The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience To Induct Fifth Hall Of Fame Class
Bobbie Gentry, Mac McAnally and Marty Gamblin
The fifth class of Hall of Fame inductees into the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX), will be honored at the induction ceremony on Jan. 23 at the MSU Riley Center in downtown Meridian.
This year’s inductees include lauded singer-songwriter-musician Mac McAnally, folklorist William “Bill” Ferris, historian and novelist Shelby Foote, poet Natasha Trethewey and singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry. The free, open-to-the-public awards ceremony will include tributes to the five artists, with musical performances by McAnally, Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band and Tricia Walker.
Longtime Hall of Fame Consultant Marty Gamblin, who passed away in October, coordinated the MAX Hall Of Fame induction selection process. Gamblin, the founding director of The MAX and an influential figure in the music industry, will receive a star on The MAX Walk of Fame along with Ferris, Foote, Gentry and Trethewey. McAnally received a star in 2012.
McAnally is widely known as a guitarist in Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band and has released more than a dozen albums of his own. He has penned hits recorded by Kenny Chesney (“Back Where I Come From”), Alabama (“Old Flame”) and many more. McAnally grew up in Belmont, Mississippi, where he sang and played piano in church. In addition to a host of other honors, the Country Music Association has named him Musician of the Year a record 10 times.
Singer-songwriter Gentry grabbed international attention in 1967 with her haunting hit “Ode to Billie Joe,” which propelled her to stardom and established her as one of the first female artists to compose and produce her own material. Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter in the Woodland area, in Chickasaw County. She regularly appeared in television specials, had her own show in Las Vegas, and released seven albums, garnering multiple Grammy and Academy of Country Music awards before retiring in 1982.
Vicksburg native Ferris is an author, photographer, and college professor whose books, documentaries, and recordings explore the blues, African American folklore and the lives of Southern writers. Ferris co-edited the Pulitzer Prize- nominated Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and received two Grammys for his documentary recordings and accompanying book, Voices of Mississippi. He founded multiple academic centers, including the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and was chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The novelist and self-taught historian Foote (1916-2005) was a native of Greenville who spent decades researching and writing the acclaimed three-book series The Civil War: A Narrative. He furnished expert commentary for Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War, and his other books include Shiloh, a re-creation of the epic Civil War battle, and a series of novels set in a fictional Mississippi Delta town.
Trethewey, a former poet laureate, has used her poetry to explore issues of race and Deep South culture. A longtime creative writing professor, Trethewey won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2007 for Native Guard, which explores the story of a Black Union Army unit of former slaves, on Ship Island off the Mississippi coast. Years earlier, her poetry collection Domestic Work received the Cave Canem Prize, honoring the first published book by a Black poet.
“From writings about Civil War history and social change to chart-topping songs and blues documentation, the works of these trailblazing individuals warrant celebration,” says MAX President and CEO Penny Kemp. “We invite Mississippians as well as visitors to the state to learn about these and other Hall of Fame members. Their stories are especially inspiring to young people, and we share them with great pride.”
The Hall of Fame is the centerpiece of The MAX, the state’s 50,000-square-foot arts and cultural center, and is devoted to celebrating Mississippi’s arts and entertainment legacy while nurturing future creatives. The new class brings the number of stars featured in the two-story Hall of Fame to 38.
