MOULTRIE, Ga. — With a goal of giving more recognition, the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame is coming to Moultrie to spotlight local musicians with an awards ceremony and museum. At its head is Shirley Maule.

Maule is currently taking nominations for the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame, or GCMHOF. So far, she has seven, but she’s looking to gather around 60 before closing for voting.

The process has been on a slow roll, but Maule knows this is something that needs to be done in the southern part of the state.

“Very few people will nominate themselves or someone else,” she said. “Only about one (from the south) every year is being nominated. Thirty-seven to 45 are being nominated up there (in the Atlanta area) each year.”

And that’s what it comes back to, the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame and its lack of southern Georgian musicians. Maule’s main thing is making sure those musicians get honored.

“This place is loaded with some of the best musicians around. When you’ve got only one out of 45 from this area (being nominated), you know there’s something wrong going on,” she said.

Gentry and Nancy Widner are both local musicians and head the Seaplane Opry House in Moultrie. Both musicians noted they’re always coming across a new musician within Colquitt County’s midst.

That’s why they’re heavily advocating for the GCMHOF.

“It’ll give you more inspiration to play music,” Gentry said. “It’ll also make them feel like they’re getting something in return.”

The life of a musician, regardless of locality, is not often a transactional one. Their music is given to the world, but not much is given back in turn. For Gentry, therefore it should be transactional.

In his own words: “You want to always have something you can lean on,” at least before it’s too late.

“When you’re playing and you’ve done it for so many years, you don’t really have anything to make yourself say, ‘See. Look at what I’ve done,’” he said. “And not only that; when you’re playing so much — like I do — you don’t get to record this stuff. You don’t get to write it down.”

You play your heart out on the center stage at one of the few select venues in Colquitt County and all that may come from it is the captured hearts of your audience — a small slice of recognition. It’s a blessing and a curse, as best Gentry could describe being an unknown local musician.

“A lot of them have history where they played back in the day. [Now] they don’t have anywhere to go to play and I think Ms. Shirley is wanting to bring those people out,” Nancy said. “There’s no money in it but it’d give them a little something for their families to look back on and say, ‘Hey look, they were in the Georgia Hall of Fame.’”

Maule plans to enact the award ceremony similarly to the one in Atlanta and induct around 45 musicians. Inductees will receive a plaque while the audience receives a live performance after every five inductees.

For Maule though, the main perk, besides achieving the hall’s original goal, is giving musicians, their fans, family and friends convenience.

“When you go to receive a plaque like this, you invite everybody you can think of. You want them to be there while this is happening and 220 miles [away] is a lot for people to go,” Maule said. “That’s why it needs to be down here so there’ll be maybe 35 miles they have to go to see the musician they may be a fan of.”

Maule is taking nominations for the GCMHOF until Sept. 30, after which she and a board of six will vote for which musicians enter the hallowed hall of fame. She only has three members, one of whom is an Atlanta Country Music Hall of Famer, but is looking to add more.

Anyone looking to nominate themselves or others will need to fill out a questionnaire and mail it to Georgia Country Music Hall Of Fame, 2099 Georgia Hwy. 133 South, Moultrie, GA 31788.