The Birthplace of Country Music

Weekly Music Lessons with JAM Kids at the Museum!
2024-11-09 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-11-16 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-11-23 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-11-30 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-12-07 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-12-14 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-12-21 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-12-28 10:30 - 11:30 (America/New_York) and 7 more dates | VA
Date: Weekly on Saturdays
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: $5 per class or $45 for 10 lessons
Through a new partnership with Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM), the Birthplace of Country Music Museum is a new affiliate location for the program, offering weekly music lessons at the museum for children grades 4-8 and beyond. JAM Kids introduces music through small group instruction on acoustic instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as guitar, banjo, and fiddle. Students may bring their own instruments, or they can be provided as a loan while your child is participating in the program. Other instruments may be introduced as to be determined by instructors. Weekly classes will be held throughout the year, and students can join the program at any point in the year.
Registration is required to participate in this program. You can download the Registration Forms and bring it with you when you drop off your child for their first lesson or complete it at the museum’s front desk upon arrival. Each week, lessons will be filled based on arrival and capped at 30 students. Registration allows you to participate but does not guarantee your spot each week.
We do not offer online registration or spot reservations for this program. Lessons can be purchased as-you-go for $5 or as a bundle of ten pre-paid lessons for $45. The bundle is a discounted rate and will expedite your check-in process, but does not guarantee your spot each week. The class will be closed if capacity is reached before your arrival. Scholarships are available upon request. For more information about signing up for JAM or to inquire about scholarships, email Erika Barker at ebarker@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.
Registration Forms: Please bring all three forms with you when you arrive for your first lesson.

Registration Form
Student Contract
Media Release Form

Junior Appalachian Musicians is a non-profit and the parent organization for 50+ after-school programs for children in grades 4 – 8. We provide communities with the tools and support they need to teach children to play and dance to traditional old-time and bluegrass music. JAM introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar. Each JAM program is individually operated and funded. By affiliating with the JAM organization, each program is eligible to receive support and resources for free and is licensed to use “Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM)” to identify their traditional music education program.
Be sure to check out JAM Kids on Facebook and Instagram!

The JAM Program Model
JAM is an after-school program for children in grades 4 – 8 and beyond that introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar. Each JAM program is individually operated and funded. By affiliating with the JAM organization, each program is eligible to receive support and resources for free, and is licensed to use “Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM)” to identify their traditional music education program.
Junior Appalachian Musicians ® is a registered trademark of Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc.
In JAM, instrument instruction is often augmented by dance and vocal instruction as well as string band classes and group enrichment lessons, which introduce children to additional Appalachian culture and history. The JAM program model provides children with opportunities to not only learn traditional music, but to also perform in small and large groups. Field trips, visiting artists and an introduction to the rich history of music unique to each local community further supplement program offerings. Each JAM program is encouraged to foster musical traditions by teaching local styles of traditional mountain music and dance to children. Instructors are also encouraged to teach students to learn music by ear, as to preserve oral traditions as much as possible. Other teaching methodologies and instructional skills are covered in regional professional development and training sessions held multiple times per year and hosted by JAM. JAM also encourages student engagement across programs with regional performance and learning activities throughout the year. For a full list of benefits to affiliates, click here.
JAM believes that all children should have access to traditional old time and bluegrass music. It is recommended that each program provide financial assistance through scholarships to children in need. The program model bases tuition fees on student lunch status: $10/week for full pay children, and $5/week for reduced pay children.
Class sizes typically have a student teacher ratio of 8:1 or less. JAM mandates that each affiliated program conduct criminal background checks on their instructors, directors, and other staff members and volunteers. Programs must be held in public facilities accessible to the community. Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc prohibits discrimination against any persons on the bases of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, political beliefs, familial or parental status, and sexual orientation.
For a full listing of affiliation requirements, click here.
History of JAM
Realizing the need to preserve a vital aspect of mountain culture as well as the need for positive activities to underserved youth, Helen White, then a guidance counselor at Sparta Elementary School, founded the first JAM program in Alleghany County, NC in the spring of 2000 with help from other local musicians and educators. Interest in the program spread rapidly with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, NC State Arts Council, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and “The Crooked Road – Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail.”
In 2007, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation provided funding to allow the development of a regional infrastructure. The Dana Foundation, Virginia Commission for Arts, the Virginia Foundation for Humanities, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Harris and Frances Block Foundation and the Tides Foundation have provided funding for materials development.
“Junior Appalachian Musicians” was incorporated in 2008 as a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt corporation to promote a shared vision of JAM and to provide an umbrella through which to offer resources, training materials and activities to benefit programs individually and collectively. Currently in nearly 30 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, JAM affiliates are providing access to the joy of music to thousands of youth while instilling renewed interest and pride in their heritage.
Interested in learning more about JAM? Click here.

