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Famed Blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin dies at 80

Blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin, who played with Howlin' Wolf and inspired the likes of Eric Clapton, has died at the age of 80.

He was with Howlin' Wolf for the best part of 20 years - his guitar can be heard on tracks such as the 1956 hit, Smokestack Lightnin'.

Clapton and Rolling Stone Keith Richards appeared on one of Sumlin's solo albums, About Them Shoes, in 2004.

Richards called him "a gentleman of the first order".

He said in a statement: "With sorrow I received the news of Hubert's passing. He put up a long hard fight. To me he was an uncle and a teacher and all the guitar players must feel the same as myself.

"Warm, humorous and always encouraging, he was a gentleman of the first order."

Stones frontman Mick Jagger called him an "incisive yet delicate blues player".

Sumlin was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008.

He was recently included in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Sumlin was born in 1931 in Mississippi but was raised in Arkansas.

He met Howlin' Wolf as a teenager after sneaking into one of the blues legends gigs. They first recorded together in 1953.

Three tracks written and arranged by Chicago blues musician Willie Dixon appeared on Howlin' Wolf's self-titled 1962 album.

Back Door Man, Spoonful and The Red Rooster became more famous later on when they were covered by The Doors, Cream and the Rolling Stones respectively.

Sumlin played at a New York concert in Central Park in 2005

Critic Greil Marcus described the Howlin' Wolf album as "the finest of all Chicago blues albums".

Sumlin and Howlin' Wolf collaborated until the singer's death in 1976.

In a 1989 magazine interview, Sumlin said: "Hubert was Wolf, Wolf was Hubert. I got to where I knew what he wanted before he asked for it, because I could feel the man."

Jimi Hendrix was reportedly an admirer of Sumlin - he was said to have been influenced by Sumlin's use of distortion on recordings from the late 1950s.

The news of Sumlin's death was announced on his official website by his manager and friend, Toni Ann Mamary.

"Our dear friends… it is with a heavy heart that the worse has come to fruition. My little Hubert is living the life of a real angel. I'm overwhelmed with grief and so I really need to pull myself together," she wrote.

"I'll spend the rest of my days loving and cherishing all you are and were to me."

NASA finds a new Earth

Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON - NASA has found a new planet outside Earth's solar system that is eerily similar to Earth in important aspects.

Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees (22 Celsius). Its star could almost be a twin of Earth's sun. It probably has water and land.

It was found in the middle of the habitable zone, making it the best potential target for life.

The discovery announced Monday was made by NASA's Kepler planet-hunting telescope. This is the first time Kepler confirmed a planet outside Earth's solar system in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold habitable zone.

Twice before astronomers have announced planets found in that zone, but neither was as promising. One was disputed; the other is on the hot edge of the zone.

For more information visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/

Suzy Bogguss performing at the Grand Ole Opry

Suzy Bogguss was born on Dec. 30, in Aledo, Illinois. She grew up in a farming family that loved music. Bogguss earned a degree from Illinois State University but sang in clubs and coffee houses to earn extra money. Her repertoire included country songs such as "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and "Night Rider's Lament." After five years of touring in a van, she was performing regularly at a Nashville restaurant. She made a tape in 1986 to sell at her performance at Dollywood. The recordings landed in the hands of executives at Capitol Records, and Bogguss landed a recording contract.

She reached the Top 15 in 1989 with "Cross My Broken Heart" and again in 1991 with a Lee Greenwood duet, "Hopelessly Yours." Her 1991 album Aces spawned three Top 10 hits- "Outbound Plane," "Aces," and "Letting Go." In 1992, the Country Music Association recognized her with its Horizon Award.

In 1993, Bogguss climbed to No. 2 with "Drive South," a song written by John Hiatt. The Top 5 hits "Just Like the Weather" and "Hey Cinderella" followed. She and her friend Chet Atkins released the album Simpatico in 1994.

After parting with Capitol Records, Bogguss resurfaced with an album on the Platinum label in 1999. After extensive touring with John Berry and Billy Dean, she released Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in 2001 followed by Swing! in 2003.

Latest CD
American Folk Songbook

Opry Originals: The Shop on Broadway

Sat., 12/03/2011

Ryman Auditorium
9:15 - 10:00 p.m.

