The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum. Photo by Tim Hursley.

Nashville, Tenn. — The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s successful quarterly program series Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players returns on Saturday, February 21, with a salute to legendary drummer Jerry Carrigan. The 1:30 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.

The interactive program, hosted by Stringed Instrument Curator Bill Lloyd, will include an in-depth, one-on-one interview highlighted by vintage recordings, photos and film clips from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive. Immediately following the program, Carrigan will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Jerry Carrigan’s colossal drum sound and solid rhythmic foundation was a mainstay of the Nashville session scene for nearly three decades. After recording R&B hits for Tommy Roe, the Tams and Arthur Alexander in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Carrigan helped create classic country and pop records in Nashville. He played drums on Jerry Reed’s “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie.” Carrigan played on sessions with Johnny Cash, John Denver, George Jones, Don McLean, Dolly Parton, Johnny Paycheck, Elvis Presley, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette and many more.

Jerry Carrigan was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1943. According to his mother, Carrigan would abandon new toys as an infant and crawl to the kitchen cabinets to beat on the family’s pots and pans. Later, his father purchased Carrigan a set of drums after the young child had created his own makeshift set, which included an old banjo and brush for a snare; boxes as tom-toms; and old Edison records on sticks as cymbals.

Influenced by a range of music from R&B to rock, Carrigan contributed to his first recording session at age 13, as a member of Little Joe Allen and the Offbeats. In addition to drumming in local rock bands, Carrigan played in marching bands throughout high school and college.

Along with fellow Alabama musicians David Briggs and Norbert Putnam, Jerry Carrigan helped lay the groundwork for the “Muscle Shoals sound,” which garnered international attention and made the city a recording mecca for R&B, rock and pop artists throughout the ’60s and ’70s. Carrigan played on R&B hits by Arthur Alexander, Jimmy Hughes, Tommy Roe and the Tams. Carrigan also backed Roe during a live performance in Washington, D.C., where the group shared the bill with the Beatles during their first U.S. tour.

Carrigan relocated to Nashville in 1964 (along with Briggs and Putnam) and was soon hired by some of the city’s top producers, including Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, Felton Jarvis, Jerry Kennedy and Billy Sherrill. By 1977, Carrigan was playing approximately 12 three-hour sessions per week. He backed a host of country superstars including Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mel McDaniel, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Rich, Ray Stevens, Conway Twitty and others.

Outside of the country realm, Carrigan contributed to sessions with Joan Baez, the Boston Pops, Lee Greenwood, Al Hirt, Tom Jones, Henri Mancini, Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams. Through his ties with Grammy-winning Nashville producer Larry Butler, Carrigan worked with Paul Anka, Sammy Davis Jr., Don McLean, Nana Mouskouri, Wayne Newton, Kenny Rogers and Bobby Vinton. From 1981 to 1990, Carrigan toured internationally behind John Denver.

Jerry Carrigan is still active today both as a performer and session musician.

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com