The Country Music Association announced yesterday (4/22) that Ronnie Milsap,  Hank Cochran  and Mac Wiseman  will be the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In a ceremony held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Rotunda in Nashville, Tenn., Kix Brooks introduced the induction as “the most important day in country music and something everyone looks forward to.”

Bobby Bare introduced the late Hank Cochran, who is the 2014 inductee in the songwriter category. Songs Cochran wrote or cowrote include “Make the World Go Away,“ The Chair” and “Ocean Front Property,” It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad),” and the Patsy Cline classic “I Fall to Pieces.”

Wiseman was inducted next and acknowledged as a “veterans era” artist. Appearing side-stage in a wheelchair. He apologized for not standing to accept the honor, blaming post-Polio Syndrome. He said he is healthy.

Hunter Hayes then took the podium to introduce the final inductee for 2014, the “modern era” artist Ronnie Milsap. Milsap took to the stage to celebrate and thank the country music community, his family and his friends.

Milsap was one of country’s most popular artists in the 1970s and ’80s, earning 40 No. 1 hits. Hits of his include “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,” “She Keeps The Home Fires Burning" and “Smoky Mountain Rain.”

Jeffrey A, who used to be a DJ at the Hawk, is now a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame. One night Jeffrey A and I spent the evening at Tootsies with one of Ronnie Milsap's leading songwriters. It was a great evening of storytelling.

Congrats to Hank, Mac and Ronnie.

 

 

 

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