Stonewall Jackson (musician)
| Stonewall Jackson | |
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Stonewall Jackson in 1966
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stonewall Jackson |
| Born | November 6, 1932 Tabor City, North Carolina, US |
| Genres | Country, Honkey-tonk |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Years active | 1956–present |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | Ray Price, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell |
Stonewall Jackson (born November 6, 1932) is an American country singer and musician who achieved his greatest fame during country's "golden" honky tonk era in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Contents
Biography
Early years
Jackson, born in Tabor City, North Carolina, is the youngest of three children. Stonewall is not a nickname; he was named after the Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Some publicity for the singer claimed he was a descendant of the general, although this is extremely unlikely. (General Jackson's only descendants are through his daughter Julia's marriage to William Edmund Christian, and these descendants consequently do not bear the surname "Jackson"; thus, if the musician were to have been descended from the general, it would have to be an indirect descent.)
Stonewall's father died when he was two and his mother moved the family to South Georgia. Jackson grew up there working on his uncle's farm. Jackson enlisted in the Navy in 1950 and was discharged in 1954. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1956.
Recording career
After hearing Jackson's demo tape, Wesley Rose, president of Acuff-Rose Music, arranged for Jackson to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. Jackson became the first artist to join the Grand Ole Opry before obtaining a recording contract.[1] He toured with Ernest Tubb, who became his mentor. Jackson signed to Columbia Records and debuted in 1958 with "Don't Be Angry". The song did not score in the country music top 40, but it got him recognition.
His breakthrough came in the country Top 40 in late 1958, with a song written by a young George Jones, "Life to Go". It peaked at No. 2 in early 1959 and his follow-up record, "Waterloo", was No. 1 for five weeks and crossed over into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it reached No. 4. The track also reached No. 24 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1959.[2] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[3] The song was a haunting and catchy tune that states "Everybody has to meet his Waterloo", meaning their fate. The song cites Adam, Napoleon and Tom Dooley as examples.
His next No. 1 hit came in 1964, with "B.J. the D.J." (about an over-worked country music radio station disc jockey, who crashes his car in a rainstorm because of bad tires). In 1963, Jackson was the first artist to record a live album from the Grand Ole Opry with Old Showboat. Other songs of his include "The Carpet on the Floor", "Why I'm Walkin'", "A Wound Time Can't Erase" and "I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water". Jackson also recorded a cover version of Lobo's 1971 hit, "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo".
From 1958 to 1971, Jackson had 35 Top 40 country hits. Along with Ray Price, Webb Pierce, Carl Smith, Faron Young, Carl Butler, George Jones and Charlie Walker, Jackson is considered a cornerstone, after Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, of the hard-driving honky tonk sound in the late 1950s and early 1960s.[by whom?]
Later years
In 2006, Jackson sued the Grand Ole Opry for $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damage, claiming age discrimination. As a member of the Opry for over fifty years, Jackson believed that management was sidelining him in favor of younger artists. In his court filing, Jackson claimed that Opry general manager Pete Fisher stated that he did not "want any gray hairs on that stage or in the audience, and before I'm done there won't be any." Fisher is also alleged to have told Jackson that he was "too old and too country."[4] The lawsuit was settled on October 3, 2008 for an undisclosed amount and Jackson returned to performing on the show.[5] He has been a member of the Opry since 1956.[1][6]
Jackson lives on a farm in Brentwood, Tennessee with his wife Juanita, who is also his personal manager and operates his song publishing company, Turp Tunes. He has a son, Stonewall Jackson, Jr.
