Flea Market and New Merchandise Update

Country music, with its harmonious ensemble of banjos, harmonicas, electric guitars, violins, and acoustic guitars, has captured many fans from around the world. Although it began in 1920s, the music gained its popularity during the 1940s. With many styles and sub-genres of country music nowadays, there are still many old country songs that remain close to the heart of their lovers. Here are the top four of evergreen country songs of all time.

1. George Jones – “He Stopped Loving Her Today”

The song was written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman for the American country singer George Jones. The song was released in April 1980 and was included in Jones’ album “I am What I Am”. For six years, the song remained Jones’ number one single. The song tells about a man who never gave up loving a woman. The day the man stopped loving her was the day he died. Surprisingly, the woman of his life turned up at his funeral.

2. Patsy Cline – “Crazy”

Although originally written by Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline’s version received the most positive reviews and became the number two hit in 1962. In 1961, Willie Nelson, who at the time had written many hit songs but had not yet succeeded with his own recording, offered the song to country singer Billy Walker, which was turned down. The song then went to Patsy Cline who successfully brought the song to be listed in the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles for 21 weeks.

3. Hank Williams, Sr. – “Your Cheatin’ Heart”

The song was written and recorded by Hank Williams, Sr. in 1952, but was not released until his death in 1953. The slow blues ballad, telling the true story of a lover who was guilty of cheating on the singer, was inspired by Williams’ first wife Audrey Williams. The song has been recorded by many notable singers from various genres such as Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Patsy Cline, Van Morrison, Fats Domino, and LeAnn Rimes.

4. Marty Robbins – “El Paso”

“El Paso” was first released in September 1959 in Robbins’ album “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs”. The single not only became a hit on country music charts; pop music charts also received the song very well. In early 1960, both music charts placed the song on their number one position. In 1961, “El Paso” received a Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording. The four-minute and thirty-eight second song tells the story of a cowboy from El Paso, Texas who fell in love with Feleena, a beautiful girl who danced at Rosa’s Cantina.

Have you ever watched a video online or a television commercial and question how and/or where do they get the awesome, high quality music playing in the background? The individuals/companies behind the media had to acquire what is known as royalty free music. What is royalty free music?

Audio files that are licensed by a customer for use in media-related activities such as film, radio or television

This article was written to provide insight as well as suggestions on how to acquire the best royalty free music online. To begin, here are some things you should look out for:

Sources with free audio download

Websites that provide free audio files usually come with a catch. You have to pay additionally for licensing. You can always download the audio files for non-commercial use, but the only way to avoid a potential lawsuit is to pay extra. There are also websites that provide free audio downloads without licensing information. I would suggest avoiding these sites all together if you plan on using their music commercially. You might be thinking “why would anyone copyright free music?” Well, you would be surprised to know that many of these sites get their music from untrustworthy sources. Some even upload copyrighted music and offer it for free.

Sources with low quality playback

If you are looking for royalty free music online on a website where the playback quality is short of outstanding in your opinion, then you should probably leave. It is true that some websites provide low quality playback intentionally to prevent persons from wanting to steal their music. However, you may find that they may not have a choice in the matter, as the original audio file may already be of low quality. As of late, the more trusted sources that offer royalty free music are using tagged audio files for track previews. What I mean by this is that they provide tags or identifiers throughout the track, as this has proven in recent years to be the most effective way to preventing audio theft online. An example of this could be the website’s name being repeated every four bars throughout the preview.

Sources that don’t provide any licensing information

Websites that do not give any kind of information pertaining to licensing are likely untrustworthy. If you are especially cautious, you may want to contact the website owners about this. Any trustworthy website should have a contact system; most are named the “Contact Us” link.

Sources that don’t provide any audio playback

This may be the most important thing to look out for. If a website can’t provide a preview of what you might be interested in, then you are probably wasting your time there.

So where should you look?

Ideally, sources that are to be utilized for finding royalty free music would be those that offer:

– High Quality Playback
– Licensing Options (such as Standard or Unlimited)
– Variety

The only drawback to using these sites would be that they can be very expensive, and that’s just for a single audio file.

Of course you should know that there are sources out there that provide affordable solutions to high quality, royalty free audio. Feel free to visit my website for more information or if you prefer you can always explore different sources on your own. I hope this was helpful.

Cheers.

Love songs touch people in a way that nothing else can. They can sway the most prideful person to forgive. Love songs help you remember when and why you fell in love. Love songs are for every season, every person, and every relationship. Whether you’re in the 9th grade and had your first kiss, or have been married for 5 decades and still in love, love songs are for everyone. Love songs generally consist of falling in love, meeting someone for the first time, missing someone who is not with you, or heart break.

Many popular love songs had girl’s names. For example there’s the hit “Think of Laura” by Christopher Cross. Toto sang about a girl named “Rosanna”. Steven Perry of Journey brought himself to tears while singing “Oh Sherry”. There’s also the pop hit “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s.

Even rap got into those type of songs. LL Cool J told the world that “I need Love”. The ghetto hit “You’re All I Need” by Method Man & Mary J Blige actually won them an MTV Award.

There are different types of themes for songs. You have songs for weddings, romantic country songs, cheesy teenage songs about their love, R&B romantic songs, heavy metal rock ballads, jazz songs are talking about love, blues deals with this subject, and yes, reggae is not immune to love, eiher. Love songs say we will get through this. You have for example Phil Collins hit “Against All Odds”. Some love songs say it hurts but it’s worth it as in Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”. Some of the songs embrace the bliss and euphoria of being with your soul mate as in Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”. There are songs that say it’ll be alright and it’s us against the world as in Bon Jovi’s “You Were Born to be My Baby”.

Some so called romantic songs defined a decade: 70’s were the year of love, long hair, and totally open hearts that embraced the intense emotion of love. The Soulful Al Green said “Let’s Stay Together”. Donna Summer went quasi instrumental with her interpretation of “I feel Love” While Nazareth went to the dark side with “Love Hurts”.

The 80’s were more about big hair, makeup, all night parties and hangovers, but love made their way onto the airwaves anyway. Lionel Richie woke us up with “Hello”, and made every guy want to call his girlfriend right away. Kenny Rogers made every woman cry with “Lady”. Foreigner made every woman feel wanted with “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” Chris DeBurgh fascinated us with “Lady in Red” (which also became a very popular wedding song during the 80’s). Whitney Houston had one of the most popular love songs in the 80’s with “The Greatest Love of All”. Her majestic voice made even the men tear up (though they’ll never admit it).

Then along came the 90’s with much darker, and heart wrenching romantic songs. Because grunge became so popular with it’s industrial, hard rock edginess, it comes as no surprise that most love songs of the 90’s were R&B and soft rock. Take Mariah Carey and Boys II Men’s “One Sweet Day” for example. IT was a soft R&B ballad which set the town for many more 90’s duet love songs. John Michael Montgomery sang with All-4-One and produced the hit “I Will Love You Like That”. Barbara Streisand and Bryan Adams came together to sing “I Finally Found Someone”. However, Celine Dion (who sang solo on this one) had the most famous song of the 90’s with “My Heart Will Go On”. It remains the number one selling love song of all time.

The decade beginning with 2000 began with a redefining. We were not the cheesy generation of the 80’s. Neither were we the dark, gothic “generation X” of the 90’s. We still though, had love songs. Kimberly Locke told her man he was the “8th World Wonder”. Michelle Branch told us to “Breath”. Mary J Blige touched every heart with the R&B hit “Can’t Be Without You”. Jennifer Lopez wowed us with the remake of “You’re My Everything”. Mariah Carey, Joe, and 98 Degrees didn’t get enough credit with their powerful love ballad “Thank God I found you”. The 2000-2009 decade may not have had a musical identity, but the songs from this period had lots of passion.

Things change. People change, and so do generations. Yet love songs are eternal. They define us in ways nothing else can.