Nashville, Tenn., — The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s successful quarterly program series Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players returns on Saturday, August 23, with a salute to legendary fiddler Buddy Spicher. The 1:30 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.

The interactive program, hosted by Stringed Instrument Curator Bill Lloyd, will include a brief performance and an in-depth, one-on-one interview highlighted by vintage recordings, photos and film clips from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive. Immediately following the program, Spicher will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Buddy Spicher’s distinctive harmony fiddle backed country music legends Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Ray Price, Hank Snow, Kitty Wells, Faron Young and others in the late ’50s and throughout most of the ’60s. After dedicating himself fully to session work, Spicher became one of Nashville’s most in-demand studio musicians for over three decades. His credits include “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” (Charley Pride), “Long Long Time” (Linda Ronstadt), “Love in the Hot Afternoon” (Gene Watson) and “Amarillo by Morning” (George Strait), among many others. Spicher has also issued highly regarded recordings of his own that feature his signature “double-stop” fiddle technique.

Norman Keith Spicher was born on a farm outside of Dubois, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1938. After his brother traded a pony for a radio, the sounds of swing, boogie-woogie music and broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry became the soundtrack to Spicher’s childhood. At age 13, he began playing fiddle. Soon Spicher was playing in bands and, by the early ’50s, had earned a spot on the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia.

In 1957, Hank Williams’ widow, Audrey Williams, invited Spicher to Nashville after hearing him on WWVA. Within a few years, he was touring behind Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Ray Price, Kitty Wells, Faron Young and childhood hero Hank Snow. Through his work with Snow, Spicher was able to make valuable connections and begin working in the recording studio.

Spicher’s shift to full-time session work in the late ’60s paid off, as his sophisticated, classical style and keen arranging skills were highly sought after by Nashville record producers. Harmony fiddle was Spicher’s specialty (often alongside Chubby Wise or Johnny Gimble), as was his “double stop” fiddle style, which, by doubling notes, often sounded like two harmonizing fiddles.

Artists whose recordings feature Spicher include Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Webb Pierce, Marty Robbins, Hank Thompson and Conway Twitty, among many others. Spicher has also lent his fiddle stylings to artists outside the country realm including Joan Baez, Gary Burton, Rosemary Clooney, Henry Mancini, Steve Miller Band and others.

Spicher currently owns and operates a recording studio, the Fiddle House, in East Nashville and appears live with the Nashville Swing Band. Spicher has worked on numerous projects throughout the years as both a producer and a recording artist. His newest album, Air Mail Special, is a collaboration with renowned Canadian fiddler Calvin Vollrath and other superpickers. Spicher also teaches at several annual fiddle camps including the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp and the Montana Fiddle Camp.

Information about the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum

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 the National Endowment for the Arts.

With the purchase of a Museum membership ($25/adults and $10/youth), visitors can attend most public programs free of charge for one year, including the Nashville Cats series, Poets and Prophets series, and programming related to the ongoing exhibit Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Co-Presented by SunTrust and Ford Motor Company. Museum memberships also include one year of unlimited admission to the Museum, discounts in the Museum Store, SoBro Grill and Hatch Show Print, and more. Membership support helps fund research, education and public programs that make country music history available to a worldwide audience.

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.

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Nashville, Tenn. — The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum will honor country music’s first female superstar, Kitty Wells, in Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music, Presented by Great American Country Television Network, a biographical exhibit opening Friday, August 15, 2008, for a 10-month run in the Museum’s East Gallery. The exhibit will run through June 14, 2009.

Opening weekend festivities will include a 45-minute exhibit tour, guided by a Museum curator; an interview with Wells, hosted by 650 WSM announcer Eddie Stubbs and illustrated with photos, film footage and recordings from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive; an autograph signing by Wells in the Museum Store; and a screening of the 1982 Showtime special A Tribute to Kitty Wells, hosted by Tammy Wynette. (A detailed schedule of grand opening activities is below.)

