Missing From Country Music Hall of Fame (Updated 2018 Inductees)

The 2018 Country Hall inductees were announced today:  Ricky Skaggs, Dottie West and Johnny Gimble. The process to get into the Country Hall is explained here . In short: One act is chosen from 3 categories every year: Veterans Era (45 years after achieving "national prominence").  Modern Era (20 years after achieving "national prominence").   Non-Performer, Songwriter and Recording/Touring Musician categories rotate every 3 years.

Below are a list of artists, session musicians, songwriters, producers, etc., that have yet to be inducted as of 2018.

Asleep At The Wheel
Billy Joe Shaver
Brooks & Dunn
Buddy Emmons
Buddy Killen
Carter Sisters
Charlie Rich
Clint Black
Crystal Gayle
Curly Putnam
Dallas Frazier
Dean Dillon
Don Rich
Doug Sahm
Dwight Yoakam
Eddie Rabbitt
Flatlanders (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock)
Freddy Fender
Garth Fundis
Gary Stewart
Gene Watson
Gram Parsons
Guy Clark
Hank Garland
Hank Williams Jr.
Jerry Douglas
Jerry Jeff Walker
Jerry Lee Lewis
John Hughey
Kenny Chesney
Jimmy Martin
John Anderson
Johnny Horton
Johnny Paycheck
Judds
June Carter Cash
Keith Whitley
Linda Ronstadt
Lloyd Green
Lynn Anderson
Mac McAnally
Maddox Brothers and Rose
Mark O'Connor
Martina McBride
Marty Stuart
Mickey Gilley
Milton Brown
Patty Loveless
Pete Drake
Ralph Mooney
Ray Stevens
Red Volkaert
Reggie Young
Rodney Crowell
Rosanne Cash
Skeeter Davis
Stanley Brothers
Steve Earle
Tanya Tucker
Tim McGraw
Toby Keith
Tompall Glaser & the Glaser Brothers
Tony Brown
Townes Van Zandt
Travis Tritt
Vern Gosdin
Weldon Myrick
Wilburn Brothers
W.S. Holland

Playlist for 3/25

Janiva Magness - Love Is An Army
Joan Baez - Whistle Down The Wind
Caroline Rose - Loner
Caroline Rose - I Will Not Be Afraid
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Tell My Sister
Tammy Wynette - D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton - Just The Two Of Us
Jeannie C. Riley - Harper Valley  PTA
Syleena Johnson - Rebirth of Soul

Playlist for 3/19

Eric Clapton - Life In 12 Bars (Documentary)
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Lonestar:1984-1989 (Documentary)
Word Is Bond (Documentary)
Classic Albums: Steely Dan - Aja (Documentary)
Superchunk - What A Time to Be Alive
Calexico - Thread That Keeps Us
Marlon Williams - Make Way For Love
Yacht Rock Book - Greg Prato (Book)

Playlist for 3/13

Brandi Carlile - By The Way, I Forgive You
Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary - American Grandstand
I'm With Her - See You Around
Wood Brothers - One Drop of Truth
Tommy Emmanuel - Accomplice One
Charles Lloyd - Passin' Thru
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

Tom's Top 20 Albums of 1998

Here we are in 2018, and 1998 still feels like it just happened.  So, let's get nostalgic and take a look at some of the albums that I loved in 1998.

1.  Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue

2.  Lauryn Hill - Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

3.  Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

4.  New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

5.  Chris Knight - s/t

6.  Elliott Smith - XO

7.  Outkast - Aquemini

8.  Madonna - Ray of Light

9.  Air - Moon Safari

10.  Maxwell - Embrya

11.  PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?

12.  Jay-Z - Vol. 2..Hard Knock Life

13.  Willie Nelson - Teatro

14.  Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces

15.  Belle & Sebastian - Boy With The Arab Strap

16.  Hole - Celebrity Skin

17.  Beck - Mutations

18.  Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

19.  Bob Dylan - Live 1966

20.  Mavericks - Trampoline

Playlist for 3/8

Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas - World of Captain Beefheart
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa- Black Coffee
Jon Savage's 1965 - Various
Beside Bowie: Mick Ronson Story (Documentary)
John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken Live From The Chicago Theatre (Documentary)
Bad Company: 40th Anniversary (Documentary)
Classic Pop Presents Elton John (Special Edition Magazine)
Classic Pop Presents Stevie Wonder (Special Edition Magazine)

RIP Russ Solomon

Tower Records was a special store.  I first became aware of it when I moved to California from Germany in 1975.  I kept hearing about this store in the San Francisco Bay Area that had every record (not that much of an exaggeration) you wanted.  But it was an hour away, and who would drive me there?

The Monterey Peninsula did have one interesting Record store in the 70's, Odyssey Records.  From the inside it seemed to pattern itself after Tower Records.  Like a smaller version.  

It wasn't until the Summer of '77 that I finally made it to Tower.  The first album I bought there was the Isley Brothers' Go For Your Guns.  But I also remember them having a display of that week's Billboard Hot 100 singles.  As someone who had just subscribed to Billboard that year, this was an amazing thing to see.  

Trips to Tower after that were sparse.  Not until 1982, when I got my drivers license did I go back on a regular basis.  And in the years after, started to go monthly.  It was around this time that I began to get interested in Rock 'n' Roll history.  And what better store to stock up on catalog titles then Tower.  Time rolled along and I continued to go there once a month.  But then suddenly it was over.  Tower shut down (I went one last time before they closed).  A victim of the Internet and lower priced stores like Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart. 

But we could use a store like Tower nowadays.  CD's are getting hard to find (in my neighborhood anyway), and online has become the only way to shop for them.  The stores that I mentioned above?  They are dwindling their CD sales to the bare minimum titles.  

Tower's not coming back, but Russ Solomon's death Sunday at 92 years old, did bring out a bunch of nostalgic feelings among us avid record buyers.

It was a hell of a record store.

For more on Solomon check out the 2015 documentary All Things Must Pass: Rise and Fall of Tower Records

Playlist for 3/1

Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Fall -  Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth A F  (Documentary 1977)
Stax Country - Various
John Prine - September 78
Rick Springfield - Snake King
Justin Timberlake - Man of the Woods
James Hunter - Whatever It Takes