After selling more than 10 million albums in the last four years, the last thing Taylor Swift needs is a raise. But Thursday night, the young country-pop hitmaker got a major promotion in her status as a singer and songwriter.

There she sat onstage at Club Nokia for the annual All for the Hall concert benefiting Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, accorded an equal place alongside such esteemed country music figures as Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill, as well as the event’s special guest, '70s and '80s pop-R&B kingpin Lionel Richie.

“These are the best role models I could have,” Swift, 20, told the crowd of about 2,000 who had paid up to $1,000 a seat to witness this year’s “guitar pull,” for which each musician took a turn introducing and playing a song. They casually related stories behind each song and occasionally enlisted a bit of instrumental or vocal support from the other participants.

Previous editions of the fundraiser have emphasized veterans such as Harris, Gill, Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam and others. The addition of Swift to this year’s show translated into a large, vocal contingent of teen and preteen girls, who erupted in a chorus of squeals when master of ceremonies Gill brought her on stage.

As the shrieking subsided, Gill quipped: “Thank you, thank you! I get that a lot.”

Hank Cochran, the celebrated country songwriter and singer who died Thursday at age 74 from pancreatic cancer, spent most of his life immersed in music, searching for the next song to write, and it sounds like that’s the way he spent his final time on Earth.

“I spent the last day of his life at his bedside along with his family and a few close friends,” singer and songwriter Jamey Johnson told me in an e-mail he sent a few hours after Cochran died at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. “Buddy [Cannon, the songwriter] joined us later in the afternoon and brought along Billy Ray Cyrus. We sang a range of old gospel songs and many of his own songs to him: ‘I Fall to Pieces,’ ‘Is it Raining at Your House,’ ‘Set 'em Up Joe’ and ‘Make the World Go Away.’

“My 6-year-old daughter even sang along with us on ‘The Chair,’ and she got a kick out of Billy Ray's ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ which even got Hank singing along for a note or two,” Johnson noted. “Although Hank was tired, he didn't want anyone to leave. He was enjoying the fellowship.”

Because Cochran had been struggling for a long time with cancer, many of his friends kept in close touch and spoke to him in person or by phone in his final days. Ray Price told me, “I talked to Hank on Monday and had a chance to say goodbye. This is not a real happy day; he will be missed, I guarantee it. … He was a great person in our business, and he contributed an awful lot.”

Anyone who knows the feeling of becoming intimately familiar with a particular musical instrument can’t help but sympathize with all those musicians who lost prized pieces of equipment during the recent floods in Nashville.

I reached out to several to ask whether they’d been affected by the wall of water that submerged Soundcheck Nashville, one of the key musical equipment storage facilities there. A lot of people think of instruments as little more than furniture that's easily replaceable, but that notion quickly fades when you hear a musician talk about a favorite piece of musical equipment. And even for those instruments that might be in good enough shape to repair, the chorus from those dealing with them was remarkably consistent: "They'll never be the same."

Brad Paisley had all his guitars and other equipment he uses on tour at Soundcheck because he and his crew were rehearsing for a tour that opens May 21 in Virginia Beach, Va. Ironically, it’s “The H20 Tour” from the track “Water” on his latest album, recorded long before the flood.

Eric Clapton is hosting his third Crossroads Guitar Festival on June 26 in Chicago, inviting many of the same stellar guests who appeared at the first two events. This year’s lineup includes B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Vince Gill, Steve Winwood, Robert Cray and ZZ Top.

The event, benefiting Clapton’s  Crossroads Centre in Antigua for people with chemical dependencies, also will include Sheryl Crow, the great Brazilian jazz guitarist João Gilberto, James Burton, Albert Lee, Keb’ Mo’,  the Allman Brothers Band, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas and  Italian musician Pino Daniele.

The first Crossroads Festival in Dallas in 2004 and its successor three years later in Chicago both were filmed and released on DVD. In addition to the main-stage performances, the festivals encompass music workshops, demonstrations and various forums for interaction among fans and participating musicians.

Tickets are $100 and go on sale Feb. 20 through Ticketmaster.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Eric Clapton at the Hollywood Bowl in 2004. Credit: Los Angeles Times

 

Days before she surely cleans up at the Country Music Assn. Awards, Taylor Swift will bring her crossover pop to "Saturday Night Live," hosting the NBC program on Nov. 7. "Saturday Night Live" has been kind to musicians this year, including Lady Gaga, who appeared in a number of sketches during her recent appearance.

Swift has already shown off her comedy chops. In an an opening sketch for the Country Music Television Awards, Swift (a.k.a. T-Sweezy) rapped with T-Pain to open the telecast ("I knit sweaters, yo!"). In the weeks leading up to "Saturday Night Live," expect plenty of speculation as to how exactly "SNL" will attempt to refresh the Kanye West/MTV Video Music Awards incident.

Swift's "SNL" appearance will mark the start of what will be a country-heavy week on television. On Nov. 11, Swift will appear on the CMA Awards, which has bolstered its performance roster: Jason Aldean, Billy Currington and Daughtry, who will duet with Vince Gill, have been added to the lineup.

