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      Pete Wade, Guitarist on Countless Nashville Hits, Dies at 89

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      His clean tone and less-is-more approach made him a studio stalwart and a pioneer of what came to be known as the Nashville Sound.Pete Wade, a prolific and versatile Nashville studio guitarist who played on scores of blockbuster hits — including Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms” and Sonny James’s “Young Love,” two of the most popular country records of the middle to late 1950s — died on Wednesday at his daughter’s home in Hendersonville, Tenn., near Nashville. He was 89.His daughter, Angie Balch, said the cause was complications of hip surgery.A member of the loose aggregation of top-flight session musicians known as the Nashville A-Team, Mr. Wade played on numerous records regarded as classics. Among the best known were Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” (1968), Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” (1970), Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (1977), George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980) and John Anderson’s “Swingin’” (1983).All five of those records were No. 1 country hits; “Brown Eyes” and “Rose Garden” also won Grammy Awards and crossed over to the pop Top 10. “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” another Grammy winner, was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2008.“Pete Wade treated all of them the same way,” the music journalist Peter Cooper said, referring to the many artists Mr. Wade accompanied, at an event celebrating his legacy at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016. “He listened, he comprehended, he added what would help, and he left out anything that would distract or water down.”Mr. Wade in 1954, the year he moved to Nashville. Soon after arriving, he joined Ray Price’s band, the Cherokee Cowboys; he went on to work with Mr. Price on and off for almost a decade.via Country Music Hall of Fame and MuseumAn empathetic musician whose clean tone and less-is-more approach lent themselves equally to rhythm and lead playing, Mr. Wade, who also played fiddle, bass and steel guitar, had a special affinity for collaborating with steel guitarists.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dave Loggins, Who Wrote Hits for Himself and Others, Dies at 76

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      After tasting fame with “Please Come to Boston” in 1974, he became a major Nashville songwriter. He also wrote the theme to the Masters golf tournament.Dave Loggins, a chart-topping Nashville songwriter for the likes of Kenny Rogers and the Oak Ridge Boys who also notched his own Top 10 pop hit with the wistful “Please Come to Boston” and wrote the enduring theme for the Masters golf tournament, died on July 10 in Nashville. He was 76.His death, in a hospice facility, was confirmed by his son Kyle, who did not specify the cause.Mr. Loggins, a second cousin of the pop star Kenny Loggins, released five albums as a solo artist in the 1970s, but he scored only one hit single himself.“Please Come to Boston,” a soft-rock weeper about a rambling man trying to woo a lover to follow him as he chases his dreams in one city after another, climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s easy listening chart and No. 5 on the magazine’s Hot 100 in 1974. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best pop vocal performance by a male artist — the first of Mr. Loggins’s four Grammy nominations.For Mr. Loggins, the song almost seemed to have divine origins. In a 2021 interview with the singer-songwriter and vocal coach Judy Rodman on the podcast “All Things Vocal,” he said he wrote the song early in his career “with chords I had never even played before.”“There was this beautiful, glowing feeling that came over me,” he added, “a godlike feeling, that said, ‘Here, go ahead and play, I’ll move your fingers.’”While “Please Come to Boston” was his only mainstream hit, Mr. Loggins was considered anything but a one-hit wonder in country music circles: He wrote hits for Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd and Toby Keith, among others.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Buzz Cason, Songwriter Best Known for ‘Everlasting Love,’ Dies at 84

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      As a performer, he was a leading figure in the early days of Nashville rock ’n’ roll. He later found success as a writer, producer and publisher.Buzz Cason, a guiding force in the early days of Nashville rock ’n’ roll and a writer of the pop standard “Everlasting Love,” a surging profession of undying devotion that reached the pop Top 40 in four consecutive decades, died on June 16 at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 84.His death was announced by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The announcement did not specify a cause.A pivotal figure in Nashville’s evolution as a recording hub, Mr. Cason had a hand in virtually every facet of the music industry. He sang, wrote and published songs, as well as producing records and operating his own recording studio.He had his biggest success as the writer, with Mac Gayden, of “Everlasting Love.” The R&B singers Robert Knight (1967) and Carl Carlton (1974) recorded hit versions of the song, as did Gloria Estefan (1995) and the ad hoc pop duo Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet (1981). U2 released a stripped-down take of “Everlasting Love” as one of two B-sides of the 1989 single “All I Want Is You.”“We didn’t know what we had,” Mr. Cason said of the song in an interview at an event held in his honor at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014. “It was a really great radio song.”“Everlasting Love,” in its many versions, has received more than 10 million plays to date, according to the music rights organization BMI. It is among the most successful songs in any genre to come from Nashville.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Unsung Hero’ Review: Music Dedicated to the One They Love

