Brooks, Robbins, Smith join Hall of Fame

Singers Garth Brooks and Connie Smith and pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins all joined the hall.

"I'm so honored to become a member of this organization," Robbins said. "I can't come up with the words to express myself. It's really an honor to join in the musician category." He thanked the producers who invited him to play on sessions and who "had confidence in me to get a good feel on a session or add a lick that would help them express a line better. I appreciate all of them."

Smith said, "It is such an honor to be here. I feel like I deserve it the least because I didn't aim for it. I wanted to sing and to feed my kids. I love my music, and I love my family. I believe with all my heart this was God's destiny for me, to be a girl country singer. I will continue to be until he tells me otherwise."

"Each of these performers is a gifted individual considered among the best in the world at what they do," said Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "Yet they share humility and a personal generosity. They are known as remarkable human beings as well as remarkable talents."

Vince Gill, president of the museum's board of officers and trustees, opened with a performance of his original song All Prayed Up,a bluegrass-style gospel roof-raiser with Gill on mandolin and vocals, accompanied by guitarist and harmony singer Jeff White.

The audience at the private celebration was packed with fellow Hall of Fame members, who came to welcome the new inductees to their exclusive club. Hall of Famers in attendance were Bobby Braddock, Harold Bradley, Roy Clark, Ralph Emery, Jim Foglesong, Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers, Gill, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Sonny James, Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell, Charlie McCoy, George Strait, Jo Walker-Meador, E.W. "Bud" Wendell and Ray Walker and Curtis Young of the Jordanaires.

Steve Turner, chairman of the museum's board, welcomed the families and colleagues of the new inductees. As Turner explained, the Medallion Ceremony gathers the Country Music Hall of Fame family together to celebrate the induction of new members to country music's most elite body.

"We want the Hall of Fame class of 2012, and all the members of the Hall of Fame, to know that we revere your important accomplishments and hold you in the highest esteem," Turner said. "We appreciate your exceptionally fine contributions to American music, and we thank you for your role in the development of our worldwide reputation as Music City. It is fitting that these rites of induction take place here, where the bronze likenesses of Pig, Connie and Garth will now be forever enshrined."

Steve Moore, chief executive officer of the CMA, spoke of the significance of being inducted into the Hall of Fame. "Of all my duties as CEO of the CMA, the one I enjoy the most is our announcement of the inductees each year," Moore said. "Their response is always heartfelt, sometimes emotional, often funny, and I am genuinely humbled seeing them enter the rotunda for the first time, knowing their likeness and career accomplishments, will soon grace those hallowed walls."

Young briefly summed up the early life and career significance of each inductee. Starting with Robbins, Young spoke of the struggles he overcame to become a renowned session musician and how quickly Music Row embraced the piano player from East Tennessee, who played on thousands of country hits by everyone from Patsy Cline to Shania Twain, as well as classic rock recordings by Bob Dylan, Leon Russell and Neil Young. "Pig Robbins has played an indelible role in Nashville's rise to prominence as a recording center for popular music," Young said. "His talent for knowing exactly what to play brought out the best in singers and their songs."

The performers for the Medallion Ceremony aren't announced ahead of time, so each was a surprise to those in attendance. Ronnie Dunn, formerly of Brooks & Dunn, kicked things off with a rollicking take on the 1959 George Jones classic, White Lightning, the first country hit to feature Robbins on piano.

Playing off the song's theme, Dunn came out carrying two Mason jars of clear liquid that he said was moonshine - or white lightning - passing one to bandleader John Hobbs and opening the lid on the other. "I'm going to try and set a record by drinking this much moonshine in a three-minute song," Dunn joked. He did take a few long sips from the jar during vocal breaks.

Other performances honoring Robbins included Crystal Gayle singing her signature hit, Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, with Gordon Mote recreating Robbins's great piano part. "Your magical touch to this song has been with me forever," Gayle said. "You have meant so much to my career - my whole career."

Gene Watson perfectly intoned his honky-tonk standard Fourteen Carat Mind with Dirk Johnson taking the piano bench for the rendition. In his introduction, Watson emphasized the importance of Robbins in his musical career.

