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News in Brief

06/01/2015

Clay Walker is about to release a new record this summer. The album will be called "Long Live Cowboy" and the singer promises it would be pure traditional country music. Yee Haw!

06/01/2015

Chris Young revealed his guests on the upcoming record, which will feature duets with Vince Gill and 2013's The Voice winner Cassadee Pope. Chris also co-produces the new album, which should come out later this year.

05/31/2015

Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson are teaming up once again and on June 2 they will release a new album called "Django And Jimmie". They already released a music video for the first single "It's All Going To Pot". Now that's bro-country!

05/30/2015

Popular duo Montgomery Gentry is going to release a new album on June 9. The record is named "Folks Like Us" and the title song is a current single.

05/30/2015

Willie Nelson finally wrote his own memoir. Look for a book named "It’s a Long Story: My Life".

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Charlie Collins Passes Away At 78

Posted by: Petr Mecir

News 01/18/2012

Beloved Charlie Collins, a long-time guitar player of the Grand Ole Opry house band and the last remaining member of Roy Accuff's original Smoky Mountain Boys, died on January 12. Collins played with Roy Accuff from 1966 until Acuff's death in 1992. Later on he regularly performed on the Grand Ole Opry in a duo with Brother Oswald, as a musician of the Grand Oley Opry Square Dancers and as a solo artist as well. The always-smiling Charlie was a beloved member of the Opry family and country fans could see perform on the Opry stage for full 45 years.

Collins, who mastered guitar, mandolin and fiddle also recorded with Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush and Jim & Jesse.

Charlie Collins died following a heart attack at the age of 78. He played the Grand Ole Opry for the last time on Saturday night January 8.

During the next show on the Grand Ole Opry, Opry legend George Hamilton IV dedicated Charlie Collins the song "Life's Railway To Heaven", which Collins often played with Roy Accuff on the very same stage.

Charlie Collins & Petr Mecir

(Charlie Collins & Petr Mecir - Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN - 08/09/2008)

Roy Acuff & Smoky Mountain Boys - "Wabash Cannonball"