12 Comments

  1. Not meaning to sound like a broken record but once again the great Tanya Tucker is overlooked.

    However, congratulations to all of this year’s inductees.

    Reply

    • They need to further differentiate between the modern era and veteran era, and commit to inducting at least five artists a year.

      I totally understand Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis getting in, but the backlog of seventies/eighties artists is getting ridiculous, and pretty soon, the late eighties/early nineties stars are going to age out of the current modern era guidelines.

      I’d do something like this for next year:
      1. Overall Top Vote Getter (highest vote total among all eligible artists)
      Modern Era II (1993-)
      Modern Era I (1980-1992)
      Veteran Era II (1965-1979)
      Veteran Era I (pre-1965)

      It could look something like this for Class of 2023:

      OVERALL TOP VOTE GETTER: Dwight Yoakam
      Modern Era II: Shania Twain
      Modern Era I: John Anderson
      Veteran Era II: Tanya Tucker
      Veteran Era I: Stonewall Jackson

      Then next year:
      OVERALL TOP VOTE GETTER: Toby Keith
      Modern Era II: Tim McGraw
      Modern Era I: Patty Loveless
      Veteran Era II: Gene Watson
      Veteran Era I: Wanda Jackson

      Alternatively, just do three modern era and two veteran era inductees every year. Whatever is necessary to start honoring folks before they’re dead.

      Reply

  2. I like your ideas Kevin.

    As for this years inductees: Jerry Lee should have been inducted no later than 1995; Keith Whitley is an artist I love but only marginally qualified.

    Joe Galante is a wasted induction. Although he was commercially (and superficially) successful with RCA, qualitatively RCA released a lot of junk under his leadership. He purged most of RCA’s senior artists and replaced them with a large cadre of pretty faces with minimal talent. True there were a few that succeeded but most of them would have succeeded regardless of who ran RCA

    Reply

    • “A large cadre of pretty faces with minimal talent” is a novel way of describing The Judds, Keith Whitley, Clint Black, K.T. Oslin, Lorrie Morgan, Matraca Berg, Vince Gill, Foster & Lloyd, Aaron Tippin, and Paul Overstreet.

      Reply

      • Yup, you named the few that succeeded although how much Galante had to do with their success is really questionable – I could name dozens of pretty faces that released a single or two or one album that never amounted to a thing. Vince Gill’s success began when he moved to MCA. The marketing on Keith Whitley’s catalogue was ridiculous and Matraca Berg was a success as a songwriter – her RCA albums hit the cutout bins rapidly

        Reply

          • It’s not like he took over Starday or some other struggling regional or independent label – RCA was a colossus before he got there. The biggest knock against Galante was that only money mattered to him and the company indeed made money but lost its artistic soul.

            I wish Ken Johnson would comment here as he is much more the insider than I am, and I would never presume to quote him. Unfortunately, I think he has given up on this site

          • The Judds, Keith Whitley, Clint Black, and K.T. Oslin were foundational artists that set the stage for the nineties boom. Galante transitioned RCA successfully from Urban Country to New Traditionalist and back again. His track record speaks for itself, and it’s gotten him into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

            I have no idea who Ken Johnson is or when he decided he has “given up on this site,” but our comment threads aren’t exactly a hotbed of trashy industry gossip. There are plenty of those places to have those kind of conversations. They won’t get much traction here.

  3. i agree with Paul that Keith Whitley probably is “marginally qualified” to be the HOF, but as a huge fan of his from day 1, Im sure glad he is.

    Reply

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