CMHOFM Opens ‘The Bradley Barn Sessions’ Photography Exhibit

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“The Bradley Barn Sessions” exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has opened a new exhibit, “The Bradley Barn Sessions,” which features photographs taken by Fritz Hoffmann during the making of George Jones’ album, The Bradley Barn Sessions. The exhibit is free and open to the public through 2024 in the museum’s first-floor gallery.

In 1994, MCA Records plotted Jones’ return to the country charts after four years had passed since his last top 10 hit—his longest dry spell since 1955. He began recording new music at Bradley’s Barn, the historic studio established by producer and Country Music Hall of Fame member Owen Bradley in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. The resulting collection, The Bradley Barn Sessions, included duets with country and rock artists such as Mark Chesnutt, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Keith Richards, Leon Russell, Travis Tritt and Trisha Yearwood as well as Country Music Hall of Fame members Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart and Tammy Wynette.

To document the landmark sessions, the label hired Hoffmann, who was present throughout all 11 days of the process. The following year, he became the first western photographer to be granted longterm residency in Shanghai since the communist revolution in 1949. Hoffmann lived in Shanghai from 1995–2008, becoming a contributing photographer for National Geographic and taking assignments across Asia and Europe.

The exhibit displays photos depicting: Jones and Wynette recording a new version of their 1976 hit “Golden Ring”—marking the first recording in 14 years for the former husband-and-wife duet team; Jones and Richards preparing to record a duet of the Dallas Frazier song “Say It’s Not You;” Jones and Country Music Hall of Fame member Waylon Jennings talking before recording the gospel song “Great Judgment Morning;” Parton, Harris and Skaggs rehearsing “Where Grass Won’t Grow” before recording the song with Jones and Yearwood; and Jones, Russell and Gill recording “The Love Bug.”
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Lorie Hollabaugh
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