Sat., 12/03/2011

7:00 p.m.

Ryman Auditorium

Sat., 12/03/2011

9:30 p.m.

For more information visit:

http://www.suzybogguss.com/

Capt. Sully takes a joy ride

By Steve Hartman
(CBS News)

CHARLOTTE - They say that sometimes getting there is half the fun. As CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports, a recent flight from Miami to Charlotte was filled with equal parts fun and nostalgia.

The flight was a joyride from Miami to Charlotte on a 1958 Eastern Airlines DC-7. It's one of the last of the legendary "propliners" still around. Airline enthusiasts from all over the world jumped at the chance to go for a spin. One of those excited to be on board the flight was retired Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger - the pilot who safely landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in 2009.

Sullenberger says just being a passenger on this plane is a career highlight - which for him is saying something."It's something I've always wished I could do and thought I would never be able to."

For Sullenberger it's a dream that dates back more than 50 years. As a kid he used to build model planes. The DC-7 he built, was an absolute favorite. It didn't fly - but it sure took him places. "I had this romanticized, idealized view of what it must be like to be an airline pilot and to go to exotic destinations and take people places they needed to go."

Eventually, of course, something happened that took a lot the romance out of flying for Captain Sullenberger. When the airlines ditched good service -- when fine dining made way for bad food made way for no food - when passengers became cattle - Sullenberger says a great deal was lost. Which is why this isn't just a plane to him. "This DC-7 is a time machine. It's a way of reliving, in some small way, the glamour of a more genteel age."

The flight obviously had no shortage of glamour and glory. It arrived in Charlotte to much adieu and parked outside the Carolinas Aviation Museum. The museum just so happens to have Sullenberger's fated Flight 1549. So we went in it together. It was his first time since that day.

"The cabin is intact," Sullenberger sais. "Only one overhead bin I saw broken." For Sullenberger, being in here was whole different kind of nostalgia - although not in a bad way. "It just makes me think how well the evacuation went and we got everybody out of each of these seats."

Even in the captain's chair, Sullenberger was as stoic this time as he was last. He says, this plane just shows how much safer equipment and procedures are today. "It did its job."

He says it may be nice to go back in time - but you wouldn't want to stay there. The golden era of air travel may have offered more leg room - but what really matters, especially around the holidays, are those outstretched arms.

Grammy nominees include Emmylou Harris, The Band Perry and The Civil Wars

By Mary Colurso -- The Birmingham News
Musicians from Alabama received at least six nominations for Grammy Awards this week.

Here's our list of nominees with links to the state:

The Civil Wars (two nominations), best folk album, "Barton Hollow"; best country group/duo performance, "Barton Hollow." One member of the duo, John Paul White, is from Florence.

The Band Perry, best new artist. They're a family trio from Mobile, and rising stars in the country-pop world.

Emmylou Harris, best Americana album, "Hard Bargain." She's a Birmingham native.

Thompson Square, best country group/duo performance, "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not." One member of the husband-wife duo, Shawna Thompson, is from Chatom.

(Note: "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not" also was nominated for best country song, but that goes to writers Jim Collins and David Lee Murphy.)

Will Owsley (with Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Dillon O'Brian), best country song, "Threaten Me with Heaven." Owsley, who died in 2010, was from Anniston. This is a songwriters' award. Gill recorded the tune.

Winners of the 54th Grammy Awards will be announced Feb. 12 during a 7 p.m. broadcast on CBS.

Grammy award nominees include six from Alabama

By Mary Colurso/The Birmingham News

Musicians from Alabama received at least six nominations for Grammy Awards this week.

Here's our list of nominees with links to the state:

The Civil Wars (two nominations), best folk album, "Barton Hollow"; best country group/duo performance, "Barton Hollow." One member of the duo, John Paul White, is from Florence.

The Band Perry, best new artist. They're a family trio from Mobile, and rising stars in the country-pop world.

Obama Admin Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious

BY MARK HEMINGWAY

And to think that Attorney General Eric Holder is getting testy about congressional calls for his resignation. After all, the Justice Department has nothing to hide, right?:

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Link via Judicial Watch. The murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is related to the Justice Department willingly turning over thousands of guns to Mexican criminal gangs, and Obama administration is hiding information about his death from the public. Amazing.