Old-Time Community Jam with ETSU
2024-11-09 14:00 - 17:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Time: 2-5 p.m. EST
Location: Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: FREE EVENT
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, in partnership with the East Tennessee State University Old-Time Music Program, hosts a gathering of local musicians for a country jam session focusing on country, old-time and blues music. The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun!
The Old-Time Community Jam is scheduled for 2-5 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs. Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments.
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in attending as a spectator are also welcome at no charge.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

Speaker Sessions: Lisa Sorrell on Boot Making
2024-11-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: In-person and virtual via YouTube
Cost: Free and open to the public
RSVP HERE
Join us on Tuesday, November 12 for our Speaker Sessions with artist and bootmaker Lisa Sorrell as she explores “From the Saddle to the Stage: Country Music and the Evolution of Cowboy Boots.” This program is in-person at the museum and can also be enjoyed virtually via YouTube.
Cowboy boots have long been the standard footwear of country music, both for the performers and their fans. Exploring the history of the cowboy boot, examining how they evolved from plain black boots the cowboys of trail drives wore, to the brightly colored, high-heeled, pointed-toe footwear we recognize today, this talk will explore how this evolution happened alongside, and for the benefit of, entertainment. Given that there is little academic research on cowboy boots, and that the craft of cowboy boot making is traditionally passed along orally from master to student, primary sources are limited to historical photos, vintage boot catalogs, and the memories of aging boot makers. With over 30 years of experience as a cowboy boot maker, Lisa has access to the craft and its embedded knowledge, giving her unique perspectives into its history and traditions. This Speaker Sessions will highlight how cowboy boots, the most universal staple of country music fashion, contributed visually and aesthetically to country music from its beginnings to today.
Please note: For those attending virtually via YouTube, the live stream will originate on the Radio Bristol YouTube channel after 6:50pm EST. If you load the channel page before 6:50pm, and the live stream does not automatically appear, please refresh the page after 6:50pm.
About Lisa Sorrell
Lisa Sorrell (@sorrellcustomboots) is an award-winning artist working in the medium of leather. She makes shoes, cowboy boots, and leather art pieces in her shop in Oklahoma, working from flat pieces of leather and the client’s measurements, and using hand tools and vintage machinery. She maintains a portfolio of original designs and is well-known in the boot making world for her design skills. Sorrell enjoys speaking and writing about cowboy boots and cowboy boot making; her book The Art of Leather Inlay and Overlay is a textbook on the topic of creating art with leather

Monthly Museum Volunteer Orientation
2024-11-16 10:00 - 12:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
We want YOU to join our wonderful team of volunteers at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum!
Date: Every 4th Saturday except for June (no training), October & November (3rd Saturday) and December (no training)
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Learning Center
If you have a passion for Bristol and its musical legacy and love helping others, our museum volunteer program is the perfect fit for you!
Museum volunteers play a vital role in a number of key areas behind the scenes and on the front lines, such as working as a gallery assistant or docent, helping out in The Museum Store, working with the public at events, concerts, and programs, assisting with behind the scenes administrative or collections work and so much more! Our Museum Volunteer Orientation session gets you acquainted with every aspect of the museum to help you find your area of interest. Volunteer schedules are flexible and fun!
If you are interested in coming to our Museum Volunteer Training, call 423-573-1927 or email Myrissa at volunteercoordinator@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.

Museum Story Time - "Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story" by Cynthia Rylant
2024-12-06 10:30 - 11:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Friday, December 6, 2024
Time: 10:30 a.m. EST
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: Free and open to the public
Join us in the museum’s Learning Center for our monthly Museum Story Time program. Aimed at toddler-age children and their grown-ups, we will gather on the first Friday of each month for a music- or Appalachia-related storybook, a tune or two by WBCM Radio Bristol show host Ella Patrick, and a related activity or coloring sheet. This month, we will be doing a fun Christmas craft!
About “ Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story”
In Appalachia each Christmas, a boy named Frankie waits beside the tracks for the Christmas Train, which will bring presents to the children who live in coal towns and hollows. Year after year, Frankie hopes that one particular gift — one very special gift — will be tossed to him from that train. And it is this enduring hope that will guide him to the true meaning of the season.
About the Author

Cynthia Rylant is the author of numerous distinguished novels and picture books for young readers. In addition to her beginning-reader series: Henry and Mudge, Poppleton, and Mr. Putter and Tabby, as well as her Cobble Street Cousins early-chapter series, she is also the author of the Newbery Medal-winning “Missing May,” the Newbery Honor Book “A Fine White Dust,” and two Caldecott Honor-winning picture books.

