Series Includes Performances by Eddie Bayers, Stuart Duncan, Steve Gibson, Charlie McCoy, Joe Robinson, Wanda Vick, and Others

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 23, 2017—The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum announces a new weekly series, Musician Spotlight, beginning March 5, 2017. Every Sunday at 1:00 p.m., accomplished recording and touring musicians will perform country and bluegrass standards, original music, and influential songs of their careers in the Country Music Hall of Fame Rotunda. In addition to the musical performances, the musicians will discuss their instruments, share stories, and explain their playing techniques. Guests are encouraged to ask questions and interact with the artists.

Musician Spotlight joins hundreds of unique, music-oriented programs presented by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum each year. For more information on this series and all other upcoming programs, visit countrymusichalloffame.org to see the calendar of events. Musician Spotlight is included with museum admission and free to museum members. Space is limited.

Musician Spotlight performers currently scheduled to appear include:

Sunday, March 5
Nedski and Mojo: Banjo and Guitar
Ned Luberecki (Nedski) and Stephen Mougin (Mojo) join forces to form this banjo-guitar bluegrass duo. Luberecki is a member of the Becky Buller Band and has played with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Jim Lauderdale, and Ray Stevens. He is a host on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction and teaches banjo lessons and workshops. Mougin is a member of the Sam Bush Band and operates Dark Shadow Recording studio. He is Director of Bluegrass at Bethel University and recipient of the 2016 IBMA Mentor Award.

Sunday, March 12
Stuart Duncan: Fiddle
Former Nashville Cat honoree Stuart Duncan is a master fiddler whose skill and imagination have made him one of the most in-demand musicians in America. He has been featured on approximately nine hundred recordings including works by Elvis Costello, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Alan Jackson, Mark Knopfler, Diana Krall, Panic at the Disco, Dolly Parton, Robert Plant, George Strait, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and Shania Twain. Duncan is a founding member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and a key player in The Goat Rodeo Sessions, a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Duncan has four Grammy awards, numerous Academy of Country Music awards, and nine titles as the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Fiddle Player of the Year.

Sunday, March 19
Steve Gibson: Guitar
During his years in Nashville as a session player and producer, former Nashville Cat honoree Steve Gibson has played on over 14,000 recording sessions. He has contributed to hits by Alabama, Clint Black, George Jones, Dave Loggins, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Milsap, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Ray Price, Kenny Rogers, George Strait, Randy Travis, Tammy Wynette, Wynonna, and many others. In 2002, he became musical director of the Grand Ole Opry. Gibson’s work in television includes musical direction for the CMA Awards and for the PBS production In Performance at the White House, for which he was nominated for an Emmy.

Sunday, March 26
Belmont University Bluegrass Ensemble
Enjoy a performance by the Belmont University Bluegrass Ensemble directed by Tammy Rogers King. This student group will perform an acoustic mix of bluegrass, country, and other styles, covering material from Bill Monroe to the Beatles. Students will discuss the history of each instrument in the ensemble.

Sunday, April 2
Wanda Vick: Multi-Instrumentalist
Wanda Vick has been a sought-after studio musician in Nashville for the past thirty years and has played on thousands of recording sessions. She has recorded with Alabama, Jason Aldean, George Jones, Little Big Town, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Travis Tritt, and Trisha Yearwood. Vick is a founding member of all-female group Wild Rose, with whom she earned ACM and Grammy nominations.

Sunday, April 9
Verlon Thompson: Guitar
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Verlon Thompson has played guitar with Guy Clark, Restless Heart, Pam Tillis, and many others. As a songwriter, his works have been recorded by Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson, Anne Murray, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, and Trisha Yearwood. A longtime collaborator with songwriting great Guy Clark, Thompson produced many of Clark’s Grammy-nominated albums.