“Kitty Wells is, quite simply, a trailblazer,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Her many hits—including her signature song ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’—were sung from a woman’s point of view, something that was new to country music at that time. She was marketed as a solo performer in an industry where women previously had performed only as members of family groups. Her success in selling records and concert tickets led record companies to open their doors to women artists. Many of contemporary country music’s biggest stars are women,” he said, “but Kitty Wells is the prototype.

“We are grateful to both Kitty and her husband, country star Johnnie Wright, for opening up their lives and home to us and allowing us to tell their extraordinary story.”

Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music,
Presented by Great American Country Television Network

Born Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 30, 1919, Wells forged a groundbreaking career that spanned more than a half century. Her indelible contributions to American music were acknowledged formally in 1976 when she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Employing a wealth of splendid stage costumes, vintage photos, awards, instruments, posters and advertisements, personal correspondence and career-spanning audio and video of both Wells and Wright, Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music will explore how Wells, a soft-spoken, dignified mother of three, succeeded in tearing down country music’s gender barrier and became a role model for generations of female artists. The exhibit will also chronicle Johnnie Wright’s successful recording career—both with the duo Johnnie & Jack and as a solo artist—and his role in managing Wells’ career.

Among the notable artifacts included in the exhibit are:

• sheet music of the ballad “Kitty Wells,” from which Johnnie Wright chose his wife’s stage name
• songwriter J. D. Miller’s original manuscript of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”
• Wright’s 1947 Martin D-28 guitar with custom pick guard designed by Shot Jackson;
• Wells’ 1954 Gibson L-5 guitar
• a blue gingham stage costume worn by Wells in the 1950s;
• a gown worn by Wells to the 1976 CMA Awards, during which she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Wells’ 1991 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Selected audio and video clips will further expand the exhibition story.

Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music, Presented by Great American Country Television Network Grand Opening Weekend Program Schedule

All programs August 15-17 are included with Museum admission and free to members.

Friday, August 15 — 11:00 a.m.
Curator’s Exhibit Talk
A Museum curator offers an introduction to Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music.

Saturday, August 16 — 1:30 p.m.
Interview with Kitty Wells
650 WSM personality Eddie Stubbs will interview Wells in the Museum’s Ford Theater. The program will be illustrated with vintage photos, film footage and recordings culled from the Museum’s collection.

Saturday, August 16 — 3:00 p.m.
Autograph Signing
Wells will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Sunday, August 17 — All Day
Film Loop: A Tribute to Kitty Wells
Hosted by Tammy Wynette, this 1982 Showtime special features performances by Wells and her family, as well as Roy Acuff, Tom T. Hall, Hank Williams Jr., Wynette and many others. It will air continuously throughout the day.

Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music will be accompanied by an ongoing series of programs throughout the exhibit’s run.

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 or by calling (615) 416-2001.

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Dailey & Vincent Band along with the Statler Brothers who were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame during a Medallion Ceremony. (Photo used with permission) Dailey & Vincent along with Tom T. Hall who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame during a Medallion Ceremony. (Photo used with permission)

Nashville, Tenn. — Acclaimed new bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent performed “Do You Know You Are My Sunshine” in tribute to the Statler Brothers Sunday night at the invitation-only Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s Medallion Ceremony marking the official induction of the Statlers and Tom T. Hall. Banjo player Joe Dean and mandolinist Jeff Parker filled the quartet parts with Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent, and the group drew a standing ovation for their performance of the Statlers’ first #1 hit.

“I’ve listened to the Statler Brothers’ music every day of my life since I got my first album when I was nine,” Dailey remarked. “You’ve inspired us, and we love you for it.”

Dailey & Vincent’s version of another Statler Brothers hit, “More Than a Name on a Wall,” is #1 for the 6th consecutive week on the Count Down Yonder Weekly Top 17 Songs of SIRIUS Bluegrass, based on listener requests.

