Charley Crockett & Billy Strings Make Hall of Fame’s Currents Class

Every year the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville seats a variety of names from throughout the country and roots world in what they call their American Currents exhibit. This is the opportunity for artists that you may not normally see an exhibit for in the Country Music Hall of Fame to get an opportunity to be featured among all the greats, while also providing a relevant conduit from today’s contributors to yesteryear’s legends.
Filling out the class in 2021 is of course some of the biggest names in mainstream country today, including Luke Combs, Maren Morris, and Eric Church. Putting an emphasis on race, Darius Rucker, Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Jimmie Allen, and Freddy Fender also make it into the 2021 class. You also have songwriter Casey Beathard who will be featured, as well as Ashley McBryde, Faith Hill and Miranda Lambert.
But it’s always the wild cards that get thrown in that make it the Hall of Fame’s American Currents display interesting, and this year a few worthy ones make the cut. Along with Dierks Bentley’s side project Hot Country Nights getting a display, now-retired Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs is graced with the honor. You also have the highly-regarded bluegrass group Sister Sadie make the list after their big wins at the 2020 IBMA Awards, as well as the recently-passed John Prine, which will hopefully heat up discussions if he should be considered for the Hall of Fame proper in the coming years.
But most notably included are two of the most quickly rising names in independent country and roots at the moment in Charley Crockett and Billy Strings, speaking to their swelling importance and respect to their respective disciplines. Billy Strings holds the promise of helping to make bluegrass cool again, and in both its traditional and more jam-based manifestations. Charley Crockett is doing much of the same, revitalizing past classics in both the country and blues realms, and doing it with a cool factor that keeps the music relevant and moving forward.
Charley Crockett has that magnetic, real world quality that give his songs that lived-in, road-worn feel, and for good reason. From dirty streets to Western peaks and all points in between, Charley Crockett propped open his guitar case in many far flung destinations and played for your ragged dollar, and did so well before anyone had the smarts to place a microphone in front of him and try to capture that magic for permanence and posterity. It doesn’t hurt that he can also write and sing just about anything that resides under the roots music umbrella. As if the most potent strains of American roots music all rose up from the ground and intertwined into a living, breathing entity, Charley Crockett contains an unfair amount of country and blues talent, only rendered forgivable from his incredible ability to share it.
Billy Strings does things on the guitar that from outward appearances aren’t even possible from a physical or theoretical standpoint. This results in his performances acting like a musical psilocybin, taking you places you thought weren’t accessible in the conscious world, and all while making it look so effortless. Billy Strings is arguably best musician you will witness live in our generation, with no hyperbole peppering that proclamation, or any of the others previous. He is an unmistakable savant, but one where the richness and appeal of his talent is palatable to a general audience, instead of being elusive, or only enjoyed from a technical standpoint.
And beyond the music, both of these young men feel like guys who will continue to help lead country and roots music in a more positive and rootsy direction for years and decades to come. Being honored in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s American Currents exhibit for the upcoming year only seems fitting.
The American Currents exhibit will run from March 12th, 2021 until February 22, 2022. The full class can be seen below.
2021 American Currents Class:
Jimmy Allen – Ingrid Andress – Gabby Barrett – Casey Beathard – The Chicks – Eric Church – Luke Combs – Charley Crockett – Freddy Fender – Mickey Guyton – Faith Hill – Hot Country Knights – MIranda Lambert – Ashley McBryde – Lester “Roadhog” Moran – Maren Morris – Rissi Palmer – Dolly Parton – John Prine – Darius Rucker – Sister Sadie – Dan + Shay – Billy Strings – Eddie Stubbs
February 24, 2021 @ 9:34 am
I hate to be “that guy,” but…lester roadhog moran isn’t real, even tho this imaginary dude put out one of the greatest country music albums ever.
also, how is the late freddy fender, “current?”*
*no question whatsoever about his greatness.
February 24, 2021 @ 10:02 am
Hot Country Knights isn’t real either. That’s what’s cool about it. It might also be hard to call John Prine current since he’s dead. I think it’s more about the current influences, and honoring folks who aren’t inducted into the Hall, but still are worth honoring.
February 24, 2021 @ 10:05 am
Hey all, Billy Strings is streaming one more night tonight, FREE on the Relix Twitch channel. Just google it, shouldn’t be too hard to find.
February 26, 2021 @ 5:24 am
I love John Prine, and he deserves all the recognition he can get, but he’s dead, so “currents” is an odd term to use
February 24, 2021 @ 10:01 pm
What a weird mix. I could do without Dan & Shay or The Chicks, but Billy and Charley are two of my favorites from the past couple of years.
February 24, 2021 @ 10:48 pm
It’s a weird mix because Charley Crockett and Billy Strings have no business being there. But it’s cool they are.
February 25, 2021 @ 7:39 am
Why is Faith Hill in here? As much as I enjoy her music, she hasn’t released anything whatsoever since that 2017 duet album with Tim. I don’t really recall any news stories she’s been involved in either. You can probably argue the case for everyone else being included here but Faith Hill seems completely out of nowhere.
February 27, 2021 @ 8:15 pm
Jack, the reason why some of these names, like Faith Hill, might seem out of place is that the format of part of the exhibit is to pair a younger performer with one of their heroes. So, Faith Hill is presumably there at Ingrid Andress’s suggestion. Here’s the section of the museum’s press release that lists the other pairings too:
“The exhibit’s Unbroken Circle illustrates the connection between country music’s past and present by pairing artists with those who have influenced them or share musical perspectives. Those represented through artifacts are Jimmie Allen and Darius Rucker; Ingrid Andress and Faith Hill; Charley Crockett and Freddy Fender; and Dierks Bentley’s Hot Country Knights and the Statler Brothers’ Lester “Roadhog” Moran & the Cadillac Cowboys.”
March 2, 2021 @ 4:37 pm
“This results in his performances acting like a musical psilocybin, taking you places you thought weren’t accessible in the conscious world, and all while making it look so effortless.”
I couldn’t agree more with this statement which Trigger had mentioned in a previous post about Billy Strings a couple of years ago. When I saw him in SF in 2019, it was truly a mind altering experience without any chemicals needed. The way you could feel the music vibrating within you was kind of like a roller coaster ride and Billy was at the controls making you feel at one with the music.
I saw Charley a couple of months after Billy and he and his band were awesome too. He stayed after the show to meet fans and sign autographs and was such a nice guy and gentleman. It’s so cool that he also really likes the parts of California that I love such as the Eastern Sierra and Mojave Desert which he has shown in multiple videos.
I’ve only started leaving replies recently but have been following this site for about 3 years now and it has really impacted my life in such a positive way. I’ve bought so much music and went to so many shows since learning about artists on this site after I quit listening to country on the radio more than 10 years ago. Although I disagree with a lot of what Trigger has said about Shooter (who I’ve seen many times in concert), I want to say “Thank you Trigger for helping me find great music to listen to and share with my wife and 2 boys who know fully well what is really Country Music and what is trash pretending to be Country Music”.