Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, The Judds, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless and Carly Pearce—those are just a few of the names you’ll see enshrined at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame & Museum.
Located just off Interstate 75 in Mount Vernon, the 16,000-square-foot Hall of Fame & Museum established in 2002 contains over 1,000 artifacts that give its 7,000 visitors annually a comprehensive look at the state’s rich music history that spans well beyond the country and bluegrass sounds the state is synonymous with.
Upon entering visitors will walk into a gift shop full of Hall of Fame merchandise along with records and other items from Kentucky artists big and small. Beyond that lies a lobby that hosts recitals and monthly songwriter rounds followed by the museum entrance that gives way to the Hall of Fame room.
The room is lined wall-to-wall with glass display cases showing off personal items and other gems from each enshrined Hall of Fame member, of which there are currently 66. Of the items inside two stand out to Hall of Fame & Museum Executive Director Jessica Blankenship—2022 inductee Paul Yandell’s first guitar that he affectionately called his “Miss Wanda Guitar” and the dress that Loretta Lynn wore at her 2002 induction ceremony.
“I’ve got a picture of her leaning up against her Hall of Fame case wearing it with a button-up blouse with birds on it. It’s pure Loretta through and through,” exclaims Blankenship. “I was only on the job as executive director here for a few months before she passed. I had the pleasure of interviewing her countless times over the years, so it’s been fun incorporating some of that into our programming.”
Other rooms include the Renfro Room—a nod to the neighboring Renfro Valley Entertainment Center and its legendary barn dances that date back to the 1930s—that details the venue’s origins and the emergence of music media throughout the state. There’s also the Interactive Room full of kid and adult-sized playable instruments and the fan favorite Loretta Room that contains a special display dedicated to the “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
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Despite everything the museum already has to offer, Blankenship has ambitious plans to build upon it even more, envisioning things like even more instruments for its Interactive Room and temporary exhibits highlighting current trends in Kentucky music or even how Hall of Fame members have influenced newer artists.
“Given how the museum’s walking path follows a chronological timeline, something showing how that history and our current Hall of Fame members have inspired and influenced the current crop of Kentucky musicians coming up would fit right in,” admits Blankenship.
However, her current focus remains on her incoming 2024 class of Hall of Fame inductees set to be enshrined during a ceremony at Renfro Valley on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. The wide-ranging 11-person class includes Grammy winner Sturgill Simpson, outlaw country singer Gary Stewart, esteemed educators and pickers the McLain Family Band, rock band Black Stone Cherry, former Eric Church and Exile sound engineer Billy Moore; and Ruble Sanderson—one of the businessmen credited for turning Nashville’s Broadway strip from a wasteland into the tourism mecca it is today.
“My big goal with this year’s class was to have more diversity across musical genres and different sectors of the business,” recalls Blankenship. My Board of Directors and I had a list of 130 names categorized by each genre along with things like business, behind the scenes and songwriters that we deliberated on and narrowed down to about 25. Then we started contacting people and cutting the list further until we landed on our final 11. Needless to say, I’m very pleased with each and every one of them.”
While the Hall of Fame enshrinement is the venue’s biggest, it’s not the only premiere event they produce annually. The venue also hosts the Kentucky Food Truck Championship every September, welcoming over 35 food trucks and 30 craft vendors to its premises to battle for a $5,000 grand prize.
Additionally, it has partnered with 2022 Hall of Fame inductee TeeDee Young on the Kentucky Blues Music Festival the past two years in June. According to Blankenship, one of the first things she did after entering her Executive Director role was to push for Young’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame, a move that has paid off in more ways than one.
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“He’s legendary in Lexington, not just on the stage but off of it too, so it was a no brainer for me to push for him being included in our 2022 class of inductees,” asserts Blankenship. “It ended up paying off because his performance at the induction is something our board members still haven’t stopped talking about almost two years later. Working with him on the Kentucky Blues Festival has been a joy and something we hope to continue in collaboration for years to come.”
Aside from events and its museum curations, Blankenship is also in the early stages of organizing a Kentucky Music Library containing audio recordings, music literature and other documents related to the state’s music scene that will be archived and accessible to anyone who wishes to view them. It’s just one way that she’s trying to bring the Museum into the digital age and make Kentucky’s music knowledge more readily available to all.
“Back when I was in college I realized the importance of preserving our local music and literature for future generations,” explains Blankenship. “The Kentucky Music Library is one of many ways that we hope to do just that, giving fans and researchers alike an archive of music literature, recordings and other materials to enjoy.”