The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage. Though primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of Protestant Northern European nations on the Continent, and from the second half of the 18th century some South American, United States and other overseas youth joined in. The tradition was extended to include more of the middle class after rail and steamship travel made the journey less of a burden, and Thomas Cook made the "Cook's Tour" a byword.

The New York Times recently described the Grand Tour in this way:

The primary value of the Grand Tour, it was believed, lay in the exposure both to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. In addition, it provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music. A grand tour could last from several months to several years. It was commonly undertaken in the company of a Cicerone, a knowledgeable guide or tutor. The Grand Tour had more than superficial cultural importance; as E.P. Thompson opined, "ruling-class control in the 18th century was located primarily in a cultural hegemony, and only secondarily in an expression of economic or physical (military) power."^[1]

The Grand Tourist, like Francis Basset, would become familiar with Antiquities, though this altar is the invention of the painter Pompeo Batoni, 1778.^{[citation needed]}

In essence the Grand Tour was neither a scholar's pilgrimage nor a religious one,^[2] though a pleasurable stay in Venice and a cautious residence in Rome were essential. Catholic Grand Tourists followed the same routes as Protestant Whigs. Since the 17th century a tour to such places was also considered essential for budding young artists to understand proper painting and sculpture techniques, though the trappings of the Grand Tour— valets and coachmen, perhaps a cook, certainly a "bear-leader" or scholarly guide— were beyond their reach. The advent of popular guides, such as the Richardsons', did much to popularize such trips, and following the artists themselves, the elite considered travel to such centres as necessary rites of passage. For gentlemen, some works of art were essential to demonstrate the breadth and polish they had received from their tour: in Rome antiquaries like Thomas Jenkins provided access to private collections of antiquities, among which enough proved to be for sale that the English market raised the price of such things, as well as for coins and medals, which formed more portable souvenirs and a respected gentleman's guide to ancient history. Pompeo Batoni made a career of painting English milordi posed with graceful ease among Roman antiquities. Many continued on to Naples, where they viewed Herculaneum and Pompeii, but few ventured far into southern Italy and fewer still to Greece, still under Turkish rule.

History[link]

Portrait of Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, on his Grand Tour with his physician Dr John Moore and the latter's son John. A view of Geneva is in the distance where they stayed for two years. Painted by Jean Preudhomme in 1774.

In Britain, Thomas Coryat's travel book Coryat's Crudities (1611), published during the Twelve Years' Truce, was an early influence on the Grand Tour but it was the far more extensive tour through Italy as far as Naples undertaken by the 'Collector' Earl of Arundel, together with his wife and children in 1613-14 that established the most significant precedent. This is partly because he asked Inigo Jones, not yet established as an architect but already known as a 'great traveller' and masque designer, to act as his cicerone (guide).^[3] Larger numbers of tourists began their tours after the Peace of Münster in 1648. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the term (perhaps its introduction to English) was by Richard Lassels (c. 1603–1668), an expatriate Roman Catholic priest, in his book The Voyage of Italy, which was published posthumously in Paris in 1670 and then in London.^[4] Lassels's introduction listed four areas in which travel furnished "an accomplished, consummate Traveller": the intellectual, the social, the ethical (by the opportunity of drawing moral instruction from all the traveller saw), and the political.

The idea of traveling for the sake of curiosity and learning was a developing idea in the 17th century. With John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), it was argued, and widely accepted, that knowledge comes entirely from the external senses, that what one knows comes from the physical stimuli to which one has been exposed. Thus, one could "use up" the environment, taking from it all it offers, requiring a change of place. Travel, therefore, was necessary for one to develop the mind and expand knowledge of the world. As a young man at the outset of his account of a repeat Grand Tour, the historian Edward Gibbon remarked that "According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman." Consciously adapted for intellectual self-improvement, Gibbon was "revisiting the Continent on a larger and more liberal plan"; most Grand Tourists did not pause more than briefly in libraries. On the eve of the Romantic era he played a significant part in introducing, William Beckford wrote a vivid account of his Grand Tour that made Gibbon's unadventurous Italian tour look distinctly conventional.^[5]

The typical 18th-century sentiment was that of the studious observer traveling through foreign lands reporting his findings on human nature for those unfortunate enough to have stayed home. Recounting one's observations to society at large to increase its welfare was considered an obligation; the Grand Tour flourished in this mindset.^[6]

Northerners found the contrast between Roman ruins and modern peasants of the Roman Campagna an educational lesson in vanities^{[citation needed]} (painting by Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem, 1661, Mauritshuis)

The Grand Tour not only provided a liberal education but allowed those who could afford it the opportunity to buy things otherwise unavailable at home, and it thus increased participants' prestige and standing. Grand Tourists would return with crates of art, books, pictures, sculpture, and items of culture, which would be displayed in libraries, cabinets, gardens, and drawing rooms, as well as the galleries built purposely for their display; The Grand Tour became a symbol of wealth and freedom. Artists who especially thrived on Grand Tourists included Carlo Maratti, who was first patronized by John Evelyn as early as 1645,^[7] Pompeo Batoni the portraitist, and the vedutisti such as Canaletto, Pannini and Guardi. The less well-off could return with an album of Piranesi etchings.

