Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchSammi Smith: The Defiant Outlaw Who Sang the Forbidden Hit
Episode 6514
Sammi Smith dropped out of school at age 11 to sing in smoky Oklahoma nightclubs — and grew up to record the song Nashville was terrified to release.…
1 week, 4 days ago
Carrie Underwood: From Zoo Cages to Country's Biggest Voice
Episode 6515
Carrie Underwood walked away from a major record deal at 14 because she wanted to be practical — then spent her college years scooping animal pens at…
1 week, 4 days ago
Jim Reeves: The Velvet Voice That Outsold Elvis Overseas
Episode 6516
Elton John once played his songs in smoky English pubs to win over crowds, and in South Africa he outsold Elvis Presley himself. Jim Reeves, the velv…
1 week, 4 days ago
DeFord Bailey: The Harmonica Wizard Who Named the Opry
Episode 6517
He was the biggest draw on 1930s country music tours, packing canvas tents and roaring auditoriums — yet he was paid five dollars a show and had to s…
1 week, 4 days ago
Ray Price: The Man Who Invented the Country Shuffle
Episode 6518
Ray Price wanted to be a Texas veterinarian, but he was too small to wrestle 1,500-pound cattle — so he changed the mathematical heartbeat of country…
1 week, 4 days ago
Lady A: The Messy Battle Over a Country Band's Rebrand
Episode 6519
A haunted antebellum mansion, a 2006 Nashville photo shoot, and an offhand joke about a ghost gave one of country music's biggest trios its name — an…
1 week, 4 days ago
Jessi Colter: From Church Piano to Outlaw Country Queen
Episode 6520
At 11 years old she was leading worship from a church piano in an Arizona Pentecostal congregation, her mother an ordained preacher. By the leather-c…
1 week, 4 days ago
Jason Aldean: Country Music's Most Polarizing Superstar
Episode 6521
A Georgia kid taught himself guitar from chord charts his dad hand-drew on notebook paper — and grew up to become country music's most polarizing sup…
1 week, 4 days ago
Moe Bandy: The Sheet Metal Worker Who Conquered Honky Tonk
Episode 6522
Moe Bandy spent 12 years bending sheet metal by day before becoming one of honky tonk's most authentic voices. The factory worker turned country musi…
1 week, 4 days ago
Orville Peck: The South African Punk Behind the Mask
Episode 6523
A masked man with a booming bass-baritone stepped onto the country music stage and refused to show his face. Orville Peck, the South African-born for…
1 week, 4 days ago