Articles by Kevin John Coyne
Veterans Day Six Pack
If history had played out the way Woodrow Wilson planned, we’d be celebrating the 92nd Armistice Day today. When first proclaimed a national holiday, Wilson declared the following:
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.
If the Great War had been the last war, we wouldn’t be celebrating what is now known as Veterans Day. We also wouldn’t have an incredible legacy of songs about soldiers in the annals of country music.
Here are five classics that celebrate those who have served our country and the ones who love them, along with one tale that has a returned soldier that’s not being loved quite enough.
100 Greatest Men: #76. Keith Urban
100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
Australia’s had its own country music scene for generations. With Keith Urban, they scored their biggest export to date.
Urban began singing and playing guitar from an early age. Though born in New Zealand, he moved to Australia as a small child. By age eight, he’d already won talent contests. As he got older, his exposure throughout the country increased. He appeared on various television programs and soon landed a recording contract.
Retro Single Review: Shania Twain, “God Bless the Child”
1996 | #48
Gospel recordings were becoming all the rage in the nineties, particularly with female artists.
Sometimes it seemed like they just wanted a big showpiece for the CMA awards. Dolly Parton and Pam Tillis had performed with enormous choirs behind them in 1991 and 1994, respectively. These were, perhaps, the only times in CMA history that the demographics on stage accurately reflected greater metropolitan Nashville.