Bill Anderson

Bill Anderson moved to Nashville, secured a recording contract with Decca Records, and began turning out hit after hit with songs like “ Po ’ Folks, ” “ Mama Sang A Song, ” “ The Tips Of My Fingers, ” “ 8X10, ” and the unforgettable country and pop smash, “ Still. ” His compositions were recorded by such diverse musical talents as Ray Price, Porter Wagoner, James Brown, Debbie Reynolds, Ivory Joe Hunter, Kitty Wells, Faron Young, Lawrence Welk, Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Walter Brennan and many others.

Bill has been voted Songwriter Of The Year six times, Male Vocalist Of The Year, half of the Duet Of The Year with both Jan Howard and Mary Lou Turner, has hosted and starred in the Country Music Television Series Of The Year, seen his band voted Band Of The Year, and in 1975 was voted membership in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1995, Billboard magazine named four Bill Anderson compositions “City Lights, ” “ Once A Day, ” “ Still, ” and “ Mama Sang A Song ” among the Top 20 Country Songs of the past 35 years. No other songwriter had as many songs listed.

Bill closed out the 20th century with a pair of #1 hits, “ Wish You Were Here, ” by Mark Wills and the Grammy-nominated “ Two Teardrops ” by Steve Wariner. His song, “ Too Country, ” recorded by Brad Paisley along with Anderson, Buck Owens and George Jones, won CMA Vocal Event Of The Year honors for 2001. The following year saw Kenny Chesney soar with his version of the Anderson-Dean Dillon masterpiece, “ A Lot Of Things Different. ” In 2001, he received the ultimate honor, membership in Nashville ’ s prestigious Country Music Hall of Fame.

But in a period of eighteen months between November, 2005, and May, 2007, Bill enjoyed perhaps the most fertile period of his songwriting life. He won CMA Song of the Year honors for his and Jon Randall ’ s poignant ballad, “ Whiskey Lullaby,” recorded by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, a Dove Award for co-writing with Tia Sillers the Country/Gospel Recorded Song of the Year, “Jonah, Job, and Moses,” sung by the Oak Ridge Boys, and his first ACM Song of the Year Award for “Give It Away,” recorded by George Strait and written with Buddy Cannon and Jamey Johnson.

In 2002, BMI named Bill Anderson its first country music songwriting Icon, placing him alongside R&B legends Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and James Brown as the only recipients of that prestigious award. His compositions can be heard on recent or forthcoming releases by Kenny Chesney, Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan, Joe Nichols, Sara Evans, Tracy Byrd, and others, serving notice that the past fifty years may well have been only the beginning.

Donna Meade

Donna Meade was born in Chase City, Virginia and raised in the suburbs of Richmond. The only daughter of seven children, Donna was influenced early in life by the music of her older brothers who were singers and musicians.

In 1973, Donna was invited to join the venerable country music show in Virginia, the Old Dominion Barn Dance, and was named Richmond’s Entertainer of the Year. Continually active in country music, she was chosen Virginia’s Female Vocalist of the Year by the Virginia Folk Music Association in 1976 and 1977, and in 1989 Donna was inducted into Virginia’s Country Music Hall of Fame.

Donna moved to Nashville in 1981 where she soon became a local celebrity performing in nightclubs, and was signed to a songwriter’s contract with Sony/Tree. For many years she was the star performer at Buddy Killen’s World Famous Stockyard’s Bullpen Lounge, and she also performed for a season with Boots Randolph’s show at his club in Printer’s Alley. Eventually Donna was signed to a recording contract with Mercury/Polygram Records.

After releasing several single records and a critically acclaimed album in 1988 (with the cover shot at Belle Meade mansion), her star continued to rise as she was nominated for New Female Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. She went on to perform regularly on The Nashville Network where she met her husband, entertainer and sausage magnate Jimmy Dean, on Ralph Emery‘s Nashville Now Show.

In 1996 Donna fulfilled a lifetime dream by recording an album of songs in Nashville under the production of the legendary Owen Bradley, record producer for such greats as Patsy Cline, K.D. Lang, Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn.

Also that year she teamed up with Jimmy to write “ Virginia,” a song that was chosen by a legislative committee to replace “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” as Virginia’s new state anthem.

Recently, Donna added published author to her list of accomplishments. In October of 2004, Penguin Books released her husband’s autobiography, Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham, on which she collaborated.

Jimmy Dean

Born into poverty on a farm in Plainview, Texas in 1928, Jimmy Dean was raised by his mother who started him on a musical path. She taught him to play the piano at age 10, and he went on to learn how to play the harmonica and accordion. At 18, Jimmy joined the U.S. Air Force where he passed his free time singing songs, telling tall tales and getting lots of laughs. It was during this time that he decided to become an entertainer.

