New Hall of Fame members Jean Shepard, Bobby Braddock and Reba McEntire at the 2011 Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony, held on Sunday, May 22 at the Hall of Fame in Nashville. Photo by Donn Jones Photography (Donn Jones, Richard Suter, Terry Wyatt).

Members of the Country Music Hall of Fame and some of country’s biggest stars reunited at the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum on Sunday, May 22, 2011 to salute Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Bobby Braddock, Reba McEntire and Jean Shepard. Click HERE to see our star-studded photo gallery from the night!

At the invitation of the Country Music Association, the private Medallion Ceremony became the official rite of induction for new members of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.  The evening included musical salutes to Braddock, McEntire and Shepard. The new members were inducted and welcomed as peers by members of the Hall of Fame, who also presented keepsake medals:  Bill Anderson inducted Braddock; Dolly Parton inducted Reba; and George Jones inducted Jean.

Artists paying tribute to Braddock included Billy Currington, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, Tracy Lawrence, and George Jones with Jimmy Capps, Charlie McCoy and Millie Kirkham; artists saluting Reba included Garth Brooks, Kelly Clarkson and Martina McBride, Vince Gill, and Trisha Yearwood; and artists honoring Shepard included Bill Anderson and Elizabeth Cook, Vince Gill, and Ranger Doug Green of Riders in the Sky.  All the performers were backed by John Hobbs and the 2011 Medallion All-Star Band.  With ceremony musical director Hobbs on keyboards, the Medallion All-Stars included Eddie Bayers Jr., drums; Paul Franklin, steel guitar; Steve Gibson, electric guitar; Michael Rhodes, bass guitar; Deanie Richardson, fiddle; Dawn Sears, background vocals; Biff Watson, acoustic guitar; and Jeff White, background vocals. Vince and the McCrary Sisters sang the traditional opening hymn, performing “Down by the Riverside.”

In addition to Anderson, Braddock, Gill, Jones, McCoy, McEntire, Parton and Shepard, other Hall of Fame members who attended included Harold Bradley, Ralph Emery, Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers, Sonny James, Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell, Gordon Stoker of the Jordanaires and Jo Walker-Meador.

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Reba McEntire photo courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

Today Reba McEntire is marking the 20^th anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of seven of her band members, her road manager, and the plane’s pilot and co-pilot by posting a special landing page on her website. On March 16, 1991, the jet carrying guitarist Chris Austin, 27, backup singer Paula Kaye Evans, 33, bassist Terry Jackson, 28, bandleader Kirk Cappello, 28, guitarist Michael Thomas, 34, drummer Tony Saputo, 34, keyboardist Joey Cigainero, 27 and road manager Jim Hammond crashed into Otay Mountain, near San Diego.

“By far this is my darkest hour, the most awful thing that ever happened in my life,” Continue Reading

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Rascal Flatts photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

The members of Rascal Flatts got the biggest cheers from the thousand or so people on hand, but they did not get the only applause during a Music City Walk of Fame installation event Sunday in downtown Nashville that knitted together several generations of performers.

Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney were joined by Kris Kristofferson, Mel Tillis, Little Jimmy Dickens and late singers Bobby Hebb and Eddy Arnold in receiving their sidewalk plaques, extending a row of markers that included Michael McDonald, Elvis Presley and Trace Adkins.

Emceed by GAC’s Bill Cody, the class of performers represented a swatch of Nashville music history. Beyond the contemporary Flatts crew, Kris and Mel hit their strides in the 1970s as artists, songwriters and actors. Bobby accrued a landmark 1960s pop hit with the effervescent “Sunny,” and Eddy and Little Jimmy were among the first artists to have hits with songs recorded in Nashville during the 1940s, when the town hadn’t yet earned its Music City moniker.

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Gretchen Wilson photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

When Gretchen Wilson parted ways with her record company in 2009, it was the kind of moment that looked — from the outside, anyway — a bit scary. What would that mean to her career? How would she keep a profile?

As it turned out, leaving her label might have been the best thing that could have happened to Gretchen. She found another record company by asserting her independence: She founded her own.

Owing to her first hit, “Redneck Woman,” Gretchen called the label Redneck Records, and she released her own album, I Got Your Country Right Here, in March. Being turned loose allows her to… turn loose.

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Mel Tillis at the ACM Honors on September 20, 2010. Getty Images/Courtesy of the Academy of Country Music.

Martina McBride, Randy Travis, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Kenny Rogers were among the artists who showed up to perform on their behalf.

Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith and Barbara Mandrell were among the acts who sent their support via video.

But even more can be said by taking an inventory of the artists who were not on hand that were affected by the people who graced the stage Monday at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium: George Strait, Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, Rascal Flatts, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain… The real task would be to find artists who did not benefit from the raft of people — musicians, producers, concert executives, songwriters and pioneering artists who were honored at the fourth annual ACM Honors.

