Culture
West Virginia Music Hall of Fame 2020 Class Includes Larry Groce, Mayf Nutter
By: Emily Votaw
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West Virginia has always been a wellspring of remarkable musical talent, and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is dedicated to perpetuating and safeguarding the indelible, far-reaching contributions West Virginians have made to a wide variety of musical genres.
Each year the non-profit organization honors a class of West Virginian musicians with an induction ceremony commemorating their artistic achievements. The 2020 West Virginia Music Fall of Fame Class includes Ethel Caffie-Austin, Honey and Sonny Davis, Larry Groce, The Hammons Family, and Mayf Nutter.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the induction ceremony was filmed without an audience in late September at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV. Additional musical performances and presentations were separately taped in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield, CA. These recordings have been synthesized into a two-hour special that will be broadcast statewide on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s main channel 7-9 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 14. The broadcast will also be streamed on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Facebook page and PBS Passport.
Vince Herman, founding member of legendary Boulder, CO-based hybrid bluegrass act Leftover Salmon, is one of the program’s hosts. Although he has spent the last several decades in Colorado and Oregon, Herman grew up just across the West Virginia state border in Pittsburgh, PA and attended West Virginia University in Morgantown. Herman said West Virginia has continually served him as a source of creative inspiration and that he is honored to have been “adopted as a West Virginian.”
“The well of music that comes from West Virginia is so deep, and I think the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is doing a great job of pointing to those cultural treasures West Virginia has produced. I am just as honored as can be to be involved in that,” said Herman.
Listen to WOUB Culture’s interviews with Herman, Groce, and Nutter, embedded above.
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, and since this year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place without an audience, the organization will provide viewers with a way to financially contribute to their effort during the broadcast and stream.
The induction ceremony features musical performances by Ethel Caffie-Austin, Pat Boone, Larry Groce, Trevor Hammons and Jesse Milnes, Vince Herman and Annie Neeley, Charlie McCoy, Mayf Nutter, Emily Miller, Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius, and Billy Edd Wheeler.