CANCELLED Speaker Session: Dr. Randal Williams on "The Carter Family: A Representation of the Sacred Ideal in Early Country Music" - Virtual Only
2024-12-10 19:00 - 20:30 | VA
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this Speaker Session has been cancelled. We hope to reschedule the date sometime in the new year. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
Join us at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum on Tuesday, December 10, 7:00 p.m. for our monthly Speaker Sessions with Randal Williams on “The Carter Family: A Representation of the Sacred Ideal in Early Country Music.” The dichotomy of the sacred and the profane is intrinsic to early country music and its mythology of troubadours, the eternal struggle against evil, and damnation and redemption, all of which have become tropes of the genre and remain so to this day. These ideas were especially important in early country music and its evangelical Christian foundation. The dichotomy of the sacred and the profane is accepted as being real in an evangelical Christian context. The oppositional nature of the sacred and the profane has been fundamental to the development of country music, and more broadly, roots music in general. Early roots musicians who were enculturated in an evangelical, fundamentalist ideology intrinsically understood the sacred and the profane, good and evil, God and the devil. Life to them was an existential struggle against these opposing forces. The Carter Family, even though they had a wide repertoire of songs from various genres, are often remembered sentimentally as singers of sacred religious songs. They represent the sacred ideal in early country music, which can be heard in their music and discerned in their choice of musical material and in their collective public persona.
About Randal Williams
Dr. Williams was born at Fort Meade, Maryland, and has lived all over the country – however, his ancestry runs deep in Tennessee, and he considers himself a proud hillbilly. With a background in anthropology, history, and cultural studies, Dr. Williams has worked as an archaeologist, historic preservation planner, cultural resources manager, and university professor, among myriad other occupations, including everything from guitar builder to truck driver to chief cook and bottle washer. Dr. Williams comes from a long line of old-time and gospel musicians, and he grew up steeped in Appalachian musical traditions. Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. from Tennessee Technological University. His dissertation is titled The Lost Highway: The Dichotomy of the Sacred and the Profane in Early Country Music, 1921-1957.

Museum Storytime - Dolly Parton
2025-01-03 10:30 - 11:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Friday, January 3, 2025
Time: 10:30 a.m. EST
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: Free and open to the public
Theme: Dolly Parton
Join us in the museum’s Learning Center for our monthly Museum Storytime program. Aimed at toddler-age children and their grown-ups, we will gather on the first Friday of each month for a music- or Appalachia-related storybook, a tune or two by WBCM Radio Bristol show host Ella Patrick, and a related activity or coloring sheet.
Books that will be featured at Storytime include:

My Little Golden Book About Dolly Parton by Deborah Hopkinson (Author), Monique Dong (Illustrator)
Dolly Parton: Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton (Author), Brooke Boynton Hughes (Illustrator)
I am Dolly Parton (Ordinary People Change the World) by Brad Meltzer (Author), Christopher Eliopoulos (Illustrator)

Museum Storytime - Dolly Parton
2025-01-10 10:30 - 11:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Friday, January 10, 2025
Time: 10:30 a.m. EST
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: Free and open to the public
Theme: Dolly Parton
Join us in the museum’s Learning Center for our monthly Museum Storytime program. Aimed at toddler-age children and their grown-ups, we will gather for a music- or Appalachia-related storybook, a tune or two by WBCM Radio Bristol show host Ella Patrick, and a related activity or coloring sheet.
Books that will be featured at Storytime include:

My Little Golden Book About Dolly Parton by Deborah Hopkinson (Author), Monique Dong (Illustrator)
Dolly Parton: Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton (Author), Brooke Boynton Hughes (Illustrator)
I am Dolly Parton (Ordinary People Change the World) by Brad Meltzer (Author), Christopher Eliopoulos (Illustrator)

