CMHOFM Exhibits Artifacts From Nashville Folk & Blues Artist Cortelia Clark

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Cortelia Clark. Photo: Courtesy of Sony Music Archives

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is featuring several artifacts from blind folk and blues singer Cortelia Clark in a temporary display, “Cortelia Clark’s Everyday Blues.”

Open through September 2025, the exhibit explores the story of the Grammy-winning artist and Nashville figure who performed on the streets of downtown for years.

Clark came to Music City in 1919 at the age of 17 to work in a broom factory, and learned how to play the guitar from another blind man. By the 1960s, he was playing almost daily on 5th Avenue North by a Woolworth store, where he caught the attention of RCA Records producer Felton Jarvis. Jarvis then recorded Clark live, talking and playing on an average day in the city. Later, his 1966 album, Blues on a Street, won the Grammy for Best Folk Recording in March 1967. Not long after, Clark was filling his kerosene heater, which exploded and set his wood-frame house on fire. The explosion left him badly burned and resulted in his untimely death weeks later on Christmas Eve in 1969.

The items on display include Clark’s broken Grammy, which was damaged in the fire, and the Kay 6116 Super-Auditorium model guitar featured on his album cover as well as his Kay 5113 Plains Special guitar.

“Cortelia Clark’s Everyday Blues” is supported by a new video on the museum’s YouTube channel, which includes interviews with Clark’s friend, producer and champion Mike Weesner, Vice President of Museum Services Michael Gray and the museum’s Instrument Collection Curator Jack Clutter. The video also features the museum’s Vice President of Creative Warren Denney, who sat down with Weesner.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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