Click on the name to read more about our British Country Music Hall of Fame members and the reason why they have been awarded the highest honour.

In 2006 a meeting was held in the Roadhouse just off junction 28 on the M1 with Rob Davis, publisher and then editor of Cross Country and now this Country music website. The purpose was to set up a form of recognition for people who had provided something above the norm on behalf of Country music in the British Isles – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was agreed to call it the British Country Music Hall of Fame, a not for profit body. There were to be no boundaries as regards gender nor age other than being born in the British Isles. It would be open to performers, solo or as a group, musicians, songwriters, promoters, agents, publicists, radio/tv presenters and journalists. Open to those alive or who had passed on.
In order to make it viable we agreed to also resurrect the then defunct British Country Music Association providing annual awards for Country music. The selection for the Hall would be by unnamed persons selecting to the above criteria. This has worked admirably until 2018, by this time Rob Davis had stepped down from the BCMA board and it was agreed with the current BCMA to transfer the running of the Hall to the CCN with Jim Duncan being the curator of the Hall.
Cross Country is the only publication that publishes the full list on a regular basis. If you wish to read why, or don’t know who they are, then you can read all about them here – just click on the name below their portrait.
The British Country Music Hall of Fame is for an exclusive group of people and each year more well known advocates of Country music will be inducted at the Cross Country NAM (CCN) Awards Show.
We are always open to suggestions of who should be inducted so if you think you know of anyone then send an email to rob.cc.editor@gmail.com.

November 2018

Lonnie Donegan

Born April 29th, 1931 in Glasgow as Anthony James Donegan, the name Lonnie came when a compere announced Lonnie Johnson, an American blues singer, as Tony Johnson and then went on to announce Tony Donegan as Lonnie Donegan and the new name stuck. The family moved to the East End of London in 1933.
Lonnie’s father was a classical violin player in the Scottish National Orchestra and encouraged his son to play. Lonnie learnt the guitar by the age of nine but it was 1942 before he bought his first instrument.
His first taste for Country came when listening to music by Frank Crumit and Josh White (the blues singer). Among those first songs were Frankie And Johnny and The House Of The Rising Sun.
He was on a train when Chris Barber approached him to join his band as a banjo player that he got his first band break.
In 1949 Lonnie was conscripted for his National Service and was posted to Vienna where he mixed with the American troops and listened to AFN radio, further deepening his love of Country music. Hank Williams was touring the US bases at this time and this inspired him.
In 1952 he formed his own band, the Tony Donegan Jazz Band which brought about the name-changing tour with Lonnie Johnson. He rejoined Chris Barber who had amalgamated with Ken Colyer for a supergroup and then Lonnie started to fill the intervals as a trio, playing Country/skiffle, as it became known, he had Chris Barber on upright bass and Beryl Brydon on washboard percussion.
It was during a recording session for a major label that some of Lonnie’s skiffle was laid down and released as singles. The sales of these rocketed, appealing to a teenage audience who made Lonnie a star. He then went to America and had great success touring with many artists, including Chuck Berry. A new genre of music was born teaming Country with jazz and blues.
Lonnie went independent of Chris Barber, although he continued to play bass on his records. On one of his albums, recorded in 1978, called Putting On The Style, he had some notable sidesmen – Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Elton John, Brian May and Peter Black. A follow-up album featured Hall of Fame member Albert Lee.
During the 1960s Lonnie recorded in Nashville with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer and the Jordanaires. He also worked as producer for Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues.
Lonnie Donegan inspired a whole generation of singers to become performers; Hall of Fame member Tony Best started as a skiffle singer, as did Sir Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and most of the Beatles.
He was one of the most prolific recording hitmakers in the UK. In his later days he was playing just Country, mainly in Spain and Florida. He was about to break into the UK festival market when he died in November 2002.

