Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Birthplace of Country Music Museum From the 1927 Bristol Sessions and beyond, our region continues to influence music around the world. Tuesday through Saturday, and open 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
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The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and tells the story of the legendary 1927 Bristol Sessions and their lasting impact on the landscape of country music past, present, and future. The Birthplace of Country Music® Museum, in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institute, tells the story of our music heritage though exciting interactive exhibits, beaut

iful film experiences, and rich displays. The museum also offers an array of rotating special exhibits, online experiences and student activities, educational and entertainment programming, and much, much more. One "exhibit" is actually a working radio station which broadcasts from the museum, WBCM Radio Bristol. Live radio shows are often performed in the museum's "acoustically perfect" 100-seat Performance Theater. The museum is closed to the public on Mondays, open 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on Sundays.

🏛️ Catch Museum Talk tomorrow at noon on WBCM - Radio Bristol! Julia and Tobias will be joined by Ally Pennington, Artif...
08/05/2026

🏛️ Catch Museum Talk tomorrow at noon on WBCM - Radio Bristol! Julia and Tobias will be joined by Ally Pennington, Artifacts and Programs Manager at the Alzatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026, Alcatraz East offers an immersive look at criminal profiles, forensic science, victim stories, crime prevention, and more through five unique galleries spanning two floors. Tune in for an inside look at the museum’s archives, preservation processes, and upcoming special exhibits.

The 1927 Bristol Sessions concluded on August 5, 1927. Two groups entered the studio to wrap up the Victor Talking Machi...
08/05/2026

The 1927 Bristol Sessions concluded on August 5, 1927. Two groups entered the studio to wrap up the Victor Talking Machine Company’s historic location recording sessions that day. Neither were professional musicians; in fact, most of the musicians who recorded at the 1927 Bristol Sessions had other occupations that helped them make a living and support their families.

The West Virginia C**n Hunters hailed from Bluefield, West Virginia. The group sometimes included several other players, including Fred Pendleton, who came to Bristol with the band for the 1928 Bristol Sessions, but when they played on this day in 1927, the group consisted of W. B. (Wesley “Bane”) Boyles on fiddle, Joe Stephens on banjo, Fred Belcher on guitar, Vernal Vest on ukulele, and Clyde S. Meadows singing. When they were not playing together, Meadows, Pendleton, and Vest worked for the railroad in different capacities. Boyles, a moonshiner, was arrested soon after recording in Bristol.

The Tennessee Mountaineers were a church choir from Bluff City, Tennessee. George Massengill led the 20-person group, and his daughter, then only 12 years old, became the youngest person to participate in the 1927 Bristol Sessions. She was the only living participant present at the museum’s grand opening in 2014.

Images: West Virginia C**n Hunters, from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum Collection, gift of Denise Smith. Georgia Warren cutting the ribbon at the museum’s grand opening, © Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Angela Freese.

08/05/2026

Our 70th Anniversary Party is next week! We are excited for everyone to join us at Cumberland Square Park on August 14! Our party will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

We will have our noon, 5, 5:30, and 6 shows live from the park, as well as live music, food trucks, lots of giveaways, and more!

“America’s Blue Yodeler” and the “Father of Country Music”, Jimmie Rodgers, worked on the railroad for most of his early...
08/04/2026

“America’s Blue Yodeler” and the “Father of Country Music”, Jimmie Rodgers, worked on the railroad for most of his early life. It wasn’t until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at age 27 that he pursued a career in music. His first recording was made in Bristol on August 4, 1927.

By 1927, Rodgers was living in Asheville, North Carolina. He performed regularly with Jack Pierce and brothers Claude and Jack Grant, who hailed from Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia. Pierce and Rodgers learned about the Victor auditions by chance while visiting Pierce’s family in Bristol. They convinced Peer to give them an audition and soon returned to Bristol with the Grants. For reasons that are debated, Rodgers recorded as a solo act while Pierce and the Grant brothers were joined by another Bristolian, Claude Slagle, and recorded under a new name, The Tenneva Ramblers. After the 1927 Bristol Sessions, the Tenneva Ramblers continued to play together.

Rodgers' career after Bristol was short – only lasting until his death from tuberculosis in 1933 – but it was stratospheric in impact and success. He recorded over 100 songs, appeared in an iconic short film, and demonstrated his unmatched charisma in live performances. He was the first true country star, and his legacy goes beyond country music. In addition to being the first inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame, he has also been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Red Snodgrass & His Alabamians were a dance band performing at the Bristol Hotel, where it is believed Peer and his wife were staying. Their recording was likely done as a favor to the hotel since a few of the band members came from a wealthy Bristol family.

Images: Jimmie Rodgers images were donated from the Joe E. Brooks Estate. Rodgers with Pierce and the Grants is from John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, #20001, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Join us next Tuesday, August 11 at 7 p.m. for a virtual Speaker Session with Jada Watson on the Unheard Voices of Radio ...
08/03/2026

Join us next Tuesday, August 11 at 7 p.m. for a virtual Speaker Session with Jada Watson on the Unheard Voices of Radio Airplay. Watson will be exploring whose stories get airplay in country music and whose are left out.

