Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Wayland Holyfield was preparing to speak and perform at the Museum, as part of the Museum’s Poets and Prophets series, when he died on May 6, 2024, at the age of eighty-two. During this program, recorded on October 26, 2024, fellow Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members Pat Alger, Mike Reid, and Thom Schuyler pay tribute to Holyfield, sharing stories from their friendships with him and performing some of his hits.

Alger begins the program with a rendition of Holyfield’s Crystal Gayle hit “I’ll Do It All Over Again” and later performs Johnny Russell’s “Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer” and “One More Year with You,” an unreleased song he co-wrote with Holyfield. Alger also accompanies students from the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Wayland Holyfield Outreach Program, led by program director Carol Ann Ford, on their performance of Don Williams’s “Til the Rivers All Run Dry.” On piano, Reid performs the Judds’s “River Roll On,” Baillie & the Boys’ “(Wish I Had a) Heart of Stone,” and Williams’s “You’re My Best Friend,” dedicating the song to Holyfield’s widow, Nancy. Schuyler plays “The One I Sing My Love Songs To”—recorded by Waylon Jennings, Tom Jones, Frank Myers, and others—as well as Williams’s “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend.” He also added a touch of humor to the program with a performance of “Can I Wear the Pants,” a parody of the Anne Murray hit “Could I Have This Dance.” Alger concludes the program with Holyfield’s daughter, Lee, singing the original song.

Holyfield wrote more than forty Top Ten hits, including fourteen #1s for George Jones, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Randy Travis, Tammy Wynette, and others. Throughout his career, he received thirty-seven ASCAP and BMI awards and a Grammy nomination, and he joined the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. Holyfield was the first Nashville-based songwriter elected to the ASCAP Board of Directors, and he also served as president of the Nashville Songwriters Association International and as chairman of the Nashville Songwriters Foundation.

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