Released in conjunction with the museum’s Night Train to Nashville exhibit, the album includes previously unreleased songwriting demos, rehearsals and live recordings

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 3, 2024 – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum has collaborated with Org Music to release Let Me Dream On, a collection of previously unreleased songwriting demos, band rehearsals and live recordings by acclaimed Nashville singer Johnny Bragg. The album, which will be available on vinyl as part of Record Store Day Black Friday on Nov. 29, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the museum’s award-winning exhibition Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues,1945-1970.

Bragg wrote and recorded classic 1950s R&B hits, such as “Just Walkin’ in the Rain” (as lead vocalist of the Prisonaires) and “Rollin’ Stone” (fronting the Marigolds), while serving time at the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Bragg was released from prison in 1967 and continued to record for Nashville’s Elbejay Records.

Let Me Dream On is a time capsule of classic Nashville R&B and includes historical notes written by music historian and author Colin Escott and the museum’s editorial staff. The album will be available through participating RSD Black Friday stores.

Johnny Bragg’s tapes

For years, Bragg’s primarily self-recorded rehearsal tapes from the 1960s and 1970s lay dormant and unheard in a garden shed in Nashville. Bragg recorded his rehearsals as part of his songwriting process. He composed songs by singing to himself — trying different phrases out and then repeating them until he had them memorized. After Bragg passed away in 2004, his daughter, Misti, found his reel-to-reel tapes and contacted the museum to preserve and digitize them. The 15 previously unreleased recordings on Let Me Dream On illustrate the enduring beauty and power of Bragg’s music.

Night Train to Nashville exhibit

Bragg’s reel-to-reel tapes are currently on display as part of the museum’s exhibition Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues Revisited, a 20th anniversary edition of the museum’s award-winning original exhibit. It runs through September 2025 and explores the significance of Nashville’s pioneering R&B scene and its important role in the city becoming a world-renowned music center. In the decades following World War II, Nashville was a hotbed for R&B, with celebrated performers contributing to the community’s rich musical heritage, including Country Music Hall of Fame member Ray Charles, Hank Crawford, Bobby Hebb, Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, Little Richard and many others. During this time, R&B reigned alongside country music in the city’s clubs and studios, on radio and on nationally syndicated television.

A free-to-access and robust online exhibit, Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970, is also available on the museum’s website. It revisits, updates and preserves the museum’s original physical exhibit, which was featured in its galleries March 2004 through December 2005.

Track listing for Let Me Dream On:
Side A:

1. “Take Away the Heartache (Let Me Love Again)”
2. “She’s Mine”
3. “Is It True, Darlin’?”
4. “I’ll Never Forget You”
5. “I Saw It Coming”
6. “If This Is a Dream (Let Me Dream On)”
7. “It Isn’t Right”
8. “Rock It, Shake It”

Side B:

1. “Hurt and Lonely”
2. “I’ve Got to Stop Trying”
3. “It’s Been a Beautiful World (Since I Found You)”
4. “Let’s Rock, Let’s Roll”
5. “If It’s Over”
6. “You Know It Ain’t Right”
7. “How Great Thou Art”