Belmont Hosts International Country Music Conference

Pictured at the International Country Music Conference (L-R): James Akenson, co-Chair of the Conference; presenter Caroline Gnagy; Nelle Poe of the Poe Sisters; Diane Diekman, winner of the Belmont Book Award for the Best Book on Country Music; and Don Cusic, Chair of the Belmont Book Award committee and co-Chair of the conference

The 30th Annual International Country Music Conference was held May 23-25 at Belmont University in Nashville. Co-Chairs Don Cusic and James Akenson oversaw a program that featured presenters from Japan, France, Germany and Canada as well as from a number of academic institutions throughout the United States.

The sessions covered a variety of topics, ranging from Hank Williams to country music on TV. The Williams panel explored the 60th anniversary of his death and 90th anniversary of his birth. Other segments focused on the 50th anniversary of Patsy Cline’s death, the 100th anniversary of the Georgia Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard, Ralph Stanley, Johnny Cash and Ralph Peer. Nelle Poe of 1940s Grand Ole Opry act the Poe Sisters attended the Friday sessions about her singing group.

Highlights of the conference included the presentation of the annual Belmont Book Award for the Best Book on Country Music, awarded to Diane Diekman for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins, and the publication of the first International Country Music Journal, edited by Don Cusic.