The "perhaps" in Gibbon's opening remark cast an ironic shadow over his resounding statement.^[8] Critics of the Grand Tour derided its lack of adventure. "The tour of Europe is a paltry thing", said one 18th century critic, "a tame, uniform, unvaried prospect".^[9] The Grand Tour was said to reinforce the old preconceptions and prejudices about national characteristics, as Jean Gailhard's Compleat Gentleman (1678) observes: "French courteous. Spanish lordly. Italian amorous. German clownish."^[9] The deep suspicion with which Tour was viewed at home in England, where it was feared that the very experiences that completed the British gentleman might well undo him, were epitomised in the sarcastic nativist view of the ostentatiously "well-travelled" maccaroni of the 1760s and 1770s.

After the arrival of steam-powered transportation, around 1825, the Grand Tour custom continued, but it was of a qualitative difference — cheaper to undertake, safer, easier, open to anyone. During much of the 19th century, most educated young men of privilege undertook the Grand Tour. Germany and Switzerland came to be included in a more broadly defined circuit. Later, it became fashionable for young women as well; a trip to Italy, with a spinster aunt as chaperon, was part of the upper-class woman's education, as in E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View. At least into the late 1960s organized bus tours staffed by teachers took American high school graduates on eight week trips across Europe. These roughly followed the traditional route, but flying the longer segments expanded the area covered to include parts of Scandinavia.

Travel itinerary[link]

Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1640-1702), painted in classical dress in Rome by Carlo Maratti

The most common itinerary of the Grand Tour^[10] shifted across generations in the cities it embraced, but the British tourist usually began in Dover, England and crossed the English Channel to Ostend,^[11] in the Spanish Netherlands/Belgium, or Calais, or Le Havre in France. From there the tourist, usually accompanied by a tutor (known colloquially as a "bear-leader") and if wealthy enough a league of servants, could rent or acquire a coach (which could be resold in any city or disassembled and packed across the Alps, as in Giacomo Casanova's travels, who resold it on completion), or opt to make the trip by boat as far as the Alps, either traveling up the Seine to Paris, or up the Rhine to Basel.

Upon hiring a French-speaking guide (French served as the language of the elite in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries) the tourist and his entourage would travel to Paris. There the traveler might undertake lessons in French, dancing, fencing, and riding. The appeal of Paris lay in the sophisticated language and manners of French high society, including courtly behavior and fashion. This served the purpose of preparing the young man for a leadership position at home, often in government or diplomacy.

From Paris he would typically go to urban Switzerland for a while, often to Geneva (the cradle of the Protestant Reformation) or Lausanne. ("Alpinism" or mountaineering developed in the 19th century.) Sometimes he would go to Spain, to visit Barcelona, and in rare occasions, the itinerary would include Madrid and Seville. From there the traveler would endure a difficult crossing over the Alps into northern Italy (such as at the St. Bernard Pass), which included dismantling the carriage and luggage. If wealthy enough, he might be carried over the hard terrain by servants.

Once in Italy, the tourist would visit Turin (and, less often, Milan), then might spend a few months in Florence, where there was a considerable Anglo-Italian society accessible to traveling Englishmen "of quality" and where the Tribuna of the Uffizi gallery brought together in one space the monuments of High Renaissance paintings and Roman sculptures that would inspire picture galleries adorned with antiquities at home, with side trips to Pisa, then move on to Padua,^[12] Bologna, and Venice. The British idea of Venice as the "locus of decadent Italianate allure" made it an epitome and cultural setpiece of the Grand Tour.^[13][14]

From Venice the traveler went to Rome to study the ruins of ancient Rome, and the masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture of Rome's Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Some travelers also visited Naples to study music, and (after the mid-18th century) to appreciate the recently-discovered archaeological sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and perhaps for the adventurous ascent of Mount Vesuvius. Later in the period the more adventurous, especially if provided with a yacht, might attempt Sicily (the site of Greek ruins) or even Greece itself. But Naples - or later Paestum further south - was the usual terminus.

From here the traveler traversed the Alps heading north through to the German-speaking parts of Europe. The traveler might stop first in Innsbruck before visiting Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam, with perhaps some study time at the universities in Munich or Heidelberg. From there travelers visited Holland and Flanders (with more gallery-going and art appreciation) before returning across the Channel to England.

Published accounts[link]

William Beckford's Grand Tour through Europe shown in red.

Published (and often polished) accounts of personal experiences on the Grand Tour provide illuminating detail and a first-hand perspective of the experience. Of some accounts offered in their own lifetimes, Jeremy Black^[15] detects the element of literary artifice in these and cautions that they should be approached as travel literature rather than unvarnished accounts. He lists as examples Joseph Addison, John Andrews,^[16] William Thomas Beckford, whose Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents was a published account of his letters back home in 1780, embellished with stream-of-consciousness associations, William Coxe,^[17] Elizabeth Craven,^[18] John Moore, tutor to successive dukes of Hamilton,^[19] Samuel Jackson Pratt, Tobias Smollett, Philip Thicknesse,^[20] and Arthur Young.

The Grand Tour on television[link]

In 2009, the Grand Tour featured prominently in a PBS miniseries based on the novel Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Produced with masterful attention to detail, and in sumptuous settings, mainly Venice, it faithfully portrayed the Grand Tour as an essential ritual for entry to English high society.

Kevin McCloud presented Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour on Channel 4 during the late summer and early autumn of 2009. The four part series saw Kevin retrace the popular tour by British architects through the last four centuries.

