OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) - The Mississippi Songwriters Festival is kicking off by inducting several artists into the Mississippi Songwriters Hall of Fame.
One of those artists is Danny Myrick, who got his start in Pascagoula— playing in the band at his father’s church.
“The bug kind of bit me,” Myrick said. “I appreciated the fact that I would see all these songs or hear all these songs on the radio and just made the assumption that whoever was singing them wrote them. Then, I began to realize there were other people behind those songs. So, I was like— that’s what I want to do.”
Myrick found success in Nashville, working with artists like Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, and Kenny Chesney.
Also being posthumously honored and inducted is Scott Stradtner, who played a major role in the Songwriters Festival for years.
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“For 16 years they’ve been doing events in Ocean Springs and Gautier, and he was one of the MCs at all of them,” said Andy Dalgo, Mississippi Songwriters Alliance Treasurer. “He left a big void, but it’s a good thing we’re honoring him tonight. We miss him.”
These artists are joining legendary names like Jimmy Buffett and B.B. King, but you can’t just be a decent singer to get this honor.
“We don’t have Elvis in here or Faith Hill. Great people, but they don’t write songs,” Dalgo said. “These people all wrote songs. The first person we inducted was Paul Overstreet from Vancleave... Millions and millions of sold records, but he wrote all those songs.”
“You know, our state is so culturally rich, and I’m going in with blues icon John Lee Hooker, which is crazy to me,” Myrick said. ”I don’t think it has quite stuck yet. All of us creatives have imposter syndrome. Like, wait a minute, are you sure you got the right guy? But, I’m beyond grateful and honored, and yeah, I’m excited about the weekend.”
The complete schedule of artists and venues can be found on msafestival.org.
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