Country Music Hall of Fame Supplement, February 6th

Today I'd like to talk with you about the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee which I visited on the morning of Saturday, February 6th 2010.

Jeff had received a hot, hot tip from our buddy Paul that that day was the Museum's free day. The tip was true. As an essentially non-country music listener, I would have never considered going to that museum for $30, but for $0? I'd definitely have a look.

Let me drop a spoiler on you: The museum is great. Just great. Exhibit after exhibit about things I thought I didn't care about rendered suddenly so interesting. Consider the special exhibit on Brenda Lee they had. Walking into it, I barely knew that there was a person called Brenda Lee. But it had me right away.

She hit it big as a kid and just kept going

And do you know how she met her husband that she's still married to? She was singing in a show, saw him in the audience, and sent him a note. Three or six months later, they were married. Just like that.

Now here's an idea for a box-office smash:

Mrs. Lee made this diorama herself for the exhibit.

On to the rest of the museum, we'd later learn this portion of the museum was designed to resemble a hayloft.

Jeff likes to make sure his museums are visited very carefully. This is no place to miss something that may be of importance.

Just cases and cases of great old stuff that had belonged to people I may or may not have heard of.

All well-labeled and well-displayed to maximize interestingness.

Along with video after video of great downhome music acts.

Really, to me, it was a museum of fun stuff to look at. Someone famous probably wrote something famous on this typewriter. But, to me, it was just a typewriter famous for being painted cool.

I guess I proved to myself that day that I could look at sharp honky tonk suits all day.

A lot of these were designed by "Nudie, the Rodeo Tailor." I bet you anything that's where the name of that jeans company comes from

Something that didn't hurt the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum's interest level at all: the close connection between early Rock n Roll and Country Music.

The best thing to see at the museum? Webb Pierce's gun-adorned and silver dollar-inlayed convertible.

Guns absolutely everywhere. A saddle for a center console, and horse shoes for gas pedals (you'll have to trust me on that).

Back to the classy clothes.

This is Elvis' "Solid Gold Cadillac"

A little ho-hum compared to the gun car, but I suppose it was all right. A lot of gold in there, plus a record player.

Old NASA consoles...no, wait. Old music-recording consoles.

Walls and walls of Platinum and Gold records.

Some information on Hee-Haw.

A little exhibit on that horrible terrible manager Elvis had.

Didn't he know he repped the King of Rock n Roll? That it wasn't necessary for him to cheapen the brand by walking around in hand-painted promotional coats?

There was a big exhibit on Hank Williams.

Hank had his ups and his downs, to say the least, but how can you stay mad at a fellow that shot a bunch of squirrels then had his taxidermist turn them into a little musical group?

Hank, like Elvis, had some Mom-issues.

How was it she was described? As a stern, broad-shouldered woman? Or did I just make that up from the photo?

The exhibit was actually about the Williams family legacy. As you can see here, Jeff has now joined the Williams family.

These were Hank's wife's boots.

And these are some of Hank Jr.'s clothes. This is the only stuff about Hank Jr. you'll find in this post because I don't care about Hank Jr. He's a face of the part of Country I don't care for that I do can recognize.

After the Hank exhibit it was actually lots of recognizable stuff for me. Johnny on the left, Dolly on the right. No matter how big the star or how popular they are right now the museum treated them all pretty evenly. Oh, those are Willie's sneakers at the bottom of the picture.

This friendly fellow walked up to us and started teaching us so much...like that the upper part of the museum was designed to resemble a hayloft.

Gabe showed up towards the end of our visit and joined us for our visit to the actual Hall of Fame part of the Hall of Fame.

A place to reflect upon the legacy of your Country Western heroes and to look up...

At the big needle about to get us all.

The big needle, from a safer position.

No, Thank You, Country Music Hall of Fame, for being a totally excellent museum with interesting exhibits with fun stuff to look at and listen to that's also full of super friendly helpful workers.

And, for your reference, this is the gift shop.

And this is the lobby.

Even though you know everything there is to know about the Country Music Hall of Fame now, I still recommend you visit someday if you're in Nashville and you've got $30 burning a hole in your pocket.