At the same time, Dailey & Vincent top the Bluegrass Unlimited National Bluegrass Survey song and album charts for July, with “Sweet Carrie” moving to the #1 song position from #4, and the duo’s self-titled debut remaining at #1 for a second month.

“By the Mark,” another popular track from the album, is #1 on Bluegrass Music Profiles’ June Top 20 Hot Singles chart.

For up-to-date information and tour dates, please visit www.daileyvincent.com and www.myspace.com/thedaileyvincentband.

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Nashville, Tenn. — Two groundbreaking country music stars from the 1960s were welcomed into the Country Music Hall of Fame^® on June 29 in a three-hour ceremony filled with classic music and fond memories, as well as a few tears and loads of laughter.

Considered country music’s most prestigious night, the Country Music Hall^® of Fame and Museum’s Medallion Ceremony marked the official induction of Tom T. Hall and the Statler Brothers. They accepted their honors in the intimate setting of the Museum’s Ford Theater, in front of family members, close associates and fellow Hall of Fame members. They listened to poignant, sometimes hilarious stories about their lives and careers; they responded with heartfelt, humane, and often funny speeches that reflected their prodigious gifts as storytellers, humorists and big-hearted entertainers.

“A lot of my old pals and buddies are here tonight, and they asked me if I had prepared a speech,” Hall said after accepting his medallion from longtime friend and fellow Hall of Fame member Ralph Emery. “I said, ‘No, I don’t have to make a speech. I’m in the Country Music Hall of Fame!’ Why should I go to work?”

Similarly, Don Reid recalled the Statlers’ visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on the day of the public announcement of their inductions. “They took us into the Rotunda, and you walk in, and here are all of these plaques of all the people who have gone before us,” he said. “I’m standing there wide-eyed, and someone walks up behind me and says, ‘Don, here’s where the Statlers’ plaque will go.’ I thought I had seen it all in my life. But I felt like a little Amish boy who had wandered into a Circuit City.”

Joking aside, Tom T. Hall and the Statlers generously thanked those who helped them in their careers and took special care to address the importance of their wives, children and other family members.

Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, explained that Hall and the Statler Brothers join Emmylou Harris and the late Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman as 2008 inductees. Harris and Stoneman were welcomed into the Hall of Fame during a ceremony on April 27.

“As a class, the 2008 Hall of Fame inductees represent a historical spectrum encompassing the earliest days of commercial country music recordings, the modern evolution of the country gospel quartet tradition, the arrival of more complex themes and social consciousness in country music songs, and the revival of a belief in the integrity of country music’s root forms that transcended the genre in a way that few others have matched,” Young said. “That’s a pretty complete spectrum. These artists have created a rich and enduring tapestry of music that will always recount the story of our homeland and its people over a period of almost 100 years.”

The night’s inductees shared small-town backgrounds and a commitment to songs about everyday American people that shattered country music stereotypes and formulas. Tom T. Hall’s literate tales, full of incisive detail and bold narrative gambits, helped change the content and construction of popular country songs. Such #1 hits as “A Week in a Country Jail,” “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died,” and “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine”-as well as hits he wrote for others, including Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.” and Bobby Bare’s “Margie’s at the Lincoln Park Inn”-prodded Nashville into a new era. His sophisticated songwriting reflected his time’s changing values and rendered modern life from a fresh perspective.

The Statler Brothers-Harold Reid, Don Reid, Phil Balsley, the late Lew DeWitt, and his replacement, Jimmy Fortune-brought the four-part vocal harmonies of gospel quartets into the country music charts. Like Hall, their contemporary and Mercury Records labelmate, the Statlers also moved beyond conventional country music topics, as illustrated in the urban imagery of their debut 1965 hit, “Flowers on the Wall,” and in the warm, “Happy Days”-era nostalgia of “Do You Remember These?” and “The Class of ‘57.”

