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.	Keith Urban	7
6.	Brad Paisley	7
7.	Carrie Underwood	1
8.	Dwight Yoakam	20
9.	Clint Black	17
10.	Alison Krauss	15
11.	Faith Hill	13
12.	Trisha Yearwood	15
13.	Blake Shelton	5
14.	Eric Church	0
15.	Lee Ann Womack	9
16.	Martina McBride	14
17.	Jason Aldean	1
18.	Travis Tritt	17
19.	Diamond Rio	15
20.	Steve Earle	23
21.	Rascal Flatts	6
22.	Mary Chapin Carpenter	17
23.	Shenandoah	19
24.	Kathy Mattea	23
25.	Mark Chesnutt	16
26.	Shelly West	23
27.	Lucinda Williams	17
28.	Dan Seals	23
29.	Collin Raye	15
30.	John Michael Montgomery	14
31.	Suzy Bogguss	19
32.	Highway 101	19
33.	Little Texas	15
34.	Restless Heart	21
35.	Joe Diffie	16
36.	Pam Tillis	22
37.	Sawyer Brown	22
38.	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.	John Denver	35
3.	Johnny Horton	47
4.	John Prine	34
5.	Gary Stewart	33
6.	Freddie Hart	47
7.	Gram Parsons	38
8.	Linda Ronstadt	32
9.	Johnny Paycheck	41
10.	Crystal Gayle	36
11.	Lynn Anderson	40
12.	Mickey Gilley	38
13.	Sammi Smith	38
14.	Jessi Colter	36
15.	Guy Clark	31
16.	Linda Martell	37
17.	Eddie Rabbitt	32
18.	Jack Greene	40
19.	Rosanne Cash	27
20.	Jeannie C. Riley	38
21.	Vern Gosdin	30
22.	Bobbie Gentry	39
23.	Freddy Fender	31
24.	Anne Murray	36
25.	Townes Van Zandt	38
26.	Nitty Gritty Dirt Band	35
27.	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	36
28.	David Frizzell	36
29.	Steve Wariner	28
30.	Mac Davis	36
31.	Billy Joe Shaver	33
32.	Donna Fargo	34
33.	Doug Sahm	30

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