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The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is also a boon for Nashville since the 60,000 pilgrims who visit each month eat, sleep and attend other cultural and historical venues within the city. But like all not-for-profits, so much more could be done given more resources and support. Hurricane Katrina illustrates just how vulnerable the nation's historical treasure is. Digitizing the entire collection of the Country Music Hall of Fame might seem an unimaginable task, but the loss of that collection is as unthinkable. Many musicians of all fame and success levels visit the Hall to commune with their heroes and find new inspiration. Even the legends. Young recalls one such encounter with the great Merle Haggard. "When Merle was here, we were walking around, and we took him to see the archives, where we had pulled for him a Lefty Frizzell guitar because we knew how much he admired him," says Young. "Merle picked up that guitar, and it was as if he looked at his own newborn child." Haggard then went on to tell an inspirational tale about that very guitar in his hands. When he was young, his first break in the business came in a honky tonk in Bakersfield, California, where he'd come to see Lefty Frizzell play. During an intermission, in some back hallway, Haggard got to talking with the ever-engaging Frizzell. "Merle wanted to play him a song, but the promoter came in and told Lefty it was time to get back out on the stage," says Young. "Lefty told the promoter he wasn't going back out unless Merle could go out and play the tune he had in mind." The promoter buckled. Lefty handed Merle his guitar, and he went on stage and played. And now decades later, Merle Haggard that same guitar in his hands again. The nearest stage was the Ford theater downstairs. And so he went to play for anyone who would listen. The Country Music Hall of Fame isn't just a building. It's a bridge too. Hall of Fame Magazine editor John Budris reported for the nation's most prestigious publications. You can contact him at
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