Songbirds Guitar Museum is a museum which features guitars and it is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The museum was opened in 2018 as a for profit business: it closed in 2020. The museum reopened as a Nonprofit organization in September 2021 and was rebranded the Songbirds Guitar & Pop Culture Museum.
The museum opened in 2018 in Terminal Station (Chattanooga, Tennessee) which was originally opened in 1909 and saw the arrival of dozens of trains per day prior to WWII. [1] The curator was guitar collector David Davidson who collected rare guitars [2] while the museum was funded and overseen by President Johnny Smith (of the McKenzie Foundation) and investor/collector Thorpe McKenzie. [3] The museum displayed vintage and celebrity guitars, and hosted live music events. [4] The museum had 1,500 guitars from a private collection; many were rare and valuable. The museum had two Gibson Explorers worth one million dollars each. It also had 36 1958-1960 Sunburst Les Paul guitars worth an estimated $250,000 to $500,000 each. [5]
The for profit museum closed during the summer of 2020. [1] It was called "a victim of the pandemic" according to a documentary about the museum's closing. [5] The documentary was created by Dagan Becket and it won an Emmy Award in March 2022. [6]
The museum was reopened in 2021 as a non-profit led by Executive Director Reed Caldwell. The Songbirds museum is now a music venue and museum which displays about 550 guitars. [1] The museum was rebranded as the Songbirds Guitar & Pop Culture Museum. [7] On their website, they state that the Station Street location will close December 23, 2023, and they plan to open at 212 Main Street, Chattanooga in later March or early April 2024. [8]
Chattanooga is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River, and borders Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee's fourth-most populous city and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. It anchors the Chattanooga metropolitan area, Tennessee's fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area, as well as a larger three-state area that includes Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, and Northeast Alabama.
Gruetli-Laager is a city in Grundy County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,813 at the 2010 census. As its name implies, Gruetli-Laager consists of two communities— Gruetli and Laager— incorporated as a single city.
Soddy-Daisy is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 13,070 at the 2020 census and estimated to be 13,619 in 2022. The city was formed in 1969 when the communities of Soddy and Daisy, along with nearby developed areas along U.S. Highway 27, merged to form Soddy-Daisy. It is becoming a bedroom community of nearby Chattanooga and is part of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area. Sequoyah Nuclear Generating Station is located in Soddy-Daisy.
South Pittsburg is a city in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,106 at the 2020 census. South Pittsburg is home to the National Cornbread Festival.
McMinnville is the largest city in and the county seat of Warren County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 13,788 at the 2020 census. It was named after Governor Joseph McMinn.
"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song that was written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade. It was the first song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942, for sales of 1.2 million copies.
The Ohio Express is an American bubblegum pop band formed in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1967. Though marketed as a band, it would be more accurate to say that the name "Ohio Express" served as a brand name used by Jerry Kasenetz's and Jeffry Katz's Super K Productions to release the music of a number of different musicians and acts. The best known songs of Ohio Express were actually the work of an assemblage of studio musicians working in New York, including singer/songwriter Joey Levine. Other recorded "Ohio Express" work included material recorded by an early group of Joe Walsh, as well as a later single written and sung by Graham Gouldman.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System.
The Chattanooga Choo-Choo in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a former railroad station once owned and operated by the Southern Railway. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the station operated as a hotel from 1973 to 2023, and was a member of Historic Hotels of America, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The two-floor hotel building, once called The MacArthur building, was renovated and renamed in 2023 to The Hotel Chalet by Trestle Studio, a Chicago-based development group.
W. Max Finley Stadium is the home stadium for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team and Chattanooga FC, a professional Division 3 soccer team. The stadium also hosts various high school sports and musical concerts. It is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The stadium, which opened in 1997, has a current capacity of 20,412, and hosted the NCAA Division I National Championship Game from its opening season through 2009, after which the game moved to Pizza Hut Park in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas. The stadium will host the TSSAA Football Championships in 2021 and 2022.
The Creative Discovery Museum is a children's museum located in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was opened on May 26, 1995. The museum contains art, music, and field science areas, along with a water-themed zone called RiverPlay, a rooftop exhibit, an inventor's workshop, and a temporary exhibit space. Exhibits are mostly designed for children aged 18 months to 12 years.
WMPZ is a commercial radio station located in Harrison, Tennessee, broadcasting to the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. WMPZ airs an urban adult contemporary music format branded as "G93", and is owned by Brewer Media. Its studios are located just south of downtown Chattanooga, and its transmitter is located in Red Bank.
The Wilkes T. Thrasher Bridge is a 4-lane road bridge located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It opened in 1955 as a two lane road after much pressure from Wilkes T. Thrasher, a prominent Hamilton County Judge, to the Federal Government. In the 1980's, the bridge was widened to four lanes. Traffic was rerouted via the neighboring C.B. Robinson Bridge carrying State Route 319 and carries Tennessee State Route 153 over the Chickamauga Dam crossing the Tennessee River. The bridge is highly unusual, Not only was it built directly on top of a dam, but it was built many years after the dam was built. A number of dams include bridge-like structures on them, that may be just for dam maintenance or may carry an actual highway. Typically however such structures are built at the same time as the dam. The Chickamauga Dam was built from 1936-1940. The bridge however was not built until 1954. The highly unusual design soars high above most of the dam to accommodate the height of the power house which it also passes over, and also to allow for maintenance vehicles on the dam below. Most structurally significant about the bridge itself are that many of the spans utilize a steel rigid-frame design. Steel rigid-frame bridges, particularly from the pre-1970 era when rivets were still used are extremely rare. Other spans on the bridge appear to be more traditional simple riveted deck plate girders and steel stringers.
"Memphis, Tennessee", sometimes shortened to "Memphis", is a song by Chuck Berry, first released in 1959. In the UK, the song charted at number 6 in 1963; at the same time Decca Records issued a cover version in the UK by Dave Berry and the Cruisers, which also became a UK Top 20 hit single. Johnny Rivers's version of the song was a number two US hit in 1964.
The Tennessee Riverwalk is a 13-mile (21-km) riverside path which parallels the Tennessee River from the Chickamauga Dam to downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Riverpark System featuring the Tennessee Riverpark, Coolidge Park, Renaissance Park, Ross's Landing, the Walnut Street Bridge, the Blue Goose Hollow section and the old U.S. Pipe property.
Wayne Wilkes White is an American painter, art director, puppeteer, set designer, animator, cartoonist and illustrator. He has won three Emmy Awards for his work.
The Chattanooga Market is the region's largest producer-only arts and crafts and farmers' market. It is held every Sunday from April to December at the open-air First Horizon Pavilion in Chattanooga, Tennessee, typically from 11am until 4pm. The market has over 300 vendors, and attracts an audience of 6,000 visitors each weekend; admission is free.
Peter Charles Blecha is an American historian, curator, essayist, author, musician, and director of the Seattle-based Northwest Music Archives. He is primarily known for research related to aspects of Pacific Northwest musical history. In addition to his books, essays, and album liner notes, Blecha has also served in multiple consulting and curatorial positions.