Tennessee Music History Destinations

Featured in this Article:

Famous People and Sites in and Near Memphis
Famous People and Site in and near Nashville
East Tennessee Music History
 

• Second only to the White House, Graceland is the most-visited residence in the country

• Purchased by Elvis Presley in 1957, it was his home until his death 20 years later

• More than 20 million people have visited 

• Elvis Presley’s Memphis is a 200,000-square-foot exhibition space, museum and automobile collection

• There’s also a 450-room hotel and performance venue

• Elvis and the cultural shift he inspired cannot be fully comprehended without a visit

• Ticket information

Stax Museum of American Soul Music - Memphis

• The most hallowed venue in soul music in Memphis

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music was the home of Stax Records – the record company and studio where Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes and many others recorded

• The building was rebuilt in 2003 precisely to scale on the same site

• Includes more than 2,000 exhibits from soul music’s golden era

• Interactive exhibits, movies and galleries complete the experience

• Plus, dancing is encouraged!

• Ticket information

Patsy Cline Memorial - Camden

An engraved boulder marks the site where a small plane carrying Patsy Cline, two of her co-stars and her manager crashed on March 5, 1963

The site includes an interactive kiosk and a gazebo with seating

The lack of grandeur and scale makes the site more affecting, and the rural stillness provides opportunity for reflection

For an in-depth look into her life, visit The Patsy Cline Museum in Nashville. Ticket information

West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center - Brownsville

• The West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville features Carl Perkins and others artists from the western part of the state

• The one-room schoolhouse that Tina Turner once attended now houses some of her memorabilia and allows you to explore what learning was like for African-American students in the 1940s

• Visitors will also want to pop in the John Adam Estes Home, the small house where blues pioneer and legend “Sleepy” John Estes spent his last years

• Estes grew up in Brownsville and was known for his distinctive vocal style. It was often said he "cried the blues"

• His songs have been adapted and recorded by music greats like Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Led Zepplin among others

• You can also see the West Tennessee Cotton Museum, the Hatchie River Museum and a gift shop selling regionally made items

• Self-guided tours are free

• The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum in downtown Nashville is the world’s largest music museum

• More than 350,000 square feet of galleries, archival storage, theaters, education centers and retail space

• The Hall of Fame also gives guided tours of RCA’s Historic Studio B on Music Row and Hatch Show Print

• There are special events almost daily and ever-changing exhibits

• Ticket information

The Bluebird Cafe - Nashville

• In the mid-1960s, Loretta Lynn bought an antebellum mansion and most of the surrounding township in Hurricane Mills

• Find a personal life museum, the collection of dolls that fans have given her through the years, a Native American museum in homage to her Cherokee ancestry, the Grist Mill Museum and a reconstructed frontier homestead

• There are trail rides, music events, hiking, camping, water sports – even an annual yoga retreat

• Ticket information

• Johnny Cash called the Bristol Sessions “the single most important event in the history of country music"

• In 1927, at the urging of “Pop” Stoneman, Ralph Peer conducted recordings in which country music foundational artists like the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were discovered

• These sessions became known as The Big Bang of Country Music

• The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, affiliated with the Smithsonian, tells the story through interactive exhibits, multimedia storytelling and more

• Year-round events, including the annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, keep Americana music alive in Northeast Tennessee

The Caverns - Pelham

• Experience one of the coolest and oldest performance venues in the U.S.

• Eighty miles from Nashville and 50 miles from Chattanooga, near the base of Monteagle Mountain in Pelham

• Set in a cave, The Caverns hosts a year-round roster of bluegrass and roots music, rock n' roll and electric

• Acoustics and lighting are first-rate

• The weather is always the same (it can be a bit chilly in the cave) and, with seating limited to 750, all sight lines are good

• Daily guided cave tours, including one of the largest underground rooms in the world, are offered

• Cave tour tickets

• Concert tickets

• Live music calendar

Museum Center of 5ive Points - Cleveland

• Cleveland, Tennessee is in the heart of the Ocoee Region, an area rich in traditional crafts and music

• The Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland’s Five Points neighborhood hosts live music events and tells regional history

• Permanent exhibition devoted to the “Red-Back Hymnal,” originally published by the Church of God, but now regarded as Southern worship’s foremost hymnal

• First printed in Cleveland in 1951, it is now used worldwide

• Regional crafts are also on exhibit

• Admission is free