COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME ® AND MUSEUM TO HONOR
‘LITTLE MISS DYNAMITE’ BRENDA LEE WITH BIOGRAPHICAL
EXHIBIT
Brenda Lee: Dynamite, Presented by Great American Country
Television Network, to Open in August 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 8, 2009 – Before LeAnn Rimes
yodeled “Blue” and then crossed over to rule the pop charts with
“How Do I Live,” before Taylor Swift name-checked “Tim McGraw” on
her way to country and pop superstardom, there was the original
teen queen, a preternaturally gifted young singer who stormed onto
the music scene with a powerful voice that would dominate rock &
roll and country music charts for nearly three decades: Brenda Lee.
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will pay tribute to
Lee with the cameo exhibition Brenda Lee: Dynamite, Presented by
Great American Country Television Network, which opens in the
Museum’s East Gallery on August 7, 2009, and will run through
June 2010.
“Brenda Lee is one of the most versatile singers ever to record
in Nashville, and the only female artist to be enshrined in both the
Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,”
said Museum Director Kyle Young. “She possesses a powerful
voice that belies her four-feet-nine-inches-tall frame, and her innate
interpretive skills have allowed her to tackle many disparate
musical genres with equal authority. She has sold millions of
records worldwide and charted in multiple categories, including
country, pop, R&B and easy listening. In doing so, Brenda Lee has
transcended musical boundaries to earn the awards and respect of
fans and peers worldwide.”
Born Brenda Mae Tarpley on December 11, 1944, the Atlanta native
sang from the time she could talk and won her first talent show at
the age of four. Within days, the gifted prodigy was singing on local
radio stations. In 1951, the youngster made her television debut,
performing Hank Williams’ “Hey, Good Looking” on Atlanta’s TV
Ranch program. On weekends, she supplemented her family’s
income by performing for tips at concerts with the show’s house
band, John Farmer & the TV Ranch Boys.
Following the untimely death of her father in a construction accident
in 1953, Brenda landed a much-needed paying gig on the Augusta,
Georgia, TV show Peach Blossom Special and, at the suggestion of
the station’s program director, shortened her name to Brenda Lee.
Brenda’s big break came in February 1956, when she auditioned
for Red Foley and was invited to join the cast of ABC’s Ozark Jubilee
program. Three months later, Brenda was signed to Decca
Records, an association that would last nearly 30 years. Her
inaugural recording session took place that July, under the
supervision of Owen Bradley, and included a rousing version of
“Jambalaya (on the Bayou).” Brenda Lee and Bradley forged a
creative partnership that would endure for two decades and result in
her biggest hits.
Although she was 11 at the time, Brenda’s first two singles were
released under the name “Little Brenda Lee (9 Years Old).” Neither
record charted, but through appearances on network television—
The Perry Como Show and The Steve Allen Show—she became
known nationally. Her year ended with a three-week engagement at
Las Vegas’ Flamingo Hotel, where she became the youngest
headliner ever in that entertainment oasis.
In March 1957, Brenda Lee’s third single, “One Step at a Time,”
cracked the country and pop charts. Red Foley’s manager, Dub
Allbritten, took control of Brenda’s career, tirelessly promoting the
young star. Allbritten also became a father figure to her, and guided
her career for the next fifteen years. As Brenda’s popularity grew,
Allbritten booked her on package tours with country stars such as
Kitty Wells, Faron Young and Patsy Cline; she also made
appearances on the Grand Ole Opry in 1957 and 1958.
Despite her country music success, Brenda identified more with her
generation’s rock & roll music, and her energetic rockabilly
recordings—such as the nickname-inspiring “Dynamite”—were
ready-made for that market. In 1960, she scored her first pop Top
Ten hit with “Sweet Nothin’s” and followed it up with her #1 smash “I’
m Sorry.” Producer Owen Bradley, a prime architect of the
sophisticated Nashville Sound, pushed the sound a step further by
adding lush, orchestrated strings to “I’m Sorry.” In doing so, he
simultaneously ensured Brenda’s success in the pop world while
signaling that Nashville was more than a place to record country
hits.
Brenda’s follow-up single, I Want to Be Wanted,” also went to #1.
She capped off 1960 with the re-release of her now classic
Christmas standard “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which
the singer had originally recorded in 1958. These hits ushered in a
triumphant decade in which Lee would land more songs on the
Billboard charts than any other female artist.
The 1960s were also a decade of personal satisfaction for Lee.
While attending a Jackie Wilson concert in Nashville in 1962, Lee
spotted high school senior Ronnie Shacklett in the crowd. Six
months later, they were married. Their 46-year union includes two
daughters, Julie and Jolie, and a business partnership: Shacklett
became Lee’s manager in 1979.
Though Lee grew up in the South, her musical influences as a
vocalist were diverse and included Judy Garland, Edith Piaf and
Frank Sinatra. Her explosive voice and broad musical oeuvre made
her incredibly popular overseas, and throughout the 1960s Lee
performed regularly in Europe, South America and Japan, at one
point touring Germany with the nascent Beatles as her opening act.
As her pop hits began to dwindle in the late 1960s, Lee felt out of
place in the contemporary music scene. After brief recording forays
in New York and Memphis (at Owen Bradley’s urging) failed to yield
any hits, Lee returned to Bradley and in 1973 recorded Kris
Kristofferson’s “Nobody Wins” at Bradley’s studio. While there was
no intentional effort to transform her into a country artist, the record
rose to #5 on the country charts. Feeling at home with the music of
her roots, Lee scored eight more Top Ten country hits, including
“Big Four Poster Bed” (1974) and “Broken Trust” (1980).
In 1982, Lee collaborated with Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Dolly
Parton on the Top Five Billboard country album The Winning Hand.
