This is Joe Chambers, founder & curator of the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville Tennessee.
Lots of people ask if it is just country music that we feature in the Museum? The answer is no. We cover as many different genres of music as possible through iconic instruments that were used on thousands of recordings and hundreds and hundreds of hit records. I guess they assume since we are located in Nashville, which is ground zero of country music, that it would be our main subject. The fact is that Nashville has never been just country music. Think of artists like Megadeth, Grand Funk Railroad, Gladys Knight, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Black Keys & Brenda Lee. Nashville has always been a smorgasbord of different musical genres.
The Musicians Hall of Fame is always searching for new and exciting artifacts to add to our existing museum. Being that August is coming shortly it seems appropriate that we honor the memory of probably the most historic, musical and cultural events in 20th century America. Woodstock. Most everyone knows of Jimi Hendrix’s’ version of the Star Spangled Banner which ended that iconic event. My favorite performance from the movie (since I wasn’t there personally) was the debut of Santana for the first time outside of the San Francisco bay area.
Santana’s performance was at the peak of the concert and there was hardly a square inch of grass available as everyone was standing or sitting on Max Yasgurs 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York on August 15-18th, 1969.
The Musicians Hall of Fame just permanently acquired Michael Shrieve’s 1967 champagne colored, sparkle Ludwig drum set that he played with Santana at Woodstock 1969. Michael was barely 20 years old. His drum solo on “Soul Sacrifice” is considered one of the highlights of the entire three day concert.
The unveiling of these drums to the public will be this August prior to the anniversary of Woodstock.
“Come See What You’ve Heard™”
Joe
