The Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi — the Grammy’s first outpost — opened earlier this year, and we were able to get in during the first month. It is first-class. The artifacts, the exhibits themselves, how hands-on the museum is…
Set up with space for events
It’s no wonder why the Grammy Museum would want to open here considering the musical contributions of the state of Mississippi. So one of the questions was: how much Mississippi will be on display? A lot. Will there be a good mix from the broader context of the Grammys? There was.
The first piece on display is from Hollandale — it’s Ben Peters’ “free million dollar piano” which was given to him by a church, “which he patched together with paper clips and string” and used to write Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Morning” and Freddie Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”.
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Through February 19, 2017, the exhibit on view is ‘Pride and Joy: the Texas Blue of Stevie Ray Vaughn’ but the museum’s first exhibit was ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…The Beatles!’
This was a drumhead that Eddie Stokes did the graphics for (only three of his are known to exist)
Part of the exhibit included a practice drum set (that you could really only hear through headphones so people enjoying the exhibit weren’t disturbed by it) that taught beginner skills with a video
Mississippi Music Trails
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Mississippi Music Bar, where guests can scroll through songs written by Mississippians
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Sonny Boy Williamson’s harp
Elvis jumpsuit c 1975
The Roland Room, where guests can play electric musical instruments
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Again, one of the beautiful things is that guests don’t have to worry about making too much noise, because the sound is coming through the headphones.
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Dance room with instructional videos to do certain moves
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While the museum isn’t huge, it is packed full of interactive exhibits that will certainly keep one happy and busy for at least a couple of hours — there are other aspects to the museum that I didn’t include here, but are incredibly interesting and engaging.
And even the restroom signage is themed
and the gift shop? We passed on these, but he really did want them.