September 2019

Dave Sheriff

There are only a few artists on the circuit that have continuously been able to ply their act playing their own material; Dave Sheriff is one of those.
A son of a gamekeeper he was living in the country when he developed a love of music. The magic of Country music inspired him to learn the harmonica, followed over time by many other instruments. At one time he had a Guinness Book of Records entry for playing the most musical instruments simultaneously.
His musical journey started at Bradfield Village Hall in 1958 at the age of 13. He developed his act playing guitar and singing Country songs, both covers and originals.
It was while recording an album at studios in Oxford that the sound engineer quit and the owner asked Dave to carry on, doing his own engineering. He was so successful that he was engaged to run the studios, also playing as a session musician to visiting bands.
This got him recognised and he played with Hall of Famer Kelvin Henderson and Pete Sayers on various tv shows which led to appearances at the Wembley Festivals where he worked with Don Gibson and Ronnie Prophet and the Nashville Superpickers. He also toured with Patsy Montana and Slim Whitman.
He became Whispering Fred Jones on Emmerdale, playing a Country singer in the Woolpack.
In 1991 his album, One Man Extraordinaire won the coveted Album of the Year at national awards. It was then he decided that it would be better to have his own label and publishing company for what was becoming a steady output of cds. He created the Stomp label and opened Stomp Studios, recording his and others’ music with himself providing most of the backing instrumentation.
He later went to Nashville to record many albums with the friends he had met at Wembley, it was there that Porter Wagoner introduced him to play at the Grand Ole Opry. Most famously he used Elvis Presley’s famous backing group, The Jordanaires and he also wrote a hit song about them.
The advent of line dance on the circuit meant Dave had a growing market for his strict tempo albums with many of his songs becoming dance floor classics; the most famous, Red Hot Salsa was featured in the Danny Boyle film, Trainspotting 2 and his song, Best Of Friends is the standard closing number at many UK clubs, performed by most artists, He regularly appears on Irish tv shows and tours Europe, having had many hits in Finland, Holland and Switzerland.
One of the few singer/songwriters extraordinaire, Dave Sheriff is welcomed to the British Country Music Hall of Fame.

September 2021

Rob Davis

Rob Davis has been involved in the Country music scene in one guise or another since the early 1990s when line dancing was in its infancy. He was involved in runing numerous line dance classes in the South Yorkshire are which were very successful and also hosting one off events. It was during this time that he decided to compile a newsletter which would bring together the local line dance community as at that time there was no social media to inform people of events, only the local radio and newspapers which he kept in contact with.
As the newsletter became more and popular with the upsurge of classes and events he decided to produce a magazine called Up Country which promoted line dancing to Country music. This magazine was the go to bible for anyone interested in line dancing and Country music and was distributed all over the UK and overseas, going as far away as Australia and the Central African Republic. Up Country became a runaway success.
Not satisfied with producing a magazine Rob was also responsible for bringing over to the UK artists from the USA two being Heather Myles and Joni Harms. Rob is also supportive to any new British artists just starting out on the scene, having time for everyone, young or old.
When Rob heard the Cross Country UK magazine was to end publication he had the idea to take over this magazine, giving it the new name of Cross Country. This A5 magazine differed to Up Country, which was an A4 glossy magazine, as it was one which only promoted British Country music and was popular within the club scene of the UK.
Cross Country soon became the leading magazine in its field and was once again the go to place to see the latest news and comprehensive gig guide for the whole of the UK. Never before had one magazine covered the whole of the UK in this way.
It was soon decided that the time had come to join together Up Country magazine and Cross Country magazine and so a lightly bigger than A5 132 magazine was produced every month. Rob’s suggestion to Jim Duncan that there should be a British Country Music Hall of Fame, which is a special award for not only artists,but promoters or anyone who has contributed over the years to further Country music culminated into something rather special. Because of this it was decided to host an awards show each year for the fans of Country music to show their appreciation to the people who contribute into keeping the music alive.
Through the efforts of Rob Davis the Country music scene was thriving until the pandemic hit and so the printed version of the magazine came to an untimely end.
Not being one to be defeated by anything during the lockdown he decided to teach himself website design and after months of hard work was able to offer the now online version of Cross Country which at the time of writing is reaching more and more people each day and again can be marked down to another of Rob’s success stories

