What??
Here are the three new inductees into the Country Music Hall Of Fame:
Ralph Emery, Mel Tillis, Vince Gill
#1: Ralph Emery
So, no one thought to put him in the hall of fame before? What the heck does it take? Ralph was the voice of WSM Radio overnight for many, many years. All the big stars dropped by, after their appearance on the Opry, to shoot the breeze and to play & sing for Ralph into the wee hours of the morning.
Aside from that, when there actually was a Nashville Network, Ralph had the show, "Nashville Now". Everyone, and I do mean, EVERYONE, appeared on that show. Back when Alan Jackson was working in the mail room of TNN, he appeared on Ralph's show.
Granted, Ralph wasn't my favorite disc jockey back in the day, but that was only because WSM's signal was out of range for me most nights. I listened more to Mike Hoyer on WHO and Bill Mack on WBAP. Cuz their signals came in clearly. But even I knew, back then, that Ralph was the king of late-night country radio.
Here's one of the few videos I could find of Ralph, hosting "Nashville Now". You'll note that his guests that night included Reba McEntire, Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, Charley Pride, and Lee Greenwood. "Nashville Now" was a nice show. And generally, the conversations were more interesting than this particular one, about shopping, of all things.
#2: Mel Tillis
Again, Mel Tillis isn't already in the Hall Of Fame?? How many dang hit songs does one have to write to be considered worthy?
Here's just A FEW of the songs that Mel has written:
"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town"
"Detroit City"
"I Ain't Never"
"Burning Memories"
"Heart Over Mind"
"Mental Revenge"
"I'm Tired"
The list could go on and on. These are but a few highlights.
Who the heck got in before Mel? There's a lot of folks who can thank their lucky stars that Mel wrote such great songs...Folks such as Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Ray Price. You know, some insignificant, obscure country artists.
It was nearly impossible to find any videos of Mel that were of decent quality. Here's one of Mel singing a song her wrote, "Mental Revenge". Waylon had a major hit with this song.
#3: Vince Gill
What? I remember when "I Call Your Name" came out. Was it that long ago? 1990, I guess. Oh, Vince was around long before that. He was a member of Pure Prairie League in 1972. Remember the song, "Amie"? That was Pure Prairie League. Still, it seems like only yesterday that Vince arrived on the scene. Time flies. Here he is in the hall of fame. One could quibble, but why? One could say that others should have gotten there first, but why the heck not Vince? He's bonafide. He's been a troubadour for country music for all these many years. I saw Vince in concert a few (okay, many) years ago. He played into the wee hours. I finally had to leave before it was over, because he just kept on playing, and I had to get up for work the next day. It was a cool concert. One doesn't see concerts like that anymore. The more I think about it, yea, Vince deserves to be in the hall of fame.
Again, there are very few decent videos of Vince on YouTube. This is one of the few that somehow snuck through.
So, there you go. 2007. I hope more of the giants get voted in while they're still around to enjoy the honor. It seems like it's taking a long time.
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