Friday, June 22, 2001

CCMA takes back Stompin' award
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun

Stompin' Tom Connors has stomped all over on the Canadian Country Music Assocation.

The singer-songwriter asked that lifetime membership honours extended to him last month by the CCMA be withdrawn and the association has complied.

In a gesture it says it makes to anyone inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame -- Connors was inducted in 1993 -- the CCMA sent him a lifetime membership.

Connors, who says he "doesn't believe in the CCMA" was upset. CCMA executive director Sheila Hamilton apologized in a letter to Connors this week, for "any undue concern or displeasure.

"We will certainly honour your desire of not being a member of the CCMA, and we will remove your name (from our membership list) immediately," she wrote. "(The Lifetime Membership) was simply meant as a gesture that we offered to all Hall of Fame members."

Connors, who was scheduled to begin his latest Canadian tour last night in Brantford, Ont., hits the road with a special new release, Stompin' Tom Sings Canadian History, available only on the road for the time being.

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