Free Republic

On January First, 1953, Hank Williams died of heart failure in the back seat of a car on the way to a gig. (He had hired a student to drive him from Alabama to West Virginia to be there. Dedication.) Hank liberated the pop music voice to sound wholeheartedly and powerfully American with unparalleled directness and emotional honesty on the hit song charts in ways no one had done before. He is not the father of The First Amendment but he is for me a pivotal grandfather of modern freedom of speech. The cultural achievements I revere of Dylan, Elvis,...

A stagehand for country music superstar Randy Travis was shot dead over the weekend by his wife, who believed he was having an affair, police have revealed. Christine Roberts, 72, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide Sunday after she allegedly shot her husband, Thomas Roberts, 68, on the porch of their Nashville, Tenn., home, police said. When officers responded to the home, she told them she shot her husband “because he had cheated on her,” according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Thomas Roberts, who had worked for the “Diggin’ Up Bones” hitmaker for over two decades, died from...

Racy, sexy, unfaithful America? Think again. The majority of American married couples are faithful to each other, says a source that has long been an oracle of lusty lifestyles. None other than Playboy magazine reports that 75 percent of men and 82 percent of women said they had never had an extramarital affair, according to a "Fidelity Survey" published by the magazine yesterday. ......(excerpt)...... Playboy asked of the 1,432 adult respondents. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner declined to comment on the survey. ......(excerpt)...... Respondents overall estimated that 44 percent of men and 38 percent of women cheated on their spouse. .....(excerpt).........

VINEYARD HAVEN - The first two in line, sisters-in-law Kim and Marcia Quitadamo of Worcester, showed up outside the Bunch of Grapes bookstore at 5:30 - that's 5:30 a.m. Within two hours, enough others had shown up for a 4 p.m. appearance by U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that Tisbury police asked bookstore manager Robby Bick to open his doors at 7:30 a.m., 90 minutes early. "We have about 1,500 books in the store," Bick said early yesterday afternoon. "Or we had 1,500 books in the store," he said alluding to brisk sales. The final stop on Clinton's book tour...