In 2005, British art historian Brian Sewell followed in the footsteps of the Grand Tourist for a 10 part television series Brian Sewell's Grand Tour. Produced by UK's Channel Five, Sewell travelled across Italy by car stopping off in Rome, Florence, Vesuvius, Naples, Pompeii, Turin, Milan, Cremona, Siena, Bologna, Vicenza, Paestum, Urbino, Tivoli. His journey concluded in Venice at a masked ball.

In 1998, the BBC produced an art history series Sister Wendy's Grand Tour presented by Carmelite nun Sister Wendy. Ostensibly an art history series, the journey takes her from Madrid to St. Petersburg with stop offs to see the great masterpieces.

See also[link]

• Tourism
• Pop-culture tourism
• Grand tourer
• Gap year
• Milord
• Study abroad
• Hippie trail

Notes[link]

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2009)

• Adam Matthews Digital: 'The Grand Tour'.
• Elizabeth Bohls and Ian Duncan, ed. (2005). Travel Writing 1700-1830 : An Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-284051-7
• James Buzard (2002), "The Grand Tour and after (1660-1840)", in The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing. ISBN 0-521-78140-X
• Paul Fussell (1987), "The Eighteenth Century and the Grand Tour", in The Norton Book of Travel, ISBN 0-393-02481-4
• Edward Chaney (1985), The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion: Richard Lassels and 'The Voyage of Italy' in the seventeenth century(CIRVI, Geneva-Turin, 1985.
• Edward Chaney (2004), "Richard Lassels": entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Edward Chaney, The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance (Frank Cass, London and Portland OR, 1998; revised edition, Routledge 2000). ISBN 0-7146-4474-9.
• Edward Chaney ed. (2003), The Evolution of English Collecting (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003).
• Geoffrey Trease, The Grand Tour (Yale University Press) 1991.
• Andrew Witon and Ilaria Bignamini, Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth-Century,Tate Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1997.
• Clare Hornsby (ed.) "The Impact of Italy: The Grand Tour and Beyond", British School at Rome, 2000.
• Ilaria Bignamini and Clare Hornsby, "Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth Century Rome" (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010).
• Roma Britannica: Art Patronage and Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Rome, eds. D. Marshall, K. Wolfe and S. Russell, British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 147-70.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Grand Tour

• [1]
• [2]
• The Grand Tour
• Grand Tour online at the Getty Museum
• [In Our Time: The Grand Tour: Jeremy Black, Edward Chaney and Chloe Chard. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548fs]
• "Grand Tour" an exhibition project of the Swedish artist Matts Leiderstam
• Voyagers and Voyeurs - Travellers in 19th-century France, an anthology
• Contemporary Grand Tour in Italy, Pictures and quotes
• Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth Century Rome

George Jones
Jones performing at Harrah's Metropolis in Metropolis, Illinois in June 2002
Background information
Birth name	George Glenn Jones
Also known as	No Show Jones[1] The Possum[1]
Born	(1931-09-12) September 12, 1931 (age 80) Saratoga, Texas, USA
Origin	Vidor, Texas, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	singer-songwriter
Instruments	acoustic guitar vocals
Years active	1954–present
Labels	Starday Mercury United Artists Musicor Epic MCA Nashville Asylum Bandit
Associated acts	Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard
Website	www.GeorgeJones.com

George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.

Over the past 20 years, Jones has frequently been referred to as the greatest living country singer.^[2][3] Country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved."

Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for tales of his drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages as for his prolific career of making records and touring. His wild lifestyle led to Jones missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones."^[1] With the help of his fourth wife, Nancy, he has been sober for over 10 years. Jones has had more than 150 hits during his career, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists. The shape of his nose and facial features have given Jones the nickname "The Possum." Jones said in an interview that he has chosen to tour only about 60 dates a year.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Vidor, Texas, with his brother and five sisters.^[4] When he was seven, his parents bought a radio and he heard country music for the first time. Given a guitar when he was nine, Jones was soon busking for money on the streets of Beaumont.

He left home at 16 and went to Jasper, Texas, where he sang and played on the radio station. He married his first wife Dorothy when he was 19, but they divorced within a year. The Korean War was underway, and he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed in California for his entire service. Not long after his discharge, his music career took off.^[5]

Wild years[link]

Jones's identity was closely tied to his alcoholism. One of the best known stories of Jones' drinking days happened when he was married to his second wife, Shirley Corley. Jones recalled Shirley making it physically impossible for him to travel to Beaumont, located 8 miles away, and buy liquor. Because Jones would not walk that far, she would hide the keys to each of their cars they owned before leaving. She, however, did not hide the keys to the lawn mower. Jones recollects being upset at not being able to find any keys before looking out the window and at a light that shone over their property. He then described his thoughts, saying: "There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition. I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did."^[6]

In her 1979 autobiography, former wife Tammy Wynette recalled waking at 1 AM to find her husband gone: "I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away. When I pulled into the parking lot there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, `Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me.'"^[7]

Jones later jokingly sang of the lawn mower incident in his 1996 single "Honky Tonk Song", and parodied his arrest in the music video.

