If it hadn’t been for the amazing talents of session musicians, many of our most famous hit songs would have never existed – or at least they would have sounded a whole lot different. While many of these studio pros have been quite happy working behind the scenes, Monday night at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee, some of the finest of these musicians did something they’d never done before. They took bows! At the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum’s inaugural induction ceremony, six groups of musicians – men and women who played on many of the most important and best-loved recordings in the history of American popular music – were honored with both medallions and applause. Motown’s The Funk Brothers, Nashville’s A Team, Los Angeles’ The Wrecking Crew, Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Two, and Elvis Presley’s Blue Moon Boys made up the first Musicians Hall class. Joe Chambers opened the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in June, ensuring that Nashville would have an unprecedented building full of memorabilia and information about those previously unheralded superstars. “It’s been a journey,” Chambers said. “There was nothing, and now there’s something. I mean, this really is something.”
Given the limited scope (and even more limited musical ability) of many of the “stars” who are “honored” on mainstream music awards show, we think this is pretty darn cool.