CANCELED: Weekly Music Lessons with JAM Kids at the Museum!
2025-01-11 10:30 - 11:30 | VA
This event is cancelled for Saturday, January 11 due to weather.
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: $5 per class or $45 for 10 lessons
Through a new partnership with Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM), the Birthplace of Country Music Museum is a new affiliate location for the program, offering weekly music lessons at the museum for children grades 4-8 and beyond. JAM Kids introduces music through small group instruction on acoustic instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as guitar, banjo, and fiddle. Students may bring their own instruments, or they can be provided as a loan while your child is participating in the program. Other instruments may be introduced as to be determined by instructors. Weekly classes will be held throughout the year, and students can join the program at any point in the year.
Registration is required to participate in this program. You can download the Registration Forms and bring it with you when you drop off your child for their first lesson or complete it at the museum’s front desk upon arrival. Each week, lessons will be filled based on arrival and capped at 30 students. Registration allows you to participate but does not guarantee your spot each week.
We do not offer online registration or spot reservations for this program. Lessons can be purchased as-you-go for $5 or as a bundle of ten pre-paid lessons for $45. The bundle is a discounted rate and will expedite your check-in process, but does not guarantee your spot each week. The class will be closed if capacity is reached before your arrival. Scholarships are available upon request. For more information about signing up for JAM or to inquire about scholarships, email Erika Barker at ebarker@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.
Registration Forms: Please bring all three forms with you when you arrive for your first lesson.

Registration Form
Student Contract
Media Release Form

Junior Appalachian Musicians is a non-profit and the parent organization for 50+ after-school programs for children in grades 4 – 8. We provide communities with the tools and support they need to teach children to play and dance to traditional old-time and bluegrass music. JAM introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar. Each JAM program is individually operated and funded. By affiliating with the JAM organization, each program is eligible to receive support and resources for free and is licensed to use “Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM)” to identify their traditional music education program.
Be sure to check out JAM Kids on Facebook and Instagram!

The JAM Program Model
JAM is an after-school program for children in grades 4 – 8 and beyond that introduces music through small group instruction on instruments common to the Appalachian region, such as fiddle, banjo and guitar. Each JAM program is individually operated and funded. By affiliating with the JAM organization, each program is eligible to receive support and resources for free, and is licensed to use “Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM)” to identify their traditional music education program.
Junior Appalachian Musicians ® is a registered trademark of Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc.
In JAM, instrument instruction is often augmented by dance and vocal instruction as well as string band classes and group enrichment lessons, which introduce children to additional Appalachian culture and history. The JAM program model provides children with opportunities to not only learn traditional music, but to also perform in small and large groups. Field trips, visiting artists and an introduction to the rich history of music unique to each local community further supplement program offerings. Each JAM program is encouraged to foster musical traditions by teaching local styles of traditional mountain music and dance to children. Instructors are also encouraged to teach students to learn music by ear, as to preserve oral traditions as much as possible. Other teaching methodologies and instructional skills are covered in regional professional development and training sessions held multiple times per year and hosted by JAM. JAM also encourages student engagement across programs with regional performance and learning activities throughout the year. For a full list of benefits to affiliates, click here.
JAM believes that all children should have access to traditional old time and bluegrass music. It is recommended that each program provide financial assistance through scholarships to children in need. The program model bases tuition fees on student lunch status: $10/week for full pay children, and $5/week for reduced pay children.
Class sizes typically have a student teacher ratio of 8:1 or less. JAM mandates that each affiliated program conduct criminal background checks on their instructors, directors, and other staff members and volunteers. Programs must be held in public facilities accessible to the community. Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc prohibits discrimination against any persons on the bases of race, color, national origin, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, political beliefs, familial or parental status, and sexual orientation.
For a full listing of affiliation requirements, click here.
History of JAM
Realizing the need to preserve a vital aspect of mountain culture as well as the need for positive activities to underserved youth, Helen White, then a guidance counselor at Sparta Elementary School, founded the first JAM program in Alleghany County, NC in the spring of 2000 with help from other local musicians and educators. Interest in the program spread rapidly with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, NC State Arts Council, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and “The Crooked Road – Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail.”
In 2007, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation provided funding to allow the development of a regional infrastructure. The Dana Foundation, Virginia Commission for Arts, the Virginia Foundation for Humanities, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Harris and Frances Block Foundation and the Tides Foundation have provided funding for materials development.
“Junior Appalachian Musicians” was incorporated in 2008 as a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt corporation to promote a shared vision of JAM and to provide an umbrella through which to offer resources, training materials and activities to benefit programs individually and collectively. Currently in nearly 30 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, JAM affiliates are providing access to the joy of music to thousands of youth while instilling renewed interest and pride in their heritage.
Interested in learning more about JAM? Click here.

