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Elvis Country: Interview with Elvis Costello
June 15, 2009
Before Elvis Costello sat down for an extended interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, he attended a surprise party honoring legendary Nashville songwriter Hank Cochran. The British singer savored this twist of fate: just before addressing his career-long interest in country music history, he stood amid several of the genre’s towering figures—including Bobby Bare, Cowboy Jack Clement, Dallas Frazier, and Merle Haggard.
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Nashville Cats: Salute to Wayne Moss
May 2, 2009
Famed Nashville guitarist Wayne Moss still remembers the words of his hero, Chet Atkins, after auditioning for him at age fifteen. Accompanied by his mother, Moss had traveled to Nashville to play for Atkins, the legendary producer and guitar player. After Moss sat before the future Country Music Hall of Fame member and displayed what he could do on guitar, Moss’s mother exclaimed to Atkins, “Isn’t he amazing?” Atkins replied dryly, “No, he’s average.”
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Panel Discussion: Finding Her Voice: Kitty Wells and Her Country Sisters
April 25, 2009
Kitty Wells sat at the center of a five-person panel discussing the history of women in the country music business during a Saturday afternoon program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Modest and soft-spoken, as always, Wells received a hero’s welcome from the crowd and the reverent attention of other panelists—songwriter-artists Karen Staley and Chely Wright, and panel moderators Robert K. Oermann and Mary Bufwack, a husband and wife who wrote the book Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music, 1800-2000, the principle book on the subject.
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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Curly Putman
March 28, 2009
Curly Putman’s career proves that sometimes elusive dreams
come true. As writer or co-writer of the country classics “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,”
“Green, Green Grass of Home,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” and “My Elusive
Dreams,” among many others, Putman worked his way up from a struggling rural
Alabama songwriter to become one of country music’s most heralded tunesmiths,
moving through various cities and jobs along the way.
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Artist-in-Residence: Vince Gill
February 24, 2009
Vince Gill
finished the final of three sold-out artist-in-residence performances at the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum much as he began them: By peeling away
layers of celebrity gloss to expose the down-to-earth stories and relationships
behind his climb to stardom.
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Nashville Cats: Salute to Jerry Carrigan
February 21, 2009
Jerry Carrigan vividly remembers his first major Nashville
session, after having made a name for himself as part of the primary rhythm
section at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Surrounded by A-team
players—Ray Edenton on acoustic guitar, Grady Martin on electric guitar, Bob
Moore on bass, and either Floyd Cramer or Pig Robbins on piano—Carrigan was
told to play a shuffle.
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Artist-in-Residence: Vince Gill
February 17, 2009
Vince Gill’s only plan going into his second performance as
the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s artist-in-residence was to offer up
a different batch of songs from his previous show.
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Artist-in-Residence: Vince Gill
February 3, 2009
Vince Gill lowered his voice to a
whisper as he spoke of the song he wrote after his brother Bob’s death in 1993.
“I wrote this song, and I didn’t have any idea if anybody would want to hear it,
or like it,” Gill said of “Go Rest High on That Mountain.” “All I wanted to do
was grieve for him and celebrate his life. That’s how I always process
grief—sit down with a guitar and make something up. Turns out that if anybody
remembers any of my songs, it’ll be this one.”
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Interview: Lycrecia Williams Hoover
December 13, 2008
Lycrecia Williams Hoover beamed as she tapped her foot along
to one of her favorite Hank Williams songs, “Fly Trouble.”
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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Dean Dillon
November 1, 2008
Dean Dillon vividly remembers the day in 1979 when he stood on a porch on Seventeenth Avenue, on Nashville's famed Music Row, and watched producer Blake Mevis pull up in his car. Mevis approached Dillon and songwriter Frank Dycus to ask if they had any songs they wanted to pitch for a young Texas cowboy singer Mevis had started recording in the studio. the singer, unknown at the time, was George Strait.
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Nashville Cats: Gordon Stoker and Ray Walker of the Jordanaires
October 25, 2008
Gordon Stoker and Ray Walker, two members of the legendary vocal group the Jordanaires, can pinpoint the moment when they fully embraced making a career of singing behind stars—instead of trying to become stars.
