Music and Conversation: Photographer Ed Rode with Tony Arata, Matraca Berg, and Don Henry
Photographer Ed Rode’s 2024 book, Songwriter Musician: Behind the Curtain with Nashville’s Iconic Storytellers and Players, is the culmination of decades of stories captured on film: playing snooker with John Prine, celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Brad Paisley, traversing Tennessee with Ketch Secor and documentarian Ken Burns, and more. During this program, Rode—who is also a full-time instructor in Murray State University’s Journalism and Mass Communications Department—will discuss his career and photography with the Museum’s Angela Stefano Zimmer. Following their conversation, songwriters Tony Arata, Matraca Berg, and Don Henry—all of whom Rode has photographed—will perform songs from their catalogs. Arata, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member, wrote Garth Brooks’s “The Dance,” as well as songs recorded by Patty Lovless, Lee Roy Parnell, Clay Walker, and more. Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Berg wrote Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine,” Kenny Chesney’s “You and Tequila” featuring Grace Potter, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl),” and others. Henry wrote Kathy Mattea’s “Where’ve You Been” and songs recorded by Miranda Lambert, the Oak Ridge Boys, Blake Shelton, and other artists. Offered in support of the exhibition Writers, Pickers, and Stars: The Photography of Ed Rode. Ford Theater. Included with Museum admission. Program ticket required. Free to Museum members.
