Reba McEntire Receives Songwriters Hall of Fame Career Maker Award

Reba McEntire received the inaugural Career Maker Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, held in Nashville on Oct. 28. The ceremony also inducted five new members: Ronnie Dunn, K.T. Oslin, Byron Hill, Wayne Kirkpatrick and Joe Melson.

McEntire has received dozens of awards over her illustrious career, including four GRAMMYs and six CMA Awards, but the Career Maker Award is especially important to McEntire because of its tie to songwriters.

“The songwriter’s award is really important to me, because without the songwriters I wouldn’t have songs to sing,” McEntire recently shared with PopCulture.com and other media. “It’s a huge honor to me, because those songwriters gave me their songs. If they didn’t think I could do justice to that song, but also help it along a little bit, or contribute as much as I can and work real hard to promote it, they wouldn’t be giving it to me.

“So, I think we make a great team, and I am flattered beyond words to be getting this honor and to be in there with the rest of the songwriters,” she continued. “To be in that room is going to be a really fun night.”

McEntire will also be honored later this year at the Kennedy Center Honors, along with Cher, composer Phillip Glass and jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, among others.

“The Kennedy Center Honors is a huge thrill for me,” McEntire said. “I have been a part of that show for helping four honorees getting honored. Dolly [Parton], Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett, and Loretta Lynn. So to get to be a part of that behind the scenes all that many times was a lot of fun for me. And now to be honored, it is the icing on the cake.”

“It takes all genres, everything you do in the entertainment business and your personal … not personal life, but philanthropic [life], what you do and help out people, it puts all that together and says,Way to go,’” added the singer. “So it’s a huge thrill for me to be a part of that list of people who’ve been honored in the past.”

The 63-year-old is also hard at work on a new album, which she promises will be very country.

“I’m really excited about getting back in the studio working with [producer] Buddy Cannon on a new project,” McEntire shared. “It’s going to be probably the most country album I’ve ever recorded. I don’t have a release date on it yet, but we have 13 songs already recorded, and we’ll go in and do some more if we find them. Loving it, just real country.”

McEntire is hoping to release her next record in early 2019.

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