In the 1970s, a manager introduced Jones to cocaine before a show, because he was too tired to perform. His self-destructive behavior brought him close to death and he was in an Alabama psychiatric hospital by the end of the decade. Celebrated by some of his fans as the hard-drinkin', fast-livin' spiritual-son of his idol, Hank Williams, Jones missed so many engagements that he gained the nickname of "No-Show Jones." (The song "No-Show Jones" makes fun of Jones and other country singers.) He was often penniless and admits that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash came to his financial aid during this time.

Poking fun at his past, three country music videos would feature Jones arriving on a riding lawn mower. The first was Hank Williams, Jr's "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" in 1984 while the second was Vince Gill's "One More Last Chance" in 1993. Gill's song mentioned the mower with the lines "She might have took my car keys, but she forgot about my old John Deere." At the end of Gill's video, he is leaving the golf course on a John Deere tractor and greets Jones with "Hey, possum." Jones, arriving at the golf course driving a John Deere riding lawn mower with a set of golf clubs mounted behind him, replies to Gill "Hey, sweet pea." The third is John Rich's "Country Done Come to Town" and shows George mowing grass on the rooftop on a zero turn mower.

The Jones Boys band[link]

George Jones has had many great musicians over the years, with many finding much success in Nashville as session players and singers. These singers include: Hank Singer, Brittany Allyn, Sonny Curtis, Ron Gaddis, Kent Goodson, Bobby Burkhead, Dan Schafer^[8] and Steve Hinson.

Marriages[link]

Jones was married twice before he was 24. His 1950 marriage to Dorothy Bonvillion lasted a year, but they had a daughter, Susan. In 1954, Jones married Shirley Ann Corley. This marriage lasted until 1968 and produced two sons, Jeffrey and Bryan. He married Tammy Wynette in 1969. They stayed married for six years and had a daughter, Tamala Georgette. As Georgette Jones, she is a country singer and has performed on stage with her father. Jones married his current wife, Nancy Sepulvado, on March 4, 1983 in Woodville, Texas. Nancy became his manager. Jones credits his wife Nancy for rescuing him from drinking and cocaine. They now live in Franklin, Tennessee.

Wives[link]

• Dorothy Bonvillion (1950 – 1951) (divorced) 1 daughter
• Shirley Ann Corley (September 14, 1954 – June 11, 1968) (divorced) 2 sons
• Tammy Wynette (February 16, 1969 – March 13, 1975) (divorced) 1 daughter
• Nancy Sepulvado (March 4, 1983 – present)

Awards and honors[link]

Jones has received many honors during his long career, from Most Promising New Country Vocalist in 1956, being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992, and being named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2008. In 2012 he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. At the ceremony his longtime friend Merle Haggard paid tribute to him.^[9]

He served as judge in 2008 for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.^[10]

Number one country hits[link]

1. "White Lightning" (1959)
2. "Tender Years" (1961)
3. "She Thinks I Still Care" (1962)
4. "Walk Through This World with Me" (1967)
5. "We're Gonna Hold On" (with Tammy Wynette) (1973)
6. "The Grand Tour (song)" (1974)
7. "The Door (George Jones song)" (1975)
8. "Golden Ring (song)" (with Tammy Wynette) (1976)
9. "Near You" (with Tammy Wynette) (1977)
10. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)
11. "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" (with Barbara Mandrell) (1981)
12. "Still Doin' Time" (1981)
13. "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard) (1982)
14. "I Always Get Lucky with You" (1983)

Discography[link]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Marine Corps portal

• Academy of Country Music
• List of country musicians
• Country Music Association
• List of best-selling music artists
• Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame (1992 inductee)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• I Lived to Tell it All, George Jones with Tom Carter, Dell Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-440-22373-3
• In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998, ISBN 0-375-70082-X
• Country Music U.S.A., Bill C. Malone, University of Texas Press, 1985, ISBN 0-292-71096-8
• Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944 to 2005, Record Research, Inc., Menomonee Falls, WS, 2005, ISBN 0-89820-165-9

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Jones (musician)

• Official Website
• A Tribute to the Greatest Country Song of All Time
• Official MySpace
• George Jones Country Sausage
• Record Label
• at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Lee Ann Womack
Lee Ann Womack signing an autograph.
Background information
Birth name	Lee Ann Womack
Born	(1966-08-19) August 19, 1966 (age 45)
Origin	Jacksonville, Texas, US
Genres	Country, Country Pop
Occupations	singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Decca Nashville MCA Nashville Mercury Nashville
Associated acts	Cross Canadian Ragweed, Willie Nelson, Jason Sellers, George Strait, Frank Liddell
Website	Official Website

Lee Ann Womack (born August 19, 1966 in Jacksonville, Texas, United States) is an American country music singer and songwriter, who is best known for her old fashioned-styled country music songs that often discuss subjects such as cheating and lost love.^[1] Her 2000 single, "I Hope You Dance" was a major crossover music hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Country Chart and the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her signature song.^[2]

Although Lee Ann Womack emerged as a contemporary country artist in 1997 with the release of her first album, her material closely resembled that of Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette,^[3] mixing Womack's music with an old fashioned style, as well as contemporary elements, making her different from her counterparts. Her 2000 release I Hope You Dance, however, was an entirely different sound, using pop music elements instead of traditional country, helping to establish Womack as a pop crossover artist. It was not until the release of There's More Where That Came From in 2005 that Womack returned to recording traditional country music.

