authors

Jamie Schilling Fields

Features

Columns | Miscellany

Lee Ann Climbs

Is country-chart-topping Jacksonville native Lee Ann Womack the real thing? Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn are among those who think so. October 1998

The Entertainer

How has Jacksonville native Neal McCoy, a self-described “easy-listenin’ kinda guy,” managed to sell five million country CDs and cassettes? It has little to do with his singing. March 1998

Rare Byrd

Beaumont’s Tracy Byrd may be a hunky, hitmaking hat act, but if it’s all the same, he’d rather be singing an old Bob Wills tune. October 1997

After years of laboring in virtual anonymity as Mr. Amy Grant, Texan Gary Chapman has his own talk show on The Nashville Network and is known by a vastly more flattering moniker: the David Letterman of country. August 1997

Saintly Bernard

Spring’s Crystal Bernard is already a top dog in the sitcom world. Will her new country CD separate her from the pack? January 1997

Magic Johnson

From the Paris Bastille to a duet with Pavarotti to a PBS documentary: Amarillo’s resident opera star, Mary Jane Johnson, has had a career full of high notes, and she has savored every one of them. August 1996