Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame's Class of 2021
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2021 AUGUST 16 CountryInsider.com | Sign Up For Daily Email Here Headed For The Hall: Inside The Country Music Hall Of Fame’s Class Of 2021. This year, the Country Music Hall of Fame will induct its first multi-generational act, an artist who redefined what country could sound like before he ever appeared on a country chart, and, due to a tie in the voting for the Recording and/or Touring Artist category, its first pedal-steel player and its first drummer. Almost anyone who has a history in country music will recognize the names announced this morning via livestream — The Judds, Ray Charles, Pete Drake and Eddie Bayers. But we’re going to tell you some things you probably don’t know. (Continued on page 4) COUNTRY INSIDER TOP 5: More Than 160 Cases Of COVID-19 Tied To Washington’s Watershed Festival Attendees. George Birge’s ‘Beer Beer, Truck Truck’ Goes Into Four Wheel Drive At Country Radio. When Coaches Coach Coaches: Mike O’Malley Recalls Two Inspirational CRS Moments. Benztown West Coast Commercial Production Director Jeff Kelly Dies At 50. Happy Birthday, Dan Smyers! Dan + Shay Have Both No. 1 Single And Top Debut. 1 | AUGUST 16, 2021 CountryInsider.com Tay Hamilton Shaun Andrews Co-host/Producer, Mornings Top 5 All-Time The Wayne D Show Top 5 Faves On “Bug Country 99.7 & 101.1” Country Ballads: “The Big 98” WSIX, Nashville The Charts Now: WBUG, Utica, NY 1. The Worst Country Song 1. It’s Your Love - of All Time - Brantley Gilbert Tim McGraw/Faith Hill f. Toby Keith & HARDY 2. Neon Moon - Brooks & Dunn 2. Fancy Like - Walker Hayes 3. Butterflies - 3. Glad You Exist - Kacey Musgraves Dan + Shay 4. Blue Ain’t Your Color - 4. Tequila Little Time - Keith Urban Jon Pardi 5. From the Ground Up - 5. Knowing You - Dan + Shay Kenny Chesney More Than 160 COVID-19 Cases Confirmed Among Watershed Festival Attendees. The Seattle Times reports that more than 160 cases of COVID-19 have been traced to attendees of the Watershed Festival. More than 25,000 people attended the outdoor festival, held July 30-Aug. 1 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA, and headlined by Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley and Thomas Rhett. “The outbreak is the first one traced to an outdoor entertainment event since the lifting of statewide COVID-19 prevention measures at the end of June,” Grant County Health District Communicable Disease Coordinator Laina Mitchell said in a news release. Benztown West Coast Commercial Production Director Jeff Kelly Dies At 50. Jeff Kelly, the West Coast commercial production director for Benztown, died Friday night in Los Angeles at the age of 50. Cause of death was not revealed. Kelly joined Benztown in January and had just recently moved to L.A. to work with the Benztown team in the company’s Glendale, CA, studios. Jeff started his radio career in 1994 at K-MIX/KHJ in Lancaster, CA. He moved across town to then-No. 1 “Country FM 103.1” KTPI in 1995. In 1996, Kelly headed to Cheyenne, WY, where he helped launch 97.9 KING FM/100.7 KOLT FM, where he later became program director. He joined iHeartMedia in Albuquerque, NM, in 2016, then Benztown in January. Mark Chesnutt Tests Positive For COVID-19 While Recuperating From Back Surgery. Mark Chesnutt and his wife, Tracie, both have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The singer revealed the diagnoses Saturday on social media, saying, “I am currently on the mend from my back surgery. But, while doing so my wife Tracie and I have tested positive for COVID-19! Thank you all for the continuous prayers!” Severe back pain caused Chesnutt to cancel approximately two months’ worth of dates and have surgery in early July. Jeremy Robinson Added For Nights “Hank FM” Ft. Worth/Wichita Falls. Jeremy Robinson joins LKCM Media Group “92.1 Hank FM” KTFW Ft. Worth, TX, which simulcasts on KTWF Wichita Falls (95.5), for nights beginning today. “Jeremy is a proven major market personality, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him join the Hank FM Family!” PD Mark Phillips said in a release. Robinson previously had spent three years at iHeartMedia AC “Star 102.1” KDGE Dallas, exiting in January to focus on his company, JPR Multimedia. 3 | AUGUST 16, 2021 CountryInsider.com Country Music Hall Of Fame Class Of 2021. (Continued from page 1) RAY CHARLES • Wynonna was the first artist born in the 1960s to have a No. 1 Billboard country hit. She was 20 when • “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” The Judds’ “Mama He’s Crazy” topped the charts in spent 14 weeks atop Billboard’s albums charts August 1984. in 1962. Nashville country albums didn’t match that run • In 1983, about six months before “Had a Dream (For until 1992 with Garth Brooks’ the Heart)” debuted on the charts, Naomi appeared “Ropin’ the Wind” and Billy Ray on the cover of Conway Twitty’s “Lost in the Feeling” Cyrus’ “Some Gave All.” album, her head tilted seductively towards the singer’s ear. • Despite all his success with country songs, Charles didn’t • When The Judds received their first of three CMA appear on the country singles nominations for Entertainer of the Year in 1986, charts until 1980 when he Wynonna was 22 years old — the youngest artist to and Clint Eastwood recorded ever be nominated in that category. She would hold “Beers to You” for the film “Any Which Way You Can.” the distinction until 2009, when a 19-year-old Taylor However, Jerry Lee Lewis hit the country Top 30 in Swift won the award. 1961 with a cover of “What’d I Say,” which Charles PETE DRAKE wrote. • The Hall’s first pedal-steel session musician, Georgia • Charles and Willie Nelson, his “Seven Spanish native Pete Drake was in such Angels” duet partner, bonded over chess. “The first demand during the 1960s that time we played chess,” Nelson wrote in his book he claimed to have once seen “The Tao of Willie,” “Ray sat me down in the dark at a Billboard Hot Country Singles a Braille chessboard and he just kicked my ass. After chart where he had played on that, I said when we played chess, we had to have 59 of the 75 charting records. some lights on.” He also was among the first of • The chart-topping success of “Seven Spanish country’s pedal-steel players to Angels” led to Charles’ nomination for the CMA’s appear on pop and rock albums, Horizon Award in 1985, the year after The Judds won working with artists including Elvis Presley, Bob the category. At 54, Charles was by far the oldest Dylan, Joan Baez, Leon Russell and Tommy James. artist ever nominated for the award, which, while • In June 1970, Drake traveled to London to often considered a new-artist honor, was technically participate in recording sessions for what would for career advancement. He lost to Sawyer Brown. become George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” THE JUDDS album. Before the month was over, Drake had Ringo Starr in a Nashville studio recording Starr’s second • Both Judds credit Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson solo album, “Beacoups of Blues.” with coming up with Wynonna’s stage name (she was born Christina Ciminella) based on the Arizona • During the “All Things Must Pass” sessions, a town of Winona. But in Benson’s autobiography 20-year-old Peter Frampton became enamored with “Comin’ Right at Ya,” the singer a contraption Drake had that connected his pedal says the name also has roots steel to a plastic tube that he put into his mouth, in a discussion he and Naomi creating an effect that allowed him to “talk” his solos. had about ‘50s blues shouter Frampton eventually developed his own version of Wynonie Harris. “Christina’s the “talk box” and used it on such ‘70s rock staples as mom … said that if you “Show Me the Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.” changed the ending from ‘ie’ to • Drake played on Ray Charles’ most successful ‘a,’ then ‘Wynona’ could be a girl’s name. ‘Well,’ I said, Nashville album, 1984’s “Friendship,” including on ‘don’t forget Winona’ — just me trying to be funny, the chart-topping “Seven Spanish Angels.” quoting the song ‘Route 66.’” (Continued on page 8) 4 | AUGUST 16, 2021 CountryInsider.com ‘Beer Beer, Truck Truck’ in Four Wheel Drive at Country Radio. What began as a fun defense of country music that validates all of the hard work I have put in.” spread like wildfire on TikTok has become one of the Top 10 most-added songs on country radio. He says having his name on a list of most-added songs with Jason Aldean and Tim McGraw is surreal. “Seeing George Birge’s “Beer Beer, Truck Truck,” released by my little name up there with them was incredible,” he RECORDS Nashville on August 9, has been added by says. “It’s a pinch-me moment.” stations including Steel City Media “Q104” KBEQ, MO; Empire Broadcasting KRTY San Jose, CA (95.3); and It also shows the challenges that face the promo team both Salt Lake City outlets. as they try to build the single’s momentum. “The response to the live performance was huge, and “We are going up against 35 current artists that have yes, it has been a monster online,” says KRTY’s Nate four-plus No. 1 records coming on the charts,” Jennings Deaton. says. “We are going to fight the good fight with everyone else.