Exploring Nashville’s Country Music Museums

My hip replacement recovery is coming along quite nicely and I’ve been feeling the travel itch strongly lately.  I’m not cleared for motorcycle riding yet, so I figured 4-wheel travel will have to do, and set out west.  My ultimate destination was to attend an Army friend’s retirement in San Antonio.  Might as well add a little visiting and sightseeing along the way though! 

As I drove westward, I stopped to visit some iconic Nashville country music museums. As the commercial center of country music, Nashville is steeped in the genre’s history with an array of museums, recording studios, honkey-tonks, and the grand-daddy of all things country – The Grand Ole Opry. Luckily, four music museums were all within walking distance of each other, so my afternoon was set. 

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

I started my walking tour of country music history at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Expanded in 2014, the massive ‘Smithsonian of Country Music’ in downtown Nashville “encompasses 350,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, archival storage, retail stores, and event spaces.” (CM HoF & Museum website)  

I was drawn to the Kris Kristofferson exhibit like a moth to a light.  So much more than just a singer, he wrote songs that would be re-recorded by other artists and contribute to the soundtrack of our lives.  ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ sang by Janis Joplin, ‘Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down’ sang by Johny Cash, and ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ sang by greats like Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Anne Murray, Sammi Smith and Micheal Buble stand as testimony to his multi-generational appeal and longevity.  I knew he was a helicopter pilot in the Army, but I didn’t know that he was also an Army Ranger.  Disappointed he was not allowed to fight in Vietnam and offered a teaching position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point instead, he left the Army and turned to the Nashville country music scene.  His rebellious evolution into a pacifist over the years caused him to be endeared by some, and scorned by others. (Kris Kristofferson website).  I felt sad upon hearing the news of his death a few weeks after learning more about his life at the museum.

Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline Museums

From the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, I walked over to the National Museum of African American Music, but they were unexpectedly closed.  A bit disappointed, I made my way to 3^rd Ave. to take in the Johnny Cash Museum and Patsy Cline Museum, located in the same building.  Both artists’ songs were staples of my childhood.  I remember singing along with my dad as ‘Walkin After Midnight’ by Cline and ‘The Man in Black’ by Cash played on the radio.  Great songs and great memories. 

I’ve always been a fan of the haunting song ‘Hurt,’ written by Trent Reznor and released by Nine Inch Nails in 1995.  The song’s flat notes, in just the right places, and in the right amounts, combined with tortured vocals, tug at a darkness that makes you feel the level of desperation Reznor must have been experiencing when he wrote it.  I became an even bigger fan of the song, and felt it’s despair even deeper, after Johnny Cash recorded it in 2003.  It’s hard to watch Cash’s multi award-winning video of the song without tearing up.  Click HERE to watch the Nine Inch Nails video version, and HERE to watch Johnny Cash’s.    

I climbed the stairs in the lobby of the Johnny Cash Museum to the second floor for the Patsy Cline Museum.  Though only 30 years old when Patsy Cline died in an airplane crash in 1960, her icon status was solidified through legendary songs remade by countless artists, and inspiration to generations of female country music singers.  She was the first solo female country music artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

With a head full of country music history, I said good-bye to Nashville and continued west through Tennessee.