WPAA
Oakley High School plans to host “Nashville Legacy” at 3 p.m. CST, on Sunday, March 27.
This 52nd anniversary season concert is made possible from businesses and individual donors throughout northwest Kansas including special grants from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan, and the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation for Logan County, Bird City. At the door admission is $20 adults and $10 students.
The musicians bring new life to the “Nashville Sound” pioneered by their legendary forerunners – Jason Coleman’s grandfather Floyd Cramer and Meagan Taylor’s uncle Chet Atkins – in this nostalgic concert, “Nashville Legacy.” You’ll hear the musicians perform songs like Cramer’s “Last Date” on piano and Atkins’ “Freight Train” on guitar.
Cramer and Atkins were legends at their instruments, two giants in the music industry. Cramer’s unique “slip note” piano style was an essential part of countless country, pop, and rock hits in the 1950s and ‘60s and is widely regarded as the standard for country piano. As innovative thumb-style guitar led Atkins to become known as one of the world’s pre-eminent guitar virtuosos, and many of the records he produced for RCA have become classics.
Though Cramer and Atkins have passed away, their Nashville Legacy lives on through pianist Coleman and guitarist Taylor. In this concert, the musicians take audiences on a journey back in time to Nashville’s “golden era,” sharing the music made famous by Cramer and Atkins, as well as by the countless country, pop, and rock artists whose careers they impacted, including Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, Dolly Parton and Jim Reeves.
The concert is much more than just music, the two share their personal stories of growing up with “Granddad” and “Uncle Chester,” and audiences will enjoy hearing tales of Nashville’s early recording days as told straight from the source. Nashville Legacy is topped off by a heartwarming series of video duets with the descendants and their legendary predecessors that you’ll have to see to believe.
From a young age, it was evident that Coleman had inherited his grandfather’s “slip note” touch at the piano, as it managed to “slip” its way into even the most elementary songs from his early piano lessons. Coleman’s keen ability to play music by ear led to a childhood spent arranging his own renditions of the songs he loved, just as his “Granddad” did throughout his career. He grew up performing with Cramer at his concerts and on national television.Though he was only 12 years old when Cramer passed away, the close relationship they shared formed the foundation upon which Coleman has built his own music career. He made his Grand Ole Opry debut at age 17, and two years later, he was given the honor of playing for the Medallion Ceremony recognizing Cramer’s induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Taylor started out playing piano and then switched to fiddle around age 10, when Atkins gave her a lesson. She did not begin playing guitar until she was 18. While his health had begun failing by then, Atkins’ friends were able to teach her many of his techniques, and today is an accomplished guitarist and vocalist herself.
See jasoncolemanmusic.com for album information. Coleman and Taylor have produced a number of albums individually or together over the nearly 20 years they have known one another.