Rock 'n' roll and country have always shared a healthy relationship, and some of the best acts from both genres will share a museum, if only for a little while. Billboard reports that the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is getting a temporary rock exhibit in 2015 to pay tribute to the city's historical period in the 1960s and '70s when non-country acts migrated there to record. In March 2015, the "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City" exhibit will be open for museum-goers.
The display is not just about the music during the period, museum editor and exhibit co-curator Michael Gray said, it will also focus on the cultural changes the city endured as well.
"It was sort of thought of as a conservative town, maybe not as hip as the music circles in New York, San Francisco, L.A. or London," he says.
Once Bob Dylan started recording in Nashville, though, things changed.
"It really did change perceptions about the city," Gray adds.
Gray also credits Johnny Cash and his TV show with helping to bring together country talent in Music City with folk and rock rebels.
"He did help bridge some of those political and cultural gaps between the Nashville establishment and the outsiders, the folk rockers who identified with the counterculture," Gray says.
Patrons will be able to see the instruments used by session musicians on some of the albums recorded during the time period and even listen to how the players sounded on country albums compared to their folk counterparts.
"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," museum director Kyle Young said.
The exhibit will be open until Dec. 31, 2016.
