WWVA and The Wheeling Jamboree to receive the WV Music Hall of Fame’s Spirit Award at the Feb. 10 Induction Ceremony
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The WWVA and The Wheeling Jamboree will be the recipients of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame’s 2018 Spirit Award. The award is presented to people, programs and venues that have had impacted the state’s music and culture.
Grand Ole Opry star Carol Lee Cooper will present the award to Jamboree mainstays Darnell Miller and Roger Hoard.
The ceremony welcomes the seventh class of inductees and will be broadcast live across the state on WV PBS.
The 2018 inductees are: Hasil Adkins, Frank Hutchison, Ann Magnuson, The Morris Brothers, Fred “Sonic” Smith, and Michael W. Smith.
The event will be held at the Culture Center Theater located in the State Capitol Complex. VIP tickets include a meet ‘n’ greet with inductees and presenters, admittance to the Governor’s Reception and after-show party.
The living inductees - Ann Magnuson, John Morris of the Morris Brothers, and Michael W. Smith - will be present to accept their awards and perform. In addition, there will be performances by Tim O’Brien; Patti, Jesse Paris Smith, and Jackson Smith; Southern Culture on the Skids; Mollie O’Brien, John Ellison, and Alan Griffith.
Cooper, the daughter of Jamboree and Grand Ole Opry stars Wilme Lee and Stoney Cooper - and WVMHoF inductees - grew up on the Wheeling Jamboree stage and led the Opry’s Carol Lee Singers for nearly four decades. Darnell Miller joined the show in 1967 and is now the longest-running member of The Wheeling Jamboree. Guitarist Roger Hoard played on the show for 25 years.
The Wheeling Jamboree is the second-longest running live country music show in the world – second only to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. The Jamboree began in 1926 in the studios of radio station WWVA, and was first presented to a live audience at Wheeling’s Capitol Theater in January 1933. Originally called The Midnight Jamboree due to its initial late-night time slot, the show has been known by several names, including The Wheeling Jamboree, The World’s Original Jamboree, the WWVA Jamboree, and, most recently, Jamboree USA.
The Jamboree played a significant role in the development of country music as an art form, important in reaching rural audiences north and east of Wheeling, extending into the Canadian Maritime Provinces. While there were a number of similar shows in other parts of the country, including the Chicago Barn Dance and the Louisiana Hayride, The Wheeling Jamboree far outlasted the others.
Today, the Jamboree continues to present top country music talent to live Wheeling audiences on Saturday nights and to listeners over the airwaves of radio station WWOV, maintaining a long and proud entertainment and broadcasting tradition.
The show will be hosted by Tony Award-winning actor and Huntington native Michael Cerveris and Wheeling native Mollie O’Brien.
Presenters and acceptors include former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise (The Morris Brothers); Tim O’Brien (Frank Hutchison), Kate Pierson (Ann Magnuson) and Patti, Jesse and Jackson Smith (Fred “Sonic” Smith). The house band will be led by 2008 WVMHoF inductee Charlie McCoy.
Advance general admission tickets are $75 ($95 at the door.) “Preferred Tickets” are $250 each and include admittance to the Friday night Meet and Greet, the Governor’s Reception before the event, and the after-show party.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Showtime is 7:30. p.m.
Tickets are available at Taylor Books and through the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame website (www.wvhof.com) and the WVHoF office (304/342-4412).
Bios, photos, and music samples are available on the WV Music Hall of Fame website (www.wvmhof.com).
For more information:
- Call: 304/342-4412
- Email: wvmhof@gmail.com
- Visit: www.wvmhof.com