Kris Kristofferson is among the American Eagle Award honorees.

The National Music Council’s 32nd Annual American Eagle Awards are coming to Nashville July 11 during the NAMM Convention. This marks the first time the awards have been held in Music City.

This year’s celebration will honor Kris Kristofferson, Charley Pride, Jim Lauderdale, manager Jim Halsey, and producer/director Sherman Halsey for their long-term contribution to America’s musical culture and heritage. A special award will also be presented to the Nashville Mayor’s Office, Metro Nashville Public Schools, the CMA, and the Country Music Foundation recognizing the Music Makes Us arts education initiative. Rosanne Cash, The Oak Ridge Boys, John Oates and Jack Ingram will pay tribute musically to this year’s honorees during the awards ceremony.

Tickets to the noon awards presentation are free with a $10 NAMM day pass for July 11, and will be available on site at the Nashville Music City Center. The VIP luncheon that follows is also a ticketed event but is open to the public, and proceeds from that will benefit the Council’s Music Education and Creator’s Rights Advocacy Programs.

For 75 years the NMC has served as a forum for free discussion of music affairs and challenges and is comprised of nearly 50 national music organizations. For more information, schedules and luncheon registration information, go to www.musiccouncil.org.

Past American Eagle Award recipients include Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Clive Davis, Van Cliburn, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Lena Horne, Roy Clark, Stephen Sondheim, Sesame Street, and VH1 Save the Music Foundation. 

Kenny Chesney celebrates his 27th #1 for “Wild Child” with radio programmers in Atlanta during “The Big Revival” tour date at the Georgia Dome. (L-R): Back Row: Sony Nashville Director/Promotion R.G. Jones, guest Jennifer Willis, iHeart Media Atlanta Senior VP/Programming Brian Michel, WKCN Columbus, GA PD Dave Arwood, Cumulus Media Corporate Program Director Greg Frey, and Point-To-Point Marketing VP/Digital Tim Satterfield. Front Row: Morris-Higham Management VP/Radio & Marketing Buffy Cooper, Columbia Nashville Manager/Radio Promotion Samantha Borenstein, spouse Tanya Arwood, WDEN Macon Program Director Laura Starling, Chesney, spouse Caryn Frey, guest Amanda Ward, WUBL Atlanta MD/Midday host Angie Ward, Columbia Nashville Event and Promotions Specialist Mary Allison, and Columbia Nashville National Director/Field Promotion David Friedman.

Kenny Chesney’s love song to free-spirited females everywhere, “Wild Child,” has become his latest chart-topper, and is also a milestone for collaborator Grace Potter, who joins him on the song. The ethereal-sounding tune is Potter’s very first No. 1, making it doubly special for both she and Chesney, who says he realized the moment he penned it that the song was definitely a standout.

“I knew this was a very special song when I finished writing it with Shane [McAnally] and Josh [Osborne],” Chesney says. “It was everything I wanted to say about what makes a woman alluring… about those things that capture your imagination and make you want to be closer. It certainly wasn’t the norm of what was happening with country radio, but it felt like something I wanted people to remember, to think about. We didn’t know how it was going to do, especially right now when ballads are everything people aren’t listening to, but we believed in the song. I wanna say ‘thank you’ to country radio for thinking outside the box. Your support made this possible.”

Having Potter add vocals to the song was especially apropos considering she was basically the embodiment of the song itself, according to Chesney.

“When we wrote this, I knew we needed Grace Potter’s voice on there, because she is everything the song is about. That it gets to be her first No. 1 record somehow seems so right, because the song is her, as well as so many other women and young girls that I know. To me, a girl who is so alive, so in the moment, so curious and hungry for life…There’s nothing like her. You can’t tie ’em down. So free…and so intense because of it. Nothing is more attractive. To me, that makes women really special. Whether they want to live in the mountains, become a doctor, play music in Hawaii, surf around the world, whatever their passion is, that is what drives them – and man, it’s an amazing thing.”

The tune that name-checks Bonnaroo and Burning Man ironically hit the charts just as Bonnaroo 2015 breaks camp for another year, and is Chesney’s third straight Number One from his CD The Big Revival and his 27th career chart-topper.