cmp
APRIL 2017 Volume 48 Number 4 Issue 566
Editor Duncan Warwick
Contributors David Allan, Janet Aspley, Donnie Ayers, Craig Baguley, Larry Delaney, Don Cusic, Julie Flaskett, Kelly Gregory, Michael Hingston, Spencer Leigh, John Lomax III,, Douglas McPherson, Stephen O’ Hanlon, Roland Purdy, Adrian Peel, Paul Riley, Wayne Smart, Chris Smith, Alison Stokes, Tom Travis, Walt Trott, Jack Watkins
Special projects coordinator Kelly Gregory
Photographers Helen Parish, Patricia Presley, Ian Tilbury, Barry Dixon, Billie McAleer
Printed by The Magazine Printing Company Mollison Avenue Brimsdown Enfield Middx. EN3 7NT www. magprint. co. uk
Distributor Seymour International Press Distributors Ltd. 2 East Poultry Avenue London EC1A 9PT Telephone + 44 020 7429 4000 Fax + 44 020 7429 4001
Country Music People is published the last Thursday of each month by KICKIN’ CUTS LIMITED 24 Darley Close, Wittering, Peterborough PE8 6EQ, UK Telephone + 44 01780- 783689
countrymusicpeople @ gmail. com www. cmpcountry. com
© 2017 Kickin’ Cuts Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without the prior written permission of the Publisher. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for statement of fact or opinion expressed by contributors. The views of the contributors are not necessarily those of Country Music People or its editor.
News
Founding Suns
Passions run high
Ed Morris, longtime Billboard trade magazine writer-reviewer, premiered his one-act play“ The Passion of Ethel Roseberg,” a one-woman drama-with-music, starring Keri Pagetta and directed by Carolyn German, at Nashville’ s Atmalogy Celebrate Cafe on March 2. Convicted of espionage in the post WW-II era, Ethel and husband Julius( pictured) were executed in the electric chair June 19, 1953, reportedly for supplying Atomic bomb data to the Soviets. Morris, who currently contributes to CMT. com, won the 1993 Journalist of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. This topic veers off course for Morris, a West Virginia native, who previously authored the books“ Garth Brooks: Platinum Cowboy”( 1992),“ Ed Morris’ Complete Guide to Country Music Videos”( 2010), and“ At Carter Stanley’ s Grave”( 2011). Performed in the round,“ Passion …” explores housewife Ethel’ s imagined personal feelings and frustrations stemming from her situation, including exasperation over her mother’ s pleading with her to provide prosecutorial
Walt Trott in Nashville Duncan Warwick in London
Chuck Mead( of BR5-49) served as music director for the new CMT Sun Records series, spotlighting Drake Milligan as Elvis Presley, Kevin Fonteyne as Johnny Cash, Dustin Ingram as Carl Perkins, and Christian Lees as Jerry Lee Lewis. Incidentally, Christian’ s brother Jonah Lees portrays Jerry Lee’ s cousin Jimmy Swaggart, and Chad Michael Murray plays Sam Phillips, who founded Sun, credited as the birthplace of rock and roll. Mead had earlier served in that capacity for the stage musical,“ Million Dollar Quartet,” based on Sun musical talents Presley, Perkins, Cash and Lewis.
evidence against husband and friends, to save herself for the future of her sons, just as Ethel’ s brother David did, by pointing his finger at the Rosenbergs, to obtain a lighter sentence. A former actress and singer, Ethel ponders the injustice of sentences meted out to other American women then accused of treason, specifically Axis Sally- Portland, Maine native Mildred Sisk- who broadcast pleas to US fighting men to abandon battle in Europe, receiving a maximum sentence of 30 years, but was freed in 1961; or Tokyo Rose- a. k. a. Iva D’ Aquino from Los Angeles- broadcasting for the Japanese, who served six years of a 10-year sentence( and in 1977 was exonerated by President Gerald Ford, allegedly due to perjured testimony against her). Morris’ play proved riveting throughout, with both actress and author receiving welldeserved standing ovations. Today, Ethel’ s sons Robert and Michael continue to seek exoneration for their mother, who they contend was wrongly convicted, citing circumstantial evidence and less than credible witnesses.
Subsequently, the Rosenbergs were the only American civilians executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War. William Rogers, US deputy attorney general, later noted, referencing her death sentence admittedly imposed initially to extract Julius’ s full confession,“ She called our bluff.”
4 cmp- APRIL 2017