Monday, July 31, 2006

Last Column for ABC's Today's Best Country

Max Facts has been part of an ABC Radio Network Column on Today’s Best Country Website for over 5 years.
When I retired from ABC, I continued the column as a "labor of love" to my country music friends, listeners and fans, and also as an opportunity of keeping up with a business I’ve been associated with for more than 35 years.

Well, it’s time to give some things up.

I have made my last entry for Max Facts on ABC's Site. The column will undoubtedly disappear from those pages shortly.

In the meantime Life goes on and I’ve got some other worlds to conquer before my Maker claims me.
Information on Country Music will continue to be a part of "MAX WORLD" on my blog site eclecticmax.blogspot.com (that’s ECLECTIC, not electric)
The blog will also give me an opportunity to speak candidly about the Country Music industry, our Great Nation, The World, Politics, and a lot of things that I find fascinating...ECLECTIC. I hope you will find the time to come on by…and contribute, if you like.

And there is something else that is taking up my time: Working as a volunteer Chaplain at various Dallas Hospitals.

Lifeline Chaplaincy, which is an extension of the great humanitarian program at MD Anderson Hospitals in Houston, has become a top priority and I’m spending a lot of time visiting the ill and injured; attending to their material and spiritual needs. Many times I’m just "the person who listens".

Baylor University Medical Center is my main hospital but I’ve been able to reach out to friends and acquaintances and perfect strangers who are at other facilities such as Baylor Garland, Richardson Regional, Medical City, Plano Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center. The program will be moving on to Presbyterian Hospital-Dallas and to The Christian Care Centers.
The other day, someone asked me if I "enjoyed" this work. I’m not sure that is the word I would use, but it is close. I would rather use the words " "satisfying, wonderful, rewarding"...and add that it is "so necessary".

I thank you for your support. Good Bye to my ABC Column....I'm now on the BLOG!

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville will honor swinging honky-tonk singer and mega-balladeer Ray Price in For the Good Times: The Ray Price Story, a new biographical exhibit opening Friday, August 4th.
A career retrospective spanning more than 50 years, the exhibit will remain open until June 2007.

Rodney Atkins tops the Country Album Sales Chart with the debut of his album If You're Going Through Hell.
Rascal Flatts’ Me and My Gang hold fasts at #2 again this week, followed by The Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way, Johnny Cash with American V and Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts.

People mag says that Kenny Chesney has a new lady in his life Vane (vah-NAY) Millon, a Colombian actress who appears in his upcoming video, You Save Me, and who was also his date to the ACM Awards earlier this year. Just friends.

Mindy McCready has been acquitted on DUI charges, and called the jury part of her "angels," a reference to her 10,000 Angels hit in the late 1990s.
The DUI charge stems from a May 2005 traffic stop in Belle Meade, near Nashville.
The jury did hand down a guilty verdict on the charge of driving on a suspended license, and sentencing was scheduled for September 13th.
Mindy’s life in the past few years has been a series of dramatic struggles, including a drug conviction, the DUI arrest, a run-in with an accused con man, a domestic violence episode that nearly killed her and a later pregnancy by the guy charged with assaulting her.
Mindy’s son, Zander Ryan McCready, three and a half months old, was in the courtroom sleeping when the verdicts came down.

Alan Jackson sent a message out to country radio explaining why it's been nearly two years between studio albums; putting together his Precious Memories album has taken up some precious time.
Now, after working with Alison Krauss, his studio album is ready and will be out in the fall. Like Red On a Rose will one of the cuts on the album.

Willie Nelson tops the Paste Magazine list of the 100 Best Living Songwriters---in the Country Music genre, coming in at Number 15 overall.
Other country songwriters making the list include Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and Lyle Lovett.
Bob Dylan tops the overall list.

Gretchen Wilson has recorded Sunday Morning Coming Down for the upcoming Kris Kristofferson tribute album, The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson, to be released June 27 in honor of Kris' 70th birthday.
The song was a huge hit for Johnny Cash and is included in the Broadway production Ring Of Fire.

Tim McGraw and The Dixie Chicks are helping Tony Bennett celebrate his 80th birthday by re-working a couple of Tony’s hits for a compilation album. They are being joined by the likes of Billy Joel, Sting and Bono. VITAL STATISTICS

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman were married in Australia on June 25th.

Pat Green and wife, Kori, have a second daughter; Rainey Green was born in Ft. Worth on June 12th.

Billy Walker and his wife, Bettie, along with two band members, were killed May 21st as they were heading to Nashville from Alabama, when the vehicle ran off Interstate 65.

Bonnie Owens, a singer whose distinctive background vocals played a major role in Merle Haggard's career, died April 24th in Bakersfield, CA, following a lengthy illness at age 76.

SheDaisy’s Kelsi Osborn and husband Steve announced that they are pregnant.
The couple, married eight years, are due in late summer.

Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy of Hee Haw fame and singer of hits like Act Naturally, died of heart failure, Saturday, March 25th at his home in Bakersfield. He was 76.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Cindy Walker passed away March 23rd at the age of 87. Cindy wrote such hits as Cherokee Maiden, You Don't Know Me, and You're From Texas.

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