National Music Centre honours Alberta stars of country
National Music centre honours 2018 country hall of fame inductees
The National Music Centre launches Thursday a temporary exhibition honouring the 2018 Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductees, country singer Terri Clark and broadcaster Jackie Rae Greening.
Showcase 2018: Inductees includes items from Clark and Greening celebrating their careers.
“As a born and raised Albertan myself, I think it’s a testament that Alberta has contributed in a significant way to the artistry and development of country music in Canada and beyond,” said NMC director of collections Jesse Moffatt. Clark grew up in Medicine Hat and Greening has worked at CFCW in Camrose since 1989.
Last year, Clark visited the NMC to do an oral history for the museum. “When walking Terri through the exhibition spaces last year, she said, ‘You know, maybe one day I’ll be in the Hall of Fame,” Moffatt said. “It didn’t take her long.”
“It feels awesome,” Clark said. “What an honour to have that bestowed on me at a midway point in my career. I feel like I still have a lot to do.” Items in the exhibition include a custom-made Gibson guitar emblazoned with a maple leaf and a framed handwritten letter to Clark written by Garth Brooks. “Long before I got my record deal,” Clark said, Brooks had heard her demo tape in 1989 or 1990. It was produced by a friend of Brooks, Bryan Kennedy. “He took this demo tape to Garth to get Garth’s opinion and Garth didn’t really like it,” said Clark.
Then in 1995, Brooks’ She’s Every Woman held off Clark’s first hit single Better Things To Do from the top of the country charts. “I sent him a bottle of champagne for him and his wife at the time to say congratulations on your No. 1 record and to be a good sport,” said Clark. “He sent me that letter (included in the exhibition) back. I had totally forgotten about Bryan playing him that demo tape five or six years earlier. It was really cool that he remembered that and he had been paying attention to what had been going on when I broke as an artist and he liked what he heard. He liked the record a lot and I think he felt I had come a long way since he heard the demo tape.”
Greening is the third woman to be inducted as a builder in the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, joining Sheila Hamilton and Elizabeth (Ma) Henning. “It means that I’m old,” joked Greening. “No, you know what, it means everything to me. I got into radio because I loved country music.”
She included her 2005 CCMA for “On Air Personality of the Year” in the exhibition. “It was the same year that my co-host Wes Montgomery passed away suddenly,” said Greening.