Before reaching our destination in Nashville, we passed a milestone with our Jeep:
This is the first auto I have ever owned that has been driven this many miles. It must be a sign I am getting old.
We wanted to make sure we allowed plenty of time to do the Museum and Hall of Fame before the side trip to the RCA Studio B where many of the hits were recorded. It was near 10 AM when we arrived and we forgot that it was in a different time zone, so we gained an hour. That was good as it turned out. There was so much to see that we needed the extra time.
We parked directly across the street from the building:
and discovered that this nice park area contained rose bushes named after many of the C & W stars. One that I was standing in front of to take this shot was the Barbara Mandell Rose.
Our tickets were waiting for us at the welcome desk and the entry hall and foyer were very impressive:
The Museum was actually on the second and third floor, and the instructions were to begin on the third level which begins the chronological tour of the history of Country and Western music. One of the nice touches that was included in our ticket price was the use of a portable radio unit that described each exhibit in detail as we approached it. The shot below is of the two levels of the museum, taken from our start on the third level:
There were glass enclosed cases of memorabilia of almost all the country and western stars, including apparel worn by them, instruments they used and the actual Grammy award trophies they received. There were also videos along the way depicting the early years of C & W music. There was so much history and so much to see that we were worried we wouldn't have time to see everything. There were small, enclosed kiosks every now and then where you could walk in and listen to one of the historic recordings. Two of the more unusual displays were these two automobiles. The first one is an old (1962 Bonneville) that Webb Pierce paid $20,000 to have customized for himself:
There were guns for car door handles, silver rifles for ornaments on the outside trunk and hood, horseshoes for gas and brake pedals and a small saddle that was the console.
The second was the famous gold Cadillac that was used by Elvis Presley:
All of the trim was gold on this vehicle and the interior was done in gold fabric with gold amenities in the rear seating area.
Each level had a "Wall of Gold" where all the Gold and Platinum records were featured:
As our appointment for the Studio B tour was at 1:30, we stopped our museum tour after doing only the third level, deciding to return to do the second level following the Studio B tour. We boarded the shuttle bus:
to take us to "Music Row" where all the recording studios and offices of the producers and other recording executives are located. It was a very old, simple building that was used between 1957 and 1977:
It is ironic that the day the studio closed was the day after Elvis Presley's death in 1977.
He recorded almost all of his recordings in this building. We had a very knowledgeable guide - Anita:
who gave us all some good information about the studio, it's history and the little nuances that most people would not know - such as the colored lights in the studio were a result of a suggestion by Elvis to create a mood for the type of music being recorded. For example, he wanted red and green lights for recording Christmas music:
It was a very eerie feeling as Anita played some of Elvis' music as we were in the actual recording area. The studio was an excellent addition and we were glad we added that tour to our itinerary for the day.
When we returned to the Museum following the Studio B tour, we completed the second floor exhibits and ended up in the Hall of Fame Rotunda where all the bronze plaques of the inductees were located:
Next week is the CMA awards show for 2011, and already the plaques for the 2011 inductees, including Reba McIntire were there.
It was appropriate to end the day at the Museum Store:
where we each purchased a souvenir of our visit.
It was close to 8 PM when we returned home and we were very glad we decided to spend the day - beautiful as it was - on a trip to Nashville to see this significant place in the history of Country and Western Music.
There's no way we can top that day today, so we won't even try...
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