Hank
Cochran, Ronnie Milsap and Mac Wiseman
Become
The Newest Members of the Country Music Hall of
Fame |
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The Country Music Association
announced that Hank Cochran, Ronnie Milsap, and
Mac Wiseman will become the newest members of the
revered Country Music Hall of Fame.
Milsap will be inducted in the “Modern Era
Artist” category, while Wiseman will be
inducted in the “Veterans Era Artist”
category. Cochran will be inducted in the
“Songwriter” category, which is awarded
every third year in a rotation with the
“Recording and/or Touring Musician Active
Prior to 1980” and “Non-Performer”
categories. Cochran, Milsap, and Wiseman will
increase membership in the coveted Country Music
Hall of Fame from 121 to 124 members. |
Hank Cochran
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Ronnie Milsap
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Mac Wiseman
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| “Induction into
the Country Music Hall of Fame is the highest
honor achievable for a Country Music artist,
songwriter, or industry leader and this
year’s inductees are all highly
deserving,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief
Executive Officer. “Hank’s songs have
been recorded by everyone from Burl Ives to Etta
James, George Strait to Ella Fitzgerald. Mac is a
revered figure in the world of bluegrass and a
founding Board member of the Country Music
Association. And Ronnie is an incredibly gifted
pianist and performer who is also one of the most
successful and versatile crossover artists in our
genre.” |
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| About CMA:
Founded in 1958, the Country Music Association
was the first trade organization formed to
promote a type of music. In 1961, CMA created the
Country Music Hall of Fame to recognize artists
and industry professionals with Country
Music’s highest honor. |
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Songwriter
 Hank Cochran
- Garland Perry “Hank” Cochran was born
Aug. 2, 1935 in Isola, Miss. After his
parents’ divorce when Cochran was nine, he
moved to Memphis to live with his father. But
post-Depression life proved to be difficult and
Cochran’s father ended up placing him in St.
Peter’s Orphan home. After Cochran’s
third attempt at running away from the orphanage,
his father took him back to Mississippi to be
raised by his grandparents.
At the age of 10, Cochran was playing guitar and
singing at church. At 12, he and his uncle Otis
hitchhiked from Mississippi to Hobbs, N.M. to
work in the oilfields. But work as a roughneck
was not only physically demanding, but dangerous.
So after spending two years in the oilfields,
Cochran headed to Los Angeles. Once there he got
a job at a Sears & Roebuck. The company
insisted he return to school since he was not yet
16.
While in Los Angeles, Cochran entered various
amateur talent contests in the area with much
success, giving him the idea to form a group to
play at clubs and local events. His search for a
guitar player led him to Eddie Cochran (no
relation) who shared his passion for music. The
teens formed a rock ‘n’ roll duo called
The Cochran Brothers, which had minor success.
After the duo disbanded, Cochran made the move to
Nashville in January of 1960 and began working as
a songwriter for Pamper Music. That year he
penned “Make the World Go Away,” which
was recorded by both Ray Price and Eddie Arnold.
In addition to writing songs for Pamper Music, he
also helped the company sign other songwriters,
as well as acquire songs and get them recorded.
Among those he signed to the publishing
company’s roster was Willie Nelson, whom
Cochran discovered singing at Tootsie’s
Orchid Lounge.
In April of 1961 Patsy Cline released
Cochran’s “I Fall to Pieces”
(co-written with Harlan Howard), which afforded
Cochran the opportunity to give up his extra jobs
and become a full time songwriter. Soon after,
Cochran was playing guitar with Justin Tubb on
the Grand Ole Opry, touring with Price, and
scoring his first hit as a recording artist with
the Top 20 single “Sally Was a Good Old
Girl.” He also earned three BMI Awards for
songs he had written on his own, and became a
co-owner (along with Price) of Pamper Music.
In 1974 Cochran was unanimously voted into the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 1996, Cochran topped the Americana chart as a
recording artist with Desperate Men: The Legend
and the Outlaw. In 2002 he released another
album, Livin’ For a Song: A Songwriters
Autobiography.
