Nov 30, 2014 4 min read

Joylene Riggle is coming home for Christmas – in more ways than one.

The 1976 Chartiers-Houston High School graduate is returning to Washington County over the holidays to visit her mother and four brothers, and she’ll also be featured in “Home for Christmas” at Wheeling’s Capitol Music Hall Saturday night.

As part of the Honky Tonk Sweethearts, a country quartet that also features Canonsburg native Lois Scott, Joylene says she will be “giving back to the community” in the benefit show.

She experienced quite a bit of success over the years, from performing at Jamboree in the Hills and venues “from Nashville to New York” to opening for acts such as Diamond Rio, Lionel Cartwright, Mark Collie and Mark Chesnutt. She’s also released a solo CD on the Playback label. For most of her career, she’s been referred to as “Little Miss Patsy” as she always features songs associated with Patsy Cline in her song set, which accents traditional country.

Two years ago, at a charity benefit in Wheeling, Joylene and three singers she had previously known decided to form a singing group and Honky Tonk Sweethearts was born. Joylene said the music selection varies. “We do everything from traditional country to the Eagles, so I would say it’s country music with an edge,” she said.

In addition to its typical performances, the Sweethearts, in an act befitting their name, have often worked with charitable organizations for major fundraisers.

A portion of the proceeds from Saturday’s event benefits Boatsie’s Boxes, which provides care packages to military personnel serving in foreign lands. Guests also are being asked to bring an unwrapped toy for another local charity.

Joylene is especially excited about the show’s concept, which she believes has appeal beyond country music fans. In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, the first segment is dedicated to the military with some Andrews Sisters music and traditional military songs There also will be dancing by the Wheeling Rockettes and singing by the Community Choir and traditional Christmas music by the Sweethearts.

“This is a huge undertaking for us women of a certain age,” Joylene joked, noting that the whole group, including Lois (the daughter of the Jamboree’s Ramblin’ Roy Scott), Laurie Labishak and Nikki Fleming, pitches in to make it a success. Their press release notes that, together, they have 130 years of experience in performing.

“After all these years, we realize people have given to us, so we want to give back to the community, Joylene said. “In fact, we want to be known as the group that gives back.”

“Home for Christmas” will be at Capitol Music Hall, Wheeling, Saturday at 6 p.m. Veterans will be admitted free with ID, but must have a ticket. Seats are still available on a bus departing from the Washington area. For bus information, call 724-228-5691. For tickets, call 740-391-2304.

If you’re of a certain age, you may have raised your eyebrows at last week’s American Music Awards, which purportedly honors the best in music. The original AMA concept, which was founded by Dick Clark in 1973, was to nominate the best-selling artists and recordings based on music publication reports. The top sales champs were the three nominees, but music fans picked the winner. However, more recently, the AMAs seem to be basing the awards more on fan input and less on sales. Or at least that’s what I thought.

As it turns out, though, the big winners – One Direction – were evidently deserving. Last week, they released their fourth album (cleverly called “Four”) and it became their fourth consecutive album to debut at No. 1. Billboard said it is the first group to ever achieve that goal. (Three solo acts – Beyonce, Britney Spears and DMX – also had their first four albums debut at No. 1).

In nearly 60 years, only two other groups were able to have their first four albums go to the top, but not all debuted at No. 1. Surprisingly, those two acts were the Monkees and the Kingston Trio. Not the Beatles, not the Rolling Stones or any other groups we usually associate with huge album sales.

Nonetheless, the record-shattering achievement by the new boys from Britain must have added a few gray hairs to the surviving members of the Monkees and Kingston Trio. As it probably did to anyone over 40 who watched the AMAs.

Terry Hazlett can be reached at snowballrizzo@aol.com.