The Snub List - Country Music Hall of Fame

There are a number of country music artists who have yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame despite their impact on the genre and their contributions to the industry. Because the Country Music Hall of Fame only inducts one artist in each category, the backlog of deserving artists gets longer every year. The current system may have been proportional to the number of deserving artists in the early years of the institution, but the country music landscape today is signficantly broader and arguably generates more worthy artists than the Hall of Fame can keep up with. In fact, in 2001, the Country Music Hall of Fame had a "catch-up year" in which they inducted 10 extra artists to help reduce the backlog.

Modern Era Category

After initially becoming eligible for the Country Music Hall of Fame, artists have 25 years to be inducted in the Modern Era category. After that time, they switch to the Veterans Era process. Since artists rarely get recognized in the first decade of their eligibility, their window for the Modern Era is fairly short. It's fair to say that under the current system, most of the artists below will not be inducted in the Modern Era category.

Rank	Artist	Years Eligible
1.	The Chicks	9
2.	Miranda Lambert	2
3.	Shania Twain	13
4.	Taylor Swift	0
5.	Tim McGraw	14
6.	Keith Urban	7
7.	Brad Paisley	7
8.	Carrie Underwood	1
9.	Dwight Yoakam	20
10.	Clint Black	17
11.	Alison Krauss	15
12.	Faith Hill	13
13.	Trisha Yearwood	15
14.	Blake Shelton	5
15.	Eric Church	0
16.	Lee Ann Womack	9
17.	Martina McBride	14
18.	Jason Aldean	1
19.	Travis Tritt	17
20.	Diamond Rio	15
21.	Steve Earle	23
22.	Rascal Flatts	6
23.	Mary Chapin Carpenter	17
24.	Paul Overstreet	24
25.	Shenandoah	19
26.	Kathy Mattea	23
27.	Mark Chesnutt	16
28.	Shelly West	23
29.	Lucinda Williams	17
30.	Dan Seals	23
31.	Collin Raye	15
32.	John Michael Montgomery	14
33.	Suzy Bogguss	19
34.	Highway 101	19
35.	Little Texas	15
36.	Restless Heart	21
37.	Joe Diffie	16
38.	Pam Tillis	22
39.	Sawyer Brown	22
40.	Ricky Van Shelton	20

Veterans Era Category

Unlike the Modern Era category, there is no eligibility sunset for Veterans artists. The "years eligible" column represents the time the artists has been eligible for the Hall of Fame in either category.

Rank	Artist	Years Eligible
1.	Charlie Rich	38
2.	The Stanley Brothers	59
3.	John Denver	35
4.	Johnny Horton	47
5.	John Prine	34
6.	Gary Stewart	33
7.	Freddie Hart	47
8.	Gram Parsons	38
9.	Linda Ronstadt	32
10.	Johnny Paycheck	41
11.	Crystal Gayle	36
12.	Mickey Gilley	38
13.	Lynn Anderson	40
14.	Jessi Colter	36
15.	Sammi Smith	38
16.	Guy Clark	31
17.	Linda Martell	37
18.	Eddie Rabbitt	32
19.	Jack Greene	40
20.	Rosanne Cash	27
21.	Jeannie C. Riley	38
22.	Vern Gosdin	30
23.	Bobbie Gentry	39
24.	Freddy Fender	31
25.	Anne Murray	36
26.	Townes Van Zandt	38
27.	Nitty Gritty Dirt Band	35
28.	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	36
29.	David Frizzell	36
30.	Steve Wariner	28
31.	Mac Davis	36
32.	Billy Joe Shaver	33
33.	Donna Fargo	34
34.	Doug Sahm	30

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