As Nashville toasts Anne Murray, stars call for Country Music Hall of Fame induction

With Canadian flags waving in their hands and shouts of admiration echoing from the rafters, some of Anne Murray's biggest fans welcomed the East Coast songbird to her Nashville tribute concert, offering a level of fanfare fit for a musical legend.

At 80, Murray has been around the block more than a few times, but as she made her entrance into the Opry House theatre on Monday, even she seemed a bit surprised by the rapturous reception.

"We love you, Anne!" a flurry of voices screamed as she settled into a sofa chair in the fourth row of the auditorium, dressed in a black sequined shirt and slacks.

"I love you more!" countered another.

That outpouring of affection continued for the next two hours as country music's elite stepped into the home of the Grand Ole Opry for "The Music of My Life: An All-Star Tribute to Anne Murray."

Each musician sprinkled a little more sugar on the woman with the honeyed voice, who retired from singing nearly two decades ago, and decided to stay put in the audience for the duration of the show.

"My junior high self is freaking out right now," confessed Tricia Yearwood shortly before she performed Murray's 1982 single Somebody's Always Saying Goodbye.

"This is the fabric of our lives."

Her sentiments were shared by many of Yearwood's peers, some longtime friends of Murray and others who simply considered her one of their greatest influences.

All of them positioned Murray as an often unsung ambassador for country music, at least outside her homeland, a voice who scaled the charts during a fruitful era for the genre.

While the tribute concert was billed as a celebration of her musical impact, it also served as a reminder of one incredible oversight: Anne Murray has not been inducted into Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.

No one put that fact more bluntly than Nancy Jones, the widow of country star and Hall of Fame inductee George Jones. She turned out to be Murray's most vocal advocate of the night.

Jones stepped in when presenter Brenda Lee was forced to cancel her appearance, and she came armed with her frustrations about the Hall of Fame.

"They should be ashamed of themselves, not having her in there," she said backstage before the show.

"If it's up to me, I will do whatever I can to get her into the Country Music Hall of Fame here in the United States."

Jones said there's ample evidence for why Murray should already be an inductee.

She was the first woman to win album of the year at the Country Music Association Awards in 1984, and the first Canadian female singer to reach No. 1 in the United States years before that.

Murray also holds four Grammys and is the most decorated Juno Award honouree, with 24 wins and two career achievement trophies. She's already been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, as well as the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

Jones made her case on the Opry stage, using her speech to call on Nashville to induct Murray to their highest honour. Her suggestion was met with a roar of support from the audience and echoed by fellow country stars backstage.

Other artists used their appearances for more clearcut tributes.

Bluegrass singer Kathy Mattea shared that she hadn't met Murray until earlier Monday and was struck by the opportunity to speak directly with her living idol.

"You made singing along with the radio much easier for an alto like me," she said before she performed I Just Fall in Love Again.

“It is such a gift to be able to look you in the eye and … tell you what you mean to all of us."

Michelle Wright, who grew up in Merlin, Ont., sang Murray’s unsinkable anthem Snowbird, a song she has been practising since she was a child.

Martina McBride landed on Danny's Song, but told the room that she holds dear another Murray favourite, Nobody Loves Me Like You Do, which she sang to her husband at their wedding.

Natalie Grant brought the audience to their feet with a powerful six-minute rendition of How Great Thou Art, a Christian hymn that Murray covered on her 1999 album What a Wonderful World.

K.d. lang, who's worked with Murray several times over the years, credited her with making it possible to pursue the sort of music career she wanted.

"You plowed the road before I got there, and I owe so much of my success to you," she said.

Murray seemed especially charmed by the nine-man a capella group Straight No Chaser, whose take on He Thinks I Still Care brought her to a standing ovation.

While Reba McEntire couldn't attend the event, due to her filming commitments in Los Angeles for TV competition series The Voice, she sent a video message recalling how Snowbird was one of the first songs she performed in her 10th-grade band.

"Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for the women of country music," she said.