Randy Parton, namesake of one of the worst boondoggles in recent N.C. political history, has died at age 67.
The bass-playing younger brother of cultural icon Dolly Parton died of cancer, according to a statement from the Parton family.
Randy Parton saddled state and local taxpayers with millions of dollars in debt from a performing arts center he arranged in 2005 with subsidies from a regional economic development partnership and money from other investors.
Carolina Journal reported extensively on the project.
The Randy Parton Theatre was a 35,000 square-foot, 1,500-seat music hall off Interstate 95 in Roanoke Rapids. Developers pitched the theater as the anchor of Carolina Crossroads, a planned 1,000-acre entertainment, retail, and lodging complex.
The Vietnam War: A History in Song
The ‘First Television War’ was also documented in over 5,000 songs. From protest to patriotism, popular music reveals the complexity of America’s two-decade long experience struggling against communism in Vietnam.
US soldiers gather around a guitar player during Operation Yellowstone, 18 January 1968.
In the early 1970s, an obscure Louisiana-based country singer called Bob Necaise released ‘Mr. Where is Viet-Nam’. In the song, Lil Gary Dee, a ‘little boy not yet four years old’, asks:
Mister where is Vietnam?
I want to see my daddy
Will you take me there today?
By December 1961, under President John F. Kennedy, the US had 3,205 military personnel stationed in Vietnam. By the end of the 1960s, this enigmatic country would become the most controversial issue facing the US, dividing society, debated in Congress, demonstrated for and against on the streets – and documented in song.
Celeste and I have made a New Year s Resolution. No, it s not more exercise or a dry January. It s not eating more healthy or spending more time with the family. Our resolution is a little different. Your WBLM morning show has pledged that in 2021, that whenever we play the Charlie Daniels Classic, The Devil Went Down to Georgia , that we will immediately play The Devil Went Down to Jamaica immediately afterward. Why? because whenever we DO play the CDB Classic, we always get a MILLION calls to play the Jamaica version. So why fight it? We started playing the David Allan Coe version of the song on the Blimp Morning Show a lot in 2020. And now, we get a ton of requests for it!