Dylan, Cash & The Nashville Cats Exhibit Opens At HOF

Bob Dylan. Neil Young. Leonard Cohen. The Byrds. Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr. Joan Baez. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. J.J. Cale. Linda Ronstadt. Leon Russell. Gordon Lightfoot. Steve Miller. Ian & Sylvia. The Monkees. Simon & Garfunkel. All were among the many rock and folk artists who came to Nashville in the late 1960s and early ’70s to work with the city’s versatile, hotshot session musicians, the “Nashville Cats.”

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s upcoming major exhibition, Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, will explore this magical time, opening Friday, March 27, 2015, for a nearly two-year run.

Dylan’s decision to record in Nashville provided a major catalyst in bringing many others to what must have seemed a very unlikely destination in the politically polarized sixties. In spite of its reputation among hipsters as a conservative town, removed from the main trends in popular music, Nashville, in fact, was home to musicians who had a huge influence on other music scenes of the era, including those of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, and London.

“Nashville has always been a more nuanced music center than it commonly gets credit for, and the same thing could be said for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We strive to tell the full story of country music’s evolving history using a mix of provocative learning experiences, and this exhibit is a great opportunity to talk about the early confluence of country and rock,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Dylan recorded Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline here. The Byrds made Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Neil Young recorded Harvest, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band created Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Albums like these had a profound influence on popular music as well as establishing Nashville as a music hub and cool southern city with a sense of place.”