When visiting Nashville, there are plenty of things to do. You could go to a Titans or Predators game. You could visit the Parthenon replica. You could get yourself a pair of cowboy boots or three on the tourist strip. But I couldn’t leave Nashville last week without visiting The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And I’m glad I did.
The first thing you do after getting your ticket (about $25 – more if you want a studio or audio tour) is wait in line to get on the elevator. While you’re waiting, a charming museum employee scans your ticket and gives you a few quick pointers to better enjoy your visit. When the elevator arrives, it whisks you away to the third floor while putting you in the right mood by playing some country music.
There are plenty of permanent exhibits, but also some temporarily highlighted exhibits. On the day I went, there was a large Alabama display, a huge exhibit dedicated to Blake Shelton, and a nice display of memorabilia from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.
Each display is a piece of country music history. There are stage costumes, guitars, fiddles, Grammys, and lyrics. There are videos playing music or interviews near some displays. If you’re really into country music, you could spend the entire day getting lost in the history. As someone who’s only recently begun to appreciate country music, I wanted to a deeper connection to what I was seeing. With so many objects associated with famous people, at a certain point it becomes overwhelming to the point of losing some of the meaning. After all, they’re just objects; not the actual people that gave them meaning. But I’m certain that if I had a deeper connection to the music, I’d have felt more of a sense of awe as I walked through the museum.
Elvis’s gold trimmed Cadillac was something that anybody could appreciate. I was particularly enamored with the Taylor Swift costumes, the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash history, and the unique wear patterns on each guitar in the museum. Taylor Swift has a large presence at the museum, but not in terms of items. Rather, her name headlines the Taylor Swift Music Education Center, as well as a large fake tour bus. Inside that bus, there is a sound booth where you can record your own vocals over instrumentals that play in your headphones. After you’ve finished, you can head over to any of the numerous mixing stations to play around and make it sound just as you’d like. Since the museum surprisingly doesn’t have hardly any interactive exhibits for kids, this mock recording studio turned out to be the most fun part of the experience for me and my daughter.
That was my biggest disappointment about the museum; that it didn’t have more interactive activities for children. The museum also could have stood to have a greater variety of items on display. Small quibbles aside, my trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was well worth the visit, and it’s something I’d do again. If you’re ever in Nashville, make sure you take a couple hours to stop by.
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Exploring The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
When visiting Nashville, there are plenty of things to do. You could go to a Titans or Predators game.
Exploring The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
When visiting Nashville, there are plenty of things to do. You could go to a Titans or Predators game.
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