Page 69 - 2017 Official CMA Program

ALAN JACKSON CONTINUED...
his best-selling A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘Bout Love), Awards; and membership in the Grand Ole Opry, the esteemed
and Who I Am sold more than 20 million albums during that Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Georgia Music Hall of
period and included some of his most memorable and important Fame
tracks, including “Midnight in Montgomery” and “Chattahoochee,”
a winner of CMA Single and Song of the Year in 1993-94, • He was given the first ASCAP Heritage Award (2014) by the
respectively performance rights organization, recognizing him as the most
performed Country Music songwriter-artist of the last 100 years
• Jackson has released more than 20 albums and collections —
including forays into gospel and bluegrass — nine of which went • Jackson has charted more than 30 No. 1 hits, sold nearly 60 million
multiplatinum with 2 million or more in sales albums, and is among the genre’s most decorated and respected
figures, with more than 150 awards
• One of Country Music’s most decorated careers with three CMA
Entertainer of the Year Awards (1995, 2002, 2003); two Grammy COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

DON SCHLITZ

SONGWRITER
• Schlitz was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association
Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012

• Born Donald Alan Schlitz Jr. on Aug. 29, 1952, and raised in
Durham, N.C. Schlitz briefly attended Duke University before
coming to Nashville at age 20
• His first recorded song was by Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler.”
The success of that enduring story-song allowed him the freedom
to spend a lifetime writing words and music that articulated the
extraordinary emotions inherent in common experience
• He has hits written across five decades and will join an exclusive
circle of songwriters in the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Schlitz and his cowriters penned “Rockin’ with the Rhythm of
the Rain,” “Forty Hour Week (for a Livin’), “Houston Solution,”
“Deeper Than the Holler,” “One Promise Too Late,” “I Feel Lucky,”
Don Schlitz is among the most influential and beloved songwriters in “Old School,” “Give Me Wings,” “Strong Enough To Bend” and
the history of Country Music. His chart-topping songs – among them dozens of others that underscore the depth and breadth of
“The Gambler,” “On the Other Hand,” “Forever and Ever, Amen,” “He modern era Country Music
Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” “The Greatest,” and “When You Say Nothing • One of the first performers at Amy Kurland’s iconic songwriter
At All” – are touchstones and inspirations that continue to influence club The Bluebird Café, Schlitz and friends Thom Schuyler, J. Fred
songwriters and singers decades after they were written
Knobloch, and Paul Overstreet originated the Café’s songwriter in
• His 50 Top 10 singles performed by iconic acts Mary Chapin the round format in 1985
Carpenter, Alison Krauss, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Kenny Rogers, • The Don Schlitz songbook even includes the 2001 Broadway
The Judds, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Keith Whitley, and many musical “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”
others include 24 No. 1 Country hits
• Kenny Rogers encapsulated the sentiments of many when
• He has won three CMA Song of the Year Awards, two Grammy inducting Schlitz into the Songwriters Hall of Fame with the
Awards, and four consecutive ASCAP Country Songwriter of the statement, “Don doesn’t just write songs, he writes careers”
Year trophies (1988-91)

THE 51st ANNUAL CMA AWARDS 67