Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and Bob McDill will be the Country Music Hall of Fame’s three 2023 inductees, it was announced in a news conference at the hall’s museum in Nashville Monday morning.
Tucker will be inducted into the hall in the “Veterans Era Artist” category, while Loveless will get her entree in the “Modern Era Artist” category.
McDill is to be inducted in the “Songwriter” category, which is in rotation with the “Recording and/or Touring Musician” and “Songwriter” categories, each coming up every three years.
Cheers went up at the announcement ceremony as well as around Nashville, as all three have long been favored for induction, and Tucker and Loveless particularly talked up as should-be shoo-ins for their historical importance as leading women in the genre.
Hall of Famer Vince Gill hosted the press-conference reveal, which was carried live on the hall’s YouTube channel, joined by Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern. Gill said it was particularly special to gather to honor greats, given that, as he said, “we’ve had one of the worst weeks we’ve ever had in the history of this city,” referencing the recent school shootings.
Although Loveless has been less in the limelight in recent years after her string of major 1990s hits, she came back into it in a big way recently when she performed with Chris Stapleton on the CMA Awards in November. Their duet of “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” was almost universally hailed as the highlight of the show and produced a rush of rediscovery for Loveless’ classic mainstream recordings and subsequent turn toward a more bluegrass style.
Tucker, for her part, has for several years now had the highest profile she’s had since “Delta Dawn” and her other breakthrough mid-’70s hits, thanks to her Brandi Carlile-produced “While I’m Livin’” album — which earned Tucker her first two Grammys ever —and a Sony Classics documentary about the making of that record.
Gill had a personal or professional connection with all three nominees. Loveless quipped, “See there, Vince I told you it’d happen, that we were gonna sing together” — a reference that flew over the heads of almost everyone but the emcee. Gill subsequently explained, “That young kid there was at my second or third Fan Fair, when I was doing an autograph line. She said, ‘Someday I’m gonna sing with you.’ I thought, ‘Right.’ Turned out to be about the best (singing) partner I ever had.”
Before the announcement, Trahern led the assembled in a moment of silence for the recent loss of Hall of Fame members Jeff Cook, Jerry Lee Lewis and Loretta Lynn, as well as Hall of Fame staff members Peter Cooper and Liz Thiels.
The annual announcement of the Country Hall of Fame’s inductees is perhaps anticipated and taken even more seriously in the country community than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s similar yearly announcement, if only because it selects its members in much smaller numbers than the Rock Hall, with only three or four coming in each year (and at least one of those usually a non-celebrity writer, session player or exec, to boot). The waiting list of universally acknowledged greats who haven’t gotten in is arguably much longer, making it a truly prized honor no one in Nashville circles takes for granted.
Last year’s trio of inductees were Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Whitley and executive Joe Gallante. Lewis was alive and able to participate in the May 2022 press conference announcing his election, although he fell ill and was unable to attend the Oct. 16 medallion ceremony. He died less than two weeks after his induction became official, on Oct. 28.
Earlier in 2022, a belated medallion ceremony for the previous class of inductees was held in April, postponed due to the pandemic. That ceremony honored the Judds, Ray Charles, Eddie Bayers and Pete Drake. That ceremony was quote emotional, as Naomi Judd died by suicide the day before the event, with her daughter Naomi showing up in the immediate wake of the tragedy to accept the award.
Nominees are not made publicly known, and voting is done among specially selected members of the music industry and artist community.
These three honorees will join 152 others who have been inducted into the hall since it was instituted in 1961.
In a statement, Tucker said, “I’m more than proud to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was wonderful to have all three of my kids beside me when I got the news. The only way it could’ve been any better is if my parents Beau and Juanita Tucker could have been there too. They are the reason and the root of all my success in music. And the fans – they are everything. When I walk in that Hall they will all be with me.”
“Each of our three new inductees has left a deep and distinctive stamp on our genre,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in announcing the honors. “Tanya Tucker, originally from Texas, is a force of nature who has been blazing her way into our hearts since she was a teenager. Patty Loveless, who hails from the coal-mining hills of Kentucky, sings with mountain soul and makes music that blends tradition with invention. And Bob McDill from East Texas has written some of the most enduring and artful songs in our genre. They have all profoundly shaped our music, and we are honored and delighted that their achievements will now forever be enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.”
Source : Variety