Music award season is upon us. The eligibility period for the 2010 Grammy Awards ends Monday, and today Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley were announced as returning hosts for the 2009 Country Music Assn. Awards. The CMAs will air live for the East Coast on Nov. 11 on ABC.

Underwood is reigning "entertainer of the year" champion at the rival Academy of Country Music Awards, breaking a lock that Kenny Chesney had on the category. She's also been named female vocalist of the year at the CMAs three years running, and Paisley has owned the male title for the last two years. All told, Paisley has 11 CMA trophies to his name, and Underwood five.

The CMAs are open to the public, and tickets will go on sale Sept. 19 via Ticketmaster. Tickets start at $110, not including surcharges, and top out at $382.50. The CMAs will once again be held at the Sommet Center in Nashville. Nominations for the 2009 awards will be announced in early to mid-September. A spokesman said details are "still being finalized" before the nomination date can be revealed.

While country has two major awards dedicated specifically to the genre, expect a larger Nashville presence to be felt throughout the entire 2009-10 music award season. Young star Taylor Swift may very well end up with 2009's top-selling album in "Fearless," and she's become a major part of MTV's current branding campaign for its upcoming Video Music Awards.

Country stars are a major presence on the charts these days. Reba McEntire holds the No. 1 album this week with her "Keep On Loving You"; last week, the top spot belonged to George Strait's "Twang," this week's No. 2 album. Last but not least, the Recording Academy is making a greater outreach than in years  past with its Grammy Awards. The group, as previously reported, will stage its first ever "Grammy Salute to Country Music" on Sept. 8 in Nashville, which will honor Vince Gill.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Carrie Underwood at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles will get an all-star “guitar pull” on behalf of the Country Music Hall of Fame come October, and then the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will host a week-long salute in November to one of its inductees, Janis Joplin, the hall’s 2009 American Music Masters honoree.

Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam and Emmylou Harris, all of whom figured prominently in L.A.’s roots-country community at some point in their careers, will appear at Club Nokia for the country music organization’s annual All for the Hall fundraiser. The guitar pull, in which musicians take turns sharing songs and stories, is a country tradition most famously conducted in Tennessee by Johnny Cash and his coterie of friends and family members. The annual benefit, launched in 2005, was held in New York for the last two years. Funds support the museum’s long-term financial needs.

OK, Nashville, is everything forgiven?

The Recording Academy will honor Vince Gill at its first ever "Grammy Salute to Country Music," slated for Sept. 8 in Nashville. Set to appear are Brad Paisley, wife Amy Grant, Alison Krauss, Steve Martin and Michael McDonald. The Recording Academy stages similar events for classical, jazz and gospel music.

"Vince Gill who has made an indelible mark on the genre," said Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow in a statement. "Our 'Salute To' series pays homage to and celebrates the work of extraordinary people and organizations that continue to ensure that these genres remain a vital part of our culture."

Gill has garnered 20 Grammy Awards in his 30-plus year career. He won best country album in 2007 for his four disc set "These Days," but lost out in the album of the year field that year to Herbie Hancock.

Grammy followers may remember that Gill passed on an opportunity to perform on the telecast in 2008. It's common practice for every album of the year nominee to perform on the Grammys, but Gill balked at the live scenarios presented to him that year, as they featured the county vet performing a duet with Paisley rather than showcasing his nominated album.

Nevertheless, Gill was a willing participant in the awards, appearing as a presenter in 2008. All the drama happened a few months after Portnow flew to Nashville to discuss a perceived lack of country representation on the awards.

Yet all should be forgiven now, as the Grammys this year featured performances by Taylor Swift and Sugarland, and a country-tinged album -- "Raising Sand" from Krauss and Robert Plant -- won the top prize.

Look for the country goodwill to continue into 2010, with Swift's "Fearless" sure to score a bounty of nominations. The Grammy eligibility period for the 2010 telecast will come to a close on Aug. 31, and nominations are expected to be announced in early December.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Getty Images

Walt Disney Concert Hall just might be onto a great little niche concert series. A few more shows like the intimate and illuminating performance Vince Gill turned in on Saturday could develop into a regular spate of shows that might be called “Where Songs Come From.”

His 90-minute show, for which he brought a no-frills trio for accompaniment, was chock-full of crowd pleasers, no surprise since fans were only too happy to take him up on his offer to play their favorites by shouting out titles throughout the evening.

But it also had echoes of the sterling round-table session last year with Guy Clark, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, during which each singer-songwriter took turns talking about the genesis of the song he was about to sing, then passing the spotlight to the next in line.

On Saturday it was all Vince, all the time, and it was a delightfully homey affair. He’s long been a particularly amiable and engaging host — which explains why he landed the honors of emceeing the Country Music Assn. Awards show for 12 years straight.

“Nice place ya got here,” the erstwhile Oklahoma wunderkind and 19-time Grammy winner said after sauntering on stage. “I had to go and buy new clothes to play in a place this nice.”

Following his last tour with a 17-piece band, drafted to tap the multiplicity of textures and styles on his sprawling 2006 four-CD set “These Days,” he told the near-capacity crowd, “I came home almost deaf and ... near broke.... We’re lucky to be here. I thought we were going to have to suspend the tour and go to Washington D.C. to fix things.”