Hank Cochran photo courtesy of So Much Moore Media.

Hank Cochran, a legendary songwriter who had hits in four decades, died Thursday after battling pancreatic cancer. A longtime member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, his words and melodies were significant in the careers of such signature artists as George Strait, Patsy Cline, Keith Whitley and Eddy Arnold.

Hank was part of the first generation of Nashville’s full-time songwriters. Born in Mississippi, he was living and performing in California when he signed his first songwriting contract in 1959 with Pamper Music, a publishing company owned in part by Ray Price. In January 1960, he moved to Music City, where he became a regular at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a legendary music-business hangout. Tootsie’s provided an informal meeting room for country’s artists and writers, including Harlan Howard, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson, who Hank first met there. He helped Willie get signed to Pamper and even gave up a raise to make sure the company could afford Willie.

Hank’s legend was practically cemented when he and Harlan co-wrote “I Fall To Pieces,” a landmark Patsy Cline song with a nicely contoured melody and deftly direct lyrics. It was not just a great calling card. The National Endowment for the Arts named it one of 365 culturally significant recordings in a new-millennium list of the Songs of the Century.

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l-r: Love And Theft, GAC's Storme Warren, Chuck Wicks, Joey + Rory and Chris Young at the GAC Breakfast during the CMA Music Festival, June 9, 2010. Photo by Kay Williams.

A limping Chuck Wicks laughed off an injury Wednesday morning as he took a stage in the lobby of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to sing four songs and welcome a contingent of fans to Nashville. Chuck, Chris Young, Joey + Rory and Love and Theft took part in the third annual GAC Fan Breakfast, an adjunct event to the CMA Music Festival, which officially began with a parade just a few hours later.

It wasn’t Chuck’s first public moment of the week. He took part Monday in the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge, joining Joe Nichols, David Nail, Vince Gill and others on the “After Midnite With Blair Garner” team, which defeated the Grand Ole Opry squad 15-10. Chuck unfortunately got a raspberry chasing a ball, and the wound still stung Wednesday a.m., explaining his hobbling entrance at the Hall of Fame.

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Chris Young photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

In taking an opening slot on Alan Jackson’s current Freight Train Tour, Chris Young has the opportunity to spend a decent amount of time with one of his heroes. He’ll pay homage to three more with a three-song digital release, Voices EP.

The project, set to be released through iTunes on Tuesday, finds him doing acoustic versions of three 1980s classics: John Anderson’s 1983 hit “Swingin’,” Vern Gosdin’s 1989 standard “Chiseled In Stone” and Keith Whitley’s “I’m Over You,” a hit in 1990 that Whitley recorded in the weeks prior to his death in May 1989.

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Joe Nichols photo by Jon Smith, courtesy of Universal Records South.

It’s a good time to be Joe Nichols. Baseball season is underway, and he’s at the top of the country singles charts. Both of them.

Joe’s current release, “Gimmie That Girl,” was hailed as the nation’s No. 1 country song by both Billboard and Mediabase this week, marking the first time he’s hit the top spot since “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” did it in 2005.

Joe got the news while he was inspecting his brand new tour bus on Monday, so it gave him a sense that he could actually afford the new purchase. As he tours the highways in that vehicle, Joe’s travelling down a creative road that was paved by some of his heroes, including Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley. And that’s a reason why his current album, Old Things New, is perfectly titled. He brings new life to those old sounds, though Joe’s haunted a bit by the power of those singers’ influence when he hears his own vocals.

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Nashville’s Music Row took a hit on Wednesday when the Disney Music Group announced it’s shutting down Lyric Street Records, the home of Rascal Flatts.

The guys in the group — Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney — should be OK. They’re working on one last album for Disney, and an official release indicates that project will still come out in the fall on a different Disney-affiliated label. In addition, the guys are in talks about a new recording deal with the Mouse. If, for some reason, they can’t come to an agreement with Disney, it’s a sure bet that the band could find another partner willing to invest in its massive career.

