Takin' A Walk Nashville: Exploring January's Key Moments in Music City’s Rich Music History

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taken Awok in Asheville. I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year. I'm so happy to be back and joining me today is Buzz Knight from Taken Awok Taken Awok and we're going to go over some notable dates for the month of January and Nashville music history. Thanks for joining me today Buzz, how are you? I'm doing great, it's nice to see you Sarah. This you too, you know, we had such a great start for Taken Awok Nashville in 2025 and I'm so excited to see what's up next for Taken Awok and Taken Awok Nashville in 2026. We reached number three on the Music Category and Apple Music Podcast and number one in Music History. So I just want to thank everyone who has been tuning in, it's been tremendous. Spread the word, we have no problem, you spread the word, go to Apple, give us a rating, give us a review, tell your friends about it. We really don't want you to be shy if you like what's going on. Yes, yeah, please give us a review or rating. I'm already getting some messages from people internationally across the world who are listening to the podcast. I just had a listener in Switzerland reach out, his name is Christopher Gezz, he's been listening to Taken Awok Nashville and he's going to be a Nashville next month all the way from Switzerland with his band and another musician Elaine Boog. They're going to be recording new music here in Nashville. So thank you, Chris, for tuning in. Buzz, I just love that our show is reaching people internationally. That is one of the fun parts of podcasting too. There are no geographic boundaries. Well, Buzz, let's get into it. I want to talk about some notable dates that happened in the month of January and Nashville Music History. People think at this time winter months that it slows down here in Nashville for musicians, but that's definitely not the case. There's always music happening even in January. It venues like Bluebird Cafe, the Opera and Listening Room. Nashville never sleeps. It never sleeps. No, it doesn't. I'm going to start off with a little bit of a somber fact that happened in January and History January 1st, 1953. This date was the death of Hank Williams. He was on the road to a show and unfortunately he died in the back of his Cadillac at just 29 years old. His death definitely sent shockwaves through Nashville and this remains one of the genre's most significant turning points. An iconic figure to this day is Hank Williams. Absolutely, yes. Hank Williams, Hank Williams, Jr. We love their music. Another fact that happened around this decade in 1958 and 1959, Johnny Cash was at San Quentin. Now, on New Year's Day, Johnny Cash performed his first ever prison shows and while this did not occur in Nashville, these concerts did define his man in black persona. It influenced Nashville's Merle Haggard who wasn't inmate in the audience at the time and credited the show with turning his life towards music. It's so amazing that Johnny Cash played for Merle Haggard. If you have not seen the documentary called Tricky Dick as in Richard Nixon, Tricky Dick, Tricky Dick and the Man in Black, it is a fantastic documentary. Actually, not the name drop, but Jelly Roll recommended that. I hadn't seen the documentary, but it's a great Johnny Cash take if you haven't seen it. I haven't off to check it out, especially if Jelly Roll recommended it. I'm going to make his word for it. Another milestone on this month and music history, Grand O'opere had some of their own milestones on January 21st, 1989. This is when music valley drive came about this opera land area. It's so major expansion in the late 80s, including their amusement park, which is now shut down so you won't see that anymore. But if you go now, you'll see the opera land with the hotel. But during this month, you might not be able to catch a show at the Grand O'opere because they do this thing in the winter months in January called Opera at the Rhymen. This is where they go back and they move their opera shows to the Rhymen Auditorium. It's historic, original home, and that's where that takes place for the winter months. And if you're heading to Nashville and you're dying to see a show at the Rhymen, don't wait until you get to Nashville to get your tickets. It's always a hot ticket at the Rhymen, so get them in advance, whichever show you're going to take in. Absolutely. And I love seeing old pictures of what opera land looked like back in the 80s and 90s when it had the amusement park and maybe not all of the buildings built up around it. There's an Instagram page. It's called Nashville Music History or Nashville Music History X and they always post older photos of Nashville, which is really fun to see like what Broadway looks like back in the day, to Mumbrian in Midtown. It looked so different and you could actually park on Broadway back in the day. Sometimes we yearn for yesterday, right? Absolutely. A great nostalgic page to look at. I want to talk about some notable births and breakthroughs that happened during the month of January. So starting with January 2nd, 