CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The newest members of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame will be officially inducted during a Saturday ceremony at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.
The 2013 inductees are Melvin and Ray Goins, Peter Marshall, Wayne Moss, Tim O’Brien, Ada “Bricktop” Smith, Eleanor Steber and The Swan Silvertones.
“Even those these folks have international acclaim from all kinds of more prestigious organizations than us, it’s something very, very special to be honored by your home state,” said Michael Lipton, West Virginia Music Hall of Fame director.
The living inductees, Melvin Goins, O’Brien, Marshall and Moss, will attend the ceremony and also perform. Those also scheduled to take the stage to perform include Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., Mollie O’Brien, Curtis and Friendly Womack of the Valentinos, Elisabeth Bare and Shayla Leftridge.
Murphy will receive the 2013 Spirit Award.
Additional presenters include Kathy Mattea, Charlie McCoy, Butch Miles and Nick Clooney.
“It literally goes across the board,” said Lipton of the musical styles that will be represented by people who all have ties to the Mountain State.
This weekend’s event is the fifth induction ceremony for the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame which welcomed its first members in 2007.
It will be broadcast live on West Virginia Public Broadcasting stations starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and will be co-hosted by Mollie O’Brien and John Kruk, a Charleston native who is a former major league baseball player and current ESPN commentator.
“It creates a different level of excitement, both in the theater and if you’re watching it on television,” said Lipton of the live format.
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame provided the following biographies of this year’s inductees:
LIVING
* Melvin Goins (Born 1933) and Ray Goins (1936-2007). Goodwill, Mercer County Born on Sinai Mountain, near the coal mining community of Goodwill, Mercer County, Melvin and Ray Goins hold a significant place in the history of bluegrass music. Both together and separately, the brothers played in The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, The Stanley Brothers, and The Shenandoah Playboys as well as The Goins Brothers Band. From the early ’50s, both have been involved in radio and TV, first on Bluefield radio station WHIS and later on stations in Prestonsburg, Hazard and Paintsville, KY. In 1994, when Ray stopped touring due to health problems, Melvin changed the band’s name to Melvin Goins and Windy Mountain. Melvin was the first bluegrass musician to be featured on the cover of Smithsonian magazine and was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame as a member of the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in 2009 and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
* Peter Marshall – Born 1926. Wheeling, Ohio County While Wheeling native Peter Marshall (born Pierre LaCock) is best-known for hosting more than 5,000 episodes of the five-time Emmy Award-winning game show, “Hollywood Squares,” he is also a gifted actor, singer and entertainer. After moving to New York in his teens, he formed a comedy team with Tommy Noonan and appeared in major night clubs, films, and theaters as well as appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” In London, Marshall starred with Chita Rivera in “Bye-Bye-Birdie,” while his first starring role on Broadway was in “Skyscraper” with Julie Harris. In later years, he appeared in musicals including “High Button Shoes,” “Anything Goes,” “Music Man,” “42nd Street,” and Neil Simon’s “Rumors.” In the 1980s, Marshall performed his role as George in “La Cage Aux Folles” in more than 800 performances. Marshall also acted in films including “Ensign Pulver,” “Swinging Along,” and “The Cavern,” and as the radio crooner in “Annie.” In the mid-60s, an audition to host the game show “Hollywood Squares” led to a 16-year run with the show. Marshall also appeared on television shows including “Love Boat,” “Lou Grant,” “WKRP In Cincinnati,” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” He also hosted the 12-show “Big Bands From Disneyland” series for the Disney Channel, and produced and toured in a number of big band shows. Marshall continues performing concerts and is heard nationally on “The “Music of Your Life” radio network. In 2000, he issued the CD “Boy Singer” which featured new arrangements of standards and a 36-piece orchestra.
* Wayne Moss – Born 1938, South Charleston, Kanawha County An accomplished bassist, guitarist and songwriter, Wayne Moss is a true legend among Nashville studio musicians. His credits include sessions for hundreds of country and rock artists as well as stints in storied Nashville groups, Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. Along with fellow West Virginians Charlie McCoy and Russ Hicks, Moss was a member of the house band for the TV show “Hee Haw” band for 15 years and played on seminal Bob Dylan records including “Blonde on Blonde.” He also played on sessions for Tammy Wynette, Simon & Garfunkle, Nancy Sinatra, Charlie Daniels, Joan Baez and Michael Nesmith. Moss played the signature guitar line on Roy Orbison’s No. 1 hit “Oh, Pretty Woman,” the often-imitated guitar solo on Waylon Jennings’s “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” and on Tommy Roe’s No. 1 million seller “Sheila.” As a songwriter, his songs have been recorded by artists including The Oak Ridge Boys, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, George Benson, and Willie Nelson. In 1960, Moss opened Cinderella Sound Recording Studio, currently the oldest continually operating studio in Nashville. Cinderella clients have included Linda Ronstadt, Charlie Daniels, The Steve Miller Band, Ricky Skaggs, Grand Funk, KISS, The Whites, and Little Jimmy Dickens. In the early ’60s, Faron Young hosted a syndicated radio show from Cinderella, which featured many Grand Ole Opry performers stopping by to sing their latest hits.* Claude Jeter & the Swan Silvertones – Formed 1938, in Bluefield, Mercer County.
