NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Music City is known for honkytonks and lower Broadway, but Nashville’s musical roots also extend to Jefferson Street.
Lorenzo Washington, the founder of the Jefferson Street Sound Museum has heard live music from the best of them — before they were even considered the best. Washington told News 2 that in the early 1940s and 1950s, Jefferson Street represented a musical gold mine.
“It was great music; these guys were great,” Washington said. “It was a lot of fun. I remember going down to the Del Morrocco and shaking hands with Jimi Hendrix…and going to the Club Steal Away and there was Ike and Tina Turner.”
Among the many artists turned household names were other musicians who not only opened up for icons, but traveled to promote their own music.
“There was the Chitlin’ Circuit — is what they called it — and this circuit circled around through the southeast,” Washington told News 2. “…There were people that came through Nashville [that] ended up being a world-wide known artist — like a B.B. King or Ray Charles or Jimi Hendrix or Etta James.”
Washington explained that artists and musicians would travel between major music scenes like Beale Street in Memphis and Bourbon Street in New Orleans in an effort to get their name out there. Jefferson Street in Nashville was one of those stops. It was a circuit where names like Marion James, Clifford Curry, Herbert Hunter and Ted Jarrett could be in the limelight, too.
But all that changed in the mid-1960s when Interstate 40 was constructed. The highway stretched from Memphis and across a large portion of North Nashville.
“It just demolished some of the clubs [and] a lot of the homes,” said Washington. “…Everything pretty much changed forever.”
When circuit traffic dried up, Washington then created a recording studio on Jefferson Street where artists could practice. It was during rehearsals at that studio that Marion James encouraged Washington to create a place that would honor voices that maybe would not become widely known otherwise. Washington used his actual home as the location.
“One room at a time,” Washington said. “It started in there in the front room and when I got around to this room, I didn’t have a home anymore, really.”
Many of the pictures lining the walls are from the homes and estates of the artists themselves to tell the story of the musical roots they put down in Nashville. It’s a musical education Washington, with the help of staff like museum vice president Karen Coffee, passes on to younger generations through the museum.
“That’s the biggest thing is to stay creative, to promote the museum and promote Mr. Washington for the tours here and for guest lectures and panel discussions that we have at other schools and museums,” Coffee said.
Washington’s focus is teaching others about this piece of Nashville’s musical history. The museum even features a musical tree representing Jefferson Street and the venues that once were, along with which artists frequented them. Washington told News 2 it’s a legacy that will live on.
“I’m blessed to be chosen to do this,” Washington said. “I feel like I’ve got a contribution to the Black community to tell these stories.”
