NASHVILLE, Tenn., — Prolific songwriter Curly Putman will make a rare public appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum on Saturday, March 28, as the latest subject of the quarterly programming series Poets and Prophets: Legendary Country Songwriters. The 1:30 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and free to Museum members.

The Poets and Prophets series is now made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund.

Museum Editor Michael Gray will conduct an in-depth, one-on-one interview with Putman, illustrated with audiovisual elements from the Museum’s collection, including recordings, photos and film clips. Putman will perform briefly during the program, and immediately following he will sign autographs in the Museum Store (visit the Museum’s Web site for signing details).

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Curly Putman’s enduring, heartfelt songs helped solidify Nashville as a songwriting mecca. He wrote or co-wrote the classics “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “My Elusive Dreams,” “Set Me Free,” “It’s a Cheating Situation” and “Blood Red and Goin’ Down,” among many other hits. Artists who have recorded Putman’s songs include Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Tom Jones, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Tanya Tucker, Porter Wagoner, Tammy Wynette and more.

Born in 1930 in Princeton, Alabama, Claude Putman Jr. was raised on a mountain that bore his family’s name. A son of a sawmill worker, Putman was greatly influenced by Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, which were among the few transmissions that made their way up the mountain. The young Putman fashioned himself as a musician before he had songwriting aspirations. He got his musical start playing steel guitar in country bands around Huntsville, Alabama.

After high school, Putman briefly attended junior college, then spent four years in the Navy. Upon returning to Alabama, he worked as a sawmill hand and a shoe salesman before moving to Nashville. Putman’s song “My Elusive Dreams,” which became a Billboard #1 for David Houston and Tammy Wynette in 1967, was inspired by this transient period in Putman’s life. With the support of his wife, Bernice, Putman uprooted his family several times to pursue his songwriting dream. After initially struggling in Nashville, the Putmans bounced from Memphis to Huntsville before finally returning to Music City in 1964.

Fellow Alabama native Buddy Killen helped launch Putman’s career, hiring him as a songwriter and song plugger for Nashville’s Tree Publishing company. In 1965, Putman’s classic composition “Green, Green Grass of Home” began its storied journey. The song was first cut by Johnny Darrell, and was eventually covered by hundreds of artists, including Porter Wagoner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Jones’ version became a pop hit, selling millions of records worldwide. Putman remained a successful song plugger for Tree until 1974, helping the company grow into a Nashville powerhouse while personally boosting the careers of legendary songwriter Bobby Braddock and others.

Putman’s song “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (co-written with Braddock) won the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year award in 1980 and 1981 and became George Jones’ career-defining anthem. Other Billboard Top Ten hits include the Kendalls’ “It Don’t Feel Like Sinnin’ to Me,” Ricky Van Shelton’s “I Meant Every Word He Said,” T. Graham Brown’s “I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again,” Ferlin Husky’s “Just for You,” the Statler Brothers’ “You Can’t Have Your Kate and Edith Too” and Hank Thompson’s “The Older the Violin, the Sweeter the Music.” Putman also provided Dolly Parton with her first chart single, “Dumb Blonde,” in 1967, and he penned the beloved Christmas song “There’s a New Kid in Town,” which has been covered by contemporary country artists Alan Jackson, Kathy Mattea, George Strait and Trisha Yearwood.

In February 2008, Alabama legislators presented Putman with a resolution naming a portion of Highway 65 in northeast Alabama in honor of the legendary songwriter. Putman is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Visitors are encouraged to ask questions at the interactive Poets and Prophets programs, which are dedicated to songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music history. Previous Poets and Prophets honorees include Bobby Braddock, Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, John D. Loudermilk, Bob McDill, Whitey Shafer, Jeffrey Steele and Craig Wiseman.

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com