ABC/Image Group LAKane Brown, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Tim McGraw are just a few of the acts who’ve signed on for the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Big Night at the Museum, a benefit to raise funds for the museum.
The fundraiser features ecorded performances of current stars playing instruments that belonged to legends of past generations. Kane performs on a Gibson that once belonged to Randy Travis, Miranda takes on John Prine’s custom-made David Russell Young guitar, and Ashley gets her hands on an instrument once owned by Loretta Lynn. That guitar, a Gibson J-50, boasts a custom Formica pick guard installed by Loretta’s late husband, Doolittle, whom she called Doo.
Ashley tells Rolling Stone that when she first walked up to the instrument, she had an unusual request for the gloved curators who placed it into her care for the performance.
“I’m terrified that my sweat is gonna somehow ruin the fretboard. I said, ‘Is it weird if I smell it?’ They said, ‘Yeah, kind of,’” Ashley remembers. “But I stuck my nose in the sound hole — old guitars smell like old library books.”
The “Martha Divine” star went on to say that she knew this was one performance where she’d have to dial down her hard-rockin’ ways.
“I play pretty hard, and I really needed to pay attention,” she admits. “You can’t play that guitar too hard because you’re gonna damage that pick guard that’s already pretty fragile.”
You can check out Ashley’s performance, along with a slew of other big names playing museum artifacts, by tuning into the CMHOF YouTube channel on Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
By Carena Liptak
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