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      In fact, there’s a lot of singing in the clan whose members inspired this movie and who have racked up five Grammy Awards for their Christian recordings.In the faith-based drama “Unsung Hero,” an Australian concert promoter trying to earn a living makes a last-ditch move to Nashville with his wife and six children. Based on an actual family of musicians, it mostly plays as a treacly tribute to the parents of Joel and Luke Smallbone — a.k.a. the Christian pop duo For King & Country — and their sister the singer Rebecca St. James.Viewer beware: Between the uplift and the cringe, this movie may cause whiplash. Joel Smallbone plays his own father, David, who faces financial and reputational ruin after booking a big concert and failing to pack the house. He resettles the family in the United States, but no job materializes. His pep-talking spouse, Helen (Daisy Betts), and their beatific children pull up bootstraps and practically whistle while they work, but it’s not enough.Community, humility, and the power of prayer are the lessons on offer in their story, set in the 1990s, bathed in warm light and interspersed with home video segments. Fellow churchgoers pitch in, and David gets over himself; he secures auditions for his teenage daughter, Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger), who keeps breaking into dulcet song about how everything is beautiful. The outcome of “Unsung Hero,” as written and directed by Richard L. Ramsey and Joel Smallbone, is never in doubt, though the climax has a kicker line that genuinely surprises with its laughable shamelessness.The family business has become a success: Rebecca, Joel and Luke have won five Grammys among them. But despite the fuzzy good intentions, it’s tough to make much of this making-of story.Unsung HeroRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Morgan Wallen Arrested, Accused of Throwing a Chair From a Bar Roof

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      The country superstar faces charges of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct after the incident in Nashville on Sunday night.The country singer Morgan Wallen was arrested early Monday in Nashville on charges of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, after he was accused of throwing a chair from the roof of a downtown bar, according to reports.Mr. Wallen, 30, a superstar who had last year’s most popular album, and who had just opened his latest tour with two shows at a stadium in Indianapolis, was arrested and booked by police in Nashville, according to court records.WTVF, a CBS television affiliate in Nashville, reported that Mr. Wallen is accused of throwing a chair from the sixth story of Chief’s, an establishment on lower Broadway — an area of the city full of honky-tonks and concert venues — that had just been opened by another country star, Eric Church. The chair hit the ground near where some police officers were standing, and staff members at the restaurant told officers that Mr. Wallen had been responsible, the station reported, citing the police.Mr. Wallen was arrested on three counts of reckless endangerment, a felony; and one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. He was released early Monday and has a court date set for May 3.In a statement, Worrick Robinson, a lawyer for Mr. Wallen, said: “Morgan Wallen was arrested in downtown Nashville for reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. He is cooperating fully with authorities.”In 2021, Mr. Wallen, then a rising star, was rebuked by the music industry, and his contract was temporarily “suspended” by his record label, after a video clip surfaced showing the singer casually using a racial slur among friends.Mr. Wallen apologized for that incident and his career recovered with little apparent effect. “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which had just come out, was a smash hit that remained high on the charts for well over a year, and his latest, “One Thing at a Time,” was another blockbuster, logging a total of 19 weeks at No. 1. More

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      Prosecutors in Nashville Drop Charges Against Country Singer Chris Young

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      The country singer had been charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest after an altercation at a downtown bar.Prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges that had been brought against the country music singer Chris Young in connection with an altercation with an Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent at a Nashville bar.“After a review of all the evidence in this case, the Office of the District Attorney has determined that these charges will be dismissed,” Glenn R. Funk, the Nashville district attorney, said in a statement.Mr. Young, 38, had been charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest following the episode on Monday night.“Mr. Young and I are gratified with the D.A.’s decision clearing him of the charges and any wrongdoing,” Bill Ramsey, the musician’s lawyer, said in a statement.The episode that led to the charges occurred as Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents were checking IDs at the DawgHouse Saloon, a downtown bar. Mr. Young was accused of hitting one of the agents, according to an arrest affidavit filed with a criminal court in Nashville. Agents handcuffed Mr. Young after he did not comply with their orders, the affidavit says.Mr. Young’s representatives previously shared surveillance footage showing that the singer was standing by the bar when agents walked past him.In the video, as one of the agents walks by, Mr. Young places a hand on him, walks backward with the agent and apparently says something. The agent pushes Mr. Young with two hands, and Mr. Young staggers backward and hits his back on a corner of the bar table, causing him to briefly fall, the video shows.He then gets up, raises both of his hands in the air and walks backward away from the agents.Mr. Young rose to stardom after winning the country-music reality TV competition “Nashville Star” in 2006, and his second album, “The Man I Want to Be,” released in 2009, reached the platinum sales mark in the United States. He has been a familiar presence on the Billboard country charts since.John Yoon More

