Country Music Hall of Fame inductees for 2015 announced today...

[prberk]

The Country Music Hall of Fame announced today that the 2015 class of inductees will be Jim Ed Brown (solo and with his sisters, The Browns), The Oak Ridge Boys, and the late, great guitarist Grady Martin. All are very deserving, and according The Tennessean newspaper, most were emotional at the announcement. http://tnne.ws/1CaI6xf

The official induction ceremonies will take place in the fall.

If you do not know some of these great artists, please look them up. Jim Ed Brown at 80 is still a sonorous singer (who, incidentally, just recovered from a bout with lung cancer, and yet still has a beautiful voice), but was always a great singer. Check out "The Three Bells" as one the greats from the past. It's one of my favorites of all time. You will not find clearer family harmony.

Of course most non-country fans know The Oak Ridge Boys primarily for "Elvira," but they are also a great group with amazing harmonies and one of the lowest bass singers on the planet (Richard Sturban). The current line-up started in 1973, but the group has roots to the 1940s, and have always been a great gospel group even while singing country. They do a great job on "Farther Along."

Grady Martin was guitarist who played with all of the greats, and helped create their sound. including the swaggering intro to Roy Orbison's iconic "Pretty Woman" and the Spanish acoustic style in Marty Robbins' also iconic "El Paso."

Check all of them out on YouTube if you get a chance. Or better yet, buy their music (a novel idea these days...).

Do you already know their music? What are your favorite songs if so? I mentioned mine above. Would love to hear yours if you have one.

 

[MinnieM123]

The Country Music Hall of Fame announced today that the 2015 class of inductees will be Jim Ed Brown (solo and with his sisters, The Browns), The Oak Ridge Boys, and the late, great guitarist Grady Martin. All are very deserving, and according The Tennessean newspaper, most were emotional at the announcement. http://tnne.ws/1CaI6xf

The official induction ceremonies will take place in the fall.

If you do not know some of these great artists, please look them up. Jim Ed Brown at 80 is still a sonorous singer (who, incidentally, just recovered from a bout with lung cancer, and yet still has a beautiful voice), but was always a great singer. Check out "The Three Bells" as one the greats from the past. It's one of my favorites of all time. You will not find clearer family harmony.

Of course most non-country fans know The Oak Ridge Boys primarily for "Elvira," but they are also a great group with amazing harmonies and one of the lowest bass singers on the planet (Richard Sturban). The current line-up started in 1973, but the group has roots to the 1940s, and have always been a great gospel group even while singing country. They do a great job on "Farther Along."

Grady Martin was guitarist who played with all of the greats, and helped create their sound. including the swaggering intro to Roy Orbison's iconic "Pretty Woman" and the Spanish acoustic style in Marty Robbins' also iconic "El Paso."

Check all of them out on YouTube if you get a chance. Or better yet, buy their music (a novel idea these days...).

Do you already know their music? What are your favorite songs if so? I mentioned mine above. Would love to hear yours if you have one.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I appreciate the details you included. Although I am unfamiliar with most country music, it's always good to learn new things. Also, country music has been getting a broader fan base in recent years. (Please note that when I was growing up, I never heard country music at all in my area.) Now with satellite and cable tv, there are country channels that I'll sometimes watch.

 

[prberk]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I appreciate the details you included. Although I am unfamiliar with most country music, it's always good to learn new things. Also, country music has been getting a broader fan base in recent years. (Please note that when I was growing up, I never heard country music at all in my area.) Now with satellite and cable tv, there are country channels that I'll sometimes watch.

Cool. Check it out. As Ray Charles was quoted as saying in the movie about him, "Stories, man, stories." He had been asked why he liked country music, when he had chosen to do a country album (the album called, "Modern Sounds in Country Music" in the '60s or '70s). Country music ebbs and flows through the years, but it will always come back to center -- songs about real life, and the most ernest are always the best, I think. Yes, there will always be beer-drinking and party songs for some of the masses, but at the end of the day, country music's best music reflects real life. From "Coal Miner's Daughter" (Loretta Lynn's autobiographical song later made into an Oscar-winning movie that everyone should see) to Hank Williams' lovesick blues, to Ricky Skaggs' "Highway 40 Blues," to Nickel Creek's "newgrass" modern take on bluegrass, to Dolly Parton's original "I Will Always Love You," to Vince Gill's "Go Rest High on That Mountain," and to Alan Jackson's "Chatahoochie" and "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," to George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," to Phil Vassar's "Just Another Day in Paradise," all I can say is that country music does have a broad tent, but the tentpole is songs from the heart, about real life.

If you want to check out a new album made from centuries-old tunes that shaped a generation, check out Mac Wiseman's new release, "Songs From My Mother's Hand." He is aging bluegrass/country/Americana artist who has an amazingly textured voice that gives these old tunes just the right feel. His mother had passed down to him a book in which she had written down the lyrics of songs she considered great standards for him to learn as a child. He has known them his whole life, and decided to put them down to record this year while he still could. Some of the best musicians in Nashville backed him up, and it sounds amazing.

Thanks for noticing this thread. And I highly recommend that anyone interested in country music, or just plain good music or storytellling check some of the people in the Hall of Fame. They may not get much airplay today on Top 40 computer-driven radio of today, but they are worth listening to.

And one more suggestion, this one more modern: Check out the "Nashville: On the Record" show that aired on Wednesday night on ABC as part of the "Nashville" TV series. It was their annual concert show, where the musician/actors do a real show, appearing as themselves, and honoring the songwriters among the show's development team. There was some great acoustic music that night (without the drama), and did in fact, demonstrate the wide tent of country and Nashville songwriting today. It is available on demand, I am sure.