Cochran’s songs have been recorded by a wide
variety of artists including Chet Atkins, Junior
Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Cash, Elvis
Costello, Bing Crosby, Vern Gosdin, Merle
Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Tom
Jones, Loretta Lynn, Dean Martin, Wayne Newton,
Elvis Presley, Reba, Linda Ronstadt, George
Strait, and Lee Ann Womack. He has penned some of
music’s classic tunes including
“She’s Got You,” “Set
‘Em Up Joe,” “The Chair,”
“Is It Raining At Your House,”
“Miami, My Amy,” “Ocean Front
Property,” and “Don’t You Ever Get
Tired of Hurting Me.”
His catalog has generated more than 36 million
performances, which, if played back-to-back,
would amount to more than 200 years of continuous
airplay.
Cochran passed away on July 15, 2010 surrounded
by friends, family, and music - Jamey Johnson,
Billy Ray Cyrus, and producer/songwriter Buddy
Cannon were passing a guitar around in
Cochran’s bedroom, singing songs and telling
tales. |
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Modern Era
Artist
 Ronnie Milsap
- Ronnie Lee Milsap was born Jan. 16, 1943, in
Robbinsville, N.C. A congenital disorder left him
almost blind, and he was raised by his
grandmother in the Smoky Mountains until the age
of five, when he was sent to the Governor
Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, N.C.
Showing an interest in music early on, at the age
of seven his teachers recognized that he had
considerable musical talent. He began studying
classical music and learned several instruments,
eventually mastering the piano.
His youthful passion for rock music led him to
form a band with some high school classmates
called The Apparitions. Briefly attending Young
Harris College on a full scholarship, Milsap left
before graduating to pursue a career in music.
In the early 1960s, Milsap played his first
professional gigs as a member of J.J. Cale’s
band. In 1965, he released “Total
Disaster,” his first single as a solo
artist, which achieved some local success in the
Atlanta area.
In 1965, Milsap signed with New York-based
Scepter Records where he scored an R&B Top 5
with the Ashford and Simpson-penned “Never
Had It So Good.” While at Scepter, Milsap
shared concert stages with James Brown, Stevie
Wonder, and Ray Charles, who encouraged the young
man to apply himself to music.
In 1969, Milsap moved to Memphis to become a
session musician. Working with the legendary
Chips Moman, he played keyboards on Elvis
Presley’s “Kentucky Rain” and can
be heard singing background on “Don’t
Cry Daddy.” When not doing session work,
Milsap and his ensemble served as the house band
at the local music hotspot T.J.’s Club.
In 1970, Milsap found success on the pop charts
with “Loving You Is a Natural Thing.”
He recorded and released his eponymous debut
album – produced by Dan Penn - in 1971.
In 1972, Milsap was performing at the Whiskey
A-Go-Go where Charley Pride happened to be in the
audience. Impressed with his soulful singing
style, Pride encouraged Milsap to focus on
Country Music. Moving to Nashville later that
year, he began working with Pride’s manager,
Jack D. Johnson. A year later, he signed with RCA
Records and later that same year released his
first Country single, the Top 10 “I Hate
You.”
In 1974, Milsap scored two No. 1s: “Pure
Love” and “Please Don’t Tell Me
How the Story Ends,” which won his first
Grammy. Another No. 1 followed the next year with
“Daydreams About Night Things.”
In 1976, Milsap solidly established himself as
one of Country Music’s biggest stars. A
string of seven No. 1 hits in a row, including
“(I’m a) Stand By My Woman Man,”
“What a Difference You’ve Made in My
Life,” and “It Was Almost Like a
Song,” which was the most successful single
of the 1970s. “Song” was the
singer’s first crossover hit, peaking No. 7
on the adult contemporary chart and paving the
way for Milsap to be named Billboard’s
Artist of the Year (in any genre) in 1976.
This string of hits also kicked off a remarkable
run in American pop music. With songs
“(There’s) No Getting Over Me,”
“I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For the
World,” “Any Day Now,”
“Stranger In My House,” “Lost in
the Fifties Tonight,” “She Keeps the
Home Fires Burning,” “Snap Your
Fingers,” and “Where Do the Nights
Go,” Milsap did not leave the Top 10 for 16
years.
Milsap also received myriad awards and accolades
during this period. He won four CMA Album of the
Year Awards (1975, 1977, 1978, and 1986), three
CMA Male Vocalist of the Year trophies (1974,
1976, and 1977), and the coveted CMA Entertainer
of the Year Award (1977). In addition, he won
five Grammys for Best Male Country Vocal
performance (1974, 1976, 1981, 1985, and 1986)
and one Grammy for Best Country Collaboration
with Vocals in 1988 for the Kenny Rogers duet
“Make No Mistake, She’s Mine.”
