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Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues Revisited

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October 2025
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In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues Revisited returns to the Museum on April 26, 2024. The acclaimed 2004–2005 exhibit explored an often-overlooked chapter of Nashville’s musical history—an influential rhythm & blues scene that thrived from the 1940s through the 1960s. And the exhibit’s companion compilation album won a Grammy in 2005. This twentieth-anniversary edition of Night Train revisits highlights from the exhibit’s debut, along with new artifacts and rare photos.

Night Train Online Exhibit

Explore Night Train from the comfort of your home—browse the online exhibit. Made possible by a major grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the exhibit’s online version includes archival photos, video footage, panel discussions, classic Nashville R&B recordings, and more.

explore the online exhibit

Night Train to Nashville Exhibit Highlights

  • Bessie Smith letter and photo

    Blues singer Bessie Smith sent this letter to Hatch Show Print in 1927, along with this photograph to use for designing her posters.

  • Sam Cooke ticket

    R&B great Sam Cooke was in his prime when this ticket was printed for a show at Nashville’s Sulphur Dell baseball stadium in 1962.

  • Etta James album cover

    Etta James signed this cover of Rocks the House, her live album recorded at Nashville’s New Era Club in September 1963. The venue was chosen, said producer Ralph Bass, “because of the atmosphere generated by the public who patronize this club.”

  • Johnny Jones Electric guitar and amplifier

    This Gibson ES-345 electric guitar and Lab Series L7 amplifier were used by Johnny Jones in the later part of his career. Nashville’s premier blues guitarist, Jones performed in the house band on the R&B TV shows Night Train and The!!!!Beat and influenced Jimi Hendrix in the early 1960s.

  • Jimmy Church suit

    Vocalist and bandleader Jimmy Church performed in this pink three-piece suit, accented with a rhinestone crown on the breast pocket. A Nashville native who recorded with an R&B group while still in high school, Church was regularly featured on the R&B TV shows Night Train and The!!!!Beat.

  • Hank Crawford bandstand

    Saxophonist Hank Crawford performed in jazz bands and fronted an R&B group called Little Hank & the Rhythm Kings that played often at a club in Printers Alley. He left Nashville in 1958 to join Ray Charles’s group, soon becoming the bandleader. In 1963, Crawford formed his own jazz unit, which used matching, hand-painted, bandstands.

  • Bobby Hebb spoons

    Bobby Hebb used these spoons as percussion instruments.

  • Little Willie John poster

    This poster advertises a show headlined by R&B singer Little Willie John, whose powerful vocal style was immortalized on his 1957 chart-topper, “Fever,” performed at Nashville’s Club Baron that year.

  • Jackie Shane poster

    Nashville native Jackie Shane was a pioneering transgender artist who worked in the city’s R&B nightclubs and recording studios. In 1960, she relocated to Canada, where she gained a rabid following, returning to her hometown to perform on the TV show Night Train in 1965. This poster promoted an appearance by Shane in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1960.