Presently, Womack has released a total of six studio albums and two compilations. Four of her studio albums have received a Gold certification or higher by the RIAA. Additionally, she has received five Academy of Country Music Awards, five Country Music Association Awards, and a Grammy Award. She has sold over 6 million albums worldwide.*[1]

Early life[link]

Womack was born and raised in Jacksonville, Texas, United States. At an early age, she was interested in country music. Her father, a disc jockey, often took his daughter to work with him to help choose records to play on the air.^[4] Womack was the second of two daughters. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was also a high school principal. As a child, Womack studied the piano and later graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1984.^[1] After graduating, Womack attended South Plains Junior College in Levelland, Texas. The college was one of the first in the nation to offer country music degrees, and soon she became a member of the college band, Country Caravan.^[4] A year later, she left the college and after an agreement with her parents, Womack enrolled at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she studied the commercial ways of the music business. In Nashville, she interned at the A&R department of MCA Records. She studied at the college until 1990, leaving the school a year before graduation.^[1]

Womack spent a few years raising her children before reentering the music business in the mid 90s.^[2] In 1995 she began performing her music in songwriting demos and at showcase concerts. At one of these showcase concerts, she was spotted by Tree Publishings, who signed her after listening to one of original demo recordings.^[4] Womack wrote songs with some popular Nashville songwriters, including Bill Anderson and Ricky Skaggs, who recorded her composition, "I Don't Remember Forgetting" for one of his albums. After divorcing her first husband around that time, Womack decided to pursue a career as a country music artist. She auditioned for MCA chairman, Bruce Hinton, who praised her talents. Shortly afterward, she accepted a contract from MCA's sister record company, Decca Nashville in 1996.^[1]

Music career[link]

Country music stardom: 1997 — 1999[link]

Womack released her self-titled debut album in May 1997, produced by Mark Wright. The album consisted of self-penned material as well as songs written by other artists, including Mark Chesnutt, Ricky Skaggs, and Sharon White.^[4] With the original release of the album, there was worry that the album wouldn't sell because some people wouldn't be able to differentiate between her and LeAnn Rimes, who was also a successful artist at that time. However, Womack decided to keep her given name.^[2] The first single, "Never Again, Again" made the country charts and playlists by March 1997, which led to the release of the album's second single, "The Fool" shortly afterward. More successful than her first single, "The Fool" reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Country chart that year. That year she won major awards from the country music community; Top New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music Awards, Top Artist of the Year from Billboard Magazine, and was nominated for the Horizon award by the Country Music Association.^[1] Decca Nashville decided to close its doors in 1998, moving Womack to MCA Nashville Records that year.^[5]

In 1998, Womack released her second studio album, Some Things I Know,^[1] which was also produced by Mark Wright.^[3] The album's first two singles, "A Little Past Little Rock" and "I'll Think of a Reason Later" both went to #2 on the Billboard Country Chart.^[5] Two additional singles, "(Now You See Me) Now You Don't" and "Don't Tell Me" were released in 1999, and the album was certified Gold by the RIAA soon after.

That year, she also won Favorite Country New Artist from the American Music Awards.^[2] Womack also contributed her vocals to the songs "If You're Ever Down in Dallas" and "The Man Who Made Mama Cry" in collaboration with her ex-husband and musician, Jason Sellers. The material was promoted through shows through October to November before the birth of Womack's second child in January 1999.^[3]

Pop crossover success & career decline: 2000 — 2004[link]

She released her third studio album in 2000 entitled, I Hope You Dance, which was met with major success.^[1] The title track (which was released as the lead single), reached #1 on the Billboard Country chart for five weeks and crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a major crossover Pop hit, reaching #14. It also peaked at the top spot on the adult contemporary chart and even reached the UK Singles Charts, peaking at #40. Both of Womack's daughters appeared in the song's video that year. Towards the end of 2000, "I Hope You Dance" won the Country Music Association's "Song of the Year" and "Single of the Year" awards.^[5] With the Pop success of "I Hope You Dance," Womack drew the attention of the magazines People and Time, both of which praised the single, calling it "one of her best." The song later won awards in 2001 from the Grammy and Academy of Country music awards.^[1] The album of the same name has sold 3 million copies in the United States to date.^[5] The album's follow-up single, a cover of Rodney Crowell's "Ashes by Now" peaked at #4 on the Billboard Country Chart. The third single, "Why They Call it Falling" was also successful, reaching the country Top 15.

On December 11, 2000, Womack performed "I Hope You Dance" at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert. This song was also featured in the 2008 Tyler Perry film entitled "The Family that Preys."

In 2002 Womack's fourth studio album, Something Worth Leaving Behind was released. The album made a stronger attempt at a pop-flavored style, however it did not react well, leading to poor record sales and only one major hit. Following its release, Womack's career stalled. Later that year, she released a Christmas album, The Season for Romance and also collaborated with Willie Nelson on his single, "Mendocino County Line," which won a Grammy and Country Music award in 2002.^[5] In early 2003, she got a small recurring role on the popular CBS drama, The District.^[4]

In 2004, Womack performed "I Hope You Dance" at the Republican National Convention, in which George W. Bush was nominated for his second term as President of the United States. The other performers that night included Sara Evans and Larry Gatlin.^[6] She also collaborated with Texas Music band, Cross Canadian Ragweed on their hit, "Sick and Tired" in 2004. Also that year, she also released her first Greatest Hits album, which included two new songs; "The Wrong Girl" (the only song from the album released as a single) and "Time for Me to Go."