Those honoring Tom T. Hall with performances of his songs included Bobby Bare, who sang “How I Got to Memphis,” a Hall song he took to #3 on the Billboard charts in 1970; Heather Berry and Tony Mabe, a North Carolina folk-music duo who received a standing ovation for “Can You Hear Me Now,” a recent song written for them by Tom T. and his wife, Dixie Hall; and bluegrass singer Michelle Nixon, who offered a spirited “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which she has recorded for an upcoming album.

“I probably know Tom T. Hall better than anybody except (his wife) Dixie,” Bare said. “We’ve been friends for over 45 years. That’s a long time.” Bare went on to say, “Tom T. is one of a kind. He writes songs and tells stories about people that have the uncanny ability to capture the spirit of people he is writing about. That doesn’t come by very often.”

Hall also performed, displaying his sly, laid-back, conversational style on “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine,” which included soulful harmonica accompaniment by Jelly Roll Johnson.

Ralph Emery, one of Hall’s best and oldest friends, presented Hall with his medallion, continuing a tradition of the new member being welcomed personally by a member of the Hall of Fame. Emery spoke of his brotherly relationship with Hall and their shared love of golf. “He has never forgotten that whether playing or listening or recording music, it’s all about people,” Emery said. “Read or listen to his words, and you’ll soon learn that this complex man has a kind of integrity that is charming. It’s an openness that is unusual in a field of large egos and fragile feelings.”

During the Statler segment, Reba McEntire performed a rousing rendition of “Flowers on the Wall,” with Vince Gill joining in on harmony, a move that hadn’t been planned. New bluegrass upstarts Dailey & Vincent showed off their stunning harmony ability on “Do You Know You Are My Sunshine.” Another duo, Grandstaff, featured cousins Wil and Langdon Reid, sons of Harold and Don Reid, respectively; they performed “The Statler Brothers Song,” which they wrote for the quartet that made their fathers famous. “You all call yourselves the Statler Brothers for a reason, and we all call ourselves ‘ the Statler families’ for that very same reason,’” Wil said of the 21 offspring of the five members of the Statler Brothers.

McEntire, before her performance, recalled the important role the Statlers played in her career. “You guys probably saved my life, I want you to know that,” McEntire said. “I’d been singing in clubs, and my voice was just about to go, because the smoke was killing me. I finally said, ‘I’m not playing any more clubs,’ and I was told, ‘Well, your career is over, you might as well forget it’… It wasn’t a week or two later that you all called and asked me to open your show. You took me under your wing, you showed me how to be professional, to treat it like a business, and I’ll never forget it.”

Country and pop superstar Brenda Lee, who toured with the Statler Brothers for two years, presented the vocal group with their medallions. “I had more fun on that tour than I’ve ever had in my professional career,” she said. “I stood backstage and watched every show. … Like Reba said, they were some of the most professional people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. I thought I was disciplined, but I learned a lot from you guys.”

The four living Statler Brothers also performed, showing off their remarkable harmony work on “I’ll Go to My Grave Loving You,” which met with a thunderous standing ovation from the audience.

Backing the performers were music director John Hobbs on piano and the Medallion All-Star Band, featuring drummer Eddie Bayers, steel guitarist Paul Franklin, harmony singers Tania Hancheroff and Wes Hightower, guitarists Brent Mason and Biff Watson, bassist Michael Rhodes and fiddler Deanie Richardson.

Tom T. Hall
In honoring Hall, Young recounted Hall’s hardscrabble upbringing in the remote Kentucky mountain community of Olive Hill. His father, Rev. Virgil Hill, was a preacher and a worker at a nearby brick factory. His mother, Della Hill, stayed at home, where she died of cancer when her son Tom was 13.

By then, Tom Hall (the T. would come later, after signing a recording contract) knew he wanted to be a songwriter and had begun learning to play a borrowed guitar. He was mentored by a local picker he later commemorated in his hit “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died.”

