Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Extends Dylan, Cash Exhibit

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 surprised label executives and friends by traveling to Nashville in 1966 to record his classic album Blonde on Blonde. Dylan’s work with Nashville’s ace musicians–dubbed the Nashville Cats—inspired 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 a diverse range of folk and rock musicians—including Dylan—to appear on The Johnny Cash Show, which was filmed 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.