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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Tom T. Hall to give up retirement for an evening to perform a live taping for PBS Series “Song of the Mountains”

Tom T. Hall to tape Song of the Mountains for PBS

The newest Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and celebrated song-writer Tom T. Hall, will make a rare stage performance at an April 5th, 7:00 PM taping of “Song of the Mountains” at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia. The show will air on PBS stations nationwide at a later date. Other artists on the bill include, James Leva and Purgatory Mountain, Pleasant Hill and Bill and Maggie Anderson.

Song of the Mountains is a nationally syndicated public television series and is offered to more than 190 stations nationwide. For more information on Song of the Mountains, visit www.songofthemountains.org.

The Isaacs, to perform at The Murphy Theatre in Wilmington,OH April 5.

Classic Country Radio, WKFI AM 1090 in Wilmington is proud to present an evening with world acclaimed gospel group, The Isaacs, Saturday, April 5, at The Murphy Theatre in Wilmington. The April 5 concert begins at 7 p.m. All seats are reserved. For tickets and information, call The Murphy Theatre Box Office toll free at 1-877-274-3848.

The Isaacs have a unique style that fuses bluegrass harmonies and instrumentation with modern southern gospel lyrics. Current group members are Lily Isaacs - vocals, Ben Isaacs - vocals & upright Bass, Sonya Isaacs - vocals & mandolin, Rebecca Isaacs Bowman- vocals & guitar, Jesse Stockman - fiddle, Nathan Fauscett - drums, cajon, Troy Engle - banjo, guitar & fiddle.

Upcoming CD reviews on BluegrassJournal.com

We’ve got a bit of a backlog of CD reviews that should be online over the next 2 to 3 weeks including :

• The Gibson Brothers “Iron & Diamonds” (Sugar Hill Records)
• Longview “Deep in the Mountains” (Rounder Records)
• Stacy York “Kentucky in the Rain” (Blue Circle Records)
• Mashville Brigade “Bluegrass Smash Hits Vol. 1″ (Rural Rhythm Records)
• Two-Man Gentlemen Band “Heavy Pettin’” (Serious Business Records)
• Marcie Horne “Everything’s Blue” (Mountain Fever Records)
• Mike Mitchell “Thirteen Hours” (Mountain Fever Records)

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2007 has been a great year for bluegrass music and a bunch of great discs were released. I’ve consumed more music since we launched BluegrassJournal.com six months ago than I have in the last 2 years. Of all the CDs I’ve listened to this year, there’s a handful that continually find there way back to the CD player.

For my number one pick, I’ve got to go with “Gaining Wisdom” from Donna Hughes, released on Rounder Records.

I can’t seem to get enough of this disc. Hughes is one of the truly gifted talents in the business. “Gaining Wisdom” showcases Hughes’ considerable songwriting abilities that relate everyday observations of life’s trials and tribulations from a unique viewpoint that most anyone can relate to their own life in one way or another.

Hughes’ song-writing skills have a unique and endearing quality about them. On the surface, they can seem deceptively simple and down to earth with a casual listen, yet upon closer inspection they reveal a highly sophisticated and thought provoking commentary on life itself, with an inate ability to command the listener’s undivided attention, drawing one to reflect on the many different joys, sorrows and challenges faced in life.

An album like “Gaining Wisdom,” I suspect, would come to be considered a “landmark” album for many artists in the midst of a long and successful careers. For Hughes, a relatively unknown, to debut with a collection of songs and performances this impressive… it leaves me highly anticipating her next release.

In the number two spot “Lovin’ Pretty Women” from The Steep Canyon Rangers on Rebel Records is just a great album. From the songwriting to performances, “Lovin’ Pretty Women” hits all the bases. The Rangers’ music is firmly planted on the traditional side of the genre but the band brings an energy and vibe to their traditional sound that borrows from the “Newgrass” fork of the musical tree.

Having seen these guys back in September at the Franklin, Ky., Festival, The Steep Canyon Rangers can blow the doors off the barn and leave crowds beggin’ for more. I suspect a ton of great things to come from The Steep Canyon Rangers in the years to come.

