Interviews
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.
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Jon Langford • Live at the Hall, 2021
Musician and visual artist Jon Langford joins the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Warren Denney to discuss his varied career, and performs a selection of songs live.
Langford is a founding member of the punk band the Mekons, the post-punk group the Three Johns, and the alternative-count...
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Bill Anderson • Live at the Hall, 2022
Country Music Hall of Fame member Bill Anderson joins the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in for an intimate interview and performance, tracing his lauded, decades-long career as a recording artist, songwriter, TV host, and actor.
Recorded live at the Museum on December 4, 2021, the progra...
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Vincent Neil Emerson • Live at the Hall, 2021
Recording artist and songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson performs and tells stories behind a selection of songs he’s written, including “Ripplin’ and Wild,” “Learnin’ to Drown,” “The Ballad of the Choctaw-Apache,” “7 Come 11,” and “High on Gettin’ By,” during this episode of the “Live at the Hall” se...
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The Black Opry: Conversation and Performance • Live at the Hall, 2022
Black Opry founder and co-director Holly G and the Museum’s Angela Stefano Zimmer host this conversation and showcase featuring recording artists and songwriters the Kentucky Gentlemen, Nikki Morgan, Aaron Vance, and Julie Williams, all involved with the Black Opry. Founded in April 2021 as a dig...
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Jerry Chesnut • Poets and Prophets, 2009
Jerry Chesnut—the songwriter behind classic country hits including “A Good Year for the Roses” and “It’s Four in the Morning”—shares detailed, often funny stories about his work and his career during this September 26, 2009, program, part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Poets and P...
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Martina McBride • Live at the Hall, 2021
Martina McBride discusses her life and career in-depth as part of the opening weekend of her Museum exhibition, "Martina McBride: The Power of Her Voice," and closes with a full-band performance of four of her biggest hits. The Museum’s Michael McCall conducts the interview, taped live on August ...
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Jenee Fleenor • Live at the Hall, 2021
In this “Live at the Hall” episode, Jenee Fleenor—a two-time Country Music Association Award-winning instrumentalist of the year, and the first woman to ever win that prize from the CMA—performs live and talks about her journey from a precocious child in Springdale, Arkansas, to becoming one of N...
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Val Storey • Live at the Hall, 2021
Singer and guitarist Val Storey has performed hundreds of times on the stage of Nashville’s Station Inn, the best-known bluegrass music club in the world. In this program, Storey performs two songs at the Station Inn: “Those Memories of You,” written by the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Alan O’Bryan...
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Suiting the Sound: Jewish Rodeo Tailors of Country Music • Live at the Hall
Produced and presented in partnership with the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, “Suiting the Sound: Jewish Rodeo Tailors of Country Music,” recorded on January 25, 2022, explores the emergence of the unique “rhinestone cowboy” look in the 1940s and 1950s, largely from the tail...
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John Sebastian • Live at the Hall, 2021
John Sebastian—best known from his work with the Lovin’ Spoonful—joins the Museum to discuss his career in folk, country, pop, and rock music and to perform two Lovin’ Spoonful songs with guitarist Arlen Roth.
Sebastian was the Lovin’ Spoonful’s founder, frontman, and principal songwriter. In th...
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Brittney Spencer • Live at the Hall, 2021
Singer-songwriter Brittney Spencer takes questions from the audience, performs, and tells stories behind a selection of songs she’s written on stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Recorded on September 11, 2021, the live performance is presented here as part of the Museum’s “Live a...
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Matraca Berg and Jeff Hanna • Songwriter Session, 2020
Matraca Berg and Jeff Hanna share the stage during a Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, recorded October 20, 2020. The two perform live and discuss their best-known compositions, including Berg’s “Strawberry Wine” and Hanna’s “Bless the Broken Road.”
Berg, a member ...
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Jerry Kennedy • Nashville Cats, 2008
Jerry Kennedy explores his career as a recording artist, guitarist, producer, and label executive in this wide-reaching interview, held February 16, 2008, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
During the program, part of the Museum’s Nashville Cats series, Kennedy shares his experiences...
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Luke Dick • Songwriter Session, 2021
Luke Dick performs and tells stories about three of the hits he’s co-written: Dierks Bentley’s “Burning Man,” Eric Church’s “Kill a Word,” and Miranda Lambert’s “Bluebird.” He also shares two songs from a documentary he produced about his mother.
In a virtual interview with the Museum’s Michael ...
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Memories of Buck Owens, Bonnie Owens, and Merle Haggard • Panel Discussion, 2012
Buck Owens, Bonnie Owens, and Merle Haggard continue to be revered for their role in the country music history of Bakersfield, California. This panel discussion—held November 12, 2012, in conjunction with the 2012 – 2014 exhibition “The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and California...
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Elizabeth Cook, Mary Gauthier, and Abigail Washburn • ‘Right By Her Roots’
Elizabeth Cook, Mary Gauthier, and Abigail Washburn explore their musical roots and their approach to songwriting in this September 8, 2010, program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, hosted by author Jewly Hight. The panelists—all of whom are featured in Hight’s 2011 book, “Right By H...
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Ronnie Milsap • Interview, 2015
Ronnie Milsap remembers his experiences growing up in North Carolina and his winding path to Nashville during this interview, recorded February 7, 2015, to coincide with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibition “Ronnie Milsap: A Legend in My Time.”
Raised in a loving environment by ...
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Amythyst Kiah • Live at the Hall, 2021
Amythyst Kiah discusses her career trajectory as she evolved from traditional acoustic music performer to contemporary Americana artist, and performs three songs—“Wild Turkey,” “Black Myself,” and “Hangover Blues”—from her acclaimed 2021 album, "Wary + Strange." Part of the Museum's "Live at the ...
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West Coast Steel Players • Panel Discussion, 2023
Pedal steel players Dan Dugmore, Steve Fishell, JayDee Maness, and Al Perkins, all influential musicians in the Los Angeles country-rock scene, join this panel discussion. This program was recorded on October 2, 2022, and is presented in support of the exhibition “Western Edge: The Roots and Reve...
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Keb’ Mo’ • Live at the Hall, 2021
Five-time Grammy Award winner Keb’ Mo’ joins the Museum’s Peter Cooper for a wide-ranging, intimate conversation and performance, recorded on August 19, 2021, as part of the “Live at the Hall” series.
“I thought I’d be an architect, but music kept luring me over,” he reveals of his inexorable gr...
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Steve Forbert • Live at the Hall, 2021
Steve Forbert performs solo and discusses his forty-year career as a folk-rock singer and songwriter during this 2021 episode of the Museum's series “Live at the Hall.” Forbert traces his journey from his hometown of Meridien, Mississippi, where he fronted a rock band, to living in New York City,...
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Bill Anderson • Poets & Prophets, 2009
In an interview for the Museum’s Poets & Prophets series, Bill Anderson, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, talks about his approach to songwriting, his formative years, some of his biggest hits as a songwriter (many recorded by other artists), and his comeback as a songwriter beginning ...
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John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas • Live at the Hall, 2021
John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, masters of American music, sit down for a conversation with the Museum’s Peter Cooper about their collaborative 2021 album, "Leftover Feelings," recorded with the Jerry Douglas Band at Historic RCA Studio B, which is operated by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Mus...
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Allison Russell • Live at the Hall, 2021
As part of the Museum’s series “Live at the Hall,” singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Allison Russell discusses the circumstances that led to her first solo album, “Outside Child,” and performs “Nightflyer” and “Persephone” with accompaniment from cellist Larissa Maestro.
Russell’s so...