It is country music’s highest honor, reserved for those who’ve made lasting and remarkable contributions to country music. This year’s induction ceremony, honoring the Class of 2023, included all-star performances and a crowd featuring fellow Country Music Hall of Famers like Kris Kristofferson, Randy Travis, Brenda Lee, Bill Anderson, Emmylou Harris, Kix Brooks, and many others.
Patty Loveless, the Kentucky-native who traveled to Nashville as a teenager with her brother, Roger, to pursue her country music dream, would become one of country music’s most enduring and distinctive female voices. Like her distant cousin, Loretta Lynn, she, too, was the daughter of a coal miner.
Her talents were recognized early on with encouragement from the Wilburn Brothers, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, and she once told Vince Gill in a Fan Fair line, long before she was famous, she would sing with him one day.
Between 1988 and 2003, Loveless had 31 Top 20 hits including “Timber, I’m Falling in Love, “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” “I Try to Think About Elvis” and more.
She was honored with a performance of one of her songs by Sister Sadie that included an emotional tribute from fiddle player Deanie Richardson, who toured with Loveless for many years. The band did an exceptional rendition of “The Sounds of Loneliness.”
There was a surprise appearance by Bob Seger who sang “She Drew a Broken Heart.” Seger, is a Loveless fan who, in 2004, wanted her voice on a recording of one of his songs so desperately, he flew to Georgia, where she lives, to make it happen.
Vince Gill performed next, joking with the crowd about the challenge of having to follow Bob Seger. Gill sang, “Lonely Too Long.”
It was Gill, her good friend and longtime collaborator (she sang back-up on his first big hit “When I Call Your Name”), who officially inducted her into the Hall of Fame. He noted he’s performed with many people through the years, but with Loveless he found that rare “blood harmony” of two voices that blend so naturally together.
Loveless, who admitted to being a little overwhelmed and “weak in the knees” in receiving the honor, thanked those who’d supported her through the years, like family and friends, the Wilburn Brothers and others, and her husband and producer, Emory Gordy, Jr. She said she only sorry her brother, Roger, couldn’t be here to see it. Roger Ramey passed away last year.
Songwriter Bob McDill has a long string of country hits that began with an early partnership with Don Williams. McDill wrote “Amanda,” Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country,” Alabama’s “Song of the South” and so many others. He was well-known for his disciplined approach to songwriting, working eight hours a day, five days a week in a Music Row publishing office.
Artists performing McDill’s songs included Charley Crockett with “Louisiana Saturday Night,” Dean Dillon on “All the Good Ones Are Gone, and Jamey Johnson with “Good Ole Boys Like Me.”
Fellow songwriter, Don Schlitz (who wrote “The Gambler” and many others) inducted McDill into the Hall of Fame calling him his “songwriting hero.”
McDill expressed gratitude at becoming a Hall of Fame member as one of the small number of songwriters whose plaques line the wall. He said, “Everyone knows their songs, but few people know their names.” He commended the CMHOF for paying tribute to songwriters.
Tanya Tucker became a hit recording artist at the age of 13 with her strong, husky voice and adult-themed songs like “Delta Dawn” “Blood Red and Going Down” and “What’s Your Mama’s Name?”
She was such a force in country music, she had a greatest hits album by the time she was 16.
She’d go on to try her hand at pop and rock, only to return to country and score some 24 Top 10 country hits between 1986 and 1997. There were career ebbs and flows and personal challenges that included substance abuse for a while, but Tucker never stopped performing. In 2019, she had a major career comeback thanks to Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings who produced her album While I’m Livin’. The album garnered Tucker her first two GRAMMY Awards.
Those performing some of Tucker’s hits included Wynonna Judd singing “Delta Dawn, Jessi Colter and Margo Price with “It’s a Little Too Late” and Brandi Carlile on “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane.”
Before singing, Carlile, who says she first discovered Tanya Tucker and her music as a child, told her, “You have carved out an ass-kicking path for every tough little girl…in all genres. And you carved out that path for me. And I’m never going to stop trying to make it up to you.”
Tucker was inducted by Connie Smith and Brenda Lee in a rousing and humorous exchange that saw Brenda Lee joking about how they had to prop her (Little Miss Dynamite) on a stool at the podium to speak, warning Smith to be careful not to push her because she was wearing heels and might fall off.
Smith remembered meeting Tucker’s father in the 1960s at one of her shows in Texas with him telling her his 11-year-old daughter wanted to be a country singer. Smith shared some advice with the aspiring singer, then two years later heard “Delta Dawn” on the radio. She commended Tucker for her spirit, creating her own style, and being “so real.”
Lee described Tucker as a loyal and devoted friend who’d do anything for anybody and had the crowd laughing when she said that also included Tucker calling and waking Lee and her husband at 4am to invite them to the Bahamas.
As she was welcomed into the Hall of Fame, Tucker thanked family and friends for their support through many ups and downs through the years.
“Most of mine were in the news,” she admitted. But she added that anytime she felt bad about herself, she thought about her fans who stuck by her, no matter what. She thanked her three children (who were in attendance), Brandi Carlisle and Shooter Jennings, her late parents, Billy Sherrill, the producer who took that first chance on her, and others.
Looking back on the past 52 years, Tucker said, it’s hard to make sense of it all.
“But if we lived in a world that made sense, and was logical, it would be a man who rode sidesaddle,” she said, drawing laughter and applause from the crowd.
Tucker is known for her love of horses and famously rode one down Nashville’s Lower Broadway in April after learning of her pending Hall of Fame induction.
The ceremony wrapped up with the traditional singing of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” led this year by Wynonna Judd.
Tucker, Loveless, and McDill are now the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Their legacy is now officially marked as part of the genre’s history, their plaques hanging in the rotunda alongside so many other who’ve contributed so much.
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