Takin A Walk Nashville: Exploring February's Rich Country Music History and Iconic Moments in Music City's Legacy

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone. This is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville, and I am back today to give you this month in Nashville History for the month of February, and joining me today to talk about all the events that happened in Nashville history in February is buzz night from Taking a Walk Buzz.

00:00:25
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining me today.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: It's nice to be with you, Sarah.

00:00:29
Speaker 4: It's nice to be with you in person a little while ago, but here we are back to virtual.

00:00:34
Speaker 3: We're ready to roll.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had so much fun at the listening room interviewing the owner, Chris Blair. People can look forward to listening to that episode. And they have sold out of their anniversary show at the Ryman in March, which is incredible.

00:00:54
Speaker 3: I loved it. I loved getting to meet Chris.

00:00:57
Speaker 4: It's a wonderful venue, the working on his team, we're all great. So it was a tremendous experience.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, it's been a wild couple weeks in Nashville with the ice storm and power outage, so I am so glad we could still make that conversation happen.

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Speaker 3: Yep, for sure.

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Speaker 1: All right, so let's dive into everything that happened in February and Nashville history. There's a lot that happened in February and Nashville history, starting with February third. A few different things happened on this date. In nineteen seventy four, Dolly Parton's iconic hit Joe Lene reached number one on the Billboard Country Chart. It still remains one of the most covered and celebrated songs and music history. And I don't know about you, buzz, but that's definitely one of my favorite Dolly songs.

00:01:51
Speaker 3: Always will be, always will be for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, she is so iconic. And another thing that happened on February third. This is a few years later. In nineteen eighty one, a young George Straight He recorded his first major hit, Unwound, at the Music City Music Hall. This session effectively launched the neo traditionalist movement that would define nineteen eighties country. So even though he's kind of known for being a Texas country artist, he has had a lot of history here in Nashville.

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Speaker 4: You ever hear his cover of the Tom Petty song I Think It's a You wreck Me is the name of the song of you heard George Strait's cover.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: Ooh, I'm not sure I've heard his version of that.

00:02:37
Speaker 3: That's a pretty cool song.

00:02:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm definitely gonna have to check that out. I love George straight.

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Speaker 1: There's still more things that happened on February third. This happened in nineteen ninety four. And this is kind of a trivia question because I interviewed Paul Kingsbury at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and if anyone remembers from listening to that episode, he mentioned the original location of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 2: So it's not downtown. Do you remember where the original location was?

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Speaker 3: Buzz I'm not really sure.

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Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, so the original location of the Country Music Hall of Fame was on Music Row actually, so on February third, nineteen ninety four, they announced their plan to move from their original home and Music Row to its current place, which you can check out now, the very massive location in downtown Nashville.

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Speaker 4: They do such an amazing job there, and I love how they bring in these new particular highlight shows that are there for a number of months. A great take if you're going to Nashville or if you are in Nashville.

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Speaker 1: Yes, they always have such great exhibits and rotating exhibits. Okay, So more that happened in this month in history. February fifth, nineteen thirty eight. Roy Acuff, he made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. His performance of the Great Speckled Bird was so popular that he soon became the show's biggest star and eventually a co founder of the powerhouse publishing company Acuff Rows. And another little fun fact about roy Acuff, he actually opened the first show and the new grand Ole Opry House with his performance of Oahbosh Cannonball. President Richard Nixon was an attendance. So very cool history with roy Acuff doing the first performance of the new grand Ole Opry.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, except for the Nixon part.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, everything was sounded good until then.

00:04:48
Speaker 2: Gonna love that bart out.

00:04:52
Speaker 1: So another thing that the community has been reflecting on this week is a great loss to film music. On February fifth, twenty twenty four, it's already been two years since we have lost Toby Keith, a modern titan of country music. He's written so many songs in country music and he's always been one of my favorite artists. So definitely a sad loss to the community.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, rest in peace, Toby for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, four different things that happened on February seventeenth. So February seventeenth, nineteen sixty Elvis Presley earned his very first gold record for his self titled album. Though he was a Memphis boy, his biggest hits were recorded right here on music Row at RCA Studio B. Tourists can come in, especially on the bus tours. They usually drop off a lot of tour groups at RCA Studio B.

00:05:54
Speaker 2: You can tour it.

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Speaker 1: They even have group recordings where you're doing a group recording with your tour group.

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Speaker 2: So always a fun stop.

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Speaker 3: As long as I don't have to sing, it's perfect.

00:06:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, just rely on the other people in the group to sing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So on this date, in nineteen sixty five, the Tennessee State Legislature officially declared.

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Speaker 2: The Tennessee Waltz as the state song. Written by Red Stewart and Pee Wee King.

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Speaker 1: It became a massive hit for Patty Page and it's a mandatory standard for any Nashville honky talk band.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: That's definitely one of my.

