Arts & Culture

Grammy Winner Larry Cordle to Perform at Niles Center for American Music

Larry Cordle performs "Mama, Don't Forget to Pray for Me" with Diamond Rio at the release party for his CD "All-Star Duets."

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 16, 2015) — Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Larry Cordle will perform a storyteller’s concert at University of Kentucky's John Jacob Niles Center for American Music 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21. Cordle will perform songs from his full catalog of country hits and provide a backdrop of stories behind his music at this free public concert.

Cordle, who is known for penning country hits such as "Highway 40 Blues," "Lonesome Standard Time" and "Momma Don’t Forget to Pray for Me," is also well-respected in bluegrass music circles and was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame this year.

His most recent CD, titled "All-Star Duets," is a compilation of his biggest country hits, performed as bluegrass versions with the artists who made them famous. "Duets" includes performances with major country artists such as Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Travis Tritt, Kathy Mattea, Trisha Yearwood and Ricky Skaggs.

An Eastern Kentucky native, Cordle wants to be remembered as someone who brought happiness to people’s lives.

"Any person you see in life has a personal problem that you don’t know about. They have the weight of the world on them. I see this at shows, but for that moment while the music is going on, that’s off them," Cordle said.

Cordle's songs are influenced by his upbringing in the small community of Blaine, in Johnson County, Kentucky. Songs such as "Working End of a Hoe," "Hello My Name is Coal" and "The Fields of Home" reflect rural sensibilities that are a common thread in his work.

"It’s very important to know where you came from, and Appalachia has been with me all of my life," he said.

A group of local musicians has been assembled especially for the concert to perform with Cordle. Ron Pen, professor of musicology at UK School of Music and director of the Niles Center will play fiddle; Tanner Jones, a music graduate student at UK, will play banjo; and Stephanie Jeter, who is a multi-instrumentalist and faculty member of the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State University, will play bass.

Cordle, who has received multiple Grammy nominations, received the award in 2004 for his work on a tribute album titled "Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers." His song "Murder on Music Row" received the Country Music Association Award for Best Song in 2000. Cordle's songs have appeared on country albums that have sold more than 50 million copies.

The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, located in the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center, is the collaborative effort of the UK  School of Music, UK Libraries and the UK College of Fine Arts. Named after Kentucky musician and composer John Jacob Niles, the center creates a combined focus on research and performance of American music that transcends the past into the present.

The Larry Cordle concert on UK’s campus is co-sponsored by the Robinson Scholars Program, the Niles Center for American Music and the Appalachian Center. For more information, contact Jeff Spradling at 859-257-5230 or jspra2@uky.edu

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu