The Country Music Hall of Fame

To read a longer and revised version of this commentary in Flagpole, click here.

The Country Music Hall of Fame, in a posh, ultramodern building in Nashville, TN, offers a compact but impressive summary of the history of country music (bluegrass, honkytonk, cowboy, hillbilly, what have you). It is definitely worth a visit if you're in the vicinity, especially if you're a fan of country music or any of its cognates.

Two must-sees: Webb Pierce's Cadillac, decorated with pistols (for door handles), rifles (for hood ornaments and trim), hand-tooled cowhide interior with silver-dollar highlights. It is an overwhelming visual assault.

Elvis Presley's Cadillac (one of many, but the only one the museum has on display). The paint on the Cadillac consists of twenty coats of crushed diamonds mixed with crushed fish scales. At least so the sign next to the car claims. The Cadillac shines with a hypnotic, numinous glow. Inside are a gold television and a telephone that connects the back seat with the front seat that is three feet away.

Less impressive, but still worth consideration, is the gold-paint piano that Priscilla Presley gave the King on their first wedding anniversary.

Someone standing nearby, gazing at the cars and the piano, quipped, "This is what happens when rednecks get money." Not original, I think, but apt.

The Country Music Hall of Fame offers a revealing glimpse into one dimension of 20th-century culture--a powerful wellspring of talent, musical styles, and influences.

The glamour of the place, typical of the compulsion of the country music world to over-hype itself, belies the humble origins of many of the individuals celebrated there.

A one-floor series of exhibits, arranged more or less chronologically, trace the development of country music, from its folk and Appalachian roots and the early days of Jimmie Rodgers to the beginnings of the Grand Old Opry to Hank Williams to the rise of rockabilly (Carl Perkins, Elvis, the astounding Wanda Jackson) to the present day. Musical instruments, vintage posters, costumes, pictures, and other memorabilia provide tangible evidence of the people and music. You get a very real sense of the culture of country music, a tradition that developed separately from Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood, always lingering on the margins, never entirely comfortable with itself either inside or outside the mainstream. This discomfort manifested in outlandish costumes, inflated hair, gaudy cars and homes, obsessive self-promotion. It is also evident in country music's insistence that its own political conservatism and representation of basic American values somehow places it closer to the heart of the average man and woman than Broadway and Hollywood. This claim is questionable, but these exhibits argue strongly that country music is a valuable tradition in our national heritage.

This is not to say that the Country Music Hall of Fame makes a big point of showing you the downside--the failed marriages, drug abuse, alcoholism, and shameless competitiveness, the gluttonous cravings for fame and wealth and power, the compromise, corruption, and jingoism. For the most part you don't see the downsides, but what you do see is nonetheless of interest.

Other floors included Ray Charles and Earl Scruggs exhibits. A glass showcase briefly chronicles the Porter Wagoner/Dolly Parton partnership in the late 1960s and 1970s. Wagoner’s hair was astounding.

As we gazed at a huge wall of gold albums on one side of the museum's second floor, I experienced a strange and funny temporary dislocation. My son, who is 22, peering closely at the albums, asked me whether LPs were recorded with music on both sides. His friend asked why there were gaps in between the grooves on the LPs.

I felt very old.