Vince Gill, Mel Tillis and Ralph Emery Headed for Country Music Hall of Fame
In August 2007, country music legends Barbara Mandrell and Brenda Lee announced on behalf of the Country Music Hall of Fame that Vince Gill, Mel Tellis and Ralph Emery have been selected by the Panel of Electors to be inducted into the Hall in October.
Gill (50), who is married to the acclaimed singer Amy Grant, came to prominence with the country rock band Pure Prairie League as lead singer on their hit song, "Let Me Love You Tonight." Gill appeared on two albums with his then-wife Janis Gill of Sweethearts of the Rodeo before signing with RCA Records in 1983 and launching a solo career. In 1989 he switched to MCA Records where he recorded his breakthrough hit "When I Call Your Name." Gill hosted the CMA Awards every year from 1992 to 2003 and has won multiple Grammy awards.
Tillis (75), famous througout his decades-long career in country music as a stuttering humorist, is less-known by the general public, but more significant to his peers, as an accomplished songwriter. Tillis penned the break-through 1967 Kenny Rogers (and the First Edition) hit, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town." "Ruby" paints a compelling and emotional picture of a man losing his wife after returning home from war with physical disabilities.
"The song itself is about a disabled, dying veteran of 'that old crazy Asian war' (the Korean War), who begs his lover not to cheat on him. Tillis based the song on a couple who lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in World War II and sent to recuperate in England. There he married a nurse who took care of him at the hospital. The two of them moved to Florida shortly afterward, but he had periodic return trips to the hospital as problems with his wounds kept flaring up. His wife saw another man as the veteran lay in the hospital. Tillis changed the war to the more recent Korean War in the song, and departed from the ending that happened in real life: the man killed his wife in a murder-suicide...This is however alluded to in the song, with the singer avowing, 'If I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground.'" —Wikipedia
SIDEBAR: The Kenny Rogers "Ruby" gained fame during the Vietnam era and to many is still asscoaited with the unpopular war. While the First Edition recorded "the definitive version," such diverse performers as Johnny Darrell, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller and even Leonard Nimoy |
(of Star Trek fame) also recorded the song.
Ralph Emery (74) was selected to the Hall in the non-performer category. Emery began his career as a disc-jockey for the famous Nashville radio station WSM, which has broadcast the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years. He has also hosted a number of popular country music television shows, including Pop! Goes the Country, Nashville Now, and the more recent Ralph Emery Live.
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