"Every #3, every #2, every #1 song I ever had, Pig Robbins played the piano on it," Watson said. He told of recently working on an album where he re-recorded 25 of his biggest hits, with his producer Dirk Johnson taking Pig's role on the songs. "Pig, you ain't got no idea what we went through trying to duplicate some of those sessions. As much as I love you, I'm sure Dirk learned to hate you a little too."

Hall of Fame member Charlie McCoy, who played alongside Robbins for decades in Music Row sessions, officially inducted his friend and fellow studio musician. He talked about the qualities that made Robbins stand out, including an amazing memory. "Before we started writing numbers down on sessions, many, many times, musicians - myself included - would go to Pig and say, 'How did that bridge go?' And he knew."

He also noted how Pig memorized the floor plan "to a hundred studios," and he told of a time when an electrical storm knocked out the power to the Quonset Hut studio, leaving everyone in the dark. When Pig found out what had occurred, he said, "OK, anyone who wants to go to the restroom, I'll take you there for a dollar."

McCoy then noted the endless number of recordings Pig played on, explaining that for all the hits that bear his piano, there were scores more that never became well-known. "With Pig, it didn't matter if it was Tammy wannabe or Tammy Wynette, or Tex nobody or George Jones, he approached every song and every session with an excellence and passion and great taste," McCoy said. "That was a role model for me to follow, I can tell you that for sure. The track record speaks for itself."

Robbins came to the stage, assisted by his son David Robbins, to have McCoy place the medallion on his neck, signifying his official entry into the Hall of Fame. Reaching the podium, he quipped with typical humor, "Man, I'll never get Charlie paid off for all that."

After his speech, Robbins called country star Ronnie Milsap to the stage. With Robbins on piano and Milsap on vocals, the two performed the Charlie Rich hit Behind Closed Doors, which includes a famed piano introduction originally created by Robbins.

Milsap recalled his first sessions, saying he demanded that Robbins play on his recordings. When his producer, Tom Collins, told Milsap that Robbins wouldn't be available until the next week, Milsap retorted that they would have to put off the sessions for a week until Robbins could participate. "He was always on my records, until I worked up the nerve to play on my own records," Robbins said. "Pig, you had it all. You made me look so good."

For Smith's induction, Young recalled how the petite singer grew up as one of 14 children in a sharecropping family that often struggled to get by. Yet she escaped those hardships through music, making a quick impression shortly after arriving in Nashville in 1963.

"You only need to hear Connie Smith once to realize why she is considered one of the great vocalists of her generation," Young said. "But it takes listening through Connie's deep catalog, or hearing her sing on stage night after night, to realize what a supreme interpreter of country music she has been throughout her career."

he performances honoring the singer opened with Fort Worth's Quebe Sisters Band, a personal favorite of Smith's. The young sisters harmonized on a swinging version of Smith's 1964 debut hit, Once a Day.

Another family band, the Whites, joined voices on Smith's If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave It Alone), which the trio recorded and had a hit with in 1985. Sharon White of the Whites remembered how regularly Smith's songs were played on radio when they were growing up and how they learned many of them. Cheryl White cited not only Smith's standing as a singer who paved the way for all female country vocalists, but also her friendship and the support she has shown the White family. "You've loved us, you've coached us about how to be on the road and how to be on stage, and how to take care of our babies," Cheryl said.

Then Smith acolyte Lee Ann Womack sang her idol's You've Got Me (Right Where You Want Me), a song Smith co-wrote that was a favorite of Womack's father, a former Texas country radio DJ. "All the girl singers want to sing like Connie," Womack said. "Connie has it all. She has the great songs and the voice and the beauty. And I think what impressed me the most is she delivered all those things with such class."

Smith accepted her honor from Country Music Hall of Fame member Merle Haggard, who came from California to personally induct Smith. "There's a real close kinship between Connie and I," Haggard said. "We've recorded each other's songs over the years. We've come to know each other."