[edit] There's More Where That Came From & hiatus: 2005 — 2007

In 2005, she released her fifth studio album aimed at traditional country music entitled, There's More Where That Came From.^[5] Many people in the music industry called the album, "a return to tradition," featuring songs about drinking and cheating with a distinctive older country twang, mixing strings and steel guitar. The album won the Country Music Association's "Album of the Year" award in 2005.^[7] Womack took inspiration from the records of the 60s and 70s, and according to Allmusic, the album sounded like albums by Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, and Dolly Parton from the 70s. They also called it one of her best records.^[8] The lead single, "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" was a Top 10 hit in 2005, and also won "Single of the Year" by the CMA awards later that year.^[5] Two additional singles were released from the album in 2005 that became minor hits, "He Oughta Know That by Now" and "Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago." The album was released on vinyl LP as well as CD.

Womack can be heard on the track "If I Could Only Fly" from Joe Nichols' album Real Things.^[9] Womack has also appeared on specials on the CMT network, including their, "100 Greatest Duets", which featured Womack singing the duet with Kenny Rogers, "Every Time Two Fools Collide". The song had been originally recorded by Rogers and Dottie West in 1978 and was a No. 1 Country hit that year. Womack took the place of West during that show, being West had died in a serious car accident in September 1991. Womack's other honors includes being listed at #17 on CMT's 2002 special of their countdown of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music.

In 2006, Womack announced plans of a sixth studio album off of Mercury Nashville Records. The lead single, "Finding My Way Back Home" was released in the late summer of that year and debuted at #46 on the Billboard Country Chart.^[10] The single later peaked at #37 and was re-scheduled into 2007, because Womack found more songs that she wanted to record, however it was never released and Womack left Mercury.^[11]

Return to music: 2008 — present[link]

In 2008, Womack announced plans for a new single for the first time in three years, once again on MCA Nashville. "Last Call" was released on June 30, 2008. It served as the lead-off single to Womack's seventh studio album, Call Me Crazy, which was released on October 21, 2008.

Call Me Crazy was issued as a vinyl LP at the time of its release, as well as CD.

Call Me Crazy, produced by Tony Brown, has been described as a dark album with plenty of songs about drinking and losing love. It featured a duet with George Strait titled "Everything But Quits," a re-make of the George Strait classic, "The King of Broken Hearts," which first appeared on the Pure Country soundtrack. One track, "The Bees," features vocals from Keith Urban.^[12]

In October 2009, Womack released "There Is a God", as the lead-off single to her upcoming seventh studio album which she has said she is unsure of the release date. The song debuted at #60 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of November 14, 2009, eventually peaking at #32 in early 2010. Womack has revealed a few of the tracks that she has recorded for the album, including: "Talking Behind Your Back", as well as "You Do Until You Don't".^[13]

In October 2010, Womack contributed the new track "Liars Lie" to the soundtrack for the film Country Strong. Womack also contributed guest vocals to Alan Jackson's cover of the song "Ring of Fire", which was released in December 2010 as a single from his compilation album, 34 Number Ones. His version of the song was a minor hit, charting to number 45 on the Hot Country Songs charts. Though Womack is featured on the song, she was not given credit on the charts.

Lee Ann Womack also performs the theme song for The Berenstain Bears animated television show.

Personal life[link]

At Belmont University, Womack met and married singer-songwriter Jason Sellers in 1990. Together they had a daughter Aubrie Lee Sellers, born 1991, before divorcing in 1996.^[14] In January 1999 daughter Anna Lise Liddell was born after Womack married record producer Frank Liddell.

Discography[link]

Studio album

• 1997: Lee Ann Womack
• 1998; Some Things I Know
• 2000: I Hope You Dance
• 2002: Something Worth Leaving Behind
• 2005: There's More Where That Came From
• 2008: Call Me Crazy

Compilation albums

• 2004: Greatest Hits
• 2011: Icon

Holiday albums

• 2002: The Season for Romance

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lee Ann Womack's Official Website
• Lee Ann Womack Unofficial Site
• Lee Ann Womack at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lee Ann Womack

Sister Wendy Beckett (born 25 February 1930), commonly known as just Sister Wendy, is a South African-born British nun, art expert, consecrated virgin and contemplative hermit who became well known in the 1990s presenting a series of art history documentaries for the BBC.

Life and work[link]

Beckett was born in South Africa and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, where her father studied medicine. In 1946, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a religious congregation of the Roman Catholic Church. She was sent to England where she completed her novitiate and then studied at St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she was awarded a first class (with distinction) degree in English literature.^[1] Outside her academic work, she lived in a convent which maintained the strict code of silence typical in convents prior to the reforms following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).

After attending the I.M Marsh Teacher Training College, in suburban south Liverpool and earning a teaching diploma in 1954, she returned to South Africa to teach at Notre Dame Convent, a school for girls in Constantia, Cape Town, where she taught English and Latin. Later she moved to Johannesburg where she was appointed the superior of the local convent, while she also lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1970, health problems forced her to abandon teaching and return to England.

At that point, she obtained papal permission to leave her congregation and to become a consecrated virgin. Her former congregation then arranged for her to live under the protection of the Carmelite nuns at their monastery at Quidenham, Norfolk, in the east of England. There she leads a contemplative lifestyle and lives in a caravan on the grounds. Besides receiving the Carmelite prioress and a nun who brings her provisions, she dedicates her life solely to monastic solitude and prayer but allows herself two hours of work per day. She spent many years translating Medieval Latin scripts before deciding, in 1980, to pursue art, her favourite subject.

