NASHVILLE, TN (CelebrityAccess) — The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville announced the addition of Marty Stuart’s collection of country music memorabilia to its permanent holdings.
The Marty Stuart Collection is the largest privately held trove of country music relics and includes more than 22,000 items, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The acquisition was made possible the generosity of Stuart, along with a lead preservation gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation and major additional support from Loretta and Jeff Clarke.
Stuart presented the collection to the museum during a special ceremony at Ford’s Theater that included several performances that featured items from the collection.
Country music trio Chapel Hart performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” with recording artist Charlie Worsham playing a 1970 Fender Telecaster once owned by the Gospel patriarch Pops Staples
Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill performed “Marty & Me,” a new song written by Gill and Stuart, with Gill performing the song on George Jones’ 1958 Martin D-28 guitar.
Grammy-winning artist Chris Stapleton performed “Why Me Lord,” which was originally written and recorded by Kris Kristofferson and recorded by Johnny Cash. For the performance, Stapleton used Cash’s Martin D-45 acoustic guitar, which also belonged to Hank Williams.
“Marty Stuart has fulfilled those childhood dreams many times over. Today, he is making our dreams come true, with the crucial help of two key donors,” stated Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, durign the event. “We’re incredibly grateful for Marty’s philanthropy — and a lead gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation with major support from Loretta and Jeff Clarke — for enabling the museum to safeguard and share this historic collection in perpetuity. We’re here to celebrate this remarkable addition to our collection, revel in Marty’s extraordinary foresight and collecting skill, and rejoice in a new chapter for this museum.”
Select items from the Marty Stuart Collection include:
- Jimmie Rodgers’ leather satchel – Two days after his final RCA Victor recording session, Rodgers died in New York on May 26, 1933. This satchel, which contained his manuscripts from the sessions, was placed in the casket with Rodgers’s body and shipped by train back to his home in Meridian, Mississippi.
- Hank Williams’ song manuscript – Original two-page, handwritten (with his corrections) song manuscript for Williams’ “I Saw the Light” from 1947.
- Dolly Parton’s dress – Parton wore this rhinestone-embellished dress on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” c. 1970. The dress was made by Nashville seamstress Lucy Adams, who began designing exclusively for Parton in the late 1960s.
- Johnny Cash’s suit – Cash’s first black stage suit, c. 1955.
- Patsy Cline’s outfit – Patsy Cline’s mother, Hilda Hensley, designed and sewed this two-piece cowgirl outfit for her in the 1950s, when fancy western-style stage wear was very popular with country music performers.
- Luther Perkins’ guitar – A founding member of Johnny Cash’s backing band the Tennessee Two (later the Tennessee Three) guitarist Perkins helped define Cash’s sound with his muted picking style. Perkins played this 1963 sunburst Fender Jaguar electric guitar on Cash’s classic recording of “Ring of Fire.”
- Marty Stuart’s jacket – This rhinestone-covered jacket — further enhanced with embroidered western scenes and playing cards — was made for Marty Stuart by his good friend, western-wear designer Manuel Cuevas. Stuart wore the jacket in the 1991 music video for his Top Five country hit “Tempted.”
- Charley Pride’s guitar – Pride used this 1967 Fender Coronado II hollow-body electric guitar, with distinctive “Antigua” sunburst finish, extensively in the 1960s and ’70s.
- Glen Campbell’s guitar – Campbell used this 1966 Mosrite Dobro D-100 Californian acoustic-electric resonator guitar at recording sessions with the Los Angeles studio musicians known as the “Wrecking Crew,” as well as at concerts and TV appearances, c. 1967. The instrument was hand built for Campbell by guitar maker Semie Mosley, who acquired the rights to the Dobro name in the mid-1960s.
- Bob Dylan’s hat – Dylan performed in this wide-brimmed fedora during his Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour in 1975. Western-wear designer and tailor Manuel Cuevas embellished the hat with a studded leather belt buckle hatband, faux flowers and a feather.
- George Jones’ boots – Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors made these boots for Jones, c. 1969. When Jones gave them to Marty Stuart in 1987, the boots “were in perfect condition,” recalls Stuart. “They were the nicest boots I’d ever owned.” By the end of ’87, which Stuart called the roughest year of his life, the boots “were a perfect reflection of me, worn out.”