* Tim O’Brien – Born 1954. Wheeling, Ohio County Grammy-winning bluegrass/country/folk artist Tim O’Brien is an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. The Wheeling native came to prominence with the Colorado-based bluegrass band Hot Rize, and its tongue-in-cheek country-Western alter ego, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers. Since Hot Rize disbanded in 1992, O’Brien has recorded solo, with his group the O’Boys, with his sister Mollie, and guitarist Darrel Scott, as well as guesting on scores of recordings by other artists. When his 2005 release, “Fiddler’s Green,” earned him a Grammy for “Best Traditional Folk Recording,” he became one of the most sought-after session players on the folk-country-progressive-bluegrass circuit and has appeared on dozens of releases. In addition to production and session work, O’Brien maintains a rigorous touring and recording schedule. In 2010, he toured with Mark Knopfler and has recorded with comedian Steve Martin. A board member of the WV Music Hall of Fame, he has played a key role in a number of projects and the HoF’s four previous induction ceremonies.
DECEASED
* Ada “Bricktop” Smith – 1894-1984. Alderson, Monroe County Born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith in Alderson, Bricktop was a dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper who owned the Paris nightclub Chez Bricktop. She has been described as “one of the most legendary and enduring figures of 20th Century American cultural history.” After working as a chorus girl in Chicago and Harlem, Bricktop moved to Paris around 1924 to escape the racial tension in the U.S. Soon, Cole Porter hired her to entertain at his parties. His song, “Miss Otis Regrets,” was written especially for her to perform, and Hot Jazz innovators Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli wrote a song titled “Bricktop.” Bricktop’s drew many celebrities including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck. Her proteges included Mabel Mercer and Josephine Baker, and she employed Langston Hughes as a busboy. Leaving Paris during WWII, she then opened nightclubs in Mexico City and Rome. In 1961, at age 67, she retired to the U.S. Bricktop made a cameo appearance in the 1974 film “Honeybaby, Honeybaby” and the 1983 Woody Allen film “Zelig.” She continued to perform as a Cabaret entertainer well into her 80s. In 1972, Bricktop made her only recording, “So Long Baby,” with Cy Coleman.
* Eleanor Steber – (1914-1990). Wheeling, Ohio County Wheeling native Eleanor Steber is considered one of the most important U.S. sopranos of the 20th Century. With a rich voice noted for its versatility, the day she sang Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” for a Met matinee is still legendary. But she is most famous for her creation of the title role in Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” and for commissioning his “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.” After studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, Steber’s operatic debut was in a 1936 WPA production of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” when she was 21. In 1940, she won the “Metropolitan Auditions of the Air” and made her Met debut later that year as Sophie in Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier.” In addition to opera and recitals, she was a frequent guest on “The Voice of Firestone” television broadcasts. In the ’60s, Steber focused more on recitals and concerts. She and her husband started a record label and she made some Broadway appearances. Steber also gave one of the infamous bathhouse concerts in New York in 1973. She died in Pennsylvania in 1990.
* The Swan Silvertones – Formed in 1938, McDowell County The Swan Silvertones were one of the greatest gospel quartets of the ’50s and ’60s. The group, originally called The Four Harmony Kings, and then the Silvertone Singers, was founded in 1938 by Claude Jeter, an Alabama native who moved to McDowell county to work in the mines. One of the original members was Solomon Womack whose nephew, Bobby Womack, became a star in soul and rock. Moving to Knoxville, TN, the group was hired by a local radio program that was sponsored by the local Swan Bakery and renamed the Swan Silvertones. The Swans were one of the first gospel groups to add instruments to its a capella sound. Jeter received many offers to perform R&B and rock ‘n’ roll but chose to honor a commitment he had made to his mother that he would always sing for the Lord. With an angelic falsetto, elements of Jeter’s style were picked up by later singers including Sam Cooke and Al Green. A line from the group’s 1961 song “Mary Don’t You Weep”—“ I’ll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name”—inspired Paul Simon to write his 1970 hit, “Bridge over Troubled Water.” Simon hired Jeter to sing on his 1973 LP, “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon,” and gave Jeter $1,000 for inspiring “Bridge over Troubled Water.” In 1991, Jeter released his only solo recording “Yesterday and Today.” He died in 2009 at home for the elderly in the Bronx.
More information on the event and the inductees is available at www.wvmusichalloffame.com/.