May 24 – This Day in Country Music

1933
Jimmie Rodgers made his last recordings in New York City in which he recorded “Mississippi Delta Blues” and “Years Ago”. After years of fighting tuberculosis, Rodgers was so weakened during the sessions that he needed to rest on a bed between songs. Rodgers died two days later from a pulmonary hemorrhage while staying at the Taft Hotel; he was only 35 years old.

1947
Born on this day, was Mike Reid who is a retired professional American football linebacker, as well as a country music artist who played for the Cincinnati Bengals. He scored the 1991 US Country #1 hit “Walk Of Faith.”

1955
Born on this day in Memphis, Tennessee, was American singer-songwriter and author, Rosanne Cash, the eldest daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin. She won a Grammy in 1985 for “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me”, and has received twelve other Grammy nominations. She has had 11 #1 country hit singles, 21 Top 40 country singles and two gold records.

1978
The United States Postal Service issued a 13-cent commemorative stamp honoring Jimmie Rodgers. The Rodgers stamp, designed by artist Jim Sharpe, became the first in the Postal Service’s long-running Performing Arts series.

2005
Oklahoma born Carrie Underwood became the fourth-season winner of American Idol. Although her first single, “Inside Your Heaven,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the 22-year-old Underwood’s influences and music are predominantly country. Late in the year, she entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the first time with “Jesus Take the Wheel.”

2005
Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash’s first wife and the mother of Rosanne Cash and three other daughters, died at the age of 71 from complications from surgery to remove lung cancer. It was her daughter Rosanne’s 50th birthday. During their courtship, Cash and Liberto wrote each other over 10,000 pages of love letters, forming the basis of her autobiography, titled I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, which was published in 2007

2011
Jason Aldean was at #1 on the country chart with My Kinda Party, his fourth studio album. The album received a Nomination for the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and has sold over 3m copies in the US.

2014
Brad Paisley traveled on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to visit US troops at Bagram Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Paisley played a full concert for the troops stationed there.