September 2023

Nicky James

Nicky James 19th October 1957 – 16th February 2020
On October 19th, 1957, the world was blessed with a handsome, smiling, Nicky (Nicholas) James. His older brother, Joe, who was seven years old at the time, fondly remembers seeing his new brother for the first time. Nick, as they always called him, always had a warm smile and there was something very special about him. He grew up in a house full of Irish and Country music. His father Raymond played the accordion and harmonica and was also a wonderful singer. Anne, his older sister, was very involved in music but sadly passed away at the age of nine. Along with the sweet love of his mother, Bridget, this helped to set the stage for the man we have known and loved for his brief 62 years on this earth.
Nicky’s love for music grew as the years went by. While, still at school Joe was singing in pubs and clubs. Nick wanted to do the same and longed for a guitar so, for his 14th Christmas present, Joe bought him an acoustic guitar. He practiced day and night and quickly learned how to sing harmony and pick the guitar. By age 15 Nicky joined Joe and the McShane Duo hit the road. They would sing Everly Brothers and Louvin Brothers songs. They later went on to become a trio, with Pat Hogan who played bass and bluegrass banjo. Nicky spent his spare money buying vinyl LP records of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride and all the many Country legends.
The trio passed the audition for the Hughie Green TV talent show, Opportunity Knocks but before their scheduled appearance on TV the show closed down.
After a few years the boys decided to go their own ways. Nick signed up with the Mike & Margaret Storey agency and he started to shine as a solo performer although the two brothers would still do occasional gigs together and they often gigged in places like Switzerland and the USA where Joe had then settled.
He went on to form his own band, Nicky James & State Of The Heart and also promoted performers from all over including from the USA – Gene Watson, Larry Gatlin, Moe Bandy, Johnny Rodriguez, Marty Haggard (eldest son of Merle Haggard) and many other Nashville stars. Nick was also very instrumental in Nathan Carter’s career. He helped promote Lisa McHugh and Olivia Douglas and so many more. He just had an eye and an ear for talent. Nick was also a very talented songwriter, although he never said so himself. You can hear his songwriting skills in one of his evergreen songs entitled Liverpool, which he co-wrote with Nathan Carter and his brother Joe McShane (Nathan recorded the song to coincide with the anniversary of the Hillsborough football tragedy.)
Nicky was a very rare kind of person. Aside from his writing, performing and promoting skills he had a heart of pure gold. His charity work helped bring awareness and financial help to so many organisations, deeply involved in helping the cruelty to children organisations. Once riding a bicycle from John O’ Groats to Lands End to raise money for the NSPCC.
Nicky was the third born of five children. He later had five children of his own whom he loved dearly. His youngest daughter Louisa (Louie James) is now carrying on his legacy. He was so proud of her and sadly never got to see her graduate with 1st class honours from Liverpool University for music (LMA).
To cover all the wonderful things he did in his lifetime it would need to be written in a book. His inspiration will live on through the many people he touched in his short life. Nathan Carter put it so eloquently in the song he wrote in honour of his mentor, Nicky James – You Gave Me Wings To Fly. Nick you gave us all wings to fly and we now have the honour of inducting Nicky James into the British Country Music Hall of Fame as the 58th member.

Keith Manifold

Ben Rees

Cal Ford

Campbell Baxter

Kenny Johnson

West Virigina

Tony Hadlow

Sarah Jory

Chris & Bev Jackson

Tony Best

Sue McCarthy

Kelvin Hendrson

Wally Whyton

John C King

Gerry Ford

Raymond Froggatt

Miki & Griff

Bob McKinlay

Ed Pearson

The Hillsiders

Albert Lee

Mike Storey

Iona Boggie

Charlie Landsborough

Jon Derek

Bob Harris

Tony Byworth

Frank Jennings

Philomena Begley

Johnny Larkin

Vic Woodhouse

Stu Stevens

Alf Roberts

Lloyd Coles

Jackie Storrar

Stu Page

Geordie Jack

Darren Busby

Lyn Jones

Ron Jones

Susan McCann

Gordon Davies

Jim Duncan

Lonnie Donegan

Aubrey Lovejoy

Alan Cackett

Brian Golbey

Gary Perkins

Mervyn J Futter

Dave Sheriff

Roger Wild

Rob Davis

Texas Gun

Malc Allan

John (stubby) Stubbs

John Aston

Nicky James

The Haleys

Charlie & Lynda Green