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      Sarah Jarosz Tests the Mainstream

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      With her new album, “Polaroid Lovers,” a luminary of Americana broadens her sound.In modern Nashville, songwriting is often a matter of professionalized co-writing: planned, mix-and-match collaborations by appointment, musicians sharing a room to come up with sturdy material.It’s a method that Sarah Jarosz had largely shied away from until she made her seventh studio album, “Polaroid Lovers.” The LP, arriving Friday, includes songs she wrote with behind-the-scenes Nashville stalwarts including Jon Randall, Natalie Hemby and the album’s producer, Daniel Tashian, who worked on the country-psychedelia fusion of Kacey Musgraves’s “Golden Hour.”On “Polaroid Lovers,” Jarosz reaches toward a broader audience while still maintaining her individuality. The songs are more plugged in, muscular and reverberant than her past albums, which were intimate and largely acoustic. But her particular perspective — at once clearheaded, thoughtful, vulnerable and open to desire — comes through.The first song Jarosz wrote with Tashian was “Take the High Road,” with a chiming chorus that declares, “It won’t be the easy way/Saying what you want to say.” In a video interview from her home in Nashville, with string instruments hanging on the wall behind her, Jarosz said that the song’s lyrics “are almost a thesis for the whole album. You know, ‘I’m tired of being quiet — time to face up to the fear.’”Jarosz, 32, is a luminary in acoustic Americana, where bluegrass, folk, jazz and chamber music mingle with pop and rock. Born in Austin, Texas, and raised in Wimberley, a small town nearby, Jarosz emerged as a teenage bluegrass prodigy, playing mandolin, guitar, banjo and the instrument she considers her “soul mate”: the octave mandolin, pitched an octave below the standard mandolin, which she often uses for solos or countermelodies. The instrument sounds a little darker and twangier than acoustic guitar in the same range — a hand-played lower voice that answers Jarosz’s own hovering mezzo-soprano.She made her first four albums in Nashville, and she was urged to write songs with more seasoned musicians; she chose not to release any of them. “The quote-unquote ‘Nashville co-writing’ thing had been pushed on me when I was like 18, 17, making my first record,” she said. “I was really closed off to it back in that time, because I felt like I was still finding my voice. And I was worried that if I went into those co-writing rooms prematurely, that I would get lost at sea.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Country Singer Chris Young Is Arrested at a Nashville Bar

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      The musician was released on bond for charges of disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.Chris Young, the country music singer, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest after an altercation at a bar in Nashville on Monday night, the authorities said.While Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents were looking at IDs in a downtown Nashville bar, Mr. Young, 38, struck one of the agents, according to an arrest affidavit filed with a criminal court in Nashville. Agents handcuffed Mr. Young after he did not comply with their orders, it said.Mr. Young had his breakthrough when he won the country-music reality TV competition “Nashville Star” in 2006. His second album, “The Man I Want to Be,” released in 2009, hit platinum in the United States. He has since been a fixture on the Billboard country charts.A representative for Mr. Young declined to comment.The Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents arrived at a bar called Tin Roof at about 8:30 p.m. to check the IDs of the patrons, including Mr. Young, the arrest affidavit said. After the check, Mr. Young began asking the agents questions, which they said they answered, and he began video recording them.The agents left and continued onto a bar next door, called DawgHouse Saloon. The arrest affidavit said that Mr. Young and his friends had followed them and began talking to the people there. When the agents finished their compliance checks, Mr. Young tried to block one of the agents from leaving and hit him on the shoulder, it said.The agent who was struck, Joseph Phillips, pushed Mr. Young to create distance, then other patrons got up to intervene, the affidavit said. Another agent tried speaking to Mr. Young, who did not comply with the orders. Then the agents detained him.The affidavit described Mr. Young as having had “slurred speech” and his eyes as “blood shot and watery.” It also said the people who were with Mr. Young were “making the incident hostile.”Mr. Young was later taken into custody and released on bonds of $250 for the disorderly conduct charge, $1,000 for the resisting arrest charge and $1,250 for the assault charge, according to reports by Nashville’s criminal court clerk. He is expected to appear in court on Feb. 16.Aimee Ortiz More