Sister Wendy Contemplates Saint Paul in Art was published in 2008 to celebrate the Year of Saint Paul. In May 2009, Encounters with God: In Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary was published, which follows Beckett's pilgrimage to see the earliest icons of Mary which had survived the Byzantine iconoclasm.

Beckett continued writing about her interest in icons in the second volume of her Sister Wendy Contemplates series, published in July 2011. This book, entitled The Iconic Jesus, takes the reader through scenes from the New Testament, accompanied by Sister Wendy's reflections. Her next book, also published in 2011, "The Christ Journey", consists of her commentaries on the artwork of Greg Tricker.

When she required treating as an outpatient at a local hospital, the television chef Delia Smith volunteered, through a mutual friend, to drive her there each week. When Sister Wendy was writing her book about contemporary women artists, Delia Smith drove her around the country to meet the artists; through this the two became good friends.^[2]

Documentaries and bibliography[link]

Beckett has narrated the following documentaries:

• Sister Wendy's Odyssey (1992)
• Sister Wendy's Pains of Glass (1996)
• Sister Wendy's Grand Tour (1997)
• Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (1997)
• Sister Wendy's American Collection (2001)
• Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2001)

and also an audio commentary for tourists to the Sistine Chapel:

• Sister Wendy's Sistine Chapel Artineraries Tour (2006)

Additionally she features in the following:

• Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers (1997)
• Three appearances on Charlie Rose (3 October 1997; 18 November 1997; 19 September 2000) are available on DVD.
• The Art of Dying (2009) (Dan Cruickshank interviewed Sister Wendy on the helpfulness of art in the face of death^[3])
• Churches: How to Read Them (2010) (Richard Taylor and Sister Wendy discussed the intense medieval devotion to the Virgin Mary and its effect on Reformation^[4])
• Treasures of Heaven (2011) (Andrew Graham-Dixon talked to Sister Wendy about relics and reliquaries^[5])

Bibliography:

• 2011
  • The Christ Journey - the art of Greg Tricker.
• 2011
  • Sister Wendy Contemplates the Iconic Jesus
• 2009
  • Encounters With God: In Quest of Ancient Icons of Mary
• 2008
  • Bernard of Clairvaux: Sermons for Advent And the Christmas Season

    with John Leinenweber (Editor), Irene Edmonds (Translator), Wendy Mary Beckett (Translator), Conrad Greenia (Translator)

• 2007
  • Sister Wendy on Prayer
  • Sister Wendy's Meditations on the Mysteries of Our Faith
• 2006
  • Speaking to the Heart: 100 Favorite Poems
  • Sky-blue Is the Sapphire Crimson the Rose: Stillpoint of Desire in John of Forde by John, abbot of Forde, translated by Wendy Beckett
  • Joy Lasts: On the Spiritual in Art
• 2001
  • Sister Wendy's Impressionist Masterpieces
  • Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces
• 2000
  • Sister Wendy's American Collection
  • In the Midst of Chaos, Peace (with Mary J. Dorcy and Dan Paulos)
  • Sister Wendy's Book of Muses (with Justin Pumfrey)
• 1999
  • Sister Wendy's 1,000 Masterpieces (with Patricia Wright)
  • My Favourite Things: 75 Works of Art from Around the World
• 1998
  • Sister Wendy's Nativity
  • Inner Life: A Fellow Traveler's Guide to Prayer (by David Torkington; foreword by Sister Wendy)
  • Sister Wendy's Odyssey: A Journey of Artistic Discovery
  • Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations
  • Sister Wendy's Book of Saints
  • The Mystery of Love: Saints in Art Through the Ages
• 1997
  • Sister Wendy's Story of Christmas: Adventures in Art
  • Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (edited by Karen Johnson)
  • The Wisdom of the Apostles (compiled by Philip Law; introduction by Sister Wendy)
  • The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Ages (with Jean De Berry)
  • Max Beckmann and the Self
• 1996
  • Sister Wendy's Grand Tour: Discovering Europe's Great Art
  • Pains of Glass: The Story of the Passion from King's College Chapel, Cambridge (with George Pattison)
• 1995
  • Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Joy
  • Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Love
  • Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Peace
  • Sister Wendy's Meditations: Meditations on Silence
  • A Child's Book of Prayer in Art
• 1994
  • The Story of Painting
  • The Gaze of Love: Meditations on Art and Spiritual Transformation
• 1993
  • The Mystical Now: Art and the Sacred

Works about her by other people[link]

• Postcards From God: The Sister Wendy Musical was written by Marcus Reeves and Beccy Smith^[6] and performed at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End in 2007 and Hackney Empire Studio Theatre in 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wendy Beckett

• Sister Wendy at PBS.
• Interview with Sister Wendy

Kevin McCloud
McCloud pictured at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Born	(1958-05-08) 8 May 1958 (age 54) Bedfordshire, England
Residence	Frome, Somerset
Nationality	British
Education	Dunstable Grammar School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, designer
Known for	Presenting Grand Designs
Spouse	Suzanna McCloud
Children	4

Kevin McCloud (born 8 May 1958) is a British designer, writer and television presenter best known for his work on the Channel 4 series Grand Designs.

