{"id":37850,"date":"2014-10-22T15:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=37850"},"modified":"2014-10-22T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T20:00:10","slug":"bill-rainey-receives-lifetime-award-for-his-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/22\/bill-rainey-receives-lifetime-award-for-his-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainey Honored by George D. Hay Foundation Award"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"barbarabill2014a\"\u00a0Bill Rainey Honored by George D. Hay Foundation Lifetime DJ Award<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Cumberland City, Tennessee<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 <\/span>Bill Rainey of Cumberland City is very comfortable in his office full of awards and pictures of family and friends. One wall is lined with books that he really reads and references \u2013 they aren\u2019t there just for show.\u00a0And right now, he is most proud of his most recent award \u2013 the Lifetime DJ Award from the George D. Hay Foundation honoring his achievements as a singer, songwriter, music publisher and promoter and DJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing bigger or better,\u201d he said, adding that the George D. Hay Foundation is the precursor of the Grand Old Opry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: The Stewart Houston Times\/Bonnie Lill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The event:\u00a0<\/b>The award was presented at a September ceremony at the organization\u2019s headquarters in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas.\u00a0Rainey did not suspect that he was receiving an award when he was contacted by mail and asked to attend. He assumed he would do a show for them, as he has done before, and to help out at their awards ceremony.\u00a0Wife Barb was a little suspicious, but she did not ask further \u2013 they just went.\u00a0And he did do a show and help out, but he was also presented the award.\u00a0How did he feel?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stunned,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they introduced me, they called me \u2018the voice heard around the world.\u2019 This is almost unreal for me to come out of the hills and cotton fields and log woods of Tiptonville and achieve this.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Career:\u00a0<\/b>Rainey produces a weekly radio show featuring up-and-coming artists only that is streamed on thousands of radio stations in 186 countries.\u00a0He also currently has three songs in the top 100 charts worldwide, and four songs that are number 1, each in a different European country.\u00a0Rainey has received four \u201coutstanding\u201d awards and has been inducted into five halls of fame.\u00a0He has had musicians that he has promoted also get inducted into the hall of fame.\u00a0And a song he wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve got a friend who walks on water,\u201d has been recorded by Tommy Cash, kin to the great Johnny Cash.\u00a0However blessed Rainey feels about his music career, though, he has a second, lesser-known concurrent career that he equally loves.<\/p>\n

\"Barbara
Barbara & Bill Rainey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Concurrent career:\u00a0<\/b>Rainey currently performs at 14 care centers from Centerville to Columbia. His show consists of old country and spirituals, and it strikes a chord with many of those who listen.\u00a0\u201cMusic performs miracles and I love to be a part of it,\u201d he said, recounting some of the times that a particular song would elicit a response from an unresponsive resident at one of the facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I am doing for people,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can tell by their reactions\u2026I thank the Heavenly Father for the blessing when I see that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His dedication to this began 10 years ago when his wife suffered two brain aneurysms and was expected not to live. When she did live, doctors said she would remain in a vegetative state for life.\u00a0Needless to say, Rainey\u2019s right-hand business assistant and avid quilter is far from vegetative, and neither has forgotten the dedication of those who worked in the care centers where she rehabbed.<\/p>\n

Future:\u00a0<\/b>Rainey has no intention of slowing down in either career, but he doesn\u2019t have a clear vision of where he is headed, either.\u00a0\u201cWhere do you go from here?\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I am going wherever the Heavenly Father leads me, unless Barb beats me to death with a rolling pin\u2026I want to do all the shows I can for the centers. Doing those is my greatest love except for Barb.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bonnie Lill, 931-232-5421\u00a0Reporter, The Stewart Houston Times\u00a0\u00a0blill@gannett.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Bill Rainey Honored by George D. Hay Foundation Lifetime DJ Award Cumberland City, Tennessee\u00a0\u2013 Bill Rainey of Cumberland City is very comfortable in his office full of awards and pictures of family and friends. One wall is lined with books that he really reads and references \u2013 they aren\u2019t there just for show.\u00a0And right now, he is most proud of his most recent award \u2013 the Lifetime DJ Award from the George D. Hay Foundation honoring his achievements as a singer, songwriter, music publisher and promoter and DJ. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}