Gary Louris is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter of alternative country and pop music. He was a founding member of the Minneapolis-based band the Jayhawks and their principal songwriter and vocalist after the departure of Mark Olson. Louris is often credited with the band's subsequent move from folk-country toward a more progressive, pop sound.
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single 'Cliffs of Dover' won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Michael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing Western music, country music and popular music. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins in 1959. He has recorded the hit singles 'Wildfire', 'Carolina in the Pines', 'What's Forever For', 'A Long Line of Love', 'What She Wants', 'Don't Count the Rainy Days', and 'Maybe This Time'. Murphey is also the author of New Mexico's state ballad, 'The Land of Enchantment'. Murphey has become a prominent musical voice for the Western horseman, rancher, and cowboy.
John Cameron Fogerty is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty, he founded the band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he was the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter. The group had nine top-10 singles and eight gold albums between 1968 and 1972, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen, also known as just Bettan, is a Norwegian-Swedish singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Gillian Howard Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, country and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as 'at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms.'
Thomas Luther 'Luke' Bryan is an American country music singer and songwriter. He began his music career writing songs for Travis Tritt and Billy Currington before signing with Capitol Nashville in 2007.
Paul V. Franklin is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a steel guitarist. He began his career in the 1970s as a member of Barbara Mandrell's road band; in addition he toured with Vince Gill, Mel Tillis, Jerry Reed and Dire Straits. He has since become a prolific session musician in Nashville, playing on more than 500 albums. He has been named by the Academy of Country Music as Best Steel Guitarist on several occasions. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019. In addition to the pedal steel guitar and lap steel guitar, Franklin plays Dobro, fiddle, and drums, as well as three custom-built instruments called the Pedabro, The Box, and the baritone steel guitar.
James Charles Rodgers was an American singer-songwriter and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as 'the Father of Country Music', he is best known for his distinctive rhythmic yodeling. Unusual for a music star of his era, Rodgers rose to prominence based upon his recordings, among country music's earliest, rather than concert performances – which followed to similar public acclaim.
Gregory LeNoir Allman was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman Brothers Band fused it with rock music, jazz, and country at times. He wrote several of the band's biggest songs, including 'Whipping Post', 'Melissa', and 'Midnight Rider'. Allman also had a successful solo career, releasing seven studio albums. He was born and spent much of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before relocating to Daytona Beach, Florida and then Richmond Hill, Georgia.
Susan Kay Bogguss is an American country music singer and songwriter. She began her career in the 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, six of her songs were Top 10 hits, three albums were certified gold, and one album received a platinum certification. She won Top New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music and the Horizon Award from the Country Music Association.
Chris Knight is an American singer-songwriter from Slaughters, Kentucky. In addition to releasing solo records of his own material, Knight has had a successful career writing songs that have been recorded by Confederate Railroad, John Anderson, and Randy Travis among others.
Christopher Hillman is an American musician. He was the original bassist and one of the original members of The Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his work with The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas and the country-rock group The Desert Rose Band.
Harper James Simon is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He is the son of Paul Simon. Simon's talents have appeared on several studio albums, and has been featured in films and television shows, including HBO's Girls. In 2010, Simon released his self-titled solo album, followed by his second album Division Street released in 2013.
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames 'the Caruso of Rock' and 'the Big O'. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project defiant masculinity. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright.
'Mother' Maybelle Carter was an American country musician and originator of the 'Carter scratch'. She is best known as a member of the Original Carter Family act from the late-1920s until the early-1940s and was a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle.
Linda Maria Ronstadt is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, and Latin. She has earned 10 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Joan Chandos Baez is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish and English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages.
Hiram 'Hank' Williams was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he recorded 35 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that reached No. 1.
Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer-songwriter who sang rock, soul and blues music. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and 'electric' stage presence.
George Harvey Strait Sr. is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. George Strait is known as the 'King of Country' and is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. He is known as a pioneer of the neotraditionalist country style and movement, cowboy look, and being one of the first and most prominent country artists to bring country music back to its roots and away from the pop country era in the 1980s.
Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr., professionally known by the stage name Slim Whitman, was an American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist known for his yodeling abilities and his smooth, high, three-octave-range falsetto in a style christened as 'countrypolitan'. He personally stated that he had sold in excess of 120 million records, although the recorded sales figures give 70 million, during a career that spanned over seven decades, and consisted of a prolific output of over 100 albums and around 500 recorded songs, that not only consisted of country music, but also of contemporary gospel, Broadway show tunes, love songs and standards. In the 1950s, Whitman toured with Elvis Presley as the opening act. In the 1990s and 2000s a new generation was exposed to Whitman through his songs featured in the film Mars Attacks!; his famed 'Indian Love Call' would kill the invading Martians every time the record was played and his rendition of 'I Remember You' was heard in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses.
Joseph Will Oldham is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace. After briefly publishing music under his own name, in 1998 he adopted Bonnie 'Prince' Billy as the name for most of his work.
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album debut in 1967 with Hello, I'm Dolly, which led to success during the remainder of the 1960s, before her sales and chart peak came during the 1970s and continued into the 1980s. Parton's albums in the 1990s did not sell as well, but she achieved commercial success again in the new millennium and has released albums on various independent labels since 2000, including her own label, Dolly Records. She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
James Roger McGuinn is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds.
Dorothy Snowden 'Dar' Williams is an American pop folk singer-songwriter from Mount Kisco, New York. Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker has described Williams as 'one of America's very best singer-songwriters.'
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of pop, rock, country, jazz, and blues. She has released ten studio albums, four compilations, and two live albums, and has contributed to several film soundtracks. Her most popular songs include 'All I Wanna Do' (1994), 'Strong Enough' (1994), 'If It Makes You Happy' (1996), 'Everyday Is a Winding Road' (1996), 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (1997), 'My Favorite Mistake' (1998), 'Picture' (2002) and 'Soak Up the Sun' (2002).
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are 'Sixteen Tons,' 'Re-Enlistment Blues,' 'I am a Pilgrim,' and 'Dark as a Dungeon.' However, it is his unique guitar style, still called Travis Picking by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for which he is best known today. 'Travis Picking' is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb while melodies are simultaneously plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
Joseph Leonard Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age 12, when he opened for B.B. King. In the last 13 years Bonamassa has put out 15 solo albums through his independent record label J&R Adventures, of which 11 have reached number 1 on the Billboard Blues charts.
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has combined record sales of over 35 million albums. He was ranked number 28 in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of 'The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time' and number 47 in the 2011 list. Stills became the first person to be inducted twice on the same night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. According to Neil Young, 'Stephen is a genius.'
Gordon Haskell was an English musician and songwriter. A pop, rock, jazz, country and blues vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, he was a school friend of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, the two first working together in Fripp's mid-1960s teenage group the League of Gentlemen. Haskell first gained recognition as bass player for the British band The Fleur de Lys, and subsequently spent a short period in King Crimson, singing one of the songs on their second album and both singing and playing bass on their third album. After departing from King Crimson, he continued his musical career as a solo musician, finally gaining international recognition in 2001 with his hit song 'How Wonderful You Are', followed by his platinum-selling album Harry's Bar.
Timothy Bruce Schmit is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has performed as the bassist and vocalist for Poco and Eagles, having replaced bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner in both cases. Schmit has also worked for decades as a session musician and solo artist. In 1998, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Eagles.
Charles Edward Daniels was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his contributions to Southern rock, country, and bluegrass music. He was best known for his number-one country hit 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'. Much of his output, including all but one of his eight Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, was credited to the Charlie Daniels Band.
Vincent Grant Gill is an American country singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist and a duet partner.