Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame

We started our Middle States trip with the music and museum of Elvis Presley, so it is only fitting that as we neared the end, we'd have another musical  museum; this time, it was the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky.  

The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum is located near the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Owensboro.  The city's acclaimed Smothers Park is nearby and is a beautiful relaxing place to enjoy when you're downtown.  We arrived in Owensboro around 9:15 AM, much earlier than we had originally scheduled, so we enjoyed the park while waiting for the museum to open at 10 AM.  We had spent the night in Dale, Indiana, after being at Lincoln's Boyhood Home and exploring Santa Claus, Indiana, the day before.  We were half a day ahead of our original schedule since we skipped St. Louis and left from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, so we were able to see both things in one day.  Had we looked at the map more broadly when we re-routed to Mt. Vernon, we would have realized that Dale, Indiana, was just 45 minutes from Owensboro - and we would have just cancelled our Dale hotel and gone on to Kentucky.  In hindsight we wish we had because there are only two hotels in Dale - and the one we stayed at (a Baymont) was the worst one we had on the trip.  We would have had time to cancel without penalty if we had only looked while we were still in Hannibal changing our plans.  Lesson learned!  Don't just try to get back on track - look to see if there might be a better alternative.  To be fair, the Baymont's online presence and reviews at the time weren't terrible - we didn't expect greatness, but we couldn't leave fast enough the next morning!  (I left accurate reviews on TripAdvisor.)

Anyway, that's why we were in Owensboro early and able to enjoy the riverfront area.  It was a beautiful, clear, cooler morning (May 28th) so we just relaxed and played Pokemon Go until the museum opened.

DH was excited to be in Kentucky as that's his home state.  He hasn't been since 2017.

This is the back of the museum; plenty of parking and right next to Smothers Park.

The Ohio River

We watched this boat push this load of barges down river.

This flag retirement box is an Eagle Scout project.

The museum is very well done.  They got a lot of things right about this place.  There are hands-on exhibits with the instruments, and there is an audio tour that is included as part of the admission.  The audio tour is a must-do rather than trying to see and experience the museum without it.  There's music, background stories, and information that you wouldn't get just from walking around and reading the signs.

The building was pretty interesting architecturally.  They hold concerts here, too.

We went in through the back door.

There were instruments you could play at the beginning of the tour.

Of course I pulled some of these down to play!

And a few of these.

Like all good museums, there was a good timeline of Bluegrass Music.

I didn't know a lot of the artists names, but I did know Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs (thanks, Beverly Hillbillies), and Ricky Skaggs.

It was interesting to see the evolution of the music that became known as bluegrass.  Even Elvis Presley recorded a version of the bluegrass song Blue Moon of Kentucky.

There were several exhibits about the introduction of the dobro; I didn't know what that was until I saw one.

You could say my earliest introduction to bluegrass music was on the Beverly Hillbillies.  While I knew Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were sometimes on the show, it hadn't clicked with me that they do the theme song!

I thought this was an interesting perspective from the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe.

And here's Uncle Pen's fiddle, made famous by Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.

Watch the video of context!

It was impressive to see the Hall of Fame inductees on the wall.  They have an area of the museum where you can sit at a desk and read and listen to more information about whichever ones you want to know more about.  We saw something similar to this at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum - a wall of photos that you could then use their electronic database to learn more!

Just a few of the members of the Hall of Fame.

We listen to Bluegrass music every Saturday on Sirius XM in the car.  I'm not sure how we started doing it, but it's what led us to add this museum to our trip.  If you ever get a chance to be in the area, we would recommend going to see it.  Allow 90 minutes to 2 hours to visit.  And don't forget to take a turn picking a banjo or strumming the mandolin.

(And yeah, by this point we're nearing the end of our trip, but we still have one more musical icon to visit, so stay tuned!)

~ Cindy D.