Georgia Music Hall of Fame inducts 41 artists in Class of 2025

MOULTRIE – During a Saturday ceremony that included a little twang, some fancy fiddling, country music classics and even a little surf music, the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame welcomed its latest class of inductees.

Some 40 musicians and groups were honored at the Seaplane Opry House, located at Spence Field here, with a number of the inductees taking the stage to show their stuff.

The Saturday induction was the seventh class for the museum, formed to recognize south Georgia and north Florida musicians. This year’s nominees included singers, songwriters and musicians hailing from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and more.

Aaron Strickland, who was among the Seaplane Opry’s choices this year, was amazed by the reaction of one fan, a younger drummer who gave him a big hug and thanked him for his inspiration.

Earlier in the week, Strickland said, the drummer for the group Saliva, which is decidedly not a country band, also expressed appreciation to him about his influence.

“To have two people come up and tell me that in a week gives me a little bit of validation and tells me people do notice when you try to do good things and be a positive influence on people,” he said. “That’s what people should try to do.

“It’s a screwed-up world we live in, a screwed up country, (so) just trying to be a good influence in anything you do will certainly go farther than anything negative. It also makes you a little more humble.”

A musician for 38 years, Strickland’s band, Naturally Southern, was inducted in 2023. During his time as a drummer, Strickland has played shows for audiences ranging from two to 20,000, and he takes them all equally seriously.

“I believe that our time on this planet is short, and should not be wasted,” he said. “You’re remembered by your accomplishments and your deeds.”

Like many of the inductees, the drummer credited a number of musicians as his influence, along with his mentor and teacher, Jeff Plate.

“For me to turn around and be that person for someone else, again, it’s real humbling and real gratifying,” he said. “I guess that’s my way of giving back. That means something to me.”

In his biography for the judges, Strickland reminisced about camping and fishing trips, or just riding country roads, with his dad listening to Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special, The Rolling Stones, Molly Hatchet and more.

For his performance, Strickland joined the house band to bang the skins to the drum-heavy surf tune “Wipe Out.”

“It’s nice to be recognized and know your efforts are appreciated,” Strickland said of the ceremony. “There are a lot of talented people here in south Georgia.”

Naturally Southern’s previous releases include the songs “Back in the Country,” “Outlaw” and “County Road 202,” and the band is recording an album.

Wearing a pair of “Beatle boots” he ordered from the same Liverpool shop where the Fab Four got theirs back in the day, singer and songwriter Billy Bruce gave a nod to his childhood influence. From the boots up he was all country and western, however.

Bruce pointed to Ringo Starr’s performances of country tunes in his singing opportunities with The Beatles.

The drummer has played a wide variety of styles, from jazz to Christian contemporary. His rock ‘n roll sensibilities got an awakening with the authentic country music that was favored in Texas.

“I moved to Texas with the Air Force,” the south Florida native said. “I had to up my game. I just turned 70, and when you turn 70 … I started doing a lot of reflecting. You start to wonder how did you get here. It really started in the ‘70s, going into the Air Force.”

After his time in the military Bruce, whose family moved to south Georgia in 1968, toured with the group Montana for a year before deciding to return to college at Valdosta State University to pursue a degree in journalism and English in 1981. That year taught him that moving from motel room to motel room night after night wasn’t to his liking.

“What I found out was I didn’t want to live on the road,” he said. “It was a hard way to live.”

After college, Bruce worked at newspapers in Florida by day and played at night. 

While in college, the executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution made a trip to Valdosta to discuss the “two Georgias” of the influential Atlanta area and the left-out southern part of the state, an event the Hahira resident raised while being interviewed.

“I was just telling one of the participants that if we had had a good recording studio down here in the ‘70s, there was so much talent,” Bruce said. “If we’d had that, it would have been a little more productive.”

The veteran drummer said he was appreciative that one of his awards came for his songwriting. 

“It was a great honor,” he said. “It’s great that people cared enough about this region.”

After attending the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame for five years, Shirley Maule decided to launch the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame to recognize area musicians, an effort that took nearly four years to get started and culminated in the first class of some 30 inductees in 2019. Each year the hall inducts 30 or more musicians. 

In addition to Strickland and Bruce, the 2025 inductees were Anthony Roberts, Billy “BT” Terry, Bobby Fleetwood McGhee, Bobby Wayde Phillips, Brandi Thornton, Brian Collin Smith, Charles Lee Damron, Chis McDaniel, Curtis Gordon, Dale Lee, Dan Daniel, Danny Ezell, Derrick Dove, Diana Lee Joyce, Donald “Stagger” Lee, Elijah Cassidy Williams, Fred Edward Knowles Jr., Gary and Leighann Griffin, Harrell Lee Perry, the Halton Steel Band, Hunter Carmichael, Jamie Richardson, Jason Bozik, Joey Thompson, Johnny L. Calhoun, Jonathan “JT” Thomas, LaDonna Ray, Larry Butler, Melody Cooper and Brad Yager.