Sunday, April 16
Jenni Lyn: Mandolin
Jenni Lyn performs as a solo artist and as a member of the all-female bluegrass group Della Mae.  With Della Mae she has won numerous awards including IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year and IBMA Recorded Event of the Year, and Della Mae earned a 2014 Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Lyn’s debut solo album, Burn Another Candle, will be released in 2017.
 
Sunday, April 23
Joe Robinson: Guitar
Joe Robinson is a virtuoso guitarist, singer-songwriter, and international touring artist. Originally from Australia, he won the 2008 Australia’s Got Talent television contest and the Australian National Songwriting Competition. Robinson has also been selected as one of Australian Guitar magazine’s Top 50 Best Guitarists and was voted Best New Talent in Guitar Player magazine’s readers’ poll. Beyond touring as a solo artist, Robinson tours as a member of Guitar Army, a trio with Robben Ford and Lee Roy Parnell, and with Tommy Emmanuel.

Sunday, April 30
Colin Linden: Guitar
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Colin Linden has played with T Bone Burnett, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, and as a member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. He is a regular in the studio band for the Nashville television show and has also appeared in numerous episodes.

Sunday, May 7
Richard Bailey: Banjo
Richard Bailey is a member of the Grammy-winning band the SteelDrivers. He has also played with Chet Atkins, Dale Ann Bradley, Johnny Cash, Vassar Clements, Al Green, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Ronnie Milsap, Bill Monroe, Kenny Rogers, and Tammy Wynette.

Sunday, May 14
David Coe with Josh Culley: Fiddle and Guitar
David Coe plays fiddle for Michael Martin Murphey and Nashville-based Irish band the Rogues. Josh Culley will sit in on guitar. The duo will demonstrate old-time Appalachian and Irish fiddle tunes.
Sunday, May 21
Eddie Bayers: Drums
Eddie Bayers is one of the most recorded and awarded drummers in country music. He has been named the ACM Drummer of the Year thirteen times, and Drum! magazine named him one of the Top Ten Session Drummers of All Time. Bayers has recorded with George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton. He can be heard on country classics such as Vince Gill’s “Liza Jane,” Alan Jackson’s “Here in the Real World,” and George Strait’s “Blue Clear Sky.” His credits also include work with pop stars John Fogerty, Elton John, Mark Knopfler, Bob Seger, and Sting.

Sunday, May 28
Charlie McCoy: Harmonica
Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie McCoy has worked on thousands of sessions, and his distinctive harmonica playing can be heard on “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (George Jones), “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” (Waylon Jennings), and “Take This Job and Shove It” (Johnny Paycheck). Accomplished on many different instruments, McCoy played sessions on records for Area Code 615, Johnny Cash, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon & Garfunkel, the Steve Miller Band, and Tom T. Hall, all featured in the exhibit Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City presented by Citi. Following the program, McCoy will sign copies of his new autobiography, 50 Cents and a Box Top, available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Sunday, June 11                                
Johnny Duke: Guitar
Johnny Duke played with Grammy-winning country group Little Big Town, both on tour and in the studio, for platinum-selling albums Tornado and Painkiller. He also has performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ashley Monroe, and Lee Ann Womack. As a solo performer and producer, Duke recently released an album of original music, Reimagine.

Sunday, July 2
Bassist Mike Fleming: Bass
Mike Fleming plays bass in Grammy-winning band the SteelDrivers, and has played with Holly Dunn, David Olney, Kevin Welch, and Joy Lynn White. He has appeared on Austin City Limits, Crook and Chase, the Grand Ole Opry, and Nashville Now.

###

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum collects, preserves, and interprets country music and its history for the education and entertainment of diverse audiences. In exhibits, publications, and educational programs, the museum explores the cultural importance and enduring beauty of the art form. The museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and in 2016 welcomed nearly 1.2 million patrons, placing it among the ten most-visited history museums in the U.S. The Country Music Foundation operates Historic RCA Studio B, Hatch Show Print® poster shop, CMF Records, the Frist Library and Archive, and CMF Press. Museum programs are supported by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.

The Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums