Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

01/24/2025

Earlier this week, the Museum honored four exceptional volunteers with the Dick Kottler Volunteer Award during a reception for volunteers, which featured a performance by Museum "Poets and Prophets" honoree and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Tom Douglas. In recognition of volunteer Dick Kottler’s tremendous contributions to the Museum’s mission during his lifetime, volunteers who donate ten years and 1,200 hours of service in support of the Museum receive the award, which also includes a special gold-embroidered volunteer vest and their name enshrined on a seat in the Museum’s CMA Theater. Award recipients included Julie Bayhi, Joe Haase, Larry Johnson, and Lindsey Read.

Learn more about the Museum's volunteer opportunities: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/support/get-involved/volunteer

01/24/2025

Locals, this is your last chance to visit the Museum for pay-what-you-want prices!

Through January 31, 2025, residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties, including Cheatham, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson receive daily pay-what-you-want admission. Plus, PMC is offering locals parking for $10 in the Hilton Hotel & Walk of Fame Park Garage.

Start your year off right with music and more at the Museum. Learn more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/locals-pay-what-you-want

01/21/2025

Born in the small town of Ferriday, Louisiana, Country Music Hall of Fame member Jerry Lee Lewis first came to prominence as an explosive rockabilly showman with a distinctive and dynamic style as a singer and pianist.

Lewis’s first single on Sun Records failed to make major waves, but his second release was volcanic. The revolutionary “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” topped the country and R&B charts in September 1957 and reached #3 in the pop field. In January 1958, he duplicated his success with the equally incendiary “Great Balls of Fire,” a #1 country and #2 pop hit. At that point, he was the hottest artist in both country and rock & roll.

Throughout the mid-1960s, Lewis cut country songs and rock & roll numbers, but he failed to regain traction on the charts until producer Jerry Kennedy asked him to record a country session with newly written songs. The move reenergized Lewis's career and demonstrated that he was also among country music’s most expressive performers. Between 1968 and 1981, Lewis had thirty-four Top Twenty country hits. Along the way, he put his personal stamp on songs ranging from classics by Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams to contemporary works by Mickey Newbury and Kris Kristofferson.

In his later years, Lewis continued to be a vital musical force in concert and on record, cutting powerful remakes of his Sun classics for the biographical film “Great Balls of Fire!” (1989) and delivering inspired duet performances on the album “Last Man Standing” (2006) with such luminaries as B. B. King, Merle Haggard, and Bruce Springsteen.

Lewis was inducted into the first class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022.

Read more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/jerry-lee-lewis

01/20/2025

Today, we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by heeding his wisdom. In 2021, Hatch Show Print released this poster featuring the words of Dr. King. It reads, "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

01/17/2025

Melba Montgomery, whose duets with George Jones and songwriting skills propelled her into the spotlight, died January 15 at the age of eighty-six.

Born in Iron City, Tennessee, and raised in Florence, Alabama, Montgomery grew up in a musical family. Her father taught voice lessons at a Methodist church, while she and her brothers Carl and Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery took up their own instruments at a young age. Peanutt became a successful country songwriter.

Melba’s songwriting initially got her noticed too, but it was her voice, with its note-bending drama and distinctly country tone, that kickstarted her career. Roy Acuff was so impressed with her that he invited her to tour with him and, in 1962, she released her first singles for Nugget Records before signing with United Artists in 1963.

George Jones, whose career was red hot in the early 1960s, suggested that he and Montgomery get together as duet partners. It proved to be an ideal pairing of voices, with Montgomery capably matching Jones’s idiosyncratic phrasing on their signature hit “We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds”—which Melba Montgomery wrote—and “Let’s Invite Them Over.”

Montgomery’s duets often outperformed her solo output, as offerings like “Baby Ain’t That Fine” with Gene Pitney and “Something to Brag About” with Charlie Louvin both reached the country Top Twenty. Solo success would come later, as Harlan Howard’s parenting ballad “No Charge” (1974) provided her first and only #1, which she followed the next year with the #15 hit “Don’t Let the Good Times Fool You.”

Later in her career, Montgomery found ongoing success as a songwriter and landed cuts with Patty Loveless, Terri Clark, and Sara Evans. She also worked with Americana star Jim Lauderdale, with whom she wrote “What Do You Say to That,” a Top Five hit for George Strait.

Montgomery continued to sing and appeared as a guest on John Prine’s 1999 duet collection “In Spite of Ourselves,” reprising “We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds” with the late singer-songwriter. Her most recent album was the 2010 collection “Things That Keep You Going.”

01/17/2025

History Borne Home
A Look Back at 2024

01/16/2025

Each year, the Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum recognizes a music industry leader who continues the legacy of trailblazer Louise Scruggs, a formidable businesswoman who set new professional standards in artist management. This past year, the Museum celebrated Sally Williams, president of Nashville music and business strategy for Live Nation Concerts Entertainment and co-manager of the Grammy-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show.

Williams began promoting concerts while attending the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to joining Live Nation, she spent nearly twenty years with Ryman Hospitality Properties/Gaylord Entertainment. After becoming general manager of the Ryman Auditorium in 2008, she became Opry Entertainment Group’s senior vice president of programming and artist relations, as well as the first woman general manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in 2017.

During this in-depth interview, Williams discusses her more than 30 years in music and entertainment, many spent working with the industry’s biggest names.

Watch here:

Sally Williams has spent more than thirty years in music and entertainment. In this program, recorded on August 7, 2024, and moderated by the Museum’s Angela...

01/16/2025

New year, new groove—make live performances a part of 2025’s weekend routine. And throughout January, residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties visit for pay-what-you-want Museum admission and are eligible for a parking discount.

Swipe to see January’s line-up:

♪ Saturday, January 18: “Songwriter Session” with Caylee Hammack
♪ Sunday, January 19: “Musician Spotlight” with Josh Matheny
♪ Saturday, January 25: “Songwriter Session” with Lily Rose
♪ Sunday, January 26: “Musician Spotlight” with Jason Coleman

Learn more and reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/locals-pay-what-you-want

01/15/2025

Guitarist Glenn Frey, drummer Don Henley, multi-instrumentalist Bernie Leadon, and bassist Randy Meisner first joined forces in Linda Ronstadt's road band. With her blessing, they formed the Eagles, with each member contributing songs and lead vocals.

English producer Glyn Johns (Rolling Stones, the Who) highlighted the band's harmony vocals and country influences on the debut album, "Eagles" (1972), and the follow-up concept album "Desperado" (1973). Leadon played the Vega Tubaphone #3 model five-string banjo pictured here on "On the Border" (1974). The instrument can be heard on tracks including "Midnight Flyer" and "Journey of the Sorcerer," the latter from the band's first #1 album, "One of These Nights" (1975).

Leadon departed in 1975 and the band's country influences faded. "Hotel California" (1976) was the first Eagles album to feature Joe Walsh on guitar. Timothy B. Schmit replaced Meisner before the recording of "The Long Run" (1979). Today, the Eagles' "Greatest Hits 1971–1975" ranks as one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Make plans to visit "Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock," presented by City National Bank.

Witness history. Reserve today: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/western-edge-exhibit

01/14/2025

Music was never a passive experience for bluegrass great Buck White, who died January 13 at age ninety-four.

“Any song I heard, I’d be humming it,” he recalled of his childhood days in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he’d spend hours listening to Bob Wills and others on the local jukebox. He was soon inspired to pick up his own instrument—but the main one at his disposal wasn’t a guitar, fiddle, or banjo. It was his grandmother’s upright piano. Mandolin and guitar would soon follow.

That led to White learning to play everything from bluegrass to western swing to boogie-woogie. His versatility was a key ingredient in his success. In his early years in Texas, he sometimes backed major stars like Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb onstage, and in time he became the leader of his famed family band, the Whites.

The group—known as the Down Home Folks—began in the early sixties after the White family moved to Arkansas. White’s wife, Pat, joined the group first, and their daughters Cheryl, Sharon, and Rosie soon followed.

In 1971, the family moved to Nashville, and the Down Home Folks—which coalesced into a trio of Buck, Cheryl, and Sharon—released a string of bluegrass albums in the seventies.

Among their early admirers was Emmylou Harris, who invited Cheryl and Sharon to sing background vocals on her 1979 album "Blue Kentucky Girl," and brought the Down Home Folks on tour.

At the dawn of the 1980s, as traditional sounds began to return to the country airwaves, the group renamed itself the Whites and inked a deal with Capitol Records in 1981. They scored their first Top Ten hit, “You Put the Blue in Me,” in 1982. Over the next two years, they released four more Top Ten country hits, including “Hangin’ Around” and “Pins and Needles.” They became members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1984, with Rosie again as a regular member of the group.

After departing from the majors following 1988’s "Doing It by the Book," the Whites’ recorded output slowed, as the members focused on touring and other projects. Buck White’s mandolin prowess was showcased and celebrated on the 1999 all-star compilation "Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza."

