If you’re a country-music fan, or a fan of music in general, a trip to Nashville, Tennessee is akin to a pilgrimage. Music City, USA doesn’t only delight with its everyday smorgasbord of live performances, which go down from stately auditorium and theater stages to hole-in-the-wall, oozing-with-character honky tonks. It’s also steeped in formative musical history, and Nashville continues to celebrate and explore that impressive heritage, which touches on multiple genres of music but, without question, comes most iconically anchored in the country end of the pool.
For delving into that heritage, you can’t do better than the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, situated mere blocks away from The Union Station Nashville Yards. Use our luxury boutique hotel (its own historical landmark, mind you) as your springboard for visiting this genuine Music City institution.
Introducing the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum
The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum opened back in 1967 on Nashville’s Music Row, moving to its current location in Downtown Music City in 2001 and then undergoing a major expansion and upgrade—a $100 million project—in 2014.
Treating as it does the history of country music, the Museum also touches on numerous other strands of American music that contributed to the development of its focus genre and have continued to intertwine with it, not least folk, blues, and rock-and-roll.
Between its permanent exhibits and galleries and its rich, wide-ranging curation of temporary exhibitions, the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum covers a vast amount of fascinating territory. And the enormous collection of artifacts, photos, and other holdings and the stories they tell are enhanced by other museum features such as the performance venues of the CMA and Ford theaters and the learning opportunities on offer in the Taylor Swift Education Center.
The Core Permanent Exhibit of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum: Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present
The permanent centerpiece of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum is the exhibit Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present, which takes museumgoers on a fabulous journey across time through the highways and byways of country music’s development and diversity.
This multimedia attraction includes a whole slew of astonishing artifacts sure to thrill dyed-in-the-wool music enthusiasts, from Bill Monroe’s mandolin and Sara Carter’s autoharp to one of Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” suits and Elvis Presley’s gold Cadillac.
The Country Music Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame Rotunda is another linchpin attraction of the Museum building, honoring as it does scores of country music’s biggest and most influential names via bas-relief bronzes: from Roy Acuff, Deford Bailey, and Patsy Cline to Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and The Judds. Three trailblazers were the very first inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame back in 1961: Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, and Fred Rose.
New inductees are unveiled during the Hall of Fame’s annual Medallion Ceremony. The Class of 2023 inductees included Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless, and Bob McDill.
Current Exhibitions at The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum
As usual, some fine temporary exhibitions are currently on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. Among them is a celebration of one of those aforementioned 2023 inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame, an installation titled Patty Loveless: No Trouble With Truth. Running until October of this year, the exhibition presents artifacts, photos, interviews, and other documentation of Loveless’s illustrious career, which kicked off big-time in the 1980s and continues to influence new generations of singers and songwriters.
While country music is inextricably associated with Nashville and other corners of the American South, there’s no question some other geographies have contributed to its sound and style. Learn about the West Coast influence in Western Edge: The Roots & Reverberations of Los Angeles Country Rock, which continues into May 2025. Looking back to the late 1960s and 1970s and onward from there, this exhibition digs into the groundbreaking music of such artists as The Byrds, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Emmylou Harris, and Gram Parsons, as well as later performers continuing the tradition, from Los Lobos to Dwight Yoakam.
Don’t miss Western Edge’s fantastic display of the iconic Nudie suits sported by the Flying Burrito Brothers on their seminal album the Gilded Palace of Sin (1969).
New England may not be immediately linked in one’s mind to country music, but it’s sourced its own outstanding artists in that field, as Dick Curless: Hard Traveling Man From Maine (which closes this month) demonstrates. Associated with the exhibition is a February 18th event at the museum’s Ford Theater: Conversation & Performance: The Life & Music of Dick Curless, featuring exhibit producer Jake Guralnick and co-curator Peter Guralnick as well a tribute performance to Curless by BR549 founding member and solo artist Chuck Head.
You can also visit the annual exhibition American Currents: State of the Music, which each year considers the latest trends, happenings, and emerging or notable artists in the country-music genre.
Among the performers spotlighted in the current edition of American Currents are Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Miko Marks, and Luke Combs. Items on display in the exhibition range from a Miranda Lambert jumpsuit and a jacket worn by Reba McEntire at the 2022 CMA Awards to the glittery lapel pins worn by the Black Opry’s co-directors Holly G and Tanner Davenport at that important organization’s first anniversary.
Upcoming Performances & Special Events at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum
Keep your eyes on the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum events calendar: There’s always something on tap here!
For instance, among the upcoming happenings are a performance by Stephanie Urbina Jones & the Honky Tonk Mariachi (January 23rd); a Songwriter Session by Jenna LaMaster (January 27th); the family-friendly Musical Instrument Petting Zoo (January 27th); and a Concert & Conversation with Morgan Wade (February 3rd).
The Museum also hosts events off-site around town, such as the Harmonica Demo & Beginner Harmonica Workshop with Carlos Deford Bailey that’ll take place February 5th at the Goodlettsville Branch of the Nashville Public Library.
Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Downtown Nashville During Your Stay at The Union Station Nashville Yards
A bespoke luxury guest room or suite at The Union Station Nashville Yards puts you just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, one of the preeminent draws in Downtown Nashville. Book your Music City getaway with us today!