Nate Shuppert
Tributes and bluegrass music flowed freely over three hours on Sunday afternoon at Nashville’s Station Inn as friends and family remembered J.T. Gray as a man of humility and tenacity who put musicians on a pedestal and made a "home" for bluegrass in Music City. The club’s four-decade proprietor and bluegrass hall of famer died suddenly on March 20, leaving a void at the beloved venue.
Among the most prominent and influential voices was country star Vince Gill. “It didn’t matter what night you came, you knew you were going to see something great. You were going to see something musical and something that would feed your soul. And I just enjoyed every trip down here for the last forty years,” Gill said from the stage. “And I’m just grateful that with a little grace and good luck it’s not going to become a big hotel of something. It’s gonna stay what we need it to be, a beautiful home for bluegrass music.”