Watson’s work has illuminated how inequitable programming practices at country radio have limited opportunities for women and artists of color, while also shaping what audiences hear. Tracing this work back to “TomatoGate,” the session highlights how these patterns are not only ongoing, but deeply rooted in the genre’s history.

This program is free and open to the public. For more information and registration, please visit the link in our comments.🔗

On August 3, 1927 two family groups recorded with Ralph Peer and the Victor Talking Machine Company.The Shelor Family, w...
08/03/2026

On August 3, 1927 two family groups recorded with Ralph Peer and the Victor Talking Machine Company.

The Shelor Family, who also recorded under the name Dad Blackard's Moonshiners, were a family string band from Meadows of Dan, Virginia. Joe Blackard led the band with his vocals and banjo; his daughter, Clarice, sang harmony and played the piano; and her husband, Jesse, and his brother, Pyrhus, accompanied them on fiddle. They recorded four songs in Bristol. In an interview years later, Clarice recalled the struggle to select new songs for the Victor catalog and, at Peer’s request, learn or add lyrics because the group was used to performing without them.

The Bakers, James Wiley and Flora, were a married couple from Coeburn, Virginia and were also cousins of the Carters. They recorded two songs at the 1927 Bristol Sessions: “The Newmarket Wreck,” another train wreck song, and “On the Banks of the Sunny Tennessee.”

Images: Images of the Shelor Family Band and James Wiley Baker and Flora Baker with their sons, James (guitar) and Donald (mandolin) taken in 1948, were reproduced from the liner notes by Ted Olsen and Tony Russell, “The Bristol Sessions, 1927-28: The Big Bang of Country Music,” 2011. Image of Clarice is courtesy of Blue Ridge Institute & Museum of Ferrum College.

☀️Make the most of the final weeks of summer with us at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum! This month, we're celebr...
08/02/2026

☀️Make the most of the final weeks of summer with us at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum!

This month, we're celebrating the tradition of Appalachian ballads with two programs inspired by our special exhibit, “Charles Vess: The Book of Ballads.” Test your knowledge during Ballads & Legends Trivia Night at LUMAC Rooftop Bar and discover the art of traditional singing in our Ballad Singing Workshop led by renowned 8th-generation ballad singer Donna Ray Norton.

For more monthly event and programming information, visit birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/main-events

Maybelle and Sara Carter returned to the temporary recording studio in Bristol without Sara’s husband, A.P. on August 2,...
08/02/2026

Maybelle and Sara Carter returned to the temporary recording studio in Bristol without Sara’s husband, A.P. on August 2, 1927. The cousins recorded two songs that day. It was unusual for two women to be the featured performers in a band – only about 5% of country’s earliest recordings featured women – but Sara’s impressive vocals and Mabelle’s revolutionary guitar playing captivated audiences and propelled the Carter Family to an enduring fame.

Two other acts also recorded on this day, Henry Whitter and the Alcoa Quartet. Henry Whitter was an early country music recording pioneer. His first song, “The Wreck of the Southern Old 97,” released in 1924, was an early “hillbilly” success that is considered one of the most influential recordings in early country music history. In Bristol, he recorded two harmonica solos. The Alcoa Quartet was a white gospel singing group who had recorded once before in 1925 and played professionally in the region. They used shape note songbooks and performed a capella.

Images: Henry Whitter and Alcoa Quartet images are from the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, #20001, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Alcoa Quartet, from the liner notes by Ted Olson and Tony Russell, “The Bristol Sessions, 1927–28: The Big Bang of Country Music,” 2011. Carter Family images were donated from the Joe E. Brooks Estate.

The Carter Family made their first recordings on August 1, 1927, launching a career that inspired generations of musicia...
08/01/2026

The Carter Family made their first recordings on August 1, 1927, launching a career that inspired generations of musicians. Sara, A.P., and Maybelle Carter not only helped put country music on the map, they also stayed at its forefront for the first two decades of its rise as a commercial art form. Between 1927 and 1941, they produced nearly 250 foundational recordings, largely rearranging old-fashioned and familiar traditional tunes A.P. Carter collected on songcatching trips – alone and with Lesley Riddle – into something new for a modern audience.

The Carters were one of the biggest discoveries of the 1927 Bristol Sessions, but they were not the only performers who recorded for Ralph Peer and the Victor Talking Machine Company that day. A square dance band from Wise, Virginia, that named themselves the Bull Mountain Moonshiners while driving to Bristol for their audition, put down two songs. And J.P. Nester and Norman Edmonds, a fiddle and banjo duo, recorded four tracks, though only two were released. Those two songs exemplify typical early Appalachian string band music, which consisted only of banjo and fiddle before the guitar made its mark on hillbilly music. The 1927 Bristol Sessions are their only recordings. Although Peer invited them to record again in New York, Nester did not want to leave the mountains and returned to his farm instead.

Images: Norman Edmonds with his fiddle, courtesy of Mark Sanderford. Carter Family images were donated from the Joe E. Brooks Estate.

Address

101 Country Music Way
Bristol, VA
24201

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm

Telephone

(423) 573-1927

Website

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