The group’s banjo picker, Graham Sharp, had a hand in writing eight of the 12 cuts on the project and may very well be the Steep Canyon Ranger’s ace in the hole.

To the uninitiated, a top to bottom listen will leave the listener wondering if Monroe or some other luminary of the genre originally released these songs years ago. Sharp has a real gift for penning tunes that sound like instant classics.

The instrumental work on the disc showcases a group of musicians who have honed their craft from years of playing together on the road

Much like my Dad, Dan Tackett I couldn’t nail down a single CD for 3rd place so I’m going to have a tie here as well. My picks for third include two artist that hadn’t released albums in several years.

And the tie comes down to Tom T. Hall’s “Tom T Hall Sings Miss Dixie and Tom T.” on Blue Circle Records and Charlie Sizemore’s “Good News” on Rounder Records.

Tom T. Hall is as deserving of the title “National Treasure” as any I’ve heard it bestowed upon. He has a unique perspective on life and can tell stories unlike anyone.

“Tom T. Hal Sings Miss Dixie and Tom T.” was originally intended as a Christmas present for Miss Dixie, Hall’s significant other and songwriting partner. Lucky for all of us, this wonderful album was released on the Hall’s own Blue Circle Records.

Tom T. and Miss Dixie have always written songs centered around observations of the common man’s life, and this batch of tunes deals with many of the same types of examinations that immortalized characters like Clayton Delaney, The Hitchhiker, and Ravishing Ruby.

Compared to the production of the country hits Hall had in the ’70s and ’80s, the laid-back and stripped-down instrumentation provided by an all-acoustic (and all-star) band place Tom T.’s strong suits as a songwriter and storyteller squarely at the forefront. Hall’s vocal delivery on the entire album is right on the money with an honesty you only get from an artist who penned the material.

“Good News” from Charlie Sizemore on Rounder Records showcases Sizemore’s unequaled vocal delivery on a great batch of songs. From the down and out “Blame it on Vern”, the lighthearted “Alison’s Band” and “I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up” to the haunting civil war story “The Silver Bugle”, “Good News” is a great album and a long overdue return of one of Bluegrass’ great vocal stylists.

Back to the current tale, Sizemore himself may deserve the title of The Voice in today’s bluegrass scene. He plays his smooth voice on “Good News” every bit as well as his highly capable pickers do their instruments on this CD. He glides Teflon-like high and then dips low, all with plenty of emotion to fit the tune at hand.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from “Good News,” it’s this: Sizemore, Rounder Records and other powers that be shouldn’t wait another five years before doing this again. Doing so would be bad news.

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Editor’s note: We’ve met and visited with a lot of wonderful people in the bluegrass world in the past few years, and especially in the last six months that we’ve been involved in our Web site. We asked a handful of some memorable people we’ve visited with over the past year and invited them to share a bluegrass Christmas memory. Today’s Christmas Memory is from The Storyteller - Tom T. Hall.

One Christmas eve when I was nine years old, I lived with my parents and my eight brothers and sisters in the hills of Kentucky. This would have been 1945.

It had snowed five or six inches that day and we lived seven miles from town. My brother Quinton, who worked the factories up north was to come home for the holidays and had said he was bringing me something special.

As the cold blustery day wore on and darkness came, we realized that he could not get through on the rough country roads that had drifted with snow.

I had gone upstairs in the old farmhouse and gone to bed as the day seemed hopeless. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard shouts from downstairs. I jumped out of bed and ran down to see what the excitement was about.

We looked out the window toward the road and saw headlights bobbing in the distance. My brother Quinton had left his car in town and had rented a four-wheel drive Jeep.

My present was a big red colored Gibson guitar and three 78 rpm Bill Monroe records. The next morning I packed up my new guitar and my three new Bill Monroe records; I walked about three miles to where my friend Curly Jarvis lived. He owned a Gibson mandolin, and when Curly came to the door he broke into a big smile. I said “Get your mandolin, we’re starting up a band.”

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Tom T

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