In 1993, Milsap left RCA and signed with Liberty
Records and released the album True Believer. In
2000, he released the two-CD set, 40 No. 1 Hits.
In 2004, Milsap recorded Just For a Thrill, a
collection of American popular/jazz standards,
which was nominated for a Grammy. Returning to
Country in 2006 at his original home of RCA
Records, he released My Life. It was followed in
2009 with Then Sings My Soul, a two-CD set
collection of hymns and gospel songs.
On March 18 of this year, Milsap released Summer
#17, his 31st album, which he describes as an
homage to the music that inspired him. Hailed by
USA Today, The Tennessean and NPR: National
Public Radio, the set pays tribute to the
influences that shaped Milsap’s singular
brand of soul-steeped Country.
With 40 No. 1 hits and more than 35 million
albums sold, Milsap remains one of Country’
Music’s most successful and beloved
crossover artists. At 71, he continues to tour
the country, playing his music for multiple
generations of music lovers. |
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Veterans Era
Artist
 Mac Wiseman
- Malcolm B. “Mac” Wiseman was born May
23, 1925, in Crimora, Va. At six-months old,
Wiseman contracted polio, which he felt was a
blessing. Because of his illness, he was kept
inside and was not subjected to the field work
that most children of the rural Shenandoah Valley
were expected to do. His father would set the
phonograph up by the wood stove and Wiseman would
listen to old records over and over. His mother
would write the lyrics from songs she heard on
the radio into composition books for young Mac.
In 1943, Wiseman applied for a job at the Merck
and Co. chemical plant, but because of the polio
damage to his leg, he was turned down. That was
when he made the decision to pursue his music.
Wiseman attended the Shenandoah Conservatory of
Music in Virginia with help from the National
Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which would
later become the March of Dimes. There Wiseman
excelled in a radio course and accepted a job
offer from WSVA in Harrisonburg, Va., where he
read the news and farm reports and spun pop and
Country records.
In 1946, Wiseman joined Molly O’Day’s
band, where he developed a love of classic
Country.
In 1948, Wiseman made his first foray into what
would become known as bluegrass music. He joined
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs as a member of the
Foggy Mountain Boys, singing high harmonies and
booking the band’s first concert dates. And
in 1949, he joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass
Boys where he played the Grand Ole Opry for the
first time. He also recorded the classics
“Traveling This Lonesome Road” and
“Can’t You Hear Me Callin’”
with Monroe. He left the band in 1949 to set out
on his own.
Wiseman soon attracted the attention of the
independent label Dot Records and was offered a
recording contract. In 1951, Dot released
Wiseman’s first single, “Tis Sweet To
Be Remembered,” which became a career-making
song and earned him the nickname the “voice
with a heart.” Wiseman went on to record
other classics including “Love Letters in
the Sand,” “Jimmy Brown, the
Newsboy,” “Ballad of Davy
Crockett,” and “Shackles and
Chains.”
Wiseman became a record executive in 1957 when he
was tapped to head the Country Division of Dot
Records. And in 1958, Wiseman was instrumental in
the founding of the Country Music Association,
becoming the organization’s first
Secretary/Treasurer, demonstrating the respect he
had earned as both an artist and a record
executive.
During the 1960s Wiseman was a staple on the folk
festival circuit and on college campuses. But he
also played Carnegie Hall in 1962 on a bill
headlined by Johnny Cash, which garnered him rave
reviews in The New York Times.
From 1966 to 1971, Wiseman was Program Producer
and Talent Director for the WWVA Wheeling
Jamboree. During his tenure he stabilized the
cast of performers and gave bluegrass prominence.
Most recently, Wiseman has released his music on
his own Wise Records including a six-disc boxed
set entitled The Mac Wiseman Story, featuring
songs he recorded in the 1970s and a DVD
collection called Mac Wiseman – An American
Treasure. In 2007, he recorded a duet album with
John Prine, Standard Songs for Average People,
which was released by Oh Boy Records. He has also
just completed an album with Merle Haggard, Vince
Gill, and The Isaacs that will be released in
2014 and is also being interviewed for inclusion
in the upcoming Ken Burns PBS documentary on
Country Music. Wiseman will also be the first
inductee into the Shenandoah Conservatory of
Music Hall of Fame later this month. |
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