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Keith Urban photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

With the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards a dozen days away, the ACM dropped a long list of trophy recipients Tuesday that’s tattooed with a few publicly recognizable names — including Keith Urban and Mel Tillis — as well as a bunch of significant songwriters, musicians and executives. The off-camera winners, as they’re called, will be formally recognized when the West Coast-based Academy presents its annual ACM Honors in Nashville Sept. 21.

Keith is being honored with the Jim Reeves International Award for bringing global attention to country. Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, he’s done that somewhat naturally by connecting the dots between his homeland, the U.S. and Canada. Named for one of the first country stars to establish a strong presence overseas, the International Award has previously gone to such figures as Garth Brooks, Roy Clark, Dick Clark and Dolly Parton.

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Steve Wariner at the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy® Grammy Nominee party. Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy® 2009 & Rubin Media. Photograph by Rick Diamond/WireImage.com.

Four country acts that launched a series of hits in the 1980s and ‘90s — Steve Wariner, Patty Loveless, John Michael Montgomery and the late Keith Whitley — are set to enter the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame when it holds its next induction ceremony in April 2011 in Lexington.

They’ll be joined as new members by bluegrass duo the Goins Brothers; gospel singer Larnelle Harris; and Molly O’Day, a country vocalist who left a critically acclaimed body of work in a short five-year recording period in the late 1940s.

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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.

Don Williams, Jimmy Dean, Ferlin Husky and record producer Billy Sherrill are the latest additions to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Country Music Association announced the honor Tuesday via press release, with a formal induction ceremony promised later this year.

“I thought I was already in there!” Jimmy joked. “Seriously, it brought a huge grin to my face. I am honored.”

Each of the four has contributed significantly to the genre. Jimmy, whose name is synonymous with a line of sausage, gave country music plenty of TV exposure as the host of several different programs, most notably “The Jimmy Dean Show,” a 1960s ABC variety series. He often featured the likes of Roger Miller, Buck Owens or Faron Young. One 1964 episode aired live from the Grand Ole Opry, while a 1965 installment captured Eddy Arnold’s recording session for “Make The World Go Away.” The CMA also used “The Jimmy Dean Show” as a vehicle to announce the Hall of Fame inductees in 1966. As a recording artist, Jimmy is best known for “Big Bad John,” a recitation about a coal-mining accident that sold a million copies after crossing into the pop charts.

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Clint Black with wife, Lisa Hartman Black.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, causing single people to gnash their teeth, men to pony up for flowers and women to get positively squishy about romance.

For kicks, we’ve endeavored to come up with the Top 20 country love songs of all-time, and only two people — Clint Black and John Michael Montgomery — are two-timers on that list. Clint’s “Something That We Do” and “When I Said I Do,” the latter recorded with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, are well thought-out expressions of the work involved in making a relationship last. John Michael’s “I Swear” and “I Can Love You Like That” lean toward the age-old pop approach of giving love a fairytale stamp. “I Can Love You Like That,” in fact, makes a Cinderella reference; and it’s no coincidence that both songs were simultaneously pop hits at the time John Michael had them on the charts.

The following list is partially subjective but not entirely. It’s mostly a reflection of success on the charts and at awards shows — and in a title’s ability to wear well over time.

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Alan Jackson photo courtesy of SonyBMG Nashville.

The music business is rife with executives lamenting the downturn in album sales, but that doesn’t stop artists from turning out new CDs, and a bevy of projects are on the way in the coming months from Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Josh Turnerand Danny Gokey — all hoping to spur the rest of us to visit a store or a website and plunk down a few bucks for new music.

Even if the industry isn’t moving as much product as it used to, you can’t blame artists for continuing to put out new albums. The fact is if they only had one song to sing, they’d all be bored. Put out 10 or 12 or 20 — well, it certainly allows for a lot more opportunities to heat up the creative juices. And that’s what it’s all supposed to be about in the first place.

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