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August 23, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Nashville Cats: Buddy Spicher
Ace fiddler Buddy Spicher kept returning to the word
“family” when talking about the core group of talented musicians who worked on
a bulk of the studio sessions in Nashville beginning in the 1950s and
continuing into the 1970s.
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August 19, 2008
Artist-in-Residence: Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas apparently enjoys challenges. Throughout his
first concert as the 2008 artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame
and Museum, Douglas challenged himself and his
band with difficult arrangements, dazzling ensemble interplay, and daring
improvisation. After each astounding display, Douglas
responded with a deep breath and a joyful exclamation. “How fun was that?” he
said at one juncture, echoing a sentiment he repeated throughout the night.
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August 16, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Interview: Kitty Wells
Near the end of a two-hour program devoted to Kitty Wells, interviewer
Eddie Stubbs told everyone to listen closely to these four words: “Poise,
professionalism, dignity, and class.” He then turned to the special guest, held
out his hand in her direction and added, “This woman embodies those traits.”
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June 21, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Poets and Prophets: Whitey Shafer
Everything changed for Whitey Shafer in 1950 when he heard
Lefty Frizzell’s “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time” on a café
jukebox.
“I learned it right away,” said Shafer. “It cost me quite a
few nickels, but I learned it.”
Over twenty years later, Shafer became Frizzell’s best
friend and chief co-writer. Together, they penned the classics “That’s the Way
Love Goes” and “I Never Go Around Mirrors,” among others.
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May 3, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Nashville Cats: Salute to Reggie Young
Reggie Young’s spare, soulful, sweet-toned
guitar licks repeatedly filled the Ford Theater of the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum on May 3, 2008. Honored in the Museum’s ongoing Nashville Cats
series, Young held court as his career was surveyed with both recordings and
his own live selections on guitar during the ninety-minute program.
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April 12, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Interview and Performance: Jett Williams
With an upbeat style that echoed her father’s
winning charisma, Jett Williams entertained museum guests with stories and
songs on Saturday, April 12, 2008. Born five days after her father’s death on
January 1, 1953, Jett was adopted first by Hank’s mother, Lillian Stone. When
Lillian died two years later, Jett was put up for adoption again, and she would
not learn of her true lineage until she became an adult.
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March 29, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Interview and Performance: Hank Williams Jr.
Hank
Williams Jr. dusted off a gem of a song he wrote some fifteen years ago—but
never recorded—during his March 29 solo performance and interview session at
the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater. The program was part
of opening weekend festivities for the museum’s 2008–09 major exhibition, Family Tradition: The Williams Family
Legacy, Co-Presented by SunTrust and Ford Motor Company.
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March 1, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Bob McDill
Bob McDill doesn’t hesitate to use the word “art” when referring to country music songwriting.
One of Music Row’s most thoughtful and literary songwriters, McDill spoke eloquently and humorously on his career during a March 1 program in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater. Appearing as part of the Museum’s ongoing Poets and Prophets series, McDill drew a capacity crowd that listened raptly as he told tales about his best-loved songs and commented about his approach to songwriting.
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February 16, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Nashville Cats: Jerry Kennedy
When the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
honored Jerry Kennedy in its most recent installment of its Nashville Cats
series, on Feb. 16, program host Bill Lloyd mentioned the long list of
accomplishments that have made Kennedy such an important figure in country
music history.
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December 15, 2007 at 2 pm
Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Craig Wiseman
Craig Wiseman proves that success as a country music
songwriter can depend on taking risks and ignoring formulas as much as it
depends on craft and cleverness.
The Mississippi native returned to this point time and
again while discussing his career during a two-hour program on December 15 in
the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater, as part of the
museum’s Poets and Prophets series.
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November 30, 2007 at Noon
SoBro Session: Remembering Ray Charles
A Discussion with David "Fathead" Newman, David Ritz, and Jim Williamson.
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October 6, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Nashville Cats: Salute to Ray Edenton
As one the of most recorded guitarists in American
history, Ray Edenton will forever be linked with the small, special group of
session musicians known as the Nashville A-Team. Because the original A-Team is
considered such an exclusive group, Edenton admits that he’s often asked why
such a small cast of players appeared on so many classic recordings.
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September 15, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Bobby Braddock
When Bobby Braddock finished writing “He Stopped
Loving Her Today” with Curly Putman, he logged the song into a notebook and
gave it a rating, a practice he followed for all of his songs. On a one-to-ten
scale, he gave it a seven.
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August 14 and 15, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Artist-in-Residence: Kris Kristofferson
Legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson was the museum's artist in residence for 2007.
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August 4, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: The Story of My Life: Friends and Family Remember Marty Robbins
To open a panel discussion
about the late Marty Robbins, WSM radio personality Eddie Stubbs addressed the
Country Music Hall of Fame member’s multiplicity of talents. Not only was
Robbins “one of the most entertaining personalities in the history of country
music,” Stubbs said. “He also was a phenomenal singer and a phenomenal
songwriter. It seemed like everything he did, he did in a phenomenal way.”
