Country Music Hall Of Fame Launches ‘Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues’ As Online Exhibit

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The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has unveiled its newest online exhibit, “Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970,” which is available to access for free on the museum’s website.

The multimedia exhibit explores the story of Nashville’s vibrant and pioneering R&B scene and its important role in helping the city become a world-renowned music center. The online exhibit revisits, updates and preserves the museum’s award-winning “Night Train” physical exhibit, which was featured in its 5,000-square-foot temporary gallery space from March 2004 to December 2005.

Hatch Show Print poster announcing Earl Gaines and Jimmy Beck at the New Era Club, c. 1959. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum

“Night Train to Nashville” explores Nashville’s R&B activity in the decades following World War II. As Nashville’s country music industry was just getting started, the city was also a hotbed for R&B in the late 1940s,’50s and ’60s, with celebrated performers including Country Music Hall of Fame member Ray Charles, Arthur Alexander, Ruth Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Etta James and Little Richard, among others contributing to the city’s rich musical heritage. During this time, R&B reigned alongside country in the city’s clubs and studios, on radio and on nationally syndicated television.

The multimedia exhibit showcases historic photos, performance videos and audio recordings, as well as instruments, show posters, stage wear and other rare items featured in the original exhibit.

“The ‘Night Train to Nashville’ story provides important context about how R&B played a vital role in Nashville becoming ‘Music City,’” explains Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Similar to the original exhibit in 2004, the online version offers a multidimensional vantage point from which to consider the era’s race relations and the city’s Black musical culture, and how they affected the making of this incredible music and Nashville’s evolution. As the city developed into a major recording center, it did so against a background of urban change and at a time when racial barriers were tested and sometimes broken on bandstands, inside recording studios and on the airwaves.”

To mark the launch of the online exhibit, the museum will host a free conversation and performance with key members of the historic Nashville R&B music scene in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM). On Jan. 25 in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater, Levert Allison (of the Fairfield Four), Jimmy Church, Peggy Gaines Walker, Frank Howard, Charles “Wigg” Walker and other participants will perform. The museum’s Michael Gray and NMAAM’s Dr. Bryan Pierce will join the discussion. Tickets are available here.

The museum will also mount a physical “Night Train to Nashville” exhibit in its galleries in January 2024, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the original exhibit.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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