Country Mike Blog

Congratulations, Mel

Mike Sudhalter  |  August 9, 2007

Mel Tillis deserved to be a Grand Ole Opry member 40 years ago, and he finally received that honor less than two months ago. If his year couldn't have gotten better, he's now going to be one of three inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The other inductees will be Vince Gill and country music media personality Ralph Emery.

Tillis is the most deserving inductee. I think both Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson deserve to be inducted into the HOF before Gill, for their accomplishments. Jackson put a fun spin on traditional country, building on what Randy Travis started a few years earlier. And Brooks was the anti-crossover artist. He brought pop fans into country, instead of disguising his pop as country.

I think Emery was a good selection, because he's the combined Larry King, David Letterman and Jay Leno of country music. I read Emery's book, 50 Years Down A Country Road, and enjoyed it. But sometimes, he's too much of a Nashville insider. For example, he was critical of Dwight Yoakam for being critical of the Nashville. The genre needs critics, so that it won't be complacent in churning out the same music, continuing bad trends or failing to take notice of innovative acts.

When I travel to work on my 12-mile roundtrip commute, I often bring a lot of CDs and needless to say, I don't get the chance to listen to a fraction of them.

On Wednesday, I brought eight CDs - four of which I purchased in Kansas City. Josh Turner's Live At The Ryman. As I said in an earlier post, I couldn't find a Cracker Barrel store - the exclusive vendor of the CD - within 400 miles of my home. So I found it at a CB in Kansas. I also bought albums by Kellie Pickler, Stephanie Bentley and Shane Macannaly.

The other five included Toby Keith's Big Dog Daddy, Carly Goodwin's self-titled disc, Chely Wright's The Metropolitan Hotel and Bobby Pinson's "Man Like Me".

I only managed to listen to part of Turner's album. The best song on it is a cover of Hank Williams' "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" and a couple of songs by Goodwin.

Oh well. There's always tommorow.