Country Music Hall of Fame: The Class of 2008
Statler Brothers, Tom T. Hall, Emmylou Harris & Pop Stoneman Chosen
Announcing the latest inductees, Tammy Genovese, CEO for the Country Music Association, said, “It is truly fitting that these artists receive country music’s biggest honor and become the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame,” which was created in 1961 to recognize noteworthy individuals for outstanding contributions to country music.
Honorees are chosen by a CMA Hall of Fame panel of 300-plus anonymous voters appointed by the CMA board. The Class of ’08 increases the revered hall’s membership from 101 to 105 inductees.
Hall of Fame Spans Country Music History
This year, the hall inducted two acts—singing-storytellers Hall and The Statler Brothers—in the “Career Achieved National Prominence Between World War II and 1975” category, because of a tie.
Harris, meanwhile, was inducted in the “Career Achieved National Prominence Between 1975 and the Present” category, which was created in 2005, and Stoneman entered under the "Career Achieved National Prominence Prior to World War II" category, an award presented every third year in rotation with the "Recording and/or Touring Musician Active Prior to 1980" and "Non-Performer" categories.
Emmylou Harris: From Folk & Country-Rock to Traditional Country
The fourth artist to join under the “Career Achieved National Prominence Between 1975 and the Present” category, Harris spent much of her childhood in North Carolina before moving to Woodbridge, Va., in her teens. Inspired by folk music, she began playing guitar and eventually performing in clubs from New York and Washington, D.C., to Nashville.
She joined forces with country-rock visionary Gram Parsons in 1972 and sang on his first solo record, then became his permanent duet partner—a move credited with setting a new standard for duet vocals. Following Parsons’ untimely death in ‘73, Harris debuted as a solo artist in 1975, releasing a series of gold or platinum records throughout the ‘70s. With her Hot Band, she quickly earned a reputation for superb musicianship in both live and studio settings.
Harris—who has earned three CMA Awards and 12 Grammy Awards to date—is credited with being among the artists who merged rock audiences with country traditionalists and helped make country music “hip” by bringing it to youth market. She also led the way back to neo-traditionalist sounds and helped with the bluegrass revival of the ‘80s and played a key part in country's Americana movement.
Statler Brothers: Gospel Influences Lead to Country Hits
The original Statler Brothers—baritone vocalist Phil Balsley, tenor vocalist Lew DeWitt and bass vocalist Harold Reid—began in their Staunton, Va., hometown as a church band, then added Harold’s younger brother, Don Reid, as their lead singer. With their tight, gospel harmonies, they began performing country music and built a following in the region.
Named after a box of Statler tissues, the quartet got its commercial start after performing at an event headlined by Johnny Cash in 1963. The next year, Cash opted to add a male-harmony vocal group to his touring lineup and the Statlers joined his road show through 1972.
Signed to Cash’s label, Columbia Records, the group—with its songs catalog that reflected family values—experienced country-radio stardom with the DeWitt-penned Flowers on the Wall, which became their signature smash. The performance yielded the foursome their first Grammy in the all-genre category, even beating The Beatles.
The quartet moved to Mercury Records in 1969, where they remained for more than two decades. During the early ‘70s, they experienced tremendous success, landing in country music’s Top 40 time and again, with songs such as Carry Me Back, Do You Remember These?, The Class of ‘57 and Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?, all written by the Reid brothers.
In 1982, Jimmy Fortune was asked to temporarily replace DeWitt, who suffered from Crohn’s disease. After DeWitt’s health failed to improve, Fortune became an official band member. He wrote the group’s second No. 1, Elizabeth, and followed that with two more No. 1s, My Only Love and Too Much On My Heart, among other hits, before the band's 2002 retirement.
Tom T. Hall: Country’s Storyteller
A native of Kentucky, Hall wrote his first song at 9, with Clayton Delaney, a local musician, teaching him about music. Later in life, including after a three-year Army stint, Hall managed to secure a publishing deal, where he penned several top-10 country songs for other artists, before signing with Mercury Records in 1967.
While waiting on his own recording success, he wrote the crossover smash Harper Valley P.T.A. by Jeannie C. Riley, which put a new spotlight on Hall. Not long thereafter, he charted a number of top singles, including his biggest solo hit, 1971’s tribute to his musical mentor, The Year that Clayton Delaney Died.
Nicknamed “The Storyteller” by Tex Ritter, because his songs contained detailed narratives, Hall’s hits also include (Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine, I Love, Country Is, I Care and Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet), among others. He’s been nominated for seven CMA Awards and recently released a CD with his wife.
Pop Stoneman: Country Music Patriarch
Multi-instrumentalist Pop Stoneman was born in Virginia in 1893. He overcame extreme poverty, in great part thanks to his strong love for family and traditional country music.
Stoneman began writing and performing songs at an early age, and he and musician-wife Hattie had a large family, imparting their deep love for music to all their children. His solo breakthrough single, 1924’s The Sinking of the Titanic, charted at No. 3 on the charts. The song was one of country music’s earliest records to sell more than a million copies and one of the decade’s biggest hits.
Between 1924-1929, he cut 200-plus songs and added his adult children and wife to his band in 1926, an act that won the first-ever CMA "Vocal Group of the Year" honor in ’67. He also is credited with initiating the historic Bristol recording sessions, arguably the most important event in the history of country music.
Source
CMA press release, Retrieved Oct. 31, 2008.
Country Music Hall of Fame
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Ernest V. Pop Stoneman
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Emmylous Harris & Tom T. Hall, with Statler Bros.
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