Patsy Cline’s Siblings May Settle Estate

By: Stephanie K. Moran
The Winchester Star

Talks appear to be underway to settle the dispute over items that once belonged to country music legend Patsy Cline.

In March, Cline’s brother, Samuel L. Hensley, and her sister, Sylvia M. Wilt, engaged in a two-day court battle regarding some of their famous sister’s possessions that were allegedly part of the estate of their mother, Hilda V. Hensley of Winchester, who died in December 1998.

Samuel Hensley and the administrator of his mother’s estate, Charles R. Alton, claimed that Wilt wrongfully took and destroyed four items from the estate. A civil jury disagreed, finding no wrongdoing on Wilt’s part.

Since the trial, settlement of the estate has been mentioned as a possibility, but on Tuesday, Wilt’s attorney, Phillip S. Griffin II, said the parties were to meet later that day to talk about categorizing some Patsy Cline items in the estate.

Griffin made his comments during an appearance before Winchester Circuit Court Judge John E. Wetsel Jr.

I am very young, but I love the old country music... Patsy of course is my favorite. I used to subscribe to a very popular country music magazine, only for the flashback page that would tell of events early in country music. Well, on March 5th, 2001, I of course got my mag to see the article I naturally assumed they'd write on Patsy's death. In the entire magazine, not one thing was mentioned about her. The radio also said nothing ON A COUNTRY GOLD SHOW! Well, I was not happy, so I wrote to the station, and to the editor of this magazine, to inform them of their error. This year on March 5th, I picked up the mag in the store (I quit buying it after last year's incident) and, once again, NOTHING was mentioned about Patsy. Yet Faith's haircuts make the cover on a regular basis. I have since boycotted that mag, but it is so sad to me to see how such a wonderful, talented PIONEER of music can be so easily forgotten. It is tragic!

~ Vanessa Prewett

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARTISTS FROM ALL GENRES COME TOGETHER TO HONOR MULTI-MILLION SELLING PATSY CLINE

NASHVILLE, TN -- May 16, 2002 -- What do Natalie Cole, Diana Krall, Lee Ann Womack, Michelle Branch and k.d. lang have in common? For starters, these platinum-plus selling singers each list Patsy Cline as one of the most important female vocalists in the history of recorded music. So, it was no surprise when they were asked to join a very special tribute recording being put together by Cline's label, MCA Nashville, they jumped at the opportunity.

In what may be the most exciting and talked about recordings of the year, MCA Nashville has banded these artists, and more, together to pay homage to the original diva, Patsy Cline. Recorded in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York, the tribute album, Remembering Patsy, will be released later this year. The songs selected for the tribute album reflect all of the titles included on Cline's nine million-plus selling Greatest Hits CD. Artists and the songs they have chosen to record include: Natalie Cole performing "I Fall To Pieces;" Lee Ann Womack singing "She's Got You;" Diana Krall performing "Crazy;" Michelle Branch singing "Strange" and k.d. lang performing "Leavin' On Your Mind."

According to Bruce Hinton, Chairman of MCA Nashville, the label was trying to think of something special to do to honor Cline and acknowledge the incredible staying power of her Greatest Hits package, which has spent an incredible 500 plus weeks (and still counting) on the Billboard Country Albums Chart.

"Patsy is one of those once in a lifetime artists," Hinton said. "She could take a song and completely make it her own. She has one of the most distinctive styles and voices I have ever heard, and I daresay there won't soon be another artist with her kind of influence and staying power. When we first began the discussions of just who we should approach to be a part of this tribute album, we didn't have to look far. Once word got out, our phones began ringing. This is a true testament to Patsy's worldwide influence-her music knows no boundaries, or genre limitations.

"The beauty of Patsy's music is that it transcends all boundaries," he continued. "When I heard Diana Krall's take of 'Crazy,' I literally got chill bumps. She did it the Diana Krall way-putting her own special spin and touches to the song. Each of the artists has done this-taken a Patsy song, and recorded it in their own inimitable style. This record is going to be something music fans truly will appreciate."

Remembering Patsy will feature 12 tracks, and the previously mentioned artists are just a part of the total line-up that will be featured on the final recording. Additional artists will be announced throughout the coming months.

MCA Nashville is a division of the Universal Music Group. Named Label of the Decade by both Billboard and Radio and Records (1990-2000), MCA Nashville is home to some of music's most dynamic, creative and successful artists. From the beginning, the label created an environment that embraced a diverse cross section of country music, from cutting edge to bluegrass to pure country. Its artists have found success on all popular music charts, both domestically and internationally.

PHW Picks Kent Street For Preservation

By: Stephanie K. Moran
The Winchester Star

A community’s historic character is more than the sum of its landmarks.

That’s the basic theme of the 38th Annual Preservation of Historic Winchester meeting at 6 p.m. today in the Old Town Event Center in downtown Winchester, said PHW Executive Director Anna G. Thomson.

