Nashville: Country Music Hall of Fame

Also toured the Country Music Hall of Fame near downtown Nashville. The building's exterior contains several symbolic images. The most obvious of these are the windows that look like the black keys of a piano. The diamond-shaped radio mast is a miniaturized replica of the WSM tower (an historic radio station which is credited with popularizing country music beginning in 1925 with its landmark weekly broadcast of the Grandy Ole Opry). The round discs surrounding the tower symbolize the different size records and CDs country music has been recorded upon. The north-west corner of the building juts out like the tail fin of a '57 Chevy.

For me, the highlight of the museum were Elvis Presley's gold-plated piano and the original sound mixing board from RCA's historic Studio B, where Elvis' first album was recorded. The studio later became famous in the 1960s for being a part of what many refer to as the "Nashville Sound". A pop-oriented style of country music characterized by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound both revived the popularity of country music and helped establish Nashville as an international recording center.