Dan Penn, right, and Spooner Oldham, center, talk about the craft of songwriting with Dr. Kirk Curnutt, left, during an event at the John M. Long School of Music.
Troy University honors songwriters Penn, Oldham with the Hall-Waters Prize

Dan Penn, right, and Spooner Oldham, center, talk about the craft of songwriting with Dr. Kirk Curnutt, left, during an event at the John M. Long School of Music.
Troy University will honor renowned songwriters Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham with the Hall-Waters Prize on Apirl 12.
Renowned songwriters Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, two linchpins of the Muscle Shoals music scene that helped define the soul, pop, and rock music of the 1960s and 1970s, will receive the Hall-Waters Prize from Troy University on April 12.
The duo will discuss the craft of songwriting, the history of Southern music and the…
Kirk Curnutt, honoree Ace Atkins, Chancellor Jack Hawkins, Jr., Gregg Swem and Walter Givhan are shown following Hall-Waters Prize ceremony.
Best-selling crime fiction writer Ace Atkins was only two years old when his family moved from Troy, but he still considers the city home.
The son of former TROY football coach the late Billy Atkins came “home” on Friday to receive Troy University’s Hall-Waters Prize.
“As a writer, it is always nice to be…
Ace Atkins, author and son of former TROY football coach Billy Atkins, will receive the University's Hall-Waters Prize during a reception on April 20.
Troy native Ace Atkins, the New York Times best-selling author of more than two dozen novels including the “The Forsaken” and “Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot,” will receive the Hall-Waters Prize from Troy University on Friday, April 20.
Atkins will be honored during a reception on the Troy Campus beginning at 2 p.m. in the…