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the group’s traditional sound was thrust back into the spotlight with the success of the 2000 film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The Whites appeared in the film and recorded “Keep on the Sunny Side” for the film’s soundtrack, which earned them Grammy, CMA, and International Bluegrass Music Association awards for Album of the Year.

The Whites would earn another Grammy for their final album, 2007’s "Salt of the Earth"—a collaboration with White’s son-in-law, Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs, who married Sharon White in 1981. In 2024, the Whites celebrated their fortieth anniversary as Opry members.

Pictured from left: Cheryl, Sharon, and Buck White in the 1980s.

01/14/2025

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opened its newest exhibit just before the end of 2024. It puts the spotlight on Rosanne Cash, a second-generation star who’s fleshed out her own identity.

01/14/2025

With more than 1.6 million annual visitors, volunteers play a huge part at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum—one of the most visited history museums in the country. From welcoming global visitors to leading school tours, volunteers celebrate the history of country music in a wide range of roles, right in the heart of downtown Nashville. And volunteering comes with perks:

· Free admission to the Museum
· Free tour of RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print
· Discounts in Museum stores and restaurants
· Free parking while volunteering
· Seasonal discounts on Museum memberships
· Volunteer opportunities every day of the week
· Flexible self-scheduling
· Ongoing learning opportunities
· Access to online training materials
· Invitations to private Museum events
· Invitations to social events with fellow volunteers
· Recognition for hourly, yearly, and significant service

To learn more and apply: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/support/get-involved/volunteer

01/14/2025

The Museum has been nominated for a USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Award for "Best Music Museum." Show your support for its mission to collect, preserve, and interpret the evolving history and traditions of country music—vote now through Monday, February 10.

Vote: https://10best.usatoday.com/qr/44410/

01/13/2025

Country Music Hall of Fame member Don Law was one of the most important and successful producers in country music history.

Head of Columbia Records’ country music division through most of the fifties and sixties, Law worked with artists including Carl Smith, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Johnny Horton, and Johnny Cash, to name but a few. Early in his career, Law was instrumental in bringing pre-World War II talents including western swing standard-bearer Bob Wills and influential blues artist Robert Johnson to Columbia and its affiliates.

Popular with most of his acts, Law was, as Price once put it, a producer who “let an artist be an artist.” Law—pictured here with Marty Robbins (left) and Troy Martin (center)—joined the Hall of Fame in 2001.

Read more: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/artist/don-law/

01/11/2025

Due to inclement weather, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum intends to open at 11:00 AM Saturday, January 11. Additionally, Family Programs are canceled. The Tommy Karlas Songwriter Session planned for 12:00 PM is rescheduled to April 5, 2025.

For more information, please visit countrymusichalloffame.org

Due to inclement weather in the Nashville area—and out of concern for our staff and visitors—the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Hatch Show Print, Haley Gallery, and Historic RCA Studio B will be closed tomorrow, January 10. Please stay safe and warm, and check back here and at CountryMusicHallofFame.org for updates.

01/10/2025

For the first time, The War and Treaty—the husband-wife duo of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter—will perform a series of concerts alongside the Nashville Symphony conducted by Enrico Lopez-Yañez.

The War And Treaty are currently featured in the annual Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibition, "American Currents: State of the Music," which offers a broad look at country's latest chapter. In 2023, they became the first Black artists to be nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year, by both the CMA Country Music Association and the ACM - Academy of Country Music. For the second year in a row, they were named Duo/Group of the Year by the Americana Music Association. They have received two Grammy Awards nominations, including Best New Artist.

Reserve tickets to their symphony performances here: NashvilleSymphony.org/WarAndTreaty

01/09/2025

Due to inclement weather in the Nashville area—and out of concern for our staff and visitors—the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Hatch Show Print, Haley Gallery, and Historic RCA Studio B will be closed tomorrow, January 10. Please stay safe and warm, and check back here and at CountryMusicHallofFame.org for updates.

01/09/2025

Saturday, February 1, round up your family to experience cowboy culture at its finest—and funniest—with Grammy-winners Riders In The Sky. Cowpokes of all ages will laugh and learn along with guitarist and yodeler Ranger Doug, bassist Too Slim, fiddler and rope trickster Woody Paul, and accordion player Joey “the CowPolka King.”

For over forty years, Riders in the Sky have been preserving Western musical heritage—from campfire stories and slapstick humor to flashy fringe shirts and tight harmony singing. Of the many awards and accolades they’ve earned, the band is especially revered for creating music for “Toy Story 2,” which earned them their first Grammy.

Walk-up tickets are free but seating is limited. Click to learn more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/family-program-riders-in-the-sky