Personal Life[link]

He lives in a 15th-century farmhouse in Frome, Somerset,^[1] with his wife (childhood sweetheart) Anna-Charlotte McFadyen ("Char", who runs an online interior decoration business) and their two children, Milo (b. 1998) and Elsie (b. 2001), plus Hugo (b. 1988) and Grace (b. 1991) from McCloud's previous relationship.^[2][3]

Born in Bedfordshire, McCloud and his two brothers, Terence and Graham, were raised in a house his parents had built.^[4] McCloud attended Dunstable Grammar School, which became Manshead Upper School, and then studied the history of art and architecture at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is conversant in French and Italian.

Designer[link]

After graduating, McCloud trained and worked as a theatre designer, then set up his own lighting design practice and manufacturing business 'McCloud Lighting' - at one point employing 26 people.^[4] His work includes the carved and painted rococo-style vegetable ceiling in the food halls at Harrods, many projects in conjunction with J.J. Desmond Interiors and lighting installations at Ely Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, the Savoy Hotel and the Dorchester Hotel.^[5] Today he concentrates on television work, journalism and product design, including work for British manufacturers.

McCloud's first book, Kevin McCloud's Decorating Book, was published in 1990, and remains in print in five languages. The Techniques of Decorating and Kevin McCloud's Lighting Book were published in 1995, and The Complete Decorator in 1996. In 2005 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Design from both Oxford Brookes and Plymouth University. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2006 and of the Society of Light & Lighting (SLL) in 2009. He is patron of Somerset Arts, the Carymoor Environmental Centre and the Genesis Project and he is an ambassador for the World Wide Fund for Nature, actively campaigning to promote One Planet Living, the WWF's sustainability initiative. He is also the frontman for the home energy refurbishment campaign the Great British Refurb.^[6]

Television[link]

McCloud's first appearance on television was as a guest presenter on Homefront on BBC Two. In 1999, he then went on to write and present Grand Designs, a programme covering unusual and elaborate architectural homebuilding projects, produced by Talkback Thames, which is now in its eleventh series. In the series McCloud always remains critical of the designs, continuously hoping for a house to be designed that follows the schedule properly and does not go over the estimated budget.

He also wrote and presented Grand Designs Indoors and Grand Designs Abroad. In the course of the latter series, McCloud demonstrated his fluency in French and Italian, occasionally acting as a translator for people who have houses built abroad in places where they don't know the language. He is also editor-at-large for Grand Designs magazine, and sat on the steering committee for the associated exhibition "Grand Designs Live" in 2005 and 2006.

In May 2008, McCloud took the Grand Designs series of programmes to a new level with Grand Designs Live, in which he demonstrated environmentally-sensitive construction methods on a site in the East End of London, as well as presenting a "Grand Design of the Year" competition. His co-presenters included Dave Gorman, Janet Street-Porter, Naomi Cleaver, Diarmuid Gavin and Bill Bailey.

Other TV work has included Don't Look Down, in which McCloud examined the construction of tall buildings while climbing them, on BBC Two in 2000, Demolition on Channel 4 in 2005, The Stirling Prize: Building of the Year (in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), and Kevin McCloud and the Big Town Plan on Channel 4 in August 2008. His recent publications include Choosing Colours in 2003, and "Grand Designs Handbook: The Blueprint" in 2006. He is currently writing a consumer guide to sustainability and culture change to be published by Collins.

On 30 November 2008, he appeared as the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car on Top Gear. He finished with a time of 1:45.87, second on the leaderboard behind Jay Kay, who finished with 1:45.83.^[7]

In January 2010, McCloud fronted a two part documentary detailing a two week stay in Mumbai's Dharavi slum.^[8]

In 2011, McCloud appeared on an episode of Carpool.

McCloud presented Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour on Channel 4 during the late summer and early autumn of 2009. The four part series saw McCloud retracing the popular tour of European cities and sites of classical antiquity undertaken over the last four centuries by upper class, primarily British, young men of means, and describing their subsequent impact on British customs and architecture.

Developer[link]

In early 2007, McCloud led a consortium to purchase two plots of land to develop Hab housing (happiness, architecture and beauty) development on the outskirts of Swindon, Wiltshire.^[9] Design work for the highly sustainable buildings was underway, with a planning application scheduled for May 2008. Anthony Peet the civil engineering lead the build However along with the architects Wright & Wright, they were dropped over disagreements over fees, pushing the project back, with the possibility of being forced to start from scratch with new architect, Glen Howells. McCloud has stated about the project's setbacks that "I'm not going to pull out now..." reiterating his support for the project.^[10] Hab was accused of being in chaos after the exit of Wright & Wright.^[11] McCloud replied that there was no chaos and that he was "absolutely delighted with the way the project is progressing".^[12] In October 2009, it was announced that Hab Oakus, a joint venture between Hab and housing group GreenSquare, had won planning permission for its first housing scheme in Swindon designed by Glenn Howells. The 42-home scheme, called The Triangle, will occupy the site of a former caravan park.^[13] Housing will be "environmentally sustainable, affordable". The Homes And Communities Agency, a UK national housing and regeneration agency, had already announced in April 2010 that it would back the plans by contributing £2.5m.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kevin McCloud at the Internet Movie Database
• Grand Designs at Channel4
• HAB Housing
• The Castleford Project