GAUTIER, Miss. (WLOX) - This week, the Mississippi Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct its newest members. In years to come, those Hall of Famers will be permanently celebrated at the planned Mississippi Songwriters Performing Arts Center.
Jimmy Buffett, B.B. King and Muddy Waters have all been inducted into the Mississippi Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“It’s kind of hard for us to fathom that there wasn’t a Mississippi Songwriters Hall of Fame,” MS Songwriters Alliance Vice President Darwin Nelson said. “We said what better organization to start this than us, and we did.”
Six years after the first class was inducted, the home of the Hall of Fame is now under construction in Gautier.
“We have to do something with these inductees, and we have to honor them,” Nelson said. “We have to have a place to house their belongings, their memorabilia and stories.”
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The Hall of Fame is part of the much larger vision for the Mississippi Songwriters Performing Arts Center. With an estimated cost of more than $6 million, the center, projected to open by the end of 2026, will include a state-of-the-art recording studio.
“We’ll be able to work out of there with different artists locally,” Mississippi Songwriters Alliance President George Cumbest said. “They’ll be able to get a quality recording here that they would normally have to drive to Nashville with. They will be able to record right here in their home state and get the same quality.”
Mississippi Songwriters Alliance President George Cumbest is working with some of the best in the music recording industry to design the studio. His plan is to use it for a wide range of entertainment recordings.
“That would allow us to work with television and different media like Amazon or Netflix to mix movies down with the new technology,” Cumbest said.
What’s ahead for the performing arts center and what’s become of the Hall of Fame were all born out of the Mississippi Songwriters’ Festival.
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“What we do during the festival shines a light on songwriters, which in turn shines a light on the hall of fame,” Nelson said. “This year is going to be our biggest festival ever; we have over 150 songwriters in 14 different venues from Ocean Springs to Gautier.”
Some of those performers might just get a big boost for their careers when the performing arts center opens.
“I want to see some big producers come work out of here and develop some Mississippi artists and get us another one to be in the Hall of Fame one day,” Cumbest said.
The Songwriters Festival starts Thursday, September 18, with the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Mary C. in Ocean Springs.
This year’s induction class includes legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker, Danny Myrick, who’s written songs for Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean, and Scott Stradtner is being honored posthumously for his contributions to the Songwriters Alliance.
For a full list of festival events, click here.
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