By Deborah Evans Price - Cybergrass

It's been more than five decades since a 23-year-old Bill Anderson became the youngest writer to earn BMI's Country Songwriter of the Year honor – a record until 20-year-old Taylor Swift's win in 2010. Since then, he's received numerous accolades, including two CMA Song of the Year trophies in a three-year span. In November, he was honored by Bear Family Records' release of a four-CD anthology, Bill Anderson: The First 10 Years, 1956-1966. And he's seen a lot of changes on Music Row.

"One of the biggest changes is the proliferation of co-writing," he said. "When I came to Nashville, there were not that many of us writing songs for a living. Most of us wrote by ourselves. Back in those days, we were so restricted to who we could write with because they wouldn't split copyrights. Lord knows ASCAP wouldn't split things with BMI and vice versa, so you had to write with people in your own camp. Those walls have come down. Now we can write with anybody and everybody will split copyrights. It has opened up a whole world of freedom for songwriting."

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Whisperin' Bill Anderson was recently interviewed by Jewly Hight for Nashville Public Radio (WPLN/90.3 FM) and the feature is scheduled to run Friday, January 27th at 6:34am/Central and again at 8:34am/Central.

There will also be a link at www.wpln.org where listeners can stream the
audio, in addition to reading the story's text version and viewing several photographs of the legendary singer-songwriter.

Whisperin' Bill is scheduled to appear as a special guest on Storme Warren's weekly Countdown Show on Sirius-xm radio...Friday, January 27th, from 3:30-4:30pm/Eastern...on The Highway, Channel #59.

In addition to talking about other songs of the week, they will also be playing Bill's new single "Gone Away", which he recently recorded with The Oak Ridge Boys.

Opry star & Country Music Hall of Famer, Whisperin' Bill Anderson (7th from left) recently had the honor of introducing The Marshall Tucker Band when they made their first-ever appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

They are pictured here together at the Opry -- on the night of their inaugural performance -- and with just a little imagination, one can almost hear George D. Hay saying, "Let 'R' go, boys!"

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Presented by BMI and CMA, the Songwriters Series Features Country Music Hall of Fame Member Bill Anderson; CMA Award Winner Clint Black; and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Member Bob DiPiero

NASHVILLE - The Country Music Association's popular CMA Songwriters Series is coming to the U.K. and Ireland for the first time and dates have been announced for London, Belfast, and Dublin.The international tour will be known as CMA & BMI Present the CMA Songwriters Series and CMA is delighted to partner with BMI and Gibson Guitar Corp. for the series.

"Music enthusiasts in the UK and Ireland are among our most ardent global fans," said Steve Moore, CMA Chief Executive Officer. "The audiences there have a deep admiration for the art of songwriting and the artists. The popularity of our music and the receptive audiences make this an opportune time to travel the series abroad."

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