While a freshman in high school, Hall’s beloved Uncle Prentiss accidentally shot Hall’s father. His father recovered after a long hospital stay, but both men’s spirits suffered psychologically from the tragic accident. A family friend who traveled the area screening Western films nights for small communities that didn’t have access to movie theaters gave Hall a job working the projector, and Hall would end the event playing bluegrass with local musicians. That led to Hall forming a bluegrass band, the Kentucky Travelers, which performed a 15-minute daily show on WMOR radio. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1957, and used his musical experience to become a performer on the Armed Forces Radio Network, where he sometimes sang original material.

After his discharge, Hall’s songs impressed Nashville music publisher Jimmy Key, who convinced Jimmy C. Newman to record Hall’s “D.J. for a Day” in 1963. Hall moved to Nashville on Jan. 1, 1964, and after a few more cuts, producer and record executive Jerry Kennedy persuaded Hall to record his own material. Kennedy signed Hall to Mercury Records in 1968.

The following year, Jeannie C. Riley made a big splash with Hall’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” and the song’s success added to Hall’s reputation. Hall’s own recordings soon marked ground as a distinctive songwriter with a lived-in voice and a rare ability to spin narratives that captured the inner lives and observations of small-town workers and ramblers.

“Tom successfully introduced themes, sensibilities and a social consciousness that modernized country music while embracing its origins and simplicity,” Young said. “In the late 1960s and 1970s, these songs helped to unite generations, cultures, and economic classes-and expanded the audience for country music.”

Elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, Hall began branching out beyond his role as a songwriter and recording artist. He has authored several books, including four novels and the autobiographical The Storyteller’s Nashville. He also hosted the syndicated TV series Pop! Goes the Country.

After the release of 1996’s Songs from Sopchoppy, Hall retired from public performance and “the big-time music business,” as he described it. He has continued to write bluegrass songs with his wife, Dixie Hall, and to produce albums for bluegrass artists at his home studio in Franklin, Tennessee. His most recent album is Tom T. Hall Sings Miss Dixie and Tom T.

The Statler Brothers
In honoring the Statlers, Young spoke of their roots in Staunton, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, and of how the quartet remained rooted in their hometown throughout their lives and careers. Fans of gospel quartets, three of the four members-Phil Balsley, Lew DeWitt and Harold Reid-formed the Four Star Quartet in high school and had their first public performance in 1955. In 1961, Harold’s younger brother Don Reid replaced former member Joe McDorman.

After briefly changing their name to the Kingsmen, the quartet were invited to join the Johnny Cash tour as opening act, and at that point changed their name to the Statler Brothers. They’d spend eight years associated with Cash, who got them signed to Columbia Records and featured them on his ABC television series, The Johnny Cash Show. On Columbia, their first hit was the classic “Flowers on the Wall,” written by Lew DeWitt. The hit earned the group two 1965 Grammy Awards, for Best New Country & Western Artist and Best Contemporary Country Performance by a Group.

The Statler Brothers signed with Mercury Records in 1969, where producer and label executive Jerry Kennedy urged them to record their own songs. Their recordings led to several more awards, including a 1972 Grammy Award for “The Class of ‘57″ and nine CMA Vocal Group of the Year honors. On Mercury, they also introduced their comic alter-egos, Lester”Roadhog” Moran and His Cadillac Cowboys, and eventually issued an album of parody songs under the band’s name.

DeWitt, suffering from Crohn’s Disease, left the band in 1982. He recommended Jimmy Fortune as his replacement, and after an audition, Fortune got the job and began contributing hits of his own as a songwriter. Following DeWitt’s death in 1990, Fortune became a permanent member.

From 1991 to 1997, the Statler Brothers hosted a top-rated Nashville Network variety show. They continued to play concerts to sold-out audiences until their retirement in 2002. Harold and Don Reid recently co-authored a book, The Statler Brothers: Random Memories, which was published just before the quartet learned of their Hall of Fame induction.

