Jimmy Buffett and Fairfield Four among the quartets were inducted at the Music City Walk of Fame ceremony

Jimmy Buffett, Bill Cody, The Fairfield Four and Colin Reed were inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame on October 30, 2024.

Nashville’s 2024 Music City Walk of Fame ceremony highlighted every corner and era of the city’s multitude of harmonious legacies.

All facets were honored by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jimmy Buffett, WSM 650 broadcaster and Grand Ole Opry announcer Bill Cody, Grammy Award-winning gospel quartet The Fairfield Four and Colin Reed, executive chairman of Ryman Hospitality Partners Over the past century, Nashville has inspired local, national and global artists to celebrate the inspiration of the music around them.

“Stars that never fade…”

Typically, Walk of Fame ceremonies in Music City are hosted by Cody. However, since the 30-year industry veteran from Nashville was inducted, his on-air partner – on WSM Radio and at the Grand Ole Opry – Kelly Sutton took over those duties.

She opened the festivities with a welcome and then turned the stage over to Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who noted that the Music City Walk of Fame is “Nashville’s most exclusive club,” a “sacred space full of stars that never fade.” “.

Since 2006, over 100 permanent sidewalk medallions with the names of inductees in star shapes have been inlaid in the park across from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Country Music Museum. The official project of Music City Inc., the charitable foundation of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, honors “those across all genres of music who have contributed to the world through song or other industry collaborations, thereby making a significant contribution to the music industry.” Connection to Music City.”

Fairfield Four and Buffett were celebrated for their “supernatural magic.”

A hundred years ago, a singing quartet first formed as an a cappella gospel act at Fairfield Baptist Church in North Nashville. Over the decades, their popularity grew significantly. At the turn of 2000, the quartet rose to global prominence as foundational pieces for where the spirit of gospel existed in pop-friendly Americana through the soundtrack of the Coen Brothers-directed “O Brother Where Art Thou?”

In introducing the quartet, another Nashville-based and gospel-influenced Grammy winner, BMI’s Executive Director of Creative, Nashville, Shannon Sanders, explained that the quartet has “supernaturally anointed voices” and is “as much a part of Nashville as the soil.” underneath”. us.”

The late Jimmy Buffett’s legacy, posthumously inherited by country songwriter and guitarist from Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, Mac McAnally, brought similar joy to the crowd in attendance.

As an appropriately dressed fan in a parrot costume watching among hundreds, McAnally discussed how the Mississippi native Buffett developed a timelessly iconoclastic and inspiring sense of self-expression in songs like “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and “Margaritaville,” blending Nashville’s outlaw -Sensibility with a pop flair that inspired generations of artists from Paul McCartney to Kenny Chesney, among others.

When Buffett’s daughter Delaney accepted her father’s honor, she gave a tearful speech highlighting that he was “a pirate and poet who never took himself too seriously” whose music catalog “taught people the tricks to be happy.” to be”.

Finally, she quoted Buffett’s 1973 song “He Went to Paris” as an epilogue to her father’s storied life as a singer, songwriter and entrepreneur:

“Sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s tragic, but I had a good life along the way.”

Cody and Reed highlight entertainment and business sustainability in Nashville’s development

In highlighting Bill Cody and Colin Reed, it is important to note that the Ryman-owned Opry will be 100 years old in 2025.

The duo’s introductions are a model for what the Opry seeks to present as the best of what Nashville was and will remain, a defining American cultural trailblazer.

Cody’s entire life has been defined by the synergy of country, pop and rock at the forefront of global cool.

A self-described “radio-fascinated hillbilly preacher from Kentucky,” he was educated on the significance of the history of Opry station WSM. In 1993, he was a seasoned radio veteran who was lured to Nashville because he had the potential to be behind the microphone at 6:50 a.m. at his dream job.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame, whose years as host of “Coffee, Country & Cody” and as an announcer/host at the Opry earned him multiple CMA, ACM and Billboard Award nominations. Introducing his host Larry Gatlin, his co-host Sutton noted how Cody’s keen appreciation for the country’s many histories and legacies informs his broadcasting skills.

As for Reed, his quarter-century-long body of work was highlighted, primarily aimed at stimulating Nashville’s national and global resurgence in popularity.

His laser-focused focus on improving Nashville’s hospitality and entertainment offerings led him to lead a varied creative life in the Music City, helping to develop the television series “Nashville” and leading Gaylord Entertainment Group into the continued development of Ryman Hospitality Group introduced.

Ryman Hospitality Group now generates annual revenue of more than $2 billion with entertainment, hotel and restaurant interests across the country. Additionally, in 2022, he led a significant strategic investment by Atairos and NBCUniversal to strengthen the Opry Entertainment Group’s growth and expand its global reach.

He described himself as a Nashville transplant with no intention of ever leaving the city, calling the intersection of collaboration and music “Nashville’s competitive advantage.”

For more information about the Music City Walk of Fame, visit http://www.visitmusiccity.com/walkoffame.