Category: News
Today (3/27) it is overcast and gloomy, but the new Hall of Fame inductees are shining so brightly it takes away the cloud cover. The class of 2018 was announced this morning, and I am thrilled beyond measure to present the list of inductees.
MUSICIAN: JOHNNY GIMBLE. Known initially as a member of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, Gimble's career branched out to include his trademark fiddle work on countless albums. He was featured on Merle Haggard's tribute album to Wills, as well as working as a road musician for Willie Nelson and a session man for George Strait. Later he was a member of the Hee Haw "Million Dollar Band." Gimble died in 2015, but what a legacy he left.
VETERANS ERA: DOTTIE WEST. Country music's first female Grammy winner, the late Dottie West had been one of the most overlooked performers on the list of "veterans era" performers. That came to an end today, over 26 years after her tragic death from injuries in a car wreck on her way to an Opry performance. A songwriter, a singer, and a dynamic performer, West was one of the unsung female heroes in country music who helped pave the way for the women singers today. Now, she has received the recognition she so richly deserved.
MODERN ERA: RICKY SKAGGS. From eastern Kentucky (along the famed "Country Music Highway"), Skaggs learned a love of bluegrass at a very early age...and showed it off at an equally early age, playing on Flatt & Scruggs' TV show. His career has covered bluegrass in the 70s with J.D. Crowe, a band musician in the late 70s and early 80s as part of Emmylou Harris' "Hot Band," his own string of country successes in the 80s as one of the champions of the "neo-traditional sound" revival, and his return to his bluegrass roots in the 90s through today.
Thank you, Hall of Fame. What a remarkable class for 2018.
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