Loretta Lynn photo courtesy of Interscope Records.

More than 100 trophies will be handed out on Sunday at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards to honor the best in music in 2009. Overlooked, but maybe just as important, are a few honors that recognize artists and musicians — including Loretta Lynn, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and guitarist Harold Bradley — for efforts that span a much broader scope of time.

The Dirt Band’s “Mr. Bojangles” has been added to the Grammy Hall of Fame, certifying it as a recording of long-term influence. Loretta and the late Roy Orbison are among the artists who will be hailed Saturday in Los Angeles with Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards. That same night, Harold will receive a Trustee’s Award for his work as a session musician, studio owner and former president of the Nashville chapters of the Recording Academy and the Musicians Union.

As if that’s not enough, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame have both been featured in the news in the last week.

Here’s the update:

• For Harold, it’ll be a gratifying moment when he receives his Grammy honor. His older brother, the late producer Owen Bradley, was remembered with that same award in 2006. And Harold played on many hits by Loretta (including “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough”) and by Roy (“Running Scared,” “Only The Lonely”), so the ceremony will be kind of a reunion for him. “I hope to see Loretta out there, and I hope to see Barbara Orbison and Roy’s family,” Harold says. “I hope they’ll be there. Those are great memories.” There were no full-time studios in Nashville when Harold played his first session in Chicago in 1946. The following year, a session at a new facility made it easier to make hits in Music City, and as a longtime union man, Harold’s watched the compensation for the guys behind the stars grow. “We played the first notes at Castle Studio in 1947, and we got $17,” he recalls. “Continuing on, the business kept movin’, and in 2008, when I left as the president of the local here, the scale wages of the musicians was… up to about $450 and great pension.”

• The Grammy Hall of Fame now numers 851 titles, including such country classics as Sammi Smith’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” “Mr. Bojangles” joins that level of stature with its induction, though the Dirt Band almost got beat to releasing it. “We were friends with John Denver, and he cut it as well,” the band’s Jeff Hanna told The Tennessean. “We were hanging out in Aspen, Colo., and he told us he was about to put it out. We said, ‘As a single? We’ve got it coming out in just a few weeks.’ That night, he played us another song he was recording that went, ‘Country roads, take me home.’ We told him, ‘You’ll probably be fine with that one.’”

• Drummer Jerry Carrigan, a longtime Nashville session player, will be inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame on March 25, according to The Times Daily of northern Alabama. Jerry contributed to such hits as Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors,” Charley Pride’s “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” and Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” Also being inducted the same night is Buddy Buie, who produced the Atlanta Rhythm Section and wrote Wynonna’s hit “Rock Bottom.” Others getting recognized with awards the same evening: Mac Davis, Mac McAnally and Jamey Johnson.

• When Jason Aldean played Saturday in Macon, he used the afternoon to take a personal tour of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, according to The Macon Telegraph. Current exhibits honor such acts as R.E.M., Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band.

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