NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The root of why Nashville is known around the world as Music City comes down to a popular phrase here: “It started with a song.”

Think about it. Before a singer can popularize a song, someone had to write it. Perhaps it was scribbled on the back of an envelope or neatly penned onto a yellow legal pad. Perhaps it sprang to life as a solo effort, or perhaps it was the product of a music publisher’s writing room.

Regardless, the song you can recite verbatim (and perhaps sing badly in a karaoke bar) or the one you and your sweetheart call “your song” started with a songwriter.

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame occupies public space in the Music City Center, the city’s primary convention facility; image by Tom Adkinson.

The best of the best songwriters are honored in an unlikely place - a relatively small display gallery in the Music City Center, Nashville’s gigantic downtown convention facility. The architecturally impressive Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is just around the corner, but the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame can occupy just as much of your time. It is modest in size only.

A hall of fame art panel salutes Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and Marijohn Wilkin (“One Day at a Time”); image by Tom Adkinson.

Display cases at this hall of fame are just as professional as any at a hall of fame with its own building, but they are much more accessible. Just walk in off the street to start learning about the songwriting prowess of legends such as Hank Williams and Roy Orbison and of personalities from other genres such as Gene Autry and Chuck Berry.

Why, you ask, are Gene Autry and Chuck Berry recognized among the giants of Nashville songwriters? Gene Autry wrote “Here Comes Santa Claus,” and Chuck Berry wrote songs that became hits for country legends such as Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty and George Jones.

The hall of fame delivers substantial detail about its more than 200 honorees, including Woody Guthrie; image by Tom Adkinson.

Display cases at this hall of fame are just as professional as any at a hall of fame with its own building, but they are much more accessible. Just walk in off the street to start learning about the songwriting prowess of legends such as Hank Williams and Roy Orbison and of personalities from other genres such as Gene Autry and Chuck Berry.

Treasures to inspect include a handwritten letter Hank Williams sent to his publisher doubting the quality of “I Saw the Light” and a first draft of Paul Craft’s “Dropkick Me, Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life).”

Hank Williams was unsure about “I Saw the Light” in a letter to his publisher; generations of fans proved he wrote a hit; image by Tom Adkinson.

The captivating power of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame is heard in its exhibit that lets you scroll through the roster of honorees and then listen to recordings of the songs they wrote. It’s a “Greatest Hits” jukebox of your very own, and you can punch up songs to your heart’s content.

Few people, of course, chart a career path of being a songwriter, which means that they had to do something else for income before any royalties started rolling in. That’s the genesis of a display called “Before They Wrote Hits.”

The slightly more than 200 hall of fame songwriters account for a wide array of other professions. One played in the NFL (Mike Reid, whose credits include “Stranger in My House” for Ronnie Milsap), two were Bible salesmen (including Roger Miller, whose songs include “King of the Road”), five were janitors (including Kris Kristofferson, whose songs include “For the Good Times”), three were journalists and two were mail carriers. The mail carriers are John Prine, who wrote “Paradise,” and Jim McBride, who wrote “Chattahoochee” for Alan Jackson.

 

Under one corner of the undulating roof of the Music City is the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; image by Tom Adkinson.

Admission to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame is free, as is access to a nearby outdoor attraction, the Music City Walk of Fame Park. At the park, in-ground plaques honor artists, songwriters and industry professionals with special connections to Nashville. If you are lucky, you’ll chance upon an installation ceremony for a new Walk of Fame member.


Trip-planning resources: VisitMusicCity.com and NashvilleSongwritersFoundation.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s new book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at CornersOfTheCountry.com.)