Current
Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and 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. This exciting, multi-layered experience includes artifacts, photographs, original recordings, archival video, newly produced films, touchscreen interactive media, and beautifully rendered text panels. The exhibit immerses the visitor in the history and sounds of country music, its meanings, and the lives and voices of its honored personalities.
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Archive Spotlight Series
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum's Archive Spotlights are a series of informal exhibits that highlight specific themes or aspects of the Museum's core exhibit, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music. Our Archive Spotlight Series currently includes exhibits on:
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Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player
The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will pay tribute to one of country music's most versatile and visionary artists, Chet Atkins, with Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player, a biographical exhibit opening Friday, August 12, 2011, for a 10-month run in the Museum's East Gallery. The exhibition, which is made possible through the generous support of the Gretsch Company with additional support provided by Great American Country Television Network, will run through June 11, 2012.
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The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and California Country
The working-class city of Bakersfield, California, gave birth to an exciting, raw-edged style of country music that enjoyed tremendous popularity in the 1960s and continues to resonate with musicians and fans today. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were the most successful exponents of the Bakersfield Sound, with its piercing electric guitars, unsweetened barroom feel, and honest, down-to-earth songs.
Owens and Haggard rose to iconic status on the shoulders of a Bakersfield music scene created by broad cultural changes from the 1930s through the 1950s. Southerners seeking work in Bakersfield's abundant farmlands and oil fields made up an audience hungry for the sounds of home. Western swing and honky-tonk proved particularly popular, and with time Bakersfield musicians created their own distinctive, influential sound-two thousand miles from country music's epicenter in Nashville.