1926, Harold Bradley. He was born in Nashville, what we call a unicorn. We don't really see people born and raised in Nashville anymore, but he became the most recorded guitarist in history. And he was a member of the A team. The A team was a group of session musicians who created the Nashville sound. Garth Brooks worked heavily with the A team as well. And I love going through the country music hall of fame just as I know you do and seeing the way you know someone like Harold Bradley is commemorated there. So generations move forward and they don't forget about these great legendary players from the past. Absolutely. Such a great place to see some memorabilia and instruments that these musicians played. Another thing that happened during this month, January 19th, 1946, Dolly Parton had her grand old opera guest start. So she didn't become a member until 1969 in the opera. But during the 40s, she was making her mark on the Nashville music scene. And then in the late 60s during January, this led to her legendary partnership with Porter Wagner. And she has such a great album she did with Porter Wagner as well. And Dolly to this day keeps creating keeps building upon her an amazing brand and keeps doing good in the world. Oh, it's so amazing. She just, yeah, she just keeps doing it. Whether it's a rock album or doing something with cracker barrel, you know, she's done it all. That's right. That's right. I love her. Yeah, me too. So other events that happened a couple of things happened on the last day of this month in January 31st, 1970, first of all, this was a week and country jail. So Tom T. Hall's hit reached number one proving that Nashville's story song tradition was a commercial powerhouse. And I think that stays true to the stay. A week and country jail. What a title, right? I know. Yeah, says it all. It says it all right there. And so we talked a lot about what happened in the past and 1940s, 1960s, 1970s. But more of a recent fact on this month, January 31st, 2010, you know, Taylor Swift was really making waves as a country artist here in Nashville at that time. And that was the day she had her Grammy sweep. She was just 20 years old in Nashville based star. She won four Grammys, including album of the year for her album Fearless. This was signaling signaling a massive shift in the industry center towards more younger and crossover artists, especially 2010s. That's when more younger artist and pop was making its way into country music. So Sarah, as a singer songwriter, what does Taylor Swift mean to you? I think a lot of people, regardless of age, but you know, in general, are just so inspired by Taylor Swift. Obviously, she's a wonderful songwriter and artist. But I'm just always inspired by her business moves to I think she's incredibly talented and smart. And she knows how to keep people on her feet with her new releases, always coming up with new ideas, marketing ideas, and just presenting original and fresh music all the time. Are you happy that the chiefs are not marching to the Super Bowl or sad? I am very happy about that because I was very tired of singing them in the Super Bowl, but unfortunately the Ravens are not a part of the playoffs this year. I'm sorry to darken the conversation. I know you're a fan of the Ravens, so I apologize in advance. I am. Yeah. Well, you know, at least the Ravens have done better than the Titans, the Arnthens Sea. There you go, exactly. Well, those are my dates for Nashville music history, a little bit of insight on what occurred here in the month of January in Nashville. But Buzz, people can look forward to the guest. I'm going to have upcoming in the New Year for taking a walk Nashville. So for February on February 12th, I've got Tony Mantour. He is a producer, musician and podcast host. You may have heard of his podcast. Why not me? And also podcast almost live, another music podcast. So that's a wonderful conversation on February 26th. I have another wonderful guest, Mary Gosset. She is a hit songwriter in Nashville. So these are just some excellent conversations I had recently and I can't wait for everyone to tune in and hear it. Yeah, I can't wait to hear both of them. Mary was on the Music Savvy podcast with Lynn Hoffman. And Mary's done incredible work in the veterans community in terms of health and well-being issues in terms of how songwriting and music is so important there. So can't wait to hear both of those, including Mary, who is quite a character. Absolutely. Yeah. People can look forward to that. More episodes coming up this month as well, one with Porter's Call. And I'm doing a show with them on January 20th at Prospect House. People can get their tickets online. But tickets benefiting such a wonderful cause, Porter's Call helps people, artists and musicians and needs so everyone can check out my social media's for more information on them and tickets to that event. Awesome. That's so great. Thanks for doing that. Yeah. Well, thanks Buzz for being on today and I'm looking forward to what we have going on here next. Thanks for everything, Sarah, and it's great to be with you on Taking a Walk Nashville. This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.