over the course of their near-70 year history, the band's line up has shifted radically, with 32 separate singers coming and going over the course of their career.

Their lead singer, Duane Allen, has lead the band since 1966, however, in one of the greatest runs in the history of popular music, the band continues to delight audiences to this very day. For being one of the very few legendary acts that live up to their status time and time again, The Oak Ridge Boys come highly recommended.

Encouraged to pursue music by his father, Gill learned to play a number of instruments including the banjo and guitar. The first band the singer played in was called The Bluegrass Revue in the tail end of the 1970’s and later Flock the Mountain Smoke who opened for Pure Prairie League and Kiss.

After graduating from high school the singer moved around, first to Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. to play in the band Bluegrass Alliance and later Los Angeles, U.S. in the group Sundance. Gill then auditioned to play in Pure Prairie League who remembered Gill’s high school band and made him the lead singer. After three successful albums and the smash hit “Let Me Love You Tonight” Gill departed in 1981 and joined Rodney Crowell’s backing band entitled the Cherry Bombs.

Shortly after Gill secured a solo deal with RCA and released his debut mini-album “Turn Me Losse” in 1984, drawing inspiration from his country-rock roots. His first Top 40 hit “Victim of Life’s Circumstances” was ahead of the 1984 album “The Things That Matter", and his first Top 10 came with a duet alongside Rosanne Cash with the song “If It Weren’t for Him”.

Gill continued his moderate success with 1987’s “The Way Back Home” but left RCA in 1989 to join MCA. The debut release for MCA “When I Call Your Name” (1989) represented Gill’s first taste a stardom, the title track was a breakthrough for the country singer, reached No. 2 in the Country Chart, and subsequently won Gill his first Grammy.

The singer’s follow-up “Pocket Full of Gold” was another platinum selling album led by the smash-hit singles “Look at Us”, “Take Your Memory” and “Liza Jane”. The album was bettered by his 1992 release “I Still Believe in You”, the title-track ballad gave Gill his first No. 1 single, spawned a number of other chart singles, and eventually sold over four-million copies.

Not content to be pigeonholed a solely county star, Gill released the holiday album “Let There Be Peace on Earth” (1993), the pop-inspired “When Love Finds You” in 1994, and 1996’s bluegrass album “High Lonesome Sound” which received a good deal of critical acclaim and paved the way for Gill’s most revered release.

“The Key” released in 1998, documented his marriage and the ultimate break-up of his marriage to Janis Oliver. The album became his first to top the country charts and saw a more hardcore country approach taken. Gill’s subsequent album “Let’s Make Sure We Kiss Goodbye” (2000) describes his new romance with Amy Grant and was awarded four Grammy nominations.

Since then the singer has released 2003’s “Next Big Thing”, which he produced himself, 2006’s “These Days” and ambitious four-disc release, 2011’s “Guitar Slinger” and 2013’s “Bakersfield”, a collaboration with guitarist Paul Franklin.

Paisley released his debut album, ‘Who Needs Pictures’, in 1999, at the age of 26. If that sounds young by general standards, Paisley must already have felt ancient by that age, at least in terms of how long his musical life had been going on; he’d been playing country music, in one form or another, pretty much all his life, from his early days singing at family parties to being picked up as a weekly performer on local radio in his teens.

Back then, he could only really have dreamed about what was to come; he can now lay claim to having sold in excess of twelve million records worldwide, with three Grammy Awards to his name, two American Music Awards, and the ultimate honour of American country music having been bestowed upon him – he was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2001 – the youngest member ever to join. Paisley continues to tour and record, with his frequent humorous references to popular culture in his lyrics having become his calling card over the years; not to mention, of course, his iconic cowboy hat, a staple of his live performances. He’s released more than ten studio albums, including his own Christmas record.