The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has premiered its newest online exhibition: “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 significant story of Nashville’s vibrant and pioneering R&B scene and its important role in helping the city to become a world-renowned music center. “Night Train to Nashville” follows Nashville’s R&B activity in the decades following World War II, detailing how R&B reigned alongside country music in the city’s clubs and studios, on radio and on nationally syndicated television.
The multimedia exhibit showcases a vast array of historic photos, performance videos and audio recordings, as well as instruments, show posters, stage wear and other rare. “Night Train to Nashville” was originally a physical exhibit that was on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum from 2004-2005, and another physical exhibit is planned to return to the museum”™s galleries in January 2024.
“The Night Train to Nashville story provides important context about how R&B played a vital role in Nashville becoming ‘Music City,'” said 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.”
