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Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium and Country Music Hall of Fame

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Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee circa-1940s
Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee circa-1940s

An exploration of the historic Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

Correspondent Tom Wilmer reports from Nashville, Tennessee where he explores the history of the legendary 136-year-old Ryman Auditorium.

The Ryman Auditorium is nicknamed Nashville's mother ship of music partly because it first opened as a church in 1892
Tom Wilmer
The Ryman Auditorium is nicknamed Nashville's mother ship of music partly because it first opened as a church in 1892

The Ryman Auditorium, is revered as the “Mother Church” of the Nashville music scene.
The Grand Ole Opry moved in to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. Live music shows were broadcast weekly across America's airwaves every Saturday evening on WSM 650 AM radio until 1974 when it outgrew the Ryman and moved into its new home, The Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland.

You too can go onstage at the Ryman for a photo op like correspondent Tom Wilmer did
Ryman Auditorium
You too can go onstage at the Ryman for a photo op like correspondent Tom Wilmer did

From Hank Williams and Flatt & Scruggs, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, to Patsy Cline and Bob Hope, the list of luminaries who have performed at the National Historic Landmark Ryman, is a literal Who’s Who of the America's 20th Century music scene.

Next up is The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in NashvilleTennessee’s Mother Ship. This where you’ll discover the entire history of country music from the 1800's to present, showcased and revered in a 360,000 square-foot multi-story facility.

24-7 party in heart of Nashville, Tennessee
Tom Wilmer
24-7 party in heart of Nashville, Tennessee

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American country music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amassed one of the world's most extensive musical collections

In addition to the galleries, the museum has the 776-seat CMA Theater, the Taylor Swift Education Center, and multi-purpose event rental spaces. Other historic aspects of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum include one of the country's oldest letterpress print shop Hatch Show Print (located inside the museum) and Historic RCA Studio B (located on Music Row), Nashville's oldest surviving recording studio, where recordings by Country Music Hall of Fame members Elvis PresleyDolly PartonWaylon Jennings, and many others were made.
Come along and join the journey.

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas Award-winning podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcast features the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts — everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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