Red Simpson, who became known as the Bard of Bakersfield for his songwriting ability, performs live and sits down for an hourlong interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum during this 2013 program, part of the ongoing Poets & Prophets series, centered on songwriters who have made sig...

To reflect on Loretta Lynn’s career as only family can, three generations of Webb and Lynn relatives join during this program to discuss the Country Music Hall of Fame member’s career and recall private family stories, all told with love and lots of laughter. Lynn’s younger sisters Crystal Gayle ...

During “Songs Fit for a King: Top Songwriters Remember Elvis,” Jerry Chesnut, Mac Davis, Dallas Frazier, and Billy Swan discuss and perform their original songs recorded by Country Music Hall of Fame member Elvis Presley.

“Songs Fit for a King” is part of a series of 2012 programs honoring Presl...

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Billy Edd Wheeler—whose many masterful compositions include “Coward of the County” (Kenny Rogers), “Jackson” (Johnny Cash and June Carter), “It’s Midnight” (Elvis Presley), and “Gimme Back My Blues” (Jerry Reed)—discusses his career and performs during a ...

In his first-ever interview before a live audience, acclaimed R&B songwriter and record producer Dan Penn talks about his formative years in the music business in Muscle Shoals and Memphis, his songwriting, and his memories of working with Rick Hall, Arthur Alexander, Chips Moman, Spooner Oldham,...

Hit country songwriter Red Lane visits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2010 for an in-depth, one-on-one interview, part of the Museum's Poets & Prophets series featuring legendary songwriters.

Lane launched his songwriting career in the mid-1960s, with stars including Faron Young, W...

Jerry Foster—who, as a member of renowned songwriting team Foster and Rice, delivered country hits for stars including Charley Pride, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Paycheck—surveys his career and creative partnership with Bill Rice during a September 10, 2011, conversation at the Country Music Hall...

Mark D. Sanders—co-writer of country classic “I Hope You Dance,” among other hits—describes his journey to the top of the country charts during this May 26, 2012, edition of Poets and Prophets, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s ongoing series to honor songwriters.

A California native, ...

During this multimedia presentation, Gretsch Company president Fred W. Gretsch, executive vice president and CFO Dinah Gretsch, marketing specialist Joe Carducci, and thumbpicker Joe Hudson share the stage to trace the history of the innovative guitar maker. Held June 24, 2016, the event was pres...

Texas-based songwriting legend Sonny Throckmorton—whose credits include Merle Haggard’s “The Way I Am” and “If We’re Not Back in Love by Monday,” George Strait’s “The Cowboy Rides Away,” Moe Bandy’s “It’s a Cheatin’ Situation,” and Jerry Lee Lewis’s "Middle Age Crazy” and “I Wish I Was Eighteen A...

During his 100-minute Poets and Prophets program, songwriter Tom Douglas performs his hits “The House That Built Me,” “Little Rock,” and “Love Remains,” and talks about his upbringing; musical influences and beginnings; decision to leave a successful real estate career to pursue songwriting; stor...

Sanger “Whitey” Shafer—a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame who supplied songs for George Jones, George Strait, Keith Whitley, and many others—performs live and offers a life- and career-spanning discussion during this 2008 program, part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’...

Roger Murrah—who was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 on the strength of country chart-toppers such as “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “High Cotton,” “I’m in a Hurry (and Don’t Know Why),” “If I Could Make a Living,” “Life’s Highway,” and many others—talks about his musical and...

April 18, 2015 - As a producer, songwriter, and music business entrepreneur, Rick Hall helped shape the sound of American music. At his FAME studios, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Hall produced legendary recordings by Mac Davis, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and Jerry Re...

Songwriter Buzz Cason discusses his career and performs during this 2014 Poets and Prophets program, held to mark the tenth anniversary of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s exhibition and Grammy-winning CD, “Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945–1970.”

In 1956, Caso...

Norro Wilson, a leading Nashville record producer and songwriter from the 1970s through the ’90s, talks about his life and career in country music (with a focus on his songwriting) during this 2011 interview, part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s signature interview series, “Poets &...

Carl Perkins wrote and recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” in late 1955, and the following year, it was a million seller for Sam Phillips’s Sun Records. Here, Perkins’s son Stan Perkins, singer Naomi Judd, Perkins’s biographer David McGee, and author Peter Guralnick discuss Perkins’s life and “Blue Suede...

Author Randy Fox explores the history of Nashville blues label Excello Records and its partnership with WLAC-AM and Ernie’s Record Mart in the 1950s. Following a panel discussion, a concert celebrates the label’s soul, gospel, and R&B legacy.

The panelists for this program, held April 6, 2019, a...

Genre-defying artist Brandi Carlile performs a selection of songs with bandmates Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth and discusses her career during this June 2015 program, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and moderated by NPR Music's Ann Powers.

Brandi Carlile begins the program w...

Emmylou Harris, members of her famed Hot Band—Hank DeVito, Glen D. Hardin, and John Ware—and producer Brian Ahern come together on stage for this 2016 interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, discussing their musical chemistry and sharing early career memories in support of the exh...

The Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society honors Stan Dacus, Christian Haselau, Hugh Hickerson, David McKinley, Glenn Meadows, and Billy Sherrill with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award, created to celebrate Nashville’s pioneers and masters in the audio field.

Held on June...

Drummer Richie Albright played with Waylon Jennings for nearly thirty years, starting in Arizona in the early 1960s and moving with Jennings to Nashville and serving as the Outlaw country icon's "right hand."

Here, Albright visits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019 for a Nashville...

Jimmy Bowen, an outspoken former recording executive, discusses his long career in Nashville during this two-hour conversation, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on April 12, 2014. A producer for Reba McEntire and Hank Williams Jr., he shares his approach to studio work and as an ...

Country music producer Brent Maher discovered and produced mother-daughter duo the Judds, and worked with a long list of other artists within and beyond the genre, including country stars Kathy Mattea, Jo Dee Messina, and Kenny Rogers, soul staples Ray Charles and Gladys Knight, and genre-blendin...