Musician Randall Hylton honored

We are so pleased with news that singer, guitar player, songwriter, and Floyd County native Randall Hylton was added posthumously to the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame as a Songwriter. Beginning with his musical family in Willis, Randall honed his songwriting craft with dedication, building it into a successful career as one of the top bluegrass songwriters in the country. The Randall Hylton catalog includes more than 225 songs he wrote and published. Randall Hylton was one of the featured musicians in the 2015, “By Ear & By Heart — A Hundred Years of Music Making in Floyd County,” exhibit at Old Church Gallery.

A copy of the full program from the ceremony, recently donated, will now accompany items in our Music Collection archives. The award program profiles the seven inductees to the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame for 2022. Other inductees include Jim and Jesse (Nationally Known Artist), The Blue Sky Boys (Pioneer Artists), Arvil Freeman (Sideman/Regional Musician), MerleFest (Special Contributor), Rodney Sutton (Dance – note: former Green Grass Clogger with ties to Floyd Co.), and Ernest Johnson (Dr. T. R. Bryan Wilkes Heritage Music Award).

Since 2008, the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame has been recognizing contributors to the “rich musical heritage of the greater Blue Ridge Mountains from northern Georgia to northern Virginia.” We applaud their choices!