Country Music Hall Of Fame® And Museum To Extend Major Exhibition Dylan, Cash and The Nashville Cats: A New Music City Through December 2017

NASHVILLE, Tenn., The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, originally scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2016, has been extended through Dec. 31, 2017.

Museum CEO Kyle Young said Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats has been one of the most popular exhibits in the museum’s history. “This is a testament not only to the enduring legacies of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, but also to the technical prowess and creative genius of the Nashville Cats,” he said. “Celebrating unsung session players has yielded one of the most compelling narratives we’ve ever told.

“Much like Nashville’s present ‘it city’ status, Music City experienced a renaissance in the ’60s and ’70s, becoming a creative destination for folk and rock artists,” Young said. “This exhibition captures that relatively untold moment in time in a way that we know is beguiling museum guests. We are excited to hold it over and allow visitors one more year to explore A New Music City.”

The exhibition looks at the Nashville music scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bob Dylan bucked executives at his record label and surprised fans when he came to Nashville in 1966 to record his classic album Blonde on Blonde. Working with the city’s unmatched session musicians, Dylan produced a rock & roll masterpiece and went on to record two more albums there. Dylan’s embrace of Nashville and its musicians—the Nashville Cats—inspired many other artists, among them Neil Young, Joan Baez, Paul McCartney and Leonard Cohen, to follow him to Music City.

Around the same time, Johnny Cash was recruiting folk and rock musicians—including Dylan—to appear on his groundbreaking network television show, The Johnny Cash Show, shot at the Ryman Auditorium. Co-curated by the museum’s curatorial team and guest curator Pete Finney, Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats explores this unique period in Music City’s history through dozens of artifacts and an array of audiovisual treasures.

The New York Times called the exhibit “an unlikely alliance of rock and country,” while The Wall Street Journal said, “This thrilling exhibit shows us how such a once-unlikely blend became par for the course.”

For more information about the exhibit, click here. Public programs including guest lectures, interviews, live performances and family activities will continue in support of the exhibit throughout 2017. Stay tuned for details.

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