Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

09/16/2026

A new installation featuring the signature styles of rodeo tailor Nudie Cohn is now on display at the Museum.

Cohn opened Nudie's Rodeo Tailors in 1950, and his custom-made, rhinestone-accented "Nudie suits" became closely associated with country music. Cowboy actors, rock & roll royalty, and performers such as Lefty Frizzell, Little Jimmy Dickens, Hank Snow, and Porter Wagoner all sparkled under stage lights in Cohn's designs.

09/16/2026

“American Currents: State of the Music” | Jesse Welles

In September 2025, Arkansas native Jesse Welles received the Americana Music Association’s Spirit of Americana Free Speech in Music award. Presented to Welles by John Fogerty at the 24th annual Americana Honors & Awards, the personalized wood trophy was painted by Stef Ratliff.

“Folks don’t get into folk music because there’s awards, you know? They’re more or less compelled to by that shard of divinity that’s in each and every single person that compels us to create stuff,” Welles said in his acceptance speech. “All that being said, it feels nice to get an award.”

The Americana Honors & Awards take place each year during AMERICANAFEST. Celebrate this year’s festival, Sept. 15–19, at the Museum with special programming presented in partnership with the Americana Music Association.

Welles is currently featured in the Museum exhibit "American Currents," which explores the artists, achievements, and events shaping country music today. Reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/american-currents-state-of-the-music

09/14/2026

Yesterday, producer, musician, and singer-songwriter Mac McAnally participated in a Musician Spotlight program at the Museum. During Musician Spotlights, artists perform, share inside stories, and discuss their creative process and technique.

McAnally is a 10-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year. A self-proclaimed ambassador for the music of Muscle Shoals, he has recorded at the region’s Wishbone, FAME, and Muscle Shoals Sound studios. Country Music Hall of Fame member Kenny Chesney has recorded two songs from McAnally’s 1990 album, "Simple Life”: "Back Where I Come From" and "Down the Road," a duet with McAnally. McAnally also wrote "All These Years" and "Thank God for You" (Sawyer Brown), "Old Flame" (Country Music Hall of Fame members Alabama), and "Two Dozen Roses" (Shenandoah). Additionally, he is a longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Re**er Band.

The Musician Spotlight was presented in support of the exhibitions "Kenny Chesney: Living in Fast Forward," presented by Blue Chair Bay Rum , and "Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising," supported by OneLouder. The program was made possible in part by Pedigree US and PEDIGREE Foundation.

09/14/2026

Bob Mackie, the late Hollywood costume and fashion designer for stars such as Carol Burnett, Cher, and Tina Turner, also touched the world of country music. He designed outfits for Country Music Hall of Fame members Dolly Parton and Frances Preston (four of Preston’s Mackie dresses are in the Museum’s collection) as well as the recent showgirl costume for Taylor Swift, whose Mackie headdress is currently on view in the Museum. This spectacular outfit that Mackie designed for Country Music Hall of Fame member Dottie West is also on display in the Museum.

09/14/2026

"American Currents: State of the Music" | I'm With Her

Multi-instrumentalists Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan, and Sara Watkins formed the group I’m With Her and released their acclaimed debut album in 2018. They had to tend to their solo careers and other collaborations over the next few years, but when the trio finally reconvened, the magic was still present. Their Grammy-winning album "Wild and Clear and Blue" was released in May 2025. To promote the record, the trio launched a massive nationwide tour, playing fifty-plus shows. This October, Jarosz will take the Museum's CMA Theater stage to celebrate ten years of her Grammy-winning solo work, "Undercurrent."

"American Currents" explores musical developments, artist achievements, and notable events shaping the genre today.

Reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/american-currents-state-of-the-music

09/13/2026

Emerging as a star in the early 1940s, Roy Acuff became one of the Grand Ole Opry’s most popular performers and remained one of its leading personalities until his death in 1992. He helped bridge country music’s rural stringband era and the modern era with his longtime backing band, the Smoky Mountain Boys.

Acuff developed an interest in show business while working on a medicine show tour through the Tennessee-Virginia mountains in 1932. He began playing square dances and other events with local musicians, including Lonnie “Pap” Wilson and Beecher “Pete” Kirby (later known as Bashful Brother Oswald), who both became longtime members of Acuff’s band.

The band, then called the Tennessee Crackerjacks, broadened their experience by playing radio broadcasts on stations including Knoxville’s WROL and WNOX. In fact, it was an announcer on WROL who renamed them the Crazy Tennesseans. Their radio performances caught the attention of American Record Corporation (ARC) producer W. R. Calaway, who brought Acuff and the band to Chicago to cut their first twenty sides in 1936.

When Acuff was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, the band changed its name one final time. Promoter J. L. Frank suggested rebranding as the Smoky Mountain Boys, and the name stuck. The band became the Smoky Mountain Boys and Girls only during periods when female members, such as banjo player Rachel Veach, toured with them. Pictured above are some of the Smoky Mountain Boys and Girls in 1945. From left are Jimmie Riddle (accordion), Veach, Acuff, and Wilson (guitar).

Acuff performed with the Smoky Mountain Boys until his death. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 1962 as its first living member. Read more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/roy-acuff

09/12/2026

Sara Carter purchased this Zimmermann autoharp around 1910 and used it on Carter Family recordings, including at the 1927 Bristol Sessions, the so-called “Big Bang" of country music.

According to family legend, Sara Dougherty was sitting under a tree, accompanying herself on autoharp as she sang the train-wreck ballad “Engine One-Forty-Three,” when her future husband, A. P. Carter, first heard her one day in 1914. The two were married on June 18, 1915.

Though the Carters entertained together informally, it wasn't until 1926 that the third member of the “First Family of Country Music,” Maybelle Carter, completed the group. Sara’s simple, rhythmic autoharp playing and unadorned alto, Maybelle’s style of playing on the acoustic guitar, and A. P.’s song collecting and arrangements created a foundational sound that continues to shape country music today.

See Sara’s Zimmermann autoharp, A.P.’s Martin 000-28 guitar in the Museum's permanent exhibit, "Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present" and Maybelle’s Gibson L-5 in the "Precious Jewel" exhibit.

Reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/sing-me-back-home-exhibit

09/10/2026

The new photography exhibit, "Grit and Glory: The Photography of Lawson Little," is now open in the Museum’s first-floor gallery, which is free and open to the public.

Lawson Little has made memorable images for more than six decades. In Southern California and Nashville, he shot musicians for commercial work and then lingered in the background of local clubs, continuing to photograph on his own time. The exhibit features work split between vivid, often gritty images of Opry stalwarts and honky-tonk lights, and the rising tide of Americana music figures who gave Little new purpose.

Learn more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/grit-and-glory-the-photography-of-lawson-little

09/09/2026

Jerry Douglas—considered among the all-time great dobro players—performs his song "A Peaceful Return" at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Douglas took the stage as part of the Museum's "Nashville Cats" series, which spotlights musicians who have made significant contributions to country music.

Watch:

Jerry Douglas—considered among the all-time great dobro players—per...