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...

Country artist Travis Tritt, artist and music industry leader Shannon Sanders, and Concord Records president John Burk explore the impact of Ray Charles’s groundbreaking 1962 album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” during a 2019 panel discussion at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Mu...

Carlene Carter, Shawn Colvin, Amythyst Kiah, and Maria Muldaur share a conversation with NPR’s Ann Powers, highlighting women who inspire them as musicians and taking turns performing on stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Held on September 12, 2019 (during that year’s AmericanaF...

Grammy-winning songwriter Liz Rose—Taylor Swift's go-to co-writer for such early hits as "Tim McGraw," "White Horse," and "You Belong with Me"—recounts her unlikely career journey for the Poets and Prophets series at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

During this interview and performanc...

Bob DiPiero reveals the spark of inspiration that led him to write “American Made,” “Blue Clear Sky,” and other hits during this interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, held on February 5, 2014, as part of the Poets and Prophets series. He also explains how giving guitar lessons i...

This wide-ranging interview, conducted by the Museum’s Michael McCall on December 4, 2013, covers music executive Kay Clary’s life and career in promoting rock, country, and Americana musicians. Clary helped lay the groundwork for Nashville’s Americana music scene, working in public relations and...

In a loving and revealing ninety-minute program, family members and business associates of the late Keith Whitley discuss his special talent, his charismatic but troubled personality, his rise to fame, and his untimely death.

Whitley’s widow, country star Lorrie Morgan, joins former RCA Records...

NPR Music’s Bob Boilen speaks about the inspiration behind his book “Your Song Changed My Life,” joined by singer-songwriter John Paul White, who offers his own formative musical experiences and performs four songs.

Held in conjunction with the year’s AmericanaFest, this September 23, 2016, prog...