Three years later, Lee’s duet with George Jones, “Hallelujah, I Love
You So,” yielded another chart hit. At decade’s end, Lee reunited
with Bradley to record the Grammy-nominated “Honky Tonk Angels
Medley” with k.d. lang, Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells for lang’s album
Shadowland.
In 1997, Lee was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In
2002, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and
that same year bowed her autobiography, Little Miss Dynamite: The
Life and Times of Brenda Lee, co-written with Robert K. Oermann
and Lee’s daughter Julie Clay. In February 2009, Lee received the
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her creative contributions
to the field of recording. Although she has scaled back her personal
appearances and recordings in recent years to spend more time
with her family, she continues to write and perform.
Brenda Lee: Dynamite will be accompanied by an ongoing
series of programs throughout the exhibit’s duration.
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the
Country Music Hall of Fame® and 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’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and
related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same
educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records,
the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA
Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and
Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com or by
calling (615) 416-2001.
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COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME® AND MUSEUM TO EXTEND
MAJOR EXHIBITION FAMILY TRADITION: THE WILLIAMS FAMILY
LEGACY, CO-PRESENTED BY SUNTRUST AND FORD MOTOR
COMPANY THROUGH DECEMBER 2011
Museum Also Prepares to Unveil a New Visitor Experience in
May 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn., December 3, 2009 – The Country Music
Hall of Fame® and Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition Family
Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Co-Presented by SunTrust
and Ford Motor Company, which was originally scheduled to close
on December 31, 2009, has been extended through December 31,
2011.
The Museum’s core exhibition, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey
Through Country Music, is also undergoing additions and revisions
that will bring the story of country music forward in time and
conclude with a glimpse of the future. These changes will be
completed in May 2010.
Family Tradition
According to Director Kyle Young, Family Tradition has been
the most popular and critically acclaimed exhibit in the Museum’s
history. “This is due not only to the family’s iconic stature and its
influence on generations of artists,” he said, “but also because of
the participation of the members of the Williams family, each of
whom has generously loaned us heirlooms and artifacts, and
helped to tell the truest and most complete story about their family
to date.
“Because each member of the family agreed to oral history
video interviews,” Young said, “this is a powerful family saga that
weds stark text and intimate family keepsakes to the voices, faces
and memories of the family. The result is a dense, powerful and
heretofore untold family saga that we know is mesmerizing our
visitors. We are grateful for the Williams family generosity that
allows us to hold it over.
“Furthermore, Hank Williams Jr. graciously taped paid
promotional spots for the exhibit, a first for this Museum,” Young
added. “These commercials will begin airing in January 2010.”
The Museum will expand the exploration of the Williams
family’s legacy with the addition of new artifacts on loan from the
family and other sources. Installation will be complete in March
2010. Educational programming will continue to parse exhibit
themes related to matters of family, region, and artistic and cultural
influence. These programs will include interviews with and
performances by additional family members and by friends,
associates and creative legatees.
Sing Me Back Home
From Waylon Jennings to Taylor Swift, Sing Me Back Home’s
story of country music will be expanded, brought-up-to-date, and
reinvigorated with new exhibits, new themes, new content, a new
look, and a bonanza of compelling video and audio chosen to
deepen visitor understanding of country music history, its
connection to other genres and its enduring cultural importance and
meaning in the present.
Young said that planning and collecting for the updates and
revisions began more than a year ago with a very specific wish list
of iconic and emotive artifacts that the institution will need to power
the narrative.
Although revisions to Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through
Country Music, the Museum’s core exhibition, are planned
throughout the two block-long gallery spaces, the main focus and
new narrative will begin around 1965 and move through five
decades including country’s collision with mainstream American
culture from roughly 1965 to 1971; the new directions of the l970s
including country-rock, pop-country, the rise of southern rock and
the renaissance of full-strength classic country; and the 1980s
contrast between the fashionable “Urban Cowboy” craze and the
more lasting values of a new generation of major stars like George
Strait, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs and the Judds.
The chronological narrative will be punctuated in the second
floor gallery’s theater, where the broader topic of songs inspired by
topical events and social and political issues will be explored using
video clips such as Merle Haggard’s “The Fightin’ Side of Me,”
Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill,” the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl” and Toby
Keith’s “The Angry American.”
On the other side of the theater, the story will resume with the
mid-1980s arrival of young artists like Dwight Yoakam, Rosanne
Cash, Randy Travis and Steve Earle, and the boom years of the
1990s, when the likes of Garth Brooks, Shania Twain and Alan
Jackson ruled the charts and dominated the airwaves.
The story will enter the new millennium with new exhibit cases
and video screens that reflect the face of country music in the years
since the Museum’s expanded and modernized facility opened in
downtown Nashville’s Sobro District in 200l. One case will focus on
the contributions of hit-makers like Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and
Keith Urban. Another new case will celebrate contemporary
bluegrass and Americana artists, ranging from Alison Krauss and
Del McCoury to Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale.
The last of the new cases will be reserved for artifacts and
videos that reflect contemporary country’s latest trends, events and
artists. “This gives us the opportunity to collect and preserve country
music history as it is being made,” Young said. “It will also function
to remind some of our younger visitors that their favorite
contemporary artists are linked to the sumptuous and vivid history of
country music. This revamping of existing exhibit cases and the
addition of new exhibits, media, text, graphics and accompanying
programs will mean an entirely new experience for our visitors.”
Museum Programs
A schedule of Museum programs is available at www.
countrymusichalloffame.org. These programs are made possible,
in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission
and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission
and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional promotional support will continue to be provided by
the Museum’s official Family Tradition media partners: Great
American Country Television Network and Cumulus Broadcasting.
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the
Country Music Hall of Fame® and 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’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and
related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same
educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records,
the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA
Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and
Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.org or by
calling (615) 416-2001.
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