The event allowed the Academy of Country Music to give a more detailed account of the behind-the-scenes people and the pioneers of the genre than it could provide during its fast-moving televised awards.

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Elvis Presley image used by permission, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

The King is gone, but he’s certainly not forgotten — especially in Memphis, where the city is gearing up for Elvis Week, the annual pilgrimage of fans marking the loss of a cultural icon.

This year’s Elvis Presley activities kick off Tuesday, Aug. 10, when an Elvis tribute artist (that’s a euphemism for Elvis impersonator) re-creates one of Presley’s first noteworthy concerts at a venue formerly known as the Overton Park Shell. It all wraps up Aug. 16 — the anniversary of Elvis’ 1977 death — with a concert at Graceland Mansion.

In between those bookends is a wealth of panel discussions, movie screenings and even a 5k run and walk. Naomi Judd’s husband, Larry Strickland, will take part in a performance during one event as a member of the Stamps Quartet. He was a part of the vocal group when it toured with Elvis during the 1970s.

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Hugh Prestwood, writer of Trisha Yearwood's "The Song Remembers When," will perform at "Songwriters Sing for Nashville." Trisha Yearwood photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Several Hall of Fame songwriters have been tapped to join together for Songwriters Sing for Nashville, an inaugural event to be held at Nashville’s newest outdoor concert venue, The Woods at Fontanel, on Saturday, July 17. Presented by The Woods at Fontanel, Anchor Trailways and Tours and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, funds raised from the concert will go to help Nashville flood relief efforts. This will be the first event held at the new venue, which was formerly the Muzik Mafia Headquarters and before that, Barbara Mandrell‘s home.

“We’re honored to share this exciting occasion with our friends at The Woods at Fontanel and Anchor Trailways & Tours,” said Roger Murrah, hit songwriter and Board Chairman of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation. “What a pleasure it will be to join our efforts and resources to help relieve those who are still trying to recover from the Nashville flood. Our performing hall of fame members will be inspired by this great cause and the beautiful grounds surrounding this new venue to sing their classic songs from their hearts.”

Songwriters scheduled to perform include Roger Murrah (“Don’t Rock The Jukebox”- Alan Jackson), Matraca Berg (“Strawberry Wine” – Deana Carter), Kye Fleming (“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” – Barbara Mandrell), Dallas Frazier (“Elvira” – The Oak Ridge Boys), Dickey Lee (“You’re The First Time I’ve Thought about Leaving” – Reba McEntire), Dennis Morgan (“Let  Me Let Go” – Faith Hill), Hugh Prestwood (“The Song Remembers When” – Trisha Yearwood), Mark D. Sanders (“I Hope You Dance” – Lee Ann Womack), Don Wayne (“Country Bumpkin” – Cal Smith), Jim Weatherly (“Midnight Train To Georgia” – Gladys Knight & The Pips) and Mike Reid (“I Can’t Make You Love Me,” – Bonnie Raitt, “In This Life” – Collin Raye). Continue Reading

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The 2010 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, clockwise from upper right: Don Williams, Ferlin Husky, Billy Sherrill and Jimmy Dean. Photos courtesy of the CMA.

Some of music’s finest talents — Ronnie Milsap, Shelby Lynne, Craig Morgan, Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill — were among a bevy of significant artists and Music Row executives who witnessed Sunday’s induction of two new members to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: Ferlin Husky and songwriter-producer Billy Sherrill.

In a here-today-gone-tomorrow culture, the names might not ring familiar to everyone. A girl in her 20s outside the Hall asked at the end of the night about Sunday’s soiree, then shrugged her shoulders in a “Who?” sort of manner when told the names of the inductees. But both men provided important building blocks to get the genre to the mainstream idiom it is today.

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Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Charlie McCoy, Barbara Mandrell and Roy Clark gather at a reception before the Medallion Ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Downtown Nashville on May 17, 2009. Photo credit: John Russell / CMA.

Vocal ability, good songs, a little bit of showmanship — some of the traits that can be important for a career as a country artist are obvious.

One that’s not so apparent goes back to the old adage “loose lips sink ships.” The ability to maintain a secret has some important ramifications, and it’s a challenge to artists at every range of a career, whether you’re a newcomer like Tyler Dickerson or a well-established star like Roy Clark.

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Alan Jackson's beach-themed birdhouse. Photo courtesy of The Birdhouse Thing.

Now’s your chance to own a home designed by your favorite country star! Disclaimer: you can’t actually live in this home unless you are a bird. GAC and The Grand Ole Opry have partnered with The Birdhouse Thing organization to offer you the opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind, autographed birdhouses designed by country superstars including Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Sara Evans, Alan Jackson, LeAnn Rimes and many more. Proceeds benefit The W.O. Smith Music School. Hurry and get your bids in now — the auction closes on March 23. Continue Reading

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