CMT Will Present Storytellers Event With Hazel Smith

Hazel Smith

CMT will be the presenting sponsor of the first-ever Music Row Storytellers event, honoring Hazel Smith and benefiting Music Health Alliance.

“CMT is proud to celebrate Hazel’s legacy as a first class storyteller while benefitting Music Health Alliance, an organization that is literally changing lives by connecting our creative community to healthcare,” says Lucia Folk, Vice President of Public Affairs, CMT.

Music Row Storytellers is a special event series designed to honor those that stand the test of time in telling the stories that make the music industry so fascinating – the journalists, interviewers, reporters, show hosts and others who chronicle and share the stories of Music Row and its musicmakers.

The event will be held on Monday, Aug. 15 at Well Placed Smile (907 Gleaves St.) A 6 pm cocktail reception will be followed by a 6:30 pm program honoring Smith and benefiting Music Health Alliance. The evening will be filled with smiles, laughter and stories from Smith and surprise guests who have been part of her career.

Tickets are $100, or $110 for reserved seating.

Smith moved to Nashville in the late ’60s; the divorced mother of two would go on to be a songwriter, publicist, manager and journalist. Her ability to capture and translate a story are a tribute to her no-nonsense questioning, to the respect she’s earned from artists and industry leaders alike.

She is often credited with coining the phrase “Outlaw Music” in the 1970s to describe the sound that she was hearing from then-clients Kinky Friedman, Tompall Glaser, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Hazel would go on to tell many more of Music Row’s stories as a writer for Country Music magazine, a radio reporter, and a regular columnist for CMT.com.

The Music Row Storytellers organizing committee is a group of music industry professionals dedicated to celebrating the leaders, influencers and storytellers that “came before,” while providing awareness and financial contribution to a music industry related non-profit organization.