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ALL FOR THE HALL NEW YORK 2008
October 15, 2008
NEW YORK—Prominent leaders in business, entertainment and
media expressed their support for the Country Music Hall of Fame®
and Museum at the not-for-profit educational organization's second annual All
for the Hall New York fundraiser at the Nokia Theatre Times Square on
October 15.
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Artist-in-Residence: Jerry Douglas
September 30, 2008
Garth Brooks, proving once again how capable he is
of seizing a moment, looked across the stage at Jerry Douglas and summed up why
the Dobro master ranks among the most admired instrumentalists of his
generation—and why he was named 2008 artist-in-residence at the Country Music
Hall of Fame and Museum.
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Poets & Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Jeffrey Steele
September 27, 2008
Jeffrey Steele may be one of Nashville’s most successful
songwriters, but that is a relatively recent development for the
forty-seven-year-old singer and band leader, who has been an entertainer nearly
all of his life.
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Artist-in-Residence: Jerry Douglas
September 16, 2008
Jerry Douglas, the world’s preeminent Dobro player, shed
light on how musical genius develops during the third of his four concerts as
the 2008 artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
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Artist-in-Residence: Jerry Douglas
August 27, 2008
Jerry Douglas, the world’s preeminent Dobro player, gathered
other paramount instrumentalists for the opening half of his second concert as
the 2008 artist-in-residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The
results resembled a special exhibition of Olympic gold medalists: an elite
group of musicians performed at master level, pushing each other to spectacular
feats and mind-boggling turns. The sold-out crowd in the museum’s Ford Theater
sat awestruck by the daring displays of talent in this one-of-a-kind
performance.
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Nashville Cats: Buddy Spicher
August 23, 2008
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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Artist-in-Residence: Jerry Douglas
August 19, 2008
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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Interview: Kitty Wells
August 16, 2008
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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Poets and Prophets: Whitey Shafer
June 21, 2008
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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Nashville Cats: Salute to Reggie Young
May 3, 2008
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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Interview and Performance: Jett Williams
April 12, 2008
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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Interview and Performance: Hank Williams Jr.
March 29, 2008
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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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Bob McDill
March 1, 2008
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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Interview: Don and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers
February 28, 2008
In 1963, the Statler Brothers met Johnny Cash while he was
on tour in Virginia, and without hearing the vocal group, he invited them to be
the opening act on his show. This marked the beginning of a long relationship
between the two iconic country acts, and kicked-off the Statler Brothers’ award-winning
career.
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Nashville Cats: Jerry Kennedy
February 16, 2008
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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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Craig Wiseman
December 15, 2007
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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SoBro Session: Remembering Ray Charles
November 30, 2007
A Discussion with David "Fathead" Newman, David Ritz, and Jim Williamson.
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Nashville Cats: Salute to Ray Edenton
October 6, 2007
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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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Bobby Braddock
September 15, 2007
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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Artist-in-Residence: Kris Kristofferson
August 14 and 15, 2007
Legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson was the museum's artist in residence for 2007.
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Panel Discussion: The Story of My Life: Friends and Family Remember Marty Robbins
August 4, 2007
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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Interview: Mr. Record Man: A Conversation with Fred Foster
July 21, 2007
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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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter John D. Loudermilk
June 23, 2007
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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Interview and Performance: Country Caruso: The Artistry of Johnny Bush
May 26, 2007
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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Nashville Cats: Salute to Hargus "Pig" Robbins
May 19, 2007
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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Panel Discussion: One More Time: Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys
April 7, 2007
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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Poets and Prophets: Salute to Legendary Country Songwriter Hank Cochran
March 24, 2007
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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Panel Discussion: Hitmakers' Workshop: RCA Studio B and the Rise of Music City
March 10, 2007A 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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Nashville Cats: Salute to Bob Moore
February 17, 2007
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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Performance: Cats Like Us: Richard Leigh, Troy Seals, Micheal Smotherman, Tony Joe White
December 9, 2006Songwriters 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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Panel Discussion: Friendship: The Making of Ray Charles's #1 Country Duets Album
October 29, 2006
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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Artist in Residence: Guy Clark
September 6, 13, and 27 2006
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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Interview: Ray Price
August 5, 2006
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 Story.
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