Jackson was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame on October 11, 2012.[7]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | The Dynamic Stonewall Jackson | Columbia | |
| 1962 | The Sadness in a Song | ||
| 1963 | I Love a Song | 2 | |
| 1965 | Trouble & Me | 15 | |
| The Exciting Stonewall Jackson | |||
| Stonewall Jackson's Greatest Hits | 20 | ||
| 1966 | All's Fair in Love 'n' War | 5 | |
| 1967 | Help Stamp Out Loneliness | 36 | |
| Country | |||
| 1968 | Nothing Takes the Place of Loving You | 34 | |
| The Great Old Songs | 38 | ||
| 1969 | Old Country Church | ||
| Greatest Hits 2 | |||
| Tribute to Hank Williams | |||
| 1970 | The Lonesome in Me | ||
| The Real Thing | |||
| 1971 | Recorded Live at the Grand Ole Opry | ||
| Me and You and a Dog Named Boo | |||
| 1972 | The World | ||
| 1976 | Greatest Hits | GRT | |
| 1979 | Platinum Country | Little Darlin' | |
| Bad Ass | |||
| 1981 | Stars of the Grand Ole Opry | 1st Generation | |
| 1983 | Audiograph Live | Audiograph |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | CAN Country | |||
| 1958 | "Life to Go" | 2 | The Dynamic Stonewall Jackson | ||
| 1959 | "Waterloo" | 1 | 4 | ||
| "Smoke Along the Track" | 24 | ||||
| "Igmoo (The Pride of South Central High)" | 29 | 95 | single only | ||
| 1960 | "Mary Don't You Weep" | 12 | 41 | The Dynamic Stonewall Jackson | |
| "Why I'm Walkin'" | 6 | 83 | |||
| "Life of a Poor Boy" | 15 | singles only | |||
| "A Little Guy Called Joe" | 13 | ||||
| 1961 | "Greener Pastures" | 26 | The Sadness in a Song | ||
| "Hungry for Love" | 27 | ||||
| 1962 | "A Wound Time Can't Erase" | 3 | I Love a Song | ||
| "Second Choice" | 18 | The Sadness in a Song | |||
| "One Look at Heaven" | 11 | ||||
| "Leona" | 9 | ||||
| 1963 | "Can't Hang Up the Phone" | 11 | single only | ||
| "Old Showboat" | 8 | Trouble & Me | |||
| "Wild Wild Wind" | 15 | I Love a Song | |||
| 1964 | "B.J. the D.J." | 1 | |||
| "Not My Kind of People" | 24 | Trouble & Me | |||
| "Don't Be Angry" | 4 | 3 | I Love a Song | ||
| 1965 | "I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water" | 8 | Trouble & Me | ||
| "Trouble and Me" | 30 | ||||
| "Lost in the Shuffle" | 22 | Stonewall Jackson's Greatest Hits | |||
| "Poor Red Georgia Dirt" | 44 | singles only | |||
| "If This House Could Talk" | 24 | ||||
| 1966 | "The Minute Men (Are Turning in Their Graves)" | 24 | All's Fair in Love 'N' War | ||
| "Blues Plus Booze (Means I Lose)" | 12 | ||||
| 1967 | "Stamp Out Loneliness" | 5 | Help Stamp Out Loneliness | ||
| "Promises and Hearts (Were Made to Break)" | 15 | ||||
| "This World Holds Nothing (Since You're Gone)" | 27 | Country | |||
| 1968 | "Nothing Takes the Place of Loving You" | 39 | Nothing Takes the Place of Loving You | ||
| "I Believe in Love" | 31 | ||||
| "Angry Words" | 16 | 13 | Greatest Hits 2 | ||
| 1969 | "Somebody's Always Leaving" | 52 | The Lonesome in Me | ||
| "'Never More' Quote the Raven" | 25 | 13 | |||
| "Ship in the Bottle" | 19 | ||||
| 1970 | "Better Days for Mama" | 72 | |||
| "Born That Way" | 72 | The Real Thing | |||
| "Oh Lonesome Me" | 63 | ||||
| 1971 | "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" | 7 | 3 | Me and You and a Dog Named Boo | |
| "Push the Panic Button" | |||||
| 1972 | "That's All This World Needs" (w/ Brentwood Children's Choir) | 51 | The World | ||
| "Torn from the Pages of Life" | 71 | singles only | |||
| 1973 | "I'm Not Strong Enough (To Build Another Dream)" | 70 | |||
| "True Love Is the Thing" | |||||
| "Herman Schwartz" | 41 | 89 | |||
| "Ol' Blue" | |||||
| 1974 | "Don't Be Late" | Greatest Hits | |||
| 1978 | "Spirit of Saint Louis" | Bad Ass | |||
| "Walk Out on Me (Before I Walk All Over You)" | single only | ||||
| "My Favorite Sin" | Bad Ass | ||||
| 1979 | "Point of No Return" | singles only | |||
| "Listening to Johnny Paycheck" | |||||
| 1981 | "Full Moon Empty Pockets" | Stars of the Grand Ole Opry | |||
| 1983 | "Let the Sun Shine on the People" | Audiograph Live | |||
References
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- ↑ Yahoo! News, 1/12/07
- ↑ "Stonewall Jackson's Lawsuit Against Opry Settled" Cmt.com, October 6, 2008
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Trott, Walt (1998). "Stonewall Jackson". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 259.
External links
- Stonewall Jackson at AllMusic Allmusic overview
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- Use mdy dates from May 2015
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2009
- 1932 births
- Living people
- People from Columbus County, North Carolina
- American country singers
- American country singer-songwriters
- American male singers
- Grand Ole Opry members
- Country musicians from North Carolina