VIRTUAL EVENT! Speaker Sessions: Dena Ross Jennings on Making Music and Instruments
2025-01-21 19:00 - 20:30 | VA
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Location: Virtual via Zoom; must register to attend

Cost: Free and open to the public

REGISTER HERE
Join us on Tuesday, January 21 for our Speaker Session with musician and luthier Dena Ross Jennings as she shares how she creates community through music, including the instruments she builds and her Affrolachian On-Time Music Gathering, also known as “The Thang.”

About Dr. Dena Jennings

Dena Jennings is a physician and artist in Central Virginia who can trace her ancestry in Appalachia back five generations through her mother’s family. Twenty years after establishing her medical practice and ImaniWorks, a non-profit organization for conflict transformation and human rights advocacy, Jennings moved to Ontario, Canada, where she entered a four-year arts apprenticeship. There, she learned to hand carve modern instruments made from gourds and other natural fibers in the style of traditional instruments from around the world. At the end of her apprenticeship, she opened a workshop, studio, and retail music store in a small town in Central Ontario.
Upon meeting her husband who had developed an herb farm and retreat center in Central Virginia, she relocated the workshop and studio where she could grow her own gourds and mill her own wood. She re-opened her practice in Orange and its waiting room is a gallery for her sculpted instruments and a listening room for Appalachian and Black American roots music. Through ImaniWorks, Jennings conducts instrument building workshops, conflict transformation retreats, and hosts the Affrolachian On-Time Music Gathering at the farm. She also makes sculptures and performs Appalachian and folk Bengali music on gourd instruments. Jennings is the Vice Chair of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and she has served as a commissioner since 2019. As she explains, she “endeavors to build the Beloved Community through my devotion to music, culture, and social justice.”

Monthly Bluegrass Jam
2025-01-25 14:00 - 17:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, in partnership with the East Tennessee Bluegrass Association, hosts a monthly gathering of local musicians for a bluegrass jam session. The jam events are intended to provide a space for local musicians to gather and pick, collaborate, share their experiences, and—most importantly—to have fun. The jams are acoustic and only feature traditional bluegrass instruments: acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and dobro.
The jams are free and open to the public. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Those just interested in joining as a spectator are welcome at no charge.
Bluegrass Jams will be held every fourth Saturday of the month from 2-5 p.m., serving as a great warm-up for Saturday night gigs. Musicians are asked to bring their own instruments.
The sessions will be held in the Learning Center at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
For more information call 423-573-1927.

Museum Storytime - Family
2025-02-07 10:30 - 11:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Friday, February 7, 2025
Time: 10:30 a.m. EST
Location: The Learning Center, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: Free and open to the public
Theme: Family
Join us in the museum’s Learning Center for our monthly Museum Storytime program. Aimed at toddler-age children and their grown-ups, we will gather on the first Friday of each month for a music- or Appalachia-related storybook, a tune or two by WBCM Radio Bristol show host Ella Patrick, and a related activity or coloring sheet. The craft will be making paper mountains.
Books that will be featured at Storytime include:

When Uncle Took the Fiddle by Libba Moore Gray (Author), Lloyd Bloom (Illustrator)
My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston (Author), Susan Condie Lamb (Illustrator)
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (Author), Stephen Gammell (Illustrator)

Community Square Dance at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum
2025-02-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Saturday, February 8, 2024
Time: 7 p.m. EST
Location: Special Exhibits Gallery, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Cost: Free but any donations at the door will support the museum
The event is at capacity currently. Please email info@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org to be placed on the waitlist.
RSVP HERE
Come do-si-do and promenade with us!
Join the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for a community square dance on Saturday, February 8. Caller Tyler Hughes will lead a short introduction to dance steps, followed by a full square dance with a lively string band lead by John Bills.
This event is open to all ages and no experience or partner is required. To protect the Special Exhibits Gallery floor, no heels please; we recommend sturdy shoes so you can dance all night!
Space is limited so sign up to participate soon!

Museum Volunteer Orientation
2025-02-15 10:00 - 12:00 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
We want YOU to join our wonderful team of volunteers at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum!
Dates: Every other month on a Saturday

February 15, 2025
April 26, 2025
June 28, 2025
August 23, 2025
October 18, 2025
December 13, 2025

Time: 10 a.m.-Noon
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Learning Center
If you have a passion for Bristol and its musical legacy and love helping others, our museum volunteer program is the perfect fit for you!
Museum volunteers play a vital role in a number of key areas behind the scenes and on the front lines, such as working as a gallery assistant or docent, helping out in The Museum Store, working with the public at events, concerts, and programs, assisting with behind the scenes administrative or collections work and so much more! Our Museum Volunteer Orientation session gets you acquainted with every aspect of the museum to help you find your area of interest. Volunteer schedules are flexible and fun!
If you are interested in coming to our Museum Volunteer Training, call 423-573-1927 or email volunteercoordinator@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.

