West Virginia & Linda Cassady at Tripple R CMC 21st August 1992

Linda Cassady was born in 1957 and lived in Rushville, Illinois where her dad was a coal miner. Her grandfather was a minister so her first experience of singing was gospel. Although brought up towards the end of the rock 'n' roll era her preference was always for country music and at an early age she was influenced by her parents favourite artists, Hank Williams, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. There was always music in the house. Her siblings and her parents all sung but it was only Linda who had her heart set on a career in country music. Her dad bought her a small Martin guitar when she was 13 and this is still one of her most treasured possessions. In high school she was very shy but eventually a friend talked her into doing a radio show when she was 15 and her career quickly took off as she started writing. It was the writing that really made her believe she could do something with he music. Many of here songs were written about people she knew. She released her first single, It's not your fault, on an obscure label in 1966. Over the next few years other singles followed on equally obscure labels, none of them sold in any quantity. Songwriting has always been a passion - not only writing songs for herself but also for others to sing. Barbara Fairchild recorded What Do You Do (To Make My Daddy Love You) and Peggy Sue (Loretta Lynn's sister) recorded Proud To be A Housewife. Linda always had a preference for traditional country mucic and her own inspirations are some of the country greats including Loretta Lynn Leona Williams, Randy Travers and Vern Gosdin. For many years Linda was part of the The Wheeling Jamboree on WWVA Radio. This the second oldest country music radio broadcast in the US after the Grand Ole Opry. The Jamboree originated in Wheeling, West Virginia on WWVA. Numerous acts and stars performed on the Jamboree; some reached fame and fortune while others fell into oblivion. After moving to Nashville, Linda Cassady gained radio airplay and attention for her self-penned 1975 country hit song CB Widow. By now she had a settled record deal with Cin Kay records in Sherman Oaks, California. The album that song appeared on, Just Bein' Me went into the top 10 of the UK album charts and on the strength of that she was then invited to do a 14 day UK tour. This was to be the first of 16 UK yours during her career. For many of her UK tours Linda was backed by West Virginia who she now refers to as "my British band". One of the tours included an appearance at the international festival of country music at Wembley Arena in April 1982. Linda last toured with West Virginia in the mid 1990s. Linda currently lives in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.