CITY SPOTLIGHT
NASHVILLE
My country roots—exposed
Country Music Hall of Fame
It turns out that I’m more of a country music fan that I
thought. We visited three museums dedicated to legendary
performers—Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and George Jones—and
each struck a chord within me.
The NTA-member Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline Museums
are housed in the same building. The ground floor holds an
impressive assortment of The Man in Black’s stage costumes,
gold and platinum records, guitars, and memorabilia. I espe-
cially like the postcard that a young Cash wrote to his parents
in Arkansas during a high school trip to Nashville. “Having a
good time” was his entire message.
Upstairs, I was fascinated by Patsy Cline’s personal items—
knickknacks on her dining room cupboard and her sketches of
stage costumes. Mark Logsdon, our host at the museum explained
the difference in the two collections: “Patsy Cline’s career lasted
only six years, compared to Johnny Cash’s six decades.”
Exhibits at both museums cover the feature films that ele-
vated the public awareness of each artist: “Walk the Line” (Cash)
and “Sweet Dreams” (Cline). I’ve seen both movies several times,
and I know their greatest hits; that’s why I appreciated seeing
the tangible tokens of their lives. johnnycashmuseum.com
I’m not as familiar with Jones, but I still enjoyed learning about
his life and, well, hard times. Opened in 2015 and curated by his
wife, The George Jones features his outlandish costumes and a
sing-along room. My favorite, “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” is
not one of the sing-along songs, but that didn’t stop me from
singing it to myself as I viewed the exhibits. georgejones.com
But the granddaddy of Nashville’s music museums—the
paramount portrayer—is the Country Music Hall of Fame &
Museum. This multi-level attraction gives visitors the full his-
tory of country music while providing intimate portraits of its
most accomplished stars. The NTA-member museum draws
more than a million visitors a year.
“We get lots of student groups—bands, choruses and
orchestras—along with adult groups,” says Dana Romanello,
museum sales manager. “We offer exclusive tours, and we
can also bring in a Nashville songwriter who will write a song
with the group, and they record it before they leave.”
The collaborative program, called “Sharing the Art of
Songwriting,” is available for groups of 30 or more. country
musichalloffame.org
More music and museums
We visited three other attractions that spotlight Nashville as
the middle-C center of not only country music, but just music.
The tag line of the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum is
“Come see what you’ve heard,” and the attraction showcases
the artists who created music across America in Los Angeles;
Memphis; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; New York; and Detroit,
along with Nashville.
“When you buy a song, you think of the person who’s sing-
ing, but there might have been 500 people that went into the
making of that recording,” says Jay McDowell, the museum’s
multimedia curator. I would advise any tour operator to make
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sure it’s McDowell who leads their group through the facility; his
industry background and acquisition acumen lend an incredible
authenticity to the experience. musicianshalloffame.com
The Gallery of Iconic Guitars, jauntily referred to as The
GIG, opened just this spring on the campus of Belmont
University. The collection’s 500 historically significant instru-
ments, worth an estimated $10 million, were donated to the
college by the late Steven Kern Shaw. Displayed on a rotating
basis, the instruments include a 1939 Martin acoustic guitar,
valued at $350,000; a mandolin from the 1920s considered to
be more rare than a Stradivarius violin; and a 1960 Gibson Les
Paul electric guitar valued at $225,000.
“The collection celebrates the instrument, not the star who
played it,” says George Gruh, a vintage instrument expert and
friend of Shaw. “The real stars are the makers of the in