Late Cindy Walker leaves songs to Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Country artists have given songbooks to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. They’ve given hand-scrawled song manuscripts, as well, and guitars on which songs were written. But until now, no one has given the actual songs. Wednesday afternoon at the Hall’s Ford Theater, old and familiar songs like “You Don’t Know Me,” “Sugar Moon” and “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)” rang out, heralding an unprecedented gift from the late Cindy Walker, who authored those compositions in life and who bequeathed them in death to the Hall. Museum director Kyle Young announced the gift Wednesday, at a ceremony that found Vince Gill and Grammy-nominated group the Time Jumpers performing Walker’s work. What does one do with 500 songs? Make “mailbox money,” for one thing. Royalties are divided between publisher and songwriter, and the Hall of Fame has already collected more than half a million dollars on two years’ worth of Walker’s share of royalties...Tennessean