Australian country star Reg Poole has dedicated his Golden Guitar winning song “Country Music Hall Of Fame” to the proposed new Australian Country Music Hall of Fame in Tamworth.

Written and recorded by Reg in 1973, the song won the then budding new country star New Talent of the Year at the Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth in January 1974.

Australia’s country music hall of fame was instigated as a special award in 1976 as the Country Music Roll of Renown. Australia’s Country Music Hands of Fame Cornerstone was inaugurated a year later in 1977.

A physical hall of fame was not established until 1995 when the Australian Country Music Foundation (ACMF) opened its first exhibition in the city’s former Mechanics’ Institute and the Australian Country Music Trust opened its Heritage Hall (both organisations now combined).

Now a plan to build a much bigger hall of fame in the city has been launched and, if all goes according to plan, will open in January 2010.

Reg has lent his support to the project by allowing the Foundation to use his song to help with promotion and fund-raising for the new Hall of Fame.

Click here to order your individually numbered copy of the CD (numbers allocated on a first in, first served basis; specific numbers selectable subject to availability).

Sponsors of the CD include ACMEC Records, the Australian Bush Balladeers Association, Country Music Capital News, the Independent Country Music Bulletin, LBS Records, Mulga Music, NfS Publicity, Lorraine Pfitzner’s Country Cookbooks, J. R & C. J Bannister Licenced Builder and Southern Cross Ten.

The new Hall of Fame plan allows for the establishment of a building with space for exhibitions, collection storage and workspace, reference and study libraries, mastering studio, coffee shop and bistro, small performance theatre and meeting rooms as well as merchandising and administration areas.