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Speaker 4: Favorites, no doubt, for sure. Keep me away from getting up on stage for that one.

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Speaker 3: Too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So another thing that happened on February seventeenth and nineteen sixty nine, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash famously teamed up at CBS Studios in Nashville to record duets including Girl from the North Country, and this session was part of the recordings for Dylan's Nashville Skyline album, which cemented Nashville as a destination for folk and rock artist buzz.

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Speaker 2: Have you taken a listen to this album?

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Speaker 4: It's one of my favorites for sure. And I got to go to the studio there. I'm not sure it's the exact studio, but I know there was some of those sessions that were there at the Quancet Hut. Have you been to the Quancet Hut studio and taken a little tour of that legendary place there on music Row?

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Speaker 1: I have, And I went to Belmont University and minored in production, so a lot of my audio engineering classes were right there in Quancet Hut where so many legends recorded. So it was amazing being able to take classes in there.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you actually feel almost like a presence of some of what has certainly been there before.

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Speaker 3: You know, the rates that have been there, so I love it absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And another thing that happened on February seventeenth in nineteen seventy one, James Taylor. He made his US television debut on The Johnny Cash Show, which was taped at the Riemann Auditorium. His performance of Fire and Rain helped catapult the singer songwriter era into the mainstream. I mean, it seems to me like Johnny Cash had so many people besides country artists on his show. You know, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, A lot of singer songwriter, folk artists were.

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Speaker 4: On his show, and some of those are really great to go look up on YouTube and more than likely some other spots to chronicle those moments. Production values are certainly of the time, but they're great performances.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, So a few more things for everyone. On February twenty second, twenty sixteen, Sonny James, known as the Southern Gentleman, he passed away in Nashville. He famously held a record for sixteen consecutive number one hits. Wow, Boss, that's that's a lot of number ones.

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Speaker 3: That is the Southern Gentleman. I love that name.

00:09:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too.

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Speaker 1: And then on February twenty fifth, nineteen thirty two, the Singing Sheriff Fair and Young was born. He became one of country's most colorful characters and a founding member of the Music City News, and the Music City News still exist.

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Speaker 4: See now, I had heard of fair and Young, but I had never heard of who the Singing Sheriff was.

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Speaker 2: Great.

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Speaker 4: Reminds me of something that probably well before I know, it's well before your time. Did you ever hear of the Andy Griffith Show? Of course, I think I would think we would see the Singing Sheriff pay a visit to Andy Griffith.

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Speaker 3: It would seem for some reason. Don't you think.

00:09:56
Speaker 2: That is true? Yeah?

00:09:57
Speaker 1: I remember being little and my dad making me watch the Andy Griffith Show with him and me just like wanting to snooze on the couch.

00:10:07
Speaker 2: Will I get it on? Yeah?

00:10:09
Speaker 3: I noticed how you said making me watch.

00:10:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, against your wishes.

00:10:15
Speaker 3: It's great.

00:10:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely at that time.

00:10:19
Speaker 1: Well, we talked about so many events that happened in February, but I want to close it with something that happens every year. It doesn't just occur in Nashville, but in all of Tennessee. We have Tennessee Songwriters Week. It's an annual tradition. The state celebrates Tennessee Songwriters Week every February. So it features qualifying rounds at venues across Nashville and not just Nashville, but if you look it up on Tennessee vacation dot com, musicians all over Tennessee can apply for this competition, so they host it in venues in East Tennessee, Memphis, Nashville, all across the state, and people who qualify at those rounds they get to come to Nashville and compete at the Franklin Theater and the Bluebird Cafe for the winner, and I believe they get to play at Bluebird during ten Pans South. The winner does and they get a Taylor guitar. So it's an amazing competition that happens every year and shines light on independent songwriters in Tennessee.

00:11:28
Speaker 4: Sounds awesome. What a great way to celebrate what's important the song right.

00:11:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, So definitely check it out if you want to go to a qualifying round and check it out for next year if you're interested in participating. Buzz Man, that was a lot to cover in February. In Nashville history.

00:11:47
Speaker 4: We covered a lot, but luckily we only got away with the one Richard Nixon mentioned, so that's perfect.

00:11:55
Speaker 3: But other than that, we had a good one.

00:11:58
Speaker 2: That is true. Yeah, I can I agree with you on that, but you know, there's so much that happened in winter months in Nashville.

00:12:06
Speaker 1: That, oh man, when we get to the warmer months, I can only imagine how much history will have to go through.

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Speaker 4: It's awesome, awesome doing it with you, Sarah. Thank you so much for inviting me.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: Thank you buys, Yeah, thank you for everyone who's tuning in, and definitely check out the other episodes of Taking a Walk Nashville