John Bright Russell, better known as Johnny Russell, was a wonderful song writer/singer…I have no reason to feature him here other than I like him and his songs. He wrote some good ones and also had some great singers record his songs. How about Buck Owens, “Act Naturally”. Twenty six weeks on the country western charts, probably one of Buck’s biggest hits…Johnny Russell also wrote “Catfish John”, “Baptism of Jessie Taylor”, and “Ain’t You Even Gonna Cry”. His songs have been recorded by Jim Reeves on the B side of “He’ll have to Go”, a huge song by Jim and The Beatles recorded “Act Naturally” on the B side of “Yesterday” voted on of the top 100 songs ever…How many millions did “Yesterday” sell? A goodly amount, I reckon….George Strait recorded, “Let’s Fall To Pieces Together” another goodly amount….Burl Ives, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Carl Smith, Emmy Lou Harris and others recorded Johnny’s songs…His life was cut short by diabetes, dying at age 61….But he left us some great songs…Songs that we continue to enjoy and probably will for a long time to come…All his songs are good and those who have recorded him did a great job. But I would have to say that my favorite is probably Jim Ed Brown singing, “Ain’t You Even Gonna Cry”….Jim Ed does a super job and you can goggle it and hear it on youtube…..