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July 21, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Interview: Mr. Record Man: A Conversation with Fred Foster
When Roy Orbison co-wrote “Running Scared,” he
planned on shifting into his falsetto voice to hit the difficult-to-reach high
notes that close the song. But producer Fred Foster, after orchestrating the
number, realized a falsetto wouldn’t be heard over the arrangement. So Foster
asked Orbison to sing the high notes in his full, natural voice. Orbison said
it couldn’t be done, but Foster persuaded him to give it a try.
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June 23, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter John D. Loudermilk
Fifty-one years ago, a North
Carolina record producer told famed songwriter John D. Loudermilk that he
lacked the charisma to be a star performer. That’s why, the producer explained,
he gave Loudermilk’s song, “A Rose and a Baby Ruth,” to another young singer,
George Hamilton IV.
The song became Loudermilk’s first hit, and as fate
would have it, he’d achieve his greatest success writing songs for others
instead of living out his initial dream of becoming a pop star. In retrospect, Loudermilk
couldn’t be happier with how his career worked out.
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May 26, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Interview and Performance: Country Caruso: The Artistry of Johnny Bush
Johnny Bush and a band of veteran all-stars gave a master
class in traditional country music during a concert and interview at the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater on May 26.
A former drummer in Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys band,
Bush enlisted several of his former Cherokee Cowboy bandmates to join him for
the performance billed as “Country
Caruso: The Artistry of Johnny Bush.”
The concert made for a celebratory final Price-related program as the
museum prepares to end its well-received exhibit For the Good Times: The Ray Price Story.
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May 19, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Nashville Cats: Salute to Hargus "Pig" Robbins
A conversation with Hargus "Pig" Robbins resembles his music: relaxed, soulful, and wholly distinctive.
The latest veteran musician honored in the Nashville Cats series, a
regular program hosted by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum,
Robbins spoke throughout the ninety-minute, multi-media presentation
with humility and understated eloquence—two other qualities found in
his music.
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April 7, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: One More Time: Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys
ALL-STAR PANEL SALUTES RAY PRICE’S CHEROKEE COWBOYS
Six former members of the Cherokee Cowboys reminisced
about the road and playing in one of country music’s most esteemed bands in
front of a packed Ford Theater on April 7. One More Time: Ray Price’s Cherokee
Cowboys, a program organized as part of the ongoing Ray Price exhibit in
the museum’s East Gallery, featured steel guitarists Buddy Emmons, Jack Evins,
and Don Helms, guitarists and harmony singers Van Howard and Pete Wade, and
fiddler Buddy Spicher.
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March 24, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Hank Cochran
Following the maxim “make it short, make it sweet, make it
rhyme,” songwriting legend Hank Cochran has produced some of the greatest
country songs ever recorded. He gave museum patrons a glimpse into his life and
career Saturday (March 24), during a ninety-minute interview, with multimedia
elements, in the museum’s Ford Theater.
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March 10, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Hitmakers' Workshop: RCA Studio B and the Rise of Music City
A Timeless Sound: An Appreciation of Historic RCA Studio B
"Studio B holds a lot of great memories for me,” Grand Ole
Opry veteran Jim Ed Brown said during a Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
program commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Historic RCA Studio B.
Brown’s words were echoed throughout a ninety-minute panel discussion of the
studio’s fundamental role in Nashville music history, before a rapt crowd in
the museum’s Ford Theater on March 10.
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February 17, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Nashville Cats: Salute to Bob Moore
Veteran Nashville musician Bob Moore, who has provided
rhythmic support and ideas for more classic country hits than any other
bassist, was honored Saturday in a poignant and informative two-hour program at
the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s Ford Theater.
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December 9, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Performance: Cats Like Us: Richard Leigh, Troy Seals, Micheal Smotherman, Tony Joe White
Songwriters herald Ray Charles’s
influence and creative kinship in a standing-room-only Ford Theater
performanceThe four veteran
songwriters who gathered to pay tribute to Ray Charles in the Country Music
Hall of Fame® and Museum’s Ford Theater each spoke of what an honor it was to
have the Genius of Soul record their songs. In performing the songs that
Charles had cut, the songwriters also proved it was an honor they earned.
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October 29, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Friendship: The Making of Ray Charles's #1 Country Duets Album
In conjunction with the Museum's current exhibition I Can't Stop Loving You: Ray Charles and Country Music Sponsored by SunTrust, the Museum presented a panel discussion on October 29 exploring the making of Friendship, Charles’ #1 country duets album.
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September 6, 13, and 27 2006 at 7:00 pm
Artist in Residence: Guy Clark
Singer-songwriter Guy Clark, a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, was the museum's artist in residence for 2006.
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August 5, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Interview: Ray Price
Ray Price Sits for a Historic Interview at Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum During Opening Festivities of a New Exhibit, For The Good Times: The Ray Price StoryIn what esteemed WSM radio DJ and Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs
described as “one of the most important days in the history of the
Country Music Hall of Fame,” legendary Texas singer Ray Price spent
ninety minutes in a packed Ford Theater discussing his six decades as a
top American music performer.
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