MUSIC 2023: Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless To Join Country Hall Of Fame

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE MUSIC – Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless, and popular country songwriter Bob McDill will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The Country Music Association revealed the 2023 inductees on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, with Tucker, the “Delta Dawn” singer, joining as a veteran era artist and Loveless, who beautifully blended bluegrass and country, as a modern era artist. The three will be formally inducted in the autumn during a ceremony.

Tucker, who has a bold husky voice, is finally getting flowers from the Hall of Fame, an overdue honor after a career that has included 10 No. 1 hits, more than 40 songs in the top 10, and two Grammys for her 2019 comeback album “While I’m Livin’.”

Tucker had been wondering for years when she would be given the honor.

“I figured I’d get it after I died,” she explained to The Associated Press on Monday. “And I sort of stopped thinking about it or wanting it.”

On the other hand, Tucker had had her heart fixed on being inducted into the Hall of Fame since she was a child. Tucker remembered seeing the names of her heroes at the Country Music Hall of Fame when she was a 9-year-old newcomer to Nashville. Her father took her to the Grand Ole Opry to observe the singers, encouraging her by asking, “Wouldn’t you rather be up there doing it than sitting here watching it?”

When “Delta Dawn” was released in 1972, she was 13 years old and on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine at the age of 15. And as her career blossomed with numerous hits in the 1970s and 1980s, she challenged the standards for women in country music, frequently being labeled a youthful rebel whose romances and addictions dominated tabloids.

She was named CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1991, and her successes included “Down to My Last Teardrop,” “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane,” and “Strong Enough to Bend.” A documentary about her and the making of her 2019 album, which she recorded with producers Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, was published last year.

Tucker, now 64, said she’d release another album this summer, including tributes to artists who aided and inspired her career. Tucker described how all of the attention she is receiving now feels predetermined.

“It’s almost as if my life has already been written,” Tucker said.

Country singer Vince Gill assisted in the announcement of the winners and spoke about his long friendship with Loveless, whom he described as his “little sister.” On tracks like “My Kind of Woman, My Kind of Man,” “When I Call Your Name,” “Pocket Full of Gold,” and “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” the two frequently sang backup for each other.

Loveless, a native of Kentucky, had five No. 1 country hits, including “Timber I’m Falling in Love,” “Blame It On Your Heart,” and “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am.” In 1995, she was named CMA Album of the Year for “When Fallen Angels Fly,” In 1996, she was named female singer of the Year.

With the release of “Mountain Soul” in 2001, she started leaning into her bluegrass and Appalachian roots, and its follow-up “Mountain Soul II” earned her a Grammy award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2011.

She also won two CMA Awards with country legend George Jones for outstanding vocal performance. Nancy Jones, Jones’ wife, was present at the announcement on Monday to congratulate Loveless.

“I’m just stunned,” Loveless said, according to The Associated Press. “I’m still trying to take it all in, absorb it all because it still feels like a dream.” But my entire existence has been a series of fulfilled dreams.”

McDill had more than 30 songs reach the top of Billboard’s country charts between the 1970s and his retirement in 2000, many of which have become part of the country music canon: Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country,” Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” Alabama’s “Song of the South,” and Don Williams’ “Good Ole Boys Like Me.”

In addition to artist inductions every third year, the Country Music Hall of Fame inducts a composer.

“There are some legendary songwriters in here that most people have probably never heard of,” McDill said following the news. “Sometimes, voters look beyond the glitter and the spotlights to honor people like Boudleaux, Felice Bryant, Cindy Walker, and others who wrote standards everyone can whistle and remember.”

SOURCE – (AP)