Patsy Cline Tribute, ‘Walkin’ After Midnight,’ Set For Ryman Auditorium

“Walkin’ After Midnight,” a tribute to the music and life of Patsy Cline, will head to The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on April 22. Tickets are on sale now.

Ashley McBryde, Beverly D’Angelo, Home Free, Kristin Chenoweth, Mandy Barnett, Mickey Guyton, Natalie Grant, Pam Tillis Rita Wilson, Tanya Tucker, Wynonna Judd, and more will grace the stage of The Ryman Auditorium to perform Patsy’s music and honor her legacy.

Though Cline heartbreakingly passed before many of these artists were even born, her impact on country music has been felt across many generations.

Many music devotees will always remember March 5, 1963, the day that Cline was tragically killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee, at just 30.

Virginia Patterson Hensley, as she was born on September 8, 1932 (friends called her Ginny in early years), was in the best singing form of her life when the accident cruelly took her. After an initial deal with 4-Star Recordings, her early success was on Decca in 1957, notably with the classy “Walkin’ After Midnight.” That had been followed by a quiet period in which she wasn’t seen on the country charts for the better part of four years. But from 1961 onwards, she had come storming back into style with some of the most enduring country songs ever made.

The No.1 hits “I Fall To Pieces” and “She’s Got You,” and the indelible “Crazy” were augmented by a fine succession of singles such as “When I Get Thru With You (You’ll Love Me Too),” “So Wrong,” and “Leavin’ On Your Mind.” That last release was in the country charts on that terrible day in which she and fellow performers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins lost their lives, as did the pilot, Randy Hughes. He was Patsy’s manager, and Copas’ son-in-law.

Ironically, the crash took place two days after Cline had performed no fewer than three shows, in one afternoon and evening, in Kansas City, as a benefit for the family of a DJ who’d been killed in an automobile accident. On the day after the shows, fog prevented the plane scheduled to take the party home to Nashville from flying. But despite continuing high winds and inclement conditions, they left on a flight from Fairfax Airport the next evening. The Piper Comanche plane crashed some 90 miles from Nashville, in a forest near Camden.