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, May 3, with a salute to legendary guitarist Reggie Young. The 2:00 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, includes a public performance and 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, Young will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Acknowledged as one of the great guitarists in popular music history, Reggie Young lent his guitar to the rockabilly explosion in the mid-1950s; Memphis’ hit-producing American Studio in the 1960s; and the expansion of Nashville’s recording scene in the 1970s. His guitar work can be heard on Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” Waylon Jennings’ “Luckenbach, Texas,” Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind” and Reba McEntire’s “Little Rock,” among hundreds of others.

Raised just fifty miles north of Memphis in Osceola, Arkansas, Reggie Grimes Young Jr. was first influenced by the sounds of his father’s Hawaiian guitar. Radio impacted Young’s life immensely. His father met his mother while performing in the 1930s on KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 1950, Young’s family relocated to Memphis, where he began playing guitar and listening to WHBQ disc jockey Dewey Phillips, who spun rhythm and blues on the radio show Red Hot & Blue. He soaked in the sounds of Muddy Waters, Ruth Brown and Howlin’ Wolf, and was later influenced by WSM’s live broadcast Two Guitars, with guitarists Chet Atkins, Jerry Byrd and Ray Edenton.

In 1955, Young joined his first band, Eddie Bond and the Stompers, scoring a hit the next year with the song “Rockin’ Daddy.” The band eventually signed with Mercury Records and Young found himself touring with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. After the tour, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he found work as Johnny Horton’s touring guitarist and befriended fellow musicians Jerry Kennedy, D.J. Fontana and Billy Sanford.

Young returned to Memphis in 1959 to help form the Bill Black Combo, who went on to open for the Beatles on their historic 1964 U.S. tour. By 1965, Young was almost exclusively a session musician and becoming a key member in American Studio’s house band, which compiled a seven-year run totaling some 400 chart-making discs. During those years, he contributed to sessions by recording artists the Box Tops, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, John Prine, Dusty Springfield, Joe Tex and Bobby Womack, among many others. Young also played on the memorable Elvis Presley sessions that delivered “In the Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds.”

Young relocated to Nashville in 1972 where he became a first call session guitarist, backing artists as diverse as Jimmy Buffett, Joe Cocker and Herbie Mann, to country staples Merle Haggard, George Strait, Conway Twitty and Hank Williams Jr.

In 1992, Young took a much-needed break from session work and joined the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson) on a European tour. Today, the 71-year-old remains active recording and producing sessions, while touring worldwide with original members of the Memphis Boys. In 2005 he married fellow musician Jenny Hollowell. The two are currently writing and recording music together.

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The Country Music Hall of Fame^® Museum in Nashville, Tenn. has a variety of events coming to the museum between now and May 4th that have been announced.

Freddy Weller and Tom Douglas will present Songwriter sessions on April 19 and May 3 respectively. Nashville A-list session guitarist Reggie Young Will be the featured guest for a May 3 edition of “Nashville Cats:A Celebration of Music City Session Players.”

Also coming to the museum is a Musical Petting Zoo this Saturday, April 19 and Maddie Denton will be presenting a Fiddle, Mandolin and Guitar demonstration on Sunday, April 20. Kent Blanton and Donna Hammitt will present a Bass and Steel Guitar Demonstration Sunday, May 4.

Saturday, April 19, 2008
Songwriter Session w/ Freddy Weller — Noon
Family Program: Musical Petting Zoo — 1:00 p.m. (FREE)

Sunday, April 20, 2008
Fiddle, Mandolin, and Guitar Demonstration w/ Maddie Denton — 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 3, 2008
Songwriter Session w/ Tom Douglas — Noon
Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players with Reggie Young — 2:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 4, 2008
Film Loop: Country Style USA hosted by Marty Robbins (1959) — All Day (FREE)
Bass and Steel Guitar Demonstration w/ Kent Blanton and Donna Hammitt — 1:00 p.m.

The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is located at 222 Fifth Ave. S. in downtown Nashville, and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. The Museum Store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily and the SoBro Grill is open from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A snack bar, Sobro2Go, is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.

Admission is $17.95 for adults, $9.95 for children ages six to 17, and free for children under six. The Museum offers discounted admission ($16.15) to seniors (55 and older), the military and students (with valid IDs). Group rates are available for tours of 15 or more. There is no charge to visit the Curb Conservatory or the Museum Store.

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