Coinciding with the nation’s Historic Preservation Week, the event has also taken on the week’s theme: “Preserving the spirit of place.”

The meeting will draw attention to PHW’s efforts, which include the recent completion of the “Blues House” at 401 S. Kent St. and the decision to allocate half of the net proceeds from this year’s Blues House concert toward the purchase of Patsy Cline’s 608 S. Kent St. home by Celebrating Patsy Cline, Inc. The remaining concert money will go into a fund for preservation grants, Thomson said.

The recent PHW action on Kent Street “dovetails nicely” with the annual meeting’s program, Thomson said.

The program, from Winchester Director of Economic Redevelopment Jim Deskins and PHW members Patrick Farris and Lynn Uttal, is titled “Kent Street — Past, Present, and Future.”

It's A Twang Thang

By: Joe Heim
Special to The Washington Post

Drop a guitar pick on a U.S. map and it will likely land on a city, town or hamlet loaded with meaning for music lovers. Rock fans fly to Seattle just to pay tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. Blues enthusiasts roll down the Mississippi Delta on Highway 61 searching for Robert Johnson's infamous crossroads or the Clarksdale hospital where Bessie Smith died. And no passionate jazz fan would come to Washington without genuflecting in front of 1212 T St. NW, one-time home to jazz great Duke Ellington.

And country music fans? They head for Nashville. Not because that's where all the great country artists came from – most didn't. No, Nashville is pilgrimage-worthy because it is the collision point of so much country music history and mythmaking, legend and lore. It is the city that gave the music its identity. By the middle of the 20th century, if you wanted to be a country music star, all of America's back roads and blue highways led to this middle Tennessee city on the Cumberland River.

And with the opening of the gleaming new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum last May, it's a good time to visit. The $37 million building is nothing like the country cousin it replaced.

Peggy Lee Class Action Royalty Deal Hits Snag

By: Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A $4.75 million settlement of a class action suit led by the late torch singer Peggy Lee over royalties dating back to the 1940s has been stalled amid objections by actor Larry Hagman, lawyers said on Wednesday.

Hagman, executor of the estate of his mother, Mary Martin, best known for roles in Broadway musicals like "South Pacific," "The Sound of Music" and "Peter Pan," objected to the proposed settlement with Universal Music, calling the figure too low and unfair to some artists, said his lawyer, Bruce Broillet.

"The settlement is too low. It seems rather unusual that $4.75 million would be used to compensate what has been done to so many outstanding artists in American history," Broillet told Reuters.

About 160 artists -- many of whom are now dead -- are part of the class action. They include such legends as Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, the Andrews Sisters and Bill Haley and the Comets.

Gaylord Puts Acuff-Rose On The Block

By: RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer

Gaylord Entertainment Co. has decided to sell Acuff-Rose Music Publishing, country music's first publishing house and home to some of the genre's most recognizable songs.

"We are actively discussing a potential sale of this wonderful catalog," Colin Reed, the company's chief executive officer, said during an investors' conference call yesterday morning. The call coincided with Gaylord's quarterly earnings release.

"We do not have an agreement with anybody," Reed said in an afternoon interview. "We are not going to protract this process. We are going to try and get through this process in about a four-week period."

Reed did not disclose potential suitors because of confidentiality agreements. But talk on Music Row has put Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville among those seeking to buy the catalog, which includes songs written by Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and hundreds of others.

Patsy Cline’s Former Home Has The ‘Blues’

By: Dan Reany
The Winchester Star

With a meeting held on the steps of Patsy Cline’s former home at 608 S. Kent Street, Preservation of Historic Winchester announced this year’s Blues House festival Friday.

PHW and the Blues House committee are working with Celebrating Patsy Cline to restore Cline’s former home, which could eventually house a Patsy Cline museum.

Keeping in the Patsy theme, this year’s event is Crazy for the Blues.

“Just six or seven weeks ago we got the idea to see if we couldn’t get hold of the house Patsy grew up in and bring the museum right to ground zero where Patsy lived,” said Celebrating Patsy Cline President Jim Stutzman Jr. “We have a vision, we’re ready to raise money, and this is a great springboard . . . to make it all happen.”

Proceeds from Crazy for the Blues will go toward the preservation of the home Cline lived in when she was 16 until she was 21, the longest she ever lived in any single house. It was Cline’s 19th home, and the one from which she launched her musical career.

The soundtrack is a refreshing departure from the usual Stirring Symphony for Strings and More Strings #2 that tends to accompany Imax features. While swelling musical phrases accompany some of the sweeping views of Earth, the film also treats us to Patsy Cline's Walkin' After Midnight (for a spacewalk scene), the Drifters' Up on the Roof (for a shot of an astronaut tucked into a ceiling crevasse in the station to sleep) and other classics from when the Space Age was new.