{"id":2249,"date":"2019-04-17T11:25:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T10:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2019-04-17T11:27:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T10:27:53","slug":"grand-ole-oprys-hal-ketchum-afflicted-by-alzheimers-stops-performing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/04\/17\/grand-ole-oprys-hal-ketchum-afflicted-by-alzheimers-stops-performing\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Ole Opry\u2019s Hal Ketchum, Afflicted by Alzheimer\u2019s, Stops Performing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Singer-songwriter\u00a0Hal Ketchum\u00a0is suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s disease and has retired from performing. An announcement to that effect was posted by his wife, Andrea, on Facebook Sunday (April 14).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has been battling this for some time now,\u201d the announcement said, \u201cbut because of his love for his fans he continued performing as long as it was possible \u2026 Hal is otherwise healthy and happy, enjoying time with his family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2250\" src=\"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990-1024x787.jpg\" alt=\"GettyImages-83657283-1555341990\" width=\"676\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990-1024x787.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990-768x590.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990-676x519.jpg 676w, https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GettyImages-83657283-1555341990.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1994, Ketchum, 66, had a string of Top 5 singles in the 1990s, beginning with \u201cSmall Town Saturday Night,\u201d which went to No. 2 in 1991. He followed it with such hits as \u201cPast the Point of Rescue,\u201d \u201cSure Love,\u201d \u201cHearts Are Gonna Roll,\u201d \u201cMama Knows the Highway\u201d and \u201cStay Forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born April 9, 1953 in Greenwich, New York, Ketchum first made a name for himself after he moved to Texas. Initially, he supported himself as a carpenter. In 1986, he entered the new talent competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival, where Pat Alger, now a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, was serving as of the judges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were already thinking we knew who the winner was and wasn\u2019t going to be,\u201d Alger recalled on Facebook after learning of Ketchum\u2019s affliction, \u201cwhen an impossibly handsome guy from New Braunfels [TX] stepped up to the microphone, accompanied by a bass player and guitarist. About a minute into his performance, we were suddenly paying sharp attention and nodding to each other and smiling, and Hal Ketchum became immediately one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He was, of course, the winner of the whole shebang.\u201d<\/p>\n<iframe  id=\"_ytid_97168\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BDbBBq1Dn2U?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=1&autohide=2&hl=en_US&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<p>Ketchum moved to Nashville later that same year. After releasing an album of his own songs,\u00a0<em>Threadbare Alibis<\/em>, on an independent label in 1988, he signed to Curb Records, on which he would eventually release nine albums and score all his single hits.<\/p>\n<p>His last record to chart \u2014 \u201cJust This Side of Heaven (Hal-lelujah)\u201d \u2014 came in 2006 and peaked at No. 47 in Billboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Singer-songwriter\u00a0Hal Ketchum\u00a0is suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s disease and has retired from performing. An announcement to that effect was posted by his wife, Andrea, on Facebook Sunday (April 14). \u201cHe has been battling this for some time now,\u201d the announcement said, \u201cbut because of his love for his fans he continued performing as long as it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[395,39,40,394],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mgid_ao_image_cmt.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2251,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions\/2251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}