Monday, August 27, 2007 – Fifteen award-winning songwriters, including Flatt & Scruggs, Hank Williams Jr., Bob DiPiero, MacMcAnally and Thom Schuyler, were nominated Monday for induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
"This is an amazing group of nominees, and every one of them is extremely worthy of induction," said Roger Murrah, Chairman of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation and himself a 2005 inductee.
The slate of nominees, divided into Songwriter and Songwriter/Artist categories, recognizes songwriters whose first significant works achieved commercial success and/or artistic recognition at least 20 years ago and who have "positively impacted and been closely associated with the Nashville music community and deemed to be outstanding and significant." Two from the Songwriter category and one from the Songwriter/Artist category will be honored with induction on October 14.
The 10 nominees in the Songwriter category are: Paul Craft ("Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life" by Moe Bandy), Bob DiPiero ("American Made" by the Oak Ridge Boys), Kye Fleming ("I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrell), Larry Henley ("The Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler), Mac McAnally ("Old Flame" by Alabama), Earl "Peanutt" Montgomery ("We're Gonna Hold On" by George Jones and Tammy Wynette), Bob Morrison ("You Decorated My Life" by Kenny Rogers), Thom Schuyler ("16th Avenue" by Lacy J. Dalton), L.E. White ("After the Fire is Gone" by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn) and Lawton Williams ("Fraulein" by Bobby Helms).
The five nominees in the Songwriter/Artist category are: J.J. Cale ("Cocaine" by Eric Clapton), Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs ("Don't Get Above Your Raisin'"), Amy Grant ("Baby Baby"), Tony Joe White ("Rainy Night in Georgia") and Hank Williams, Jr. ("All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight").
The group of nominees was recommended to the board by the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation (NaSHOF) Nominating Committee, which is comprised of Hall of Fame members and Music Row historians. Votes are cast by Hall of Fame members, Professional Songwriter members of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and the boards of the NaSHOF and NSAI.
Established in 1970, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame boasts 156 members, including songwriting luminaries such as Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell, Bob Dylan, Don & Phil Everly, Vince Gill, Harlan Howard, Roger Miller, Bill Monroe, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Carl Perkins, Jimmie Rodgers, Cindy Walker, Jimmy Webb and Hank Williams, Sr.
The official Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony will take place Oct. 14.