In 1952, Jimmy toured the U.S. bases in the Caribbean, and that same year he recorded his first single for Four Star Records called “Bummin’ Around.” The song soared to No. 5 on the country charts the following year, and sold more than a half million copies.

But by then television was the medium to be in, and Jimmy landed a spot on the “Town and Country Time” show broadcast on Washington ABC affiliate WMAL-TV. Dean was hired away from ABC by Washington’s CBS affiliate to host a live country show, and in 1957, he moved to New York.

While CBS kept him busy with two live broadcasts a day, Jimmy also pursued a recording career. He signed with Columbia Records in 1957, and told them as a country star he wanted to record in the country music capital of the world— Nashville. On one of the many trips from New York to Nashville he wrote a song that was destined to become a worldwide sensation—“Big Bad John.” The song sold more than eight million copies, making it the number one song in the world and creating a superstar in the process. Jimmy followed up with five more top 40 hits in 1962—“Dear Ivan,” “The Cajun Queen,” “To a Sleeping Beauty,” “PT 109” and “Little Black Book.”

The following year Jimmy returned to ABC-TV with “The Jimmy Dean Show,” which aired from 1963 to 1966. He used his show to give many country talents their first national break, including Roy Clark, Roger Miller and Patsy Cline, as well as Jim Henson's Muppets, earning Jimmy the nickname “The Dean of Country Music.”

Jimmy tried his hand at acting, landing a regular role on the hit TV series, “Daniel Boone,” and debuting in film in the James Bond classic, “Diamonds Are Forever.” Meanwhile, he also began recording for RCA hitting the top of the charts with “A Thing Called Love,” “Born to Be By Your Side,” and “A Hammer and Nails.” In 1976, “I.O.U.” became one of the fastest breaking records in the history of the industry, being certified gold in just 13 days.

All along, knowing that fame can be fleeting, Jimmy had invested his earnings in a business he knew about from childhood—hog farming. He founded the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in 1969 and began making the sausage that made him a household name for new generations of Americans. In 1984, Jimmy sold the Jimmy Dean Meat Company to Sara Lee Corporation, but continued to be company spokesman and Chairman of the Board.

In 1990 Jimmy moved from New York to Virginia, where he resides on his farm just outside of Richmond. In 1991 Jimmy married former Mercury-Polygram recording artist and songwriter Donna Meade. In 1997 Jimmy was inducted into Virginia’s Country Music Hall of Fame.

Though he has been retired from his sausage business for several years, Jimmy continues to stay involved with investments and songwriting. Along with his wife Donna he has written a song that is slated to become Virginia’s next state anthem, and in 2004 they collaborated on his autobiography, Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham.

Thom Schuyler

Don Schlitz was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. He briefly attended Duke University before moving to Nashville in 1973.

Don stepped out into songwriting on the right foot. His first recorded song, “The Gambler,” won a Grammy, the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year and the Academy of Country Music’s Song of the Year.

Don’s songs have played major roles in the careers of Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, The Judds, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tanya Tucker, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Alison Krauss, and many other singers. His fifty top ten songs have included twenty-four number one hits. His songs can be heard beyond the radio; he wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Don was the ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year for four consecutive years from 1988-91. He has won three CMA Song of the Year awards, two ACM Song of the Year awards, two Grammy’s, and many more nominations. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Schlitz lives, writes, and performs in Nashville.

Thom Schuyler

Thom Schuyler has worn many hats during his Nashville career. The Pennsylvania native has been an A&R executive at RCA, an industry leader on boards of both NARAS and CMA, a solo recording artist for Capitol Records and a member of the MTM Records trios S-K-O (Schuyler, Knobloch & Overstreet) and SKB (Schuyler, Knobloch & Bickhardt).

Thom's "Love Will Turn You Around" (Rogers, Stevens, Malloy) was ASCAP Country Song of the Year in 1982, American Music Awards Song of the Year in 1983 and garnered a BMI 2 Million-Airplay Award. Famed producer Billy Sherrill produced a recording of “ 16 th Avenue” with Lacy J. Dalton, a tune honored as one of the 5 finalists for Song of the Year by the CMA in 1983.

Other chart-toppers include: "I Fell In Love Again Last Night" by The Forester Sisters, "Years After You" by John Conlee, "Long Line Of Love" by Michael Martin Murphey, "Love Out Loud" by Earl Thomas Conley, "Are the Roses Not Blooming?" by The Judds and "Child Support" by Barbara Mandrell. His song "Point of Light" was the theme song of President George H.W. Bush's volunteerism campaign.