This year’s inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame have been announced:
Tim McGraw
Modern Era
For the second year in a row, the Modern Era inductee is a man who first rose to prominence at the tail end of the 90s, only to go onto commercial dominance in the aughts, followed by hitmaking longevity that’s still going today.
And, for the second year in a row, there are at least some lingering questions about “skipping the line” when the Hall’s backlog of deserving artists just keeps getting longer and longer. There’s no question McGraw is a worthy addition to the Hall, given a career that balanced massive commercial success with (at least some) high-quality work that elevated the genre’s center.
But Dwight and Trisha and Clint and Pam sure do loom large.
The Stanley Brothers
Veteran Era
Another “Wait, how were they not already in?” selection, the timing of The Stanley Brothers’ richly deserved induction is tied to the 25th anniversary of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack, which introduced “Doctor” Ralph Stanley to a whole new generation.
This year’s pick could’ve gone a slew of different directions– The Maddox Brothers & Rose, Johnny Horton, Linda Ronstadt, and Freddy Fender would all have been fine, worthy choices– but it’s always the right time to celebrate the Stanleys. We Stan.
Paul Overstreet
Songwriter
Another unimpeachable pick, what’s encouraging about Overstreet’s selection is that his successes as a recording artist in his own right– both solo and as part of S-K-O– weren’t held against him for consideration for this honor. If I’m Rodney Crowell or Patty Griffin, that’s nice to see. As for Overstreet’s writing credits, contrarians might be quick to cite “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” as disqualifying, but even if he’d only ever written the songs Randy Travis took to #1, he’d be a deserving inductee.
For future picks, here’s hoping for Crowell, Jim Lauderdale, or any of the 90s Women Holy Trinity (Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters, Kim Richey).
What do you think of this year’s class of inductees?
It seems to me it would make a lot of sense for them to start doing two veterans inductees each year: one living and one dead. That would both help with the backlog and assure an inductee who is still around to receive it.
I have advocated for a Pioneer category for deserving artists of country music’s beginnings and early years who should not have had to wait for their inductions until they had long passed from the scene. Maybe it’s just me, but this would be a way of breaking the logjam at the CMHoF that has lasted (seemingly) for decades. Either this, or inducting five acts per year in the main categories, and at least two in the songwriting field.
That being said, it was good for Carter and Ralph Stanley to finally get in, being the pioneers of bluegrass that they were, and seeing as how the brothers and their style got another shot in the arm in terms of popularity with O Brother Where Art Thou?.
In a properly functioning CMHOF, The Stanley Brothers are inducted in 1996, not 2026.
A pioneer category would definitely have taken care of that.
I believe the Country Music Hall of Fame needs to sort out who the heroes are in the story it tells and honours: is it the institution of the Hall of Fame itself or the artists celebrated within it? If it is the former, then carry on. If it is the latter, I would think leading with some kindness and respect would guide decisions to expedite inducting more veteran stars, especially the pioneers.
As for this year’s inductees, I didn’t blink at Overstreet or Stanley. I got hung up on McGraw because of his extreme inconsistency with the quality of his output. I will not challenge his towering influence and impact as a massive country music star. I am not a fan, but he is a worthy inductee and deserves this, and the other accolades, he has received for his work and contributions to country music.
I’m really getting thrown off by Tim McGraw’s catalog being described as wildly inconsistent.
He’s as consistent an album artist as we got in mainstream country from the mid 90s to mid 00s. Most artists never have a run that solid.
And even his later career has included “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s” and “Humble and Kind.”
Great taste in material made his entire career.
He also gave us “Truck Yeah”, “Looking for that Girl”, and “Refried Dreams”. I think inconsistent is a fair adjective for his body of work but I also agree he had a multi-album stretch of excellence in his late 90s and early 2000s heyday. And I also agree he definitely needs to be in the Hall of Fame even if he drifted ahead of the line a bit.
“Refried Dreams” is a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s fun to sing along with.
I could see that. I have songs like that too. The first one that comes to mind (covers my face in shame) is one I heard on the radio just yesterday: Dustin Lynch’s “Stars Like Confetti”.
And Johnny Cash gave us “The Chicken in Black!”
He’s got some clunkers from the very beginning and toward the end of his career, but that is to be expected of any artist with longevity.
I think that stretch of albums from Everywhere to Live Like You Were Dying makes him easily the most consistent of the second wave of male country superstars. I’d put him above Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney by a wide margin as an albums artist, and those are the only other two besides him that I think belong in the hall anyway.
Tim’s a no-brainer, one of the biggest country stars of all time. His wildly inconsistent material doesn’t overcome the sheer amount of great work he’s put out over the decades. Not sure why he went in after Kenny Chesney though, given their respective timelines.
Not much to add about the other inductees.
As for who’s next, if I had to pick one for the next modern inductee (which for some reason is a thing), I’d probably pick Trisha. If I could include a few more, it’d be Allison Krauss + Union Station, Martina, Dwight, and Shania.
I’d side with Trisha being inducted via the Modern category; but it seems as though she wants it to happen if Linda Ronstadt, her spiritual role model, gets in through the Veterans category (even though Linda is one who would never be pigeonholed, and never really thought of herself as a country artist in the strict Nashville sense of the term).
Watch this space.
Has Trisha actually said that? As cool as it would be, the idea that she would defer her own induction to wait for Linda seems a bit fanciful a notion.
