Topic:  Projects that are underway by the Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Bill will be discussing some of the projects underway by the Birthplace of Country Music Museum (http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org) such as the Heritage Center.  In the late 1927, several recording were made by Ralph Sylvester Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey.  These recordings were made in downtown Bristol and sometimes referred to as the Bristol Sessions.  Artists such as Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family were first recorded during these sessions.  These sessions are considered the birth of the country music industry.  Traditional Appalachian music became the sound of country music.  Local, formerly unknown talent went on to have extensive careers and make many more recordings.  Victor also established paying artists a royalty per record sale which helped them to grow to RCA records.  This type of recording contract is now an industry standard.

In 1994, the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance was formed.  Its purpose is to preserve country music history in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.  The group has since grown and collected various memorabilia to establish a museum.  A new building (Heritage Center) is being built to house the artifacts.  The Birthplace of Country Music Museum has also established a relationship the Smithsonian.  The Museum also promotes musical events featuring country and bluegrass music.

About our Speaker:

Bill Hartley is the Executive Director of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. 

Bill holds degrees from the University of Alabama and Clemson University and has completed the coursework for a Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee.  He has authored articles, essays, book reviews, and encyclopedia entries for academic, popular, and internet publications and frequently lectures on the historic and cultural significance of traditional Appalachian music to educational, arts, and civic organizations. 

In 2002, Hartley coordinated a ten-day, three-state celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and, in 2003, worked with the Smithsonian Institution to organize the program on Appalachian musical and cultural heritage at the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.   Currently, he is working on a multi-million dollar project to transform an historic structure into the Birthplace of Cultural Heritage Center in downtown Bristol, TN-VA.

In carrying out his duties, Hartley works with numerous arts, governmental, tourism, and community organizations.  He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Bristol Convention and Visitors Bureau, Believe in Bristol Main Street Program, and the Crooked Road: Southwest Virginia‘s Heritage Music Trail, and is the past president of the Arts Alliance Mountain Empire, a local arts agency based in Bristol.  He serves on the Member Virginia Intermont College’s Tourism Program Advisory Board, and has served on the Virginia Association of Museum’s Advisory Committee for New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music and as a member Hazard Community Technical College’s Bluegrass and Traditional Music Program National Advisory Council. Hartley is a member of the Virginia Association of Museums, Tennessee Association of Museums, and Southeast Museum Conference (SEMC), International Bluegrass Music Association, Folk Alliance, and Country Music Association.  He is a past graduate of SEMC’s Jekyll Island Management Institute, the Virginia Association of Museum’s Fundamentals Forum, and a member of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2008.