SHORT TAKES : Country Music Hall Nominees

Tennessee Ernie Ford and George Jones top the latest list of nominees for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Also nominated Thursday by the Country Music Assn. were Don Gibson, The Louvin Brothers and Webb Pierce. Only one of the performers will be inducted at the association’s award show Oct. 8.

Ford, known as “The Ol’ Peapicker,” had a string of hits starting in the late 1940s, including “Mule Train” and “Sixteen Tons,” which sold 4 million copies.

Jones is credited with influencing hundreds of contemporary artists. He began turning out country hits in the mid-1950s.

Gibson is the writer of “Sweet Dreams” and “Oh Lonesome Me.” Pierce was a Grand Ole Opry star with such songs as “Wondering” and “Texas Sand.”

The Louvin Brothers’ singing and songwriting career was short, with Ira and Charlie Loudermilk joining the Opry in 1955 and breaking up in 1963. Ira Loudermilk was killed in a car wreck two years later.