Connie Smith is The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum's Artist in Residence for 2011.

The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum has a busy August on tap. Having just announced their plans to expand, the Museum will host live music, launch a new exhibit and allow fans to meet and greet artists.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Harold Bradley, David Briggs and Norbert Putnam will host Legends of RCA Studio B: Conversations with All the King’s Men on August 9. The event is an evening of music and storytelling with DJ Fontana, Scotty Moore, Ronnie McDowell, Millie Kirkham and Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires. Tickets are $100 for Museum Members and $150 for the public. All proceeds benefit the preservation of the Museum’s collection as well as funding for its school, family and public programs.

On August 12, a Museum curator will give an introduction to the new exhibit, Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player. The next day, the Museum will present Music and Memories of Chet Atkins, featuring Ray Stevens, Steve Wariner and Billy Edd Wheeler. The program will be a conversation and music with Chet’s close friends and can be streamed live at CountryMusicHallofFame.org. Continue Reading

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

In a bittersweet ceremony the day before a make-or-break court proceeding, four sets of session musicians received new awards Thursday at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville. The players — who collectively backed such artists as Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys and Johnny Cash — are among those recognized in the structure, which is likely to be demolished to make way for a new convention center.

“To have it all torn down,” said Elvis’ drummer D.J. Fontana, “is a damn shame.”

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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.

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Trace Adkins (center) with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and his wife, Anne, at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

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