The Country Music Hall of Fame announced its 2025 inductees on Tuesday, March 25th, and it’s hard to determine if anyone is happy about the overall outcome except for the inductees themselves and their immediate family.
It’s that time of year again to consider who might be considered as the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. A secret committee commissioned by the CMA (Country Music Association) is going over their final ballots.
‘Rolling Stone’ published a list of the The 100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time this week, and as per usual, it has many arguing its merits, omissions, and inclusions. There was a time when whatever Rolling Stone said was taken as the definitive word in music. These days it’s more polarizing.
As we get to mid February each year, it comes down to nut cutting time for deciding who the next class of inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame will be. Though who gets to decide is a big secret kept by the Country Music Association, or CMA, we all should feel like we have a say so and voice our opinions and hope the right people listen.
You would think there would be much more important business to attend to in the lives of country music fans than to worry about what clothing accessories Marty Stuart chooses to adorn his wardrobe with, but you may not find a another topic of more intrigue or discussion amongst some country listeners than why Marty decides to indulge in neck finery as part of his public fashion.
With the passing of the 94-year-old “Little” Jimmy Dickens at the beginning of 2015, it’s a reminder for us to cherish the final living links to country music’s most legendary past who can still tell stories of how country music once was. The amount of performers who were important in forming the very foundation of country music are quickly fading away.
Michael Goodman smoothly takes you on a musical time warp to the roiling 50’s to both cut a rug and cry in your beer in a time when music was much better across the board and became immediately timeless. Like walking into Sun Studios circa 1956, he takes you back to a time when the music of American was uncorrupted, the sentiments were sincere, and the promise was unending.
The general consensus amongst country music pundits in 2013 is that we are in the midst of the ‘Year Of The Woman.’ But this isn’t the first year in country when the women deserved the lion’s share of attention. Rose Maddox of The Maddox Brothers & Rose, Goldie Hill, and the woman who would later rise to be known as the Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells became pioneers for women in country.
Few, if any can give perspective on George Jones that 90-year-old Don Maddox can–the last surviving member of the pioneering and influential band The Maddox Brothers & Rose. Many artists can speak about how George Jones helped them get their start in the music business, but Don Maddox can speak about how The Maddox Brothers & Rose helped George Jones get his start in the mid 50’s.
If anybody asked me point blank, who is the artist that is most saving country music right now? I would answer without hesitation, “Marty Stuart.” Marty Stuart is the man. He breathes country music, and helps preserve it and pay it forward almost as if it was an involuntary action. He doesn’t know how to do anything different.
Don Maddox, the last surviving member of the wildly-influential Maddox Brothers & Rose, will be recognized in his hometown of Ashland, Oregon for his 90th birthday at the Don Maddox Birthday Celebration on Saturday, December 8th. The Maddox Brothers & Rose are one of the most influential bands in the history of American music. They played shows with folks as far ranging as Ernest Tubb and Elvis Presley.
From all the music festivals I attended this summer, from South by Southwest this Spring, to all the other musical events intermixed throughout the year, few rival the magic that transpired Halloween night when Lucky Tubb and the Modern Day Troubadours pulled their tour van up to Johnny B’s in Medford OR all the way from Austin, to share a night of music with the legendary Don Maddox.