The program began with Vince Gill, the president of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum board, performing the gospel classic “Rock of Ages” with his wife, Amy Grant, sharing lead vocals, and the Jordanaires on harmony vocals. The evening ended, as always, with new and old Hall of Fame members singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

Among the Country Music Hall of Fame members present to welcome the newcomers were Harold Bradley, Little Jimmie Dickens, Ralph Emery, Jim Foglesong, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Sonny James, Louis Nunley, Gordon Stoker and Ray Walker of the Jordanaires, Brenda Lee, Earl Scruggs and Jo Walker-Meador.

“Music is the shorthand of human emotion,” said veteran country music broadcaster and personality Emery when presenting fellow Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall with his medallion. Emery implied that Hall mastered the shorthand like few others, a notion befitting both of the evening’s inductees.

The event was taped for future broadcast by the Great American Country cable network and on WSM-AM (650).

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Nashville, Tenn. — Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum announced an exclusive partnership to executive produce a multi-part original series of specials on the history of country music for television broadcast and DVD distribution. This announcement was made by Shout! Factory’s founding partners Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, and Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum.

Under the terms of this co-production alliance, the partners will seek worldwide broadcast distribution, and Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum will retain exclusive worldwide home video and digital rights to this multi-part series of specials on the history of country music.

“Through our passion for the rich history behind the legacy of country music, this venture is a terrific opportunity for us to produce compelling original programming with venerable partners,” states the Shout! Factory founding partners. “This new multi-part original series will further our partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum and add to the marketing of our new line of DVDs and digital content.”

“The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum functions as a Museum without walls, and we are always looking for new ways to reach and expand our audience and tell them the story of this uniquely American genre. We anticipate that this series will both allow fans to revisit some of country music’s greatest moments and characters, as well as shine a spotlight on lesser known but instrumental forces that made the music what it is today, all within the larger context of 19th and 20th century America.” Kyle Young - Director of Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum

Joining forces with Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum are two award-winning documentarians, David Leaf (David Leaf Productions) and Morgan Neville (Tremolo Productions). Separately and together, in their films on such music legends as John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Brian Wilson, Johnny Cash, James Brown, and The Bee Gees, filmmakers Neville and Leaf used their storytelling skills to bring these icons to life on screen.

Under Leaf and Neville’s supervision, a team of filmmakers will tackle a diverse series of themes including - The Roots of Country and Bluegrass, The Honky Tonk Tradition, Outlaw Country, The Nashville Sound, The Politics of Country, Country Songs and Songwriters, California Country, and No Depression, which is a detailed look at the alternative country music movement.

In addition to every important song and artist from country’s celebrated history, this original production will engage today’s greatest country stars to provide their personal window to the past, using “guitar pulls” and individual trips in search of the music’s heart and soul. The production will differ from the more traditional music documentaries by bringing the music alive not just with archival performances but contemporary ones, too.

Filmmakers Leaf and Neville explain that “Rather than recount the story in a chronological way, this multi-part, multi-hour series will look at country music thematically. Each self-contained original film will examine a crucial aspect of the heritage and the history of country in a way that presents this American music in a contextual framework that shows how what was once called ‘hillbilly music’ remains a dominant form of expression in American popular music.”

It’s anticipated that the production will take at least two years. Each installment from this original series will take viewers - country fans and non-country fans alike - on a compelling journey that is uniquely American.

Over the years, Shout! Factory has cultivated a strong relationship with the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum and the country music community. Last summer, Shout! Factory announced a strategic partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum to create DVD collections on both original programs and single artist titles culled from the Museum archive for home entertainment releases.

About the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum
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.

About Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is a diversified entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their careers sharing their music, television and film faves with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD offerings serve up classic, contemporary and cult TV series, riveting sports programs, live music, animation and documentaries in lavish packages crammed with extras. The company’s audio catalogue boasts GRAMMY®-nominated boxed sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. These riches are the result of a creative acquisitions mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. For more on Shout! Factory, visit www.shoutfactory.com.

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