So you think you know country music? Our new good friend Michael Gray, curator at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, will tell you what you need to know about country music in just a few music-filled minutes. The Hall of Fame is right in downtown Nashville and is a must visit. Michael talks about the importance of WSM radio’s Grand Ole Opry in establishing Nashville as country’s home. We’ll hear Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton and some outlaw country from Waylon Jennings. Even some Bakersfield country from Buck Owens- Grey just curated a new exhibit on the California side of commercial country. Then we’ll find out why for Elvis Presley and so many others RCA Studio B was such an important recording spot from the fifties until it closed in 1977. On World Cafe Sense of Place: Nashville.

Session Playlist
Jimmy Rogers / My Carolina Sunshine Girl / Wanted... Jimmie Rogers
Hank Williams / A Mansion on the Hill / Hank Williams Sings
Jimmie Davis / You Are My Sunshine / Governor Jimmie Davis: Louisiana
Dolly Parton / I Will Always Love You / Jolene
Ray Charles / I Can’t Stop Loving You / Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Buck Owens / Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache) / Buck Owens
Waylon Jennings / Honkey Tonk Heroes / Honkey Tonk Heroes
Floyd Cramer / Last Date/ Countrypolitan Piano
John Hartford / Gentle on my Mind / No End of Love
Elvis Presley / It's Now or Never/ The Top Ten Hits