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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Tammy Wynette photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The Country Music Hall of Fame will open a new exhibit Friday that honors one of the legends of the genre, though it’s clouded by the death of her former husband.

Tammy Wynette: First Lady Of Country Music, Presented By Great American Country Television Network is loaded with memorabilia celebrating the singer, who died in 1998 just months before her induction into the Hall of Fame.

But when the exhibit opens, it won’t be seen by her last husband, George Richey, who died earlier this summer. The death was not made public, though Music Row magazine reported George has already been laid to rest near Tammy in Nashville’s Woodlawn Cross Mausoleum.

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Reba McEntire photo by Russ Harrington, courtesy of the Valory Music Co.

You can’t copyright a title, and as a result, there’ve been plenty of hits through the years that boasted a name that was the same as someone else’s hit.

But it’s not likely that there’ve been too many instances where two songs with almost the same title were being promoted at the same time by one record label. That’s exactly what’s happening now as Reba McEntire’s just released “I Keep On Loving You” to radio at the same time Steel Magnolia’s “Keep On Lovin’ You” is in the Top 25 on the national charts.

Steel Magnolia put its song out in August, and even then the timing was a little interesting given that Reba titled her album Keep On Loving You and released the CD the same month. Steel Magnolia records for Big Machine Records and Reba’s on the Valory label, but since they’re both run under the same roof, the two acts are essentially labelmates.

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Carl Smith photo courtesy of Marty Martel.

Country Music Hall of Fame member Carl Smith, one of the genre’s dominant stars in the 1950s, died Saturday at his home in Franklin, Tenn., according to The Tennessean.

Carl, 82, operated his career in a much different manner than many of his peers. While most country stars continue to record and tour as long as they’re able to find a market, he rather quietly retired from the music business once his hit-making prowess cooled in the late 1970s and lived off his investments with wife Goldie Hill, who had her own recording career in the ‘50s.

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