Talk & Book Signing: Geoffrey Himes "In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985"
2025-02-15 13:30 - 14:30 | VA
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2025
Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
Location: Birthplace of Country Music Museum
An RSVP isn’t necessary to attend, but it helps us to know how many people to expect. There is no cost to attend.
RSVP HERE
Respected author, poet, journalist and songwriter Geoffrey Himes will give a brief talk about book signing at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
Geoffrey Himes wrote about music on a weekly basis in The Washington Post from 1977 to 2019 and has served as a senior editor at No Depression and Paste magazines. He has also written
about pop music, jazz, theater, film, art and books for Rolling Stone, Oxford American, New York Times, Smithsonian, National Public Radio, Jazz Times, Downbeat, and other outlets. He
has been honored for Music Feature Writing by the Deems Taylor/ASCAP Awards (2003, 2005, 2014 and 2016), the New Orleans Press Awards, the Abell Foundation Awards and the Music
Journalism Awards. His book on Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A.,” was published in 2005, and his book on Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash in 2024. He is currently working on a
book about Willie Nelson.
“In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music: 1968-1985,” published by the Country Music Hall of Fame, is more than just another pop music book. Author Geoffrey Himes has identified and named a major movement in country music that has been overlooked in the conventional histories of the genre. Those histories may have to be written differently going forward. This is a brisk story full of humor, contrarian opinions and excerpts from interviews with the principals: Harris, Cash, Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs, Guy Clark, Brian Ahern, Sharon White, Chris Hillman and many more. But the focus is not on the usual music-book fodder: drugs, divorces and business disputes. Unlike most music books, this one focuses on music—how the distinct sound of In-Law Country grew out of California country-rock, bluegrass, Dylanesque folk music and the Carter-Cash Dynasty and evolved to differentiate itself from its predecessors and to find a large enough audience to top the country charts again and again.

Speaker Session: From Appalachia to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with Toni Doman-Vandyke
2025-02-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Birthplace of Country Music Museum, 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, 24201, United States
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Location: In-person at the Birthplace of Country Music, Performance Theatre and streamed on Radio Bristol’s YouTube Channel

Cost: Free and open to the public

REGISTER HERE

Join us on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 for our Speaker Session with Toni Doman Vandyke: “From Appalachia to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.”

In this talk, Fulbright recipient Toni Doman-Vandyke will explore technology’s impact on the traditional music community of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. With our growing reliance on technologies, both listeners and players have increased access to musical influences outside of their geographic region, and Toni’s project documents the current traditional music scene in Cape Breton and seeks to uncover how access to outside musical influences is shaping the region’s traditional music. Toni will share stories from her past year of being immersed in the island’s cultural community, collecting field recordings of musical gatherings and events along with in-depth interviews with musicians and cultural caretakers primarily focusing on traditional music of Scottish and Gaelic origin. She will also share connections between Appalachian and Maritime musical histories and styles.
Toni Doman-Vandyke is a 2023-2024 Fulbright Canada Student Award recipient. Her research project Complex Relationships: Contemporaries Technologies and the Traditional Music of Cape Breton, focuses on uncovering how globalization and technology have an impact and are interacting within the traditional musical scene in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. She is currently the Director of the Tazewell County Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) Program Chapter. Her previous work includes multiple roles at the Birthplace of Country Music, including Curatorial Specialist and Grants Coordinator. During this time, she produced and hosted Mountain Song & Story on WBCM Radio Bristol which showcased influential Appalachian artisans and traditions through in-depth interviews, music, and storytelling. Toni holds a Master’s Degree in Communications and Media Arts and Studies from Ohio University focusing on Appalachian music and culture as the core of her graduate research and is one of the few students to earn the world’s first four-year degree in traditional bluegrass music offered at Glenville State University in West Virginia. Toni is also a musician currently performing in the country-folk duo Virginia West, and she has recently embarked on a new journey baking homemade pies at her home-based pie shop, The Rolling Pin. Through all her creative outlets, Toni aims to promote arts and culture for a greater understanding of the Appalachian region.
