Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct five new members, including Toby Keith and Amy Grant, with its class of 2021. The new members will be formally inducted at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala, which will be held at Music City Center on November 1st.
Keith and Grant have both amassed formidable bodies of work in their semi-separate spheres. From his debut hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” on, Keith has almost always written his own material, with scores of other hits including “How Do You Like Me Now,” “I Love This Bar,” and “As Good as I Once Was.” His latest single is “Happy Birthday America,” which looks at the presumed end of American dominance.
Grant broke through to contemporary Christian audiences with 1985’s Unguarded and went on to massive crossover success with 1991’s Heart in Motion, featuring the singles “Baby Baby” and “I Will Remember You.” Her most recent studio album is 2013’s How Mercy Looks From Here.
Joining Keith and Grant in the new class of inductees are Rhett Akins (Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here,” Thomas Rhett’s “It Goes Like This”), producer-songwriter Buddy Cannon (George Strait’s “Give It Away,” Vern Gosdin’s “Set ‘Em Up Joe”), and John Scott Sherrill (John Anderson’s “Wild and Blue,” Shenandoah’s “The Church on Cumberland Road”).
The five new members will be inducted alongside the previous year’s inductees Steve Earle, Bobbie Gentry, Kent Blazy, Brett James, and Spooner Oldham. The class of 2020 was previously announced, but the ceremony was postponed as a result of the pandemic.
From Rolling Stone US
