The Biscuit Lady Dies from The Loveless Cafe

Carol Fay Ellison, best known as Loveless Café’s Biscuit Lady, died on Monday after a three-and-a-half week hospitalization.

“A trusted mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, she was a vital link in the Loveless Café tradition and will be missed by many,” said Tom Morales, owner of Loveless, in a prepared statement.

Ellison began her career at Loveless Café as a dishwasher when she was an 18-year-old high school student. She went on to raise the restaurant’s fame with her made-from-scratch biscuits and preserves.

The Nashville native was a national celebrity, having competed against celebrity chef Bobby Flay on Throwdown! and made biscuits with Conan O’Brien and Martha Stewart, among numerous other TV stars.

Thanks to Claudia Pinto

Jamie Tate and 82nd Airborne Chorus Record Special Track at Nashville’s Black River Music Group Studios

Bodell Records recording artist Jamie Tate was in Nashville last month to record a special song with the world-renowned 82nd Airborne All-American Chorus called “I’ll Give My All.”

The session took place at Black River Music Group’s recording studio, where the 82nd Airborne Chorus contributed back-up vocals to Tate’s patriotic anthem. Hit songwriters Lane Caudell and Blake Mevis co-wrote “I’ll Give My All” with Tate.

Rascal Flatts Approaches 10th year Anniversary

With the turn of the calendar, April brings Rascal Flatts to a significant anniversary. Ten years ago, the band released its very first single, “Prayin’ For Daylight,” on April 18 then made its Grand Ole Opry debut 10 days later.

In the ensuing decade, the Flatts became the biggest band in country music, winning the Country Music Association’s Vocal Group of the Year award six years in succession. In fact, it happened so regularly that the guys started to take the honor for granted. That made the most recent awards in November a little bit of a shock: Lady Antebellum broke the string.

“You can’t ever get to a place to where you’re complacent, and you just expect tthings to happen,” bass player Jay DeMarcus says. “We don’t just expect to win awards, but after six, seven years of winning the Vocal Group award consecutively, you kinda get to a place to where you’re grateful for it, but after you won it a few years in a row, I mean quite honestly you’re human. So you go, ‘Oh yeah, well, we had a few hits this year, we’re gonna go win the Vocal Group award.’”

When that didn’t happen, it forced Jay, Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox to figuratively look in the mirror. Music industry voters tend to move on after a few years, and with a full decade under their belts, there’s no longer an air of newness about Rascal Flatts. Ultimately, they recognized that the hardware from the industry isn’t nearly as important as the concert ticket sales and the loyalty of their fan base.

“You see somebody like Lady A come along and some of these great bands that are comin’ up behind us — you know, Zac Brown and people like that that are havin’ tremendous success,” Jay notes. “I think we’re at a place now to where we’ve decided you know what? Don’t worry about awards. Let’s keep doin’ what we do, keep cuttin’ the songs that we cut and keep believin’ in the thing that brought us to the dance in the first place. And quite honestly that’s great music.”

Rascal Flatts is, however, still in the running for trophies. The band is up for Top Vocal Group at the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas April 18. The group will stick around the next night as the ACM shoots a CBS special in honor of Brooks & Dunn.

Thanks to Tom Roland