Keep it on the job

Lloyd Loar Gibson F-5 mandolin #73987

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN, still needs over $400,000 to ensure that it will be able to keep several unique historic instruments on display. In addition to Bill Monroe’s Lloyd Loar mandolin (above), these include guitars that belonged to Mother Maybelle Carter and Johnny Cash. The present state of affairs was described on 12 June in a post on the Bluegrass Blog by Richard F. Thompson, who recently became editor of British Bluegrass News.

The best future for these instruments is to stay on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum - and that applies especially to Bill Monroe's mandolin. You could argue that it should instead be in the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, KY, or in Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Country Star Museum at Bean Blossom, IND. Both of these are worthy institutions; but they would be in effect retirement homes for the mandolin.

Simply by being where it is in Nashville, #73987 continues to do good work for bluegrass. Standing in the display case among the other instruments, looking (in your editor's words) 'as if a cement truck had tried to crush it, and failed', #73987 is a statement of the strong spirit of bluegrass music and of the respect it has earned in the country music world. It should be allowed to keep doing this.