I am again disappointed by the CMHOF and their omission of Freddy Fender and Linda Ronstadt YET AGAIN!
Does the HOF have something against Hispanics? There I’ve said it! That has been burning in my chest for a long time!
I guess there are just too many lily whites on the board of directors. Right Stuart??
There’s been an active campaign and petition in support of Fender’s induction for at least the last five years. Friend of the blog and country music scholar, Dr. Amanda Marie Martinez, has been one of the most vocal advocates for Fender, as has Tejano recording artist Veronique Medrano. We’ve mentioned him many times here as one of our leading choices for the Veteran Era.
I do think he’ll get in eventually, but I do worry about the current influx of far right politics into the always-already-problematic Music Row machinations, and whether there’s reason to worry about too many people screaming about “DEI” in ways that would diminish the shine on his rightful inclusion.
There are a lot of gatekeepers who insist that Ronstadt was never a “country” artist, which is an argument we obviously don’t buy for a second around these parts. She should’ve been inducted ages ago, and I just hope it does happen while she’s still with us. Beyond her own stellar country records, the legendary women of the 80s and 90s have a completely different tenor without her singular influence.
I also think there’s an outside chance of The Mavericks getting in eventually. They’d be a shoo-in on quality and longevity if it were solely up to me.
With Freddy, I don’t think there’s any dispute he should be inducted at some point, especially given that his first four big hits were not only #1 on the country chart, but all of them went into the Top 40 on the overall Hot 100 as well. The fact that he’s Mexican-American should not be the thing that keeps him out anymore than it makes him worthy. It’s the work that counts; and all this b****ing, whining, and bellyaching about “DEI” and “woke” (as if the people who so disparagingly use those terms can even give an in-the-ballpark definition) is just utter BS.
As for Linda–well, she was always far more L.A. than Nashville, and some would label her as a “fellow traveler” (another decidedly and politically loaded term, which makes her out to be something of a “Commie” [IMHO])–but then there are at least four generations of musically like-minded women who think of her as, how shall we say, a bit more than a mere “fellow traveler”, and more like a true role model.
I’ve only liked a few songs from Tim McGraw after his Let It Go album and most of them are unreleased album tracks, but I can’t argue against him belonging in the HOF based on his success.
I’m happy for Paul Overstreet. I’ve had a soft spot for him ever since I was a kid and I agree that his Randy Travis songs alone qualify him. As of right now, I have 77 songs on my “Paul Overstreet Compositions Recorded by Other Artists” playlist.
Not gonna argue the McGraw selection; everyone knew that was inevitable, and sooner rather than later. That said, no way he should be in before Yoakam, Black, Gayle, Ronstadt or Rosanne Cash (the latter two of which I suspect may be waiting for some time).
…apart from some jumping the queue, perhaps, ain’t there anything to fret about regarding the induction of these really deserving artists. the stanleys not already having been in the building for the longest time was rather astonishing to me though, i have to admit.
…since seeing luckyoldsun’s comment only now, i just would like to second his notion, offered in another thread on the subject of paul overstreet. there’s way more to the commonly perceived character of paul overstreet than being the god fearing, family- and other useful values preaching/upholding songwriter that he appears to be/is most of the time. he’s also no stranger to having some more freewheeling writer’s rounds fun, when the occasion presents itself, forcing the good lord at times to do what he’s supposedly an expert at: forgiving and forgetting – or vice versa.
All good candidates, will be rooting for Dwight until it finally happens. He’s in the Hank Jr. and Tanya Tucker boat though I believe and will have to wait longer than his influence should indicate. Then again with the Stanley bros. Just getting in now I guess Dwight hasn’t waited too long yet.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rosanne gets a “last minute” entry via the modern category next year. She qualifies for Veteran for a few years now, but her first big hit (top 10) came in 1981. Which would’ve put her as this being her last year eligible if that’s where they draw the line.
Definitely was Earl Thomas Conley’s last chance at modern. I wa shopping though I know his names probably not near the forefront.
Dwight, Alison Krauss, Trisha and Martina are my personal next picks for modern.
Overstreet’s songs tend to be overly saccharine.
Why are they putting him in before they put the songrwriters who wrote the great country gold of the 1960s and ’70s: Dallas Frazier, Sonny Throckmorton, Jerry Chesnutt, Curly Putman, et al? Throckmorton, who wrote “The Way I Am” and “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday” for Haggard, “Last Cheater’s Waltz” and “Middle Age Crazy” for Jerry Lee Lewis,”It’s a Cheating Situation” for Moe Bandy and Janie Frickie, “Trying to Love Two Women” for the Oak Ridge Boys, “Why Not Me” for the Judds and “The Cowboy Rides Away” for Strait is 85 and still alive, btw, and they pass him over for Overstreet. I can’t support that.
“The Way I Am” is actually my favorite Haggard single– saying something, that– so I am fully in agreement that he deserves enshrinement. Frazier, for sure, is another obvious choice, though I’ve often heard rumblings that his exit from the music industry rankled some of the “powers that be.”
I certainly don’t think their exclusion is cause to diminish Overstreet’s, though: I’m diabetic both physically and culturally and tend to avoid all things saccharine, and I think even his most sentimental songs land on the right side of that distinction.
I am still baffled at how Ralph Mooney has not yet been inducted as an instrumentalist and James Burton only managed to get inducted a couple of years back. Burton absolutely had the creds with a bunch of different artists, and Mooney’s work with both Merle and Waylon ought to speak for itself as well.