The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum regularly hosts illuminating interviews with country artists, songwriters, and industry players, both in its Nashville home and on location.
The Museum’s regular interview series include Poets and Prophets, which spotlights the artistry and achievements of songwriters who have made significant contributions to American music, and Nashville Cats, which showcases musicians and singers who have played important roles in support of hit artists in either the studio or on tour.
The Museum's collection also offers thousands of video and audio interviews with country legends, mainstays, and rising stars, spanning from the 1920s to today.
Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna has written and co-written a collection of country hits, including Hunter Hayes’s “I Want Crazy,” RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls,” Little Big Town's Grammy- and CMA Award-winning “Girl Crush, and “Humble and Kind,” a #1 for Tim McGraw.
Here, McKenna visits the Country M...
Songwriter, musician, and producer Mac McAnally reminisces about his career and performs some of his hits on September 9, 2017, as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Nashville Cats interview series, hosted by fellow musician and recording artist Bill Lloyd.
A native of Belmont, ...
Millie Kirkham's high-soprano vocals can be heard on country, pop, and rock & roll hits, from Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como to Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride. For this 2012 installment of the quarterly Nashville Cats program series, Kirkham visited the Country Mus...
During a special 2020 Veterans Day Songwriter Session at the Museum, songwriter and Operation Song founder Bob Regan shares the stage with OS program director Mike Byer to perform a selection of songs, and discuss their organization, its purpose, and process. Operation Song pairs professional son...
Guitarist Reggie Young—who played on hit recordings by the Box Tops, Neil Diamond, Dobie Gray, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley, and Dusty Springfield, among others—shares stories from his extensive career during a 2008 interview, part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Nashville Cats s...
Wynonna Judd—half of Grammy-award winning duo the Judds—discusses career triumphs and traumas and performs with her husband and bandmate Cactus Moser during this 2019 interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Wynonna reminisces about performing with her mother Naomi Judd first as t...
Songwriter Billy Joe Shaver performs and shares stories from his colorful life and career live in the Ford Theater on September 15, 2018, as part of the Museum's Poets and Prophets series, which spotlights songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music.
Billy Joe Shaver op...
Gregg Allman’s final studio album, “Southern Blood,” was released months after the singer, songwriter, and Allman Brothers Band founder’s death in late May of 2017. Here, around the album’s September release, fellow musicians and collaborators gather at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum t...
Songwriter Pat Alger—a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member and frequent Garth Brooks co-writer—performs and shares stories behind some of his songs during this 2018 program, part of the Songwriter Sessions series at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Alger collaborated on four of G...
The 11th Annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum spotlights record label executive Cindy Mabe, who's helped shepherd dozens of high-profile country music careers, including those of Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Carrie Underwood, at labels including Arista Records, RCA Records, Capitol Records, an...
David “Fergie” Ferguson joins the Museum’s Peter Cooper to discuss his career as recording engineer and producer. Accompanied by Mark Howard and Pat McLaughlin, Ferguson also performs “Chardonnay” and “Looking for Rainbows,” both tracks included on his 2021 album “Nashville No More.”
During the ...
The career and legacy of pioneering talent scout, record producer, music publisher, and artist manager Ralph Peer is explored during this 2014 multi-media program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, featuring Barry Mazor (author of "Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music") and...
During a 2021 interview and performance, singer-songwriter Waylon Payne discusses the road to sobriety that led to his critically acclaimed 2020 album, "Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me," and performs five of its songs live.
The son of country musicians Sammi Smith (who sang the...
Joe Mills, Mike Bradley, Lou Bradley, Ron “Snake” Reynolds, and mastering engineer Denny Purcell are honored with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award during an annual event from the Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society, held June 5, 2016, at the Country Musici Hall of Fame ...
During this 2020 Songwriter Session, veteran Nashville songwriter Victoria Banks—whose work has been recorded by artists including Lauren Alaina, Sara Evans, and Carly Pearce—shares some of her songwriting wisdom and performs six of her songs, including "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?", the groundb...
The Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society honors Johnny Rosen, Dick Hargett, George Ingram, Claude Hill, and Tom Sparkman with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award, created to recognize and celebrate the city’s pioneering recording engineers.
Held June 23, 2018, at the Count...
Lynn Anderson’s arrival on the country music scene is examined by those who knew her best in this heartfelt panel, held September 30, 2017, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, to coincide with the exhibition “Lynn Anderson: Keep Me in Mind” (September 15, 2017, through June 24, 2018).
...
Joey + Rory’s Rory Feek surveys his childhood, his rise as a professional songwriter, and his career with his late wife, Joey Martin Feek, during a talk about his 2017 memoir, “This Life I Live: One Man’s Extraordinary, Ordinary Life and the Woman Who Changed It Forever,” at the Country Music Hal...
Johnny Cash's four daughters, Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara, discuss their father's overseas experiences as an Air Force serviceman, based on the photos and letters he sent to their mother, Vivian Liberto, who was Cash's girlfriend at the time. The program is in conjunction with a Country Music...
The Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society honors mastering engineer John Eberle, studio owners Richard Carpenter and John Logan, and audio engineers Fred Cameron, Jack Linneman, and Brent Maher with the AES Nashville Lifetime Achievement Award, created to celebrate Music City’s audio...
Allen Shamblin—the award-winning songwriter who co-wrote such classics as Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” and Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” reflects on his career during this November 17, 2018, edition of the Museum’s ongoing Poets and Prophets series.
Born in Tennessee ...
Dierks Bentley discusses his musical influences, recounts his early days in Nashville, and performs some of his hit songs with co-writers during this in-depth 2016 interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Bentley remembers growing up in Phoenix and listening to country stars inclu...
During this 2015 program, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Kim Carnes performs some of her best-known songs—including the biggest hit of 1981, “Bette Davis Eyes”—and details her journey from a Pasadena, California, childhood to a place as a much-lauded Nashville songwriter.
Carnes wrote her ...
Singer-songwriters Alex Hall and Tenille Townes joined the Museum remotely for a Songwriter Session in February 2021, sharing live performances and thoughts about the art and craft of songwriting. Hall's debut EP, "Six Strings," features a collection of well-known collaborators, including Vince G...
