story and photos courtesy of Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
We’ve waited patiently, masked, and gotten vaccinated (this editor hopes you’ve gotten vaccinated). Nashville is always a quick car-ride away. Consider seeing these historic sites. Tickets are timed on all, so advance ticket purchase is recommended.
Historic RCA Studio B
Built in 1957, Historic RCA Studio B operated for 20 years as the recording home of popular music titans. Approximately 18,000 sessions were recorded within its walls, including more than 200 songs by Country Music Hall of Fame member Elvis Presley. Today, the studio is both a classroom for Nashville-area students and a popular cultural attraction. Tours are available to Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum visitors and depart from the museum. April 27th is the 50th anniversary of Dolly Parton recording “Coat of Many Colors” at the Studio.
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
One of the largest history museums in the United States, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum collects, preserves and interprets country music and its history for the education and entertainment of diverse audiences. In exhibits, publications and
educational programs, the museum explores the cultural importance and enduring beauty of the art form. The museum takes visitors on a journey through country music history through its permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present—the museum’s core, permanent exhibit—tells the story of country music from its pre-commercial roots in the nineteenth century through its vibrant life today. The exhibit immerses the visitor in the history and
sounds of country music, its meanings and the lives and voices of its honored personalities. Rotating temporary exhibits taking place throughout the year, include the annual American Currents: State of the Music, focusing on the most significant developments in country music over the previous year. Other temporary exhibits on display at the museum this summer include The Station Inn: Bluegrass Beacon, We Could: The Songwriting Artistry of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon (through July 26, 2021), Kacey Musgraves: All of the Colors and Outlaws & Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ’70s.
Hatch Show Print
Hatch Show Print is a thriving letterpress poster and design shop creating and printing 500 to 600 poster jobs every year for clients ranging from Mumford & Sons and Willie Nelson to brands such as Fossil, Taschen and the U.S. Postal Service. Tours of Hatch Show Print begin in the production shop, allowing visitors to listen to the presses crank as they learn about the history. Participants will end in the Hatch Show Print Space for Design, where they can print their own keepsake piece.
Founded by brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch, Hatch Show Print opened in Nashville in 1879. For much of the 20th century, the shop’s vibrant posters served as a leading advertising medium for Southern entertainment and included work for many members of the Grand Ole Opry such as Bill Monroe, Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb, and for rock & roll greats such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. Thousands of posters and billboard-size advertisements were printed for traveling vaudeville and minstrel shows, circuses and carnivals barnstorming across the country. In 1992, Hatch Show Print became a historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