"I've admired her sincerity, and her spirit, and her commitment to traditional country music. If you're talking country singing, there ain't no better."

Smith stood at the podium, saying that her sister Carolyn wore their mother's ring to the ceremony. "So my mama's here tonight as well."

Smith then joined the band to sing When I Need Jesus, He's There, a gospel song she recorded, but has rarely performed. The spiritually rousing song, supported by harmony vocalists Dawn Sears and Jeff White, drew a long and loud standing ovation.

In discussing the immense impact of Brooks, Young said, "He proved that there were no barriers to how many hearts and souls country music could touch. He proved that unprecedented numbers of people would hurry to buy a country album, line up for a country concert ticket, and tune into a country music TV special, whether it was broadcast from a football stadium in Texas or a park in New York City. By singing country music with passion, with conviction, and with emotion, Garth tapped into the music's potential to move and inspire people the world over."

For the performances, George Strait was the first to honor Brooks' musical career, singing the Oklahoman's first hit, Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old), a song about an aging rodeo cowboy struggling with the road and the bone-jarring demands of the profession.

Introducing the song, Strait said he had learned Brooks had Much Too Young when he came to town and wanted to get it to Strait. "You just didn't try hard enough," Strait cracked, looking at Brooks in the front row. "I need songs like this. I'm honored to be able to sing it for you tonight."

James Taylor surprised the crowd, who reacted loudly to his walking on stage after an introduction by Young. Joined by harmony singers Robert Bailey, Vicki Hampton and Brooks' wife, Trisha Yearwood, Taylor performed The River, a number one hit written by Brooks and Victoria Shaw.

"Garth, it's a great honor to be here," Taylor said before starting the song. When Yearwood contacted him to ask if he would perform at the ceremony, Taylor said he replied, "God, I wouldn't miss it."

The surprises continued when Bob Seger, another key influence for Brooks, emerged to sing That Summer, also co-written by Brooks and supported by the trio of background vocalists. "What I admire about Garth is his passion," Seger said. "He's just never afraid to be passionate. I also love the fact that with his enormous success, his historic success, he's still a really good guy. He wears it well."

Strait returned to the stage to induct Brooks. "I think passion best describes him," Strait said. "He's got it. You see it when he sings on TV or at concerts, and you'll see it tonight when he speaks. I remember hearing about him on stage swinging on ropes and throwing things, and I said, 'This is country music. Can you do that?' He blew it up, man. Yes he could do that. And you can see it today in all the young acts that were influenced by you. It's amazing."

"I've always felt a connection to you, singing about rodeos and what not. And you just brought so many new fans to our music. It helped all of us," Strait said.

After Strait put the medallion around Brooks's neck, the new Hall of Fame member stood at the podium, emotion already showing in his face. Brooks started by thanking God, and then his parents. "They were great, great people," he said. "My mom believed you could fly, and my dad would pull you over right after and say, 'If you're going to do it, it's going to take a hell of a lot of damn work.'"

He talked about the oil-field toughness that ran through his family, and how they often fought hard, yet he is thankful for it. But the fighting stopped when James Taylor's music came into the house, giving the family a peaceful center to rally around. He also said that his parents worshipped Haggard and Jones, and Brooks said he looks at Haggard as "the greatest all around singer-songwriter, musician, entertainer, for me it's Merle Haggard."

He went on to credit Jones as "the greatest voice to grace country music," and he recalled Seger as offering the songs that helped move him from confused adolescence to mature adulthood. He remembered being back home during a break after his freshman year at Oklahoma State University, riding in a car with his father, and hearing Strait for the first time, singing his first hit, Unwound. "From that point forward, I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I wanted to be George Strait so bad."

Brooks ended by addressing his daughters - Taylor, August and Allie - as well as his wife and "soulmate" Trisha Yearwood. "You are the greatest things in my life," he said. He then spoke of a Bible passage that says a man makes it to heaven through his wife. "I've got to say, Miss Yearwood, you're my only shot."

The evening ended, as always, with the Hall of Fame members and the evening's performers going to the stage to sing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken.