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Question One: Who were the first inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame? What year?
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Answer: The first inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame were Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose, and Hank Williams. They were inducted in 1961.
James Charles Rodgers, known also as the Singing Brakeman, was born in Meridian, MS, on September 8, 1897. He was the first performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is known as the Father of Country Music. From the traditional sounds and folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage show yodeling, the work chants of railroad workers and African-American blues, Rodgers evolved a lasting musical style that made him popular in his own time and a major influence on generations of country artists. Rodgers died on May 26, 1933of a massive hemorrhage.
Knowles Fred Rose was an important figure on the Nashvillemusic scene between 1942 and 1954 as a music publisher, songwriter, producer, and talent scout. Born August 24, 1898, he moved to Chicagoin 1917, where he found work as a piano player and singer in several clubs and bars. In 1942 Rose joined Roy Acuff in founding Acuff-Rose Publications, Nashville’s first major country music publishing company. Rose died of heart failure on December 1, 1954.
From the beginning, Williams set the agenda for contemporary country music. His is the standard by which success is measured in country music on every level, including self-destruction. Hiram Williams came from the rural area of Mount Olive, Alabama, born September 17, 1923. Fred Rose invited Hank to write songs for other artists, but his first MGM release, "Move It on Over," was a hit in the fall of 1947. In 1950 and 1951, he was one of the most successful touring acts in country music. When Tony Bennett covered “Cold, Cold Heart” in 1951, he began to be recognized as an important popular songwriter. On December 30, 1952, he left for two shows in Charleston, West Virginia, and Canton, Ohio, but died before he got there. He was found dead in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac, and was pronounced dead early on January 1, 1953, in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
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Question Two: Question 2: Who are the latest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame?
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Answer: In 2005, Alabama, DeFord Bailey, and Glen Campbell were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Alabama, comprised of Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry, Mark Herndon (of Springfield, MA), and Randy Owen, scored more than 30 records at the top of the Billboard country charts and sold millions of albums between 1980 and 1993, making themselves one of American music’s most popular acts of all time. Writing most of their own songs and adapting the rock & roll formula of the self-contained band to country, Alabama opened doors for group acts who followed them. In 1982, Alabama began sponsoring the June Jam, a music festival that raised millions of dollars for local charities. In 1998, the band was honored with its own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2000, it was presented with the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award. In 2002, the band announced its upcoming retirement and spent much of 2003 on tour bidding farewell to its fans.
DeFord Bailey was an influential harmonica player in both country music and blues, one of the Grand Ole Opry’s most popular early performers, and country’s first African American star. Born December 14, 1899 Bailey developed polio at age three. He began learning harmonica as a young child. He grew up in a musical family who played what he called “black hillbilly music,” a tradition of secular string-band music actually shared by rural black and white musicians alike. By June 1926, Bailey was making regular appearances on the WSM “Barn Dance” and was called “The Harmonica Wizard.” Bailey’s radio career came to a halt in 1941 during a dispute over licensing fees. Bailey gave up professional music and made his living operating a shoeshine parlor and renting rooms in his home, making rare guest performances on the Grand Ole Opry. He died on July 2, 1982.
Born near Delight, Arkansas, on April 22, 1936, Glen Travis Campbell rose to national prominence in the late 1960s on the strength of a string of pop and country hits and a CBS-TV series, The Glen Campbell Good-Time Hour (1968-1972). As a Los Angeles session guitarist and vocalist for several years, he worked with Ricky Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Merle Haggard, and the Beach Boys. Campbell preferred to call himself a “country boy who sings,” rather than a “country singer,” he had several crossover hits such as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Gentle on My Mind," and "Wichita Lineman." He scored seventy-five songs on the country charts, thirty-five of which crossed over to the pop market.
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trivia elmoremagazine.com
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