Dickinson Joins Previously Announced Performers Billy Burnette and Shawn Camp, Sleepy LaBeef, Colin Linden and Bobby Rush

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Jan. 21, 2016 – Guitarist and vocalist Luther Dickinson will join the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum and Music City Roots for a special tribute concert honoring Sun Records founder and producer Sam Phillips. The concert is set for Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 7:00 p.m. at The Factory at Franklin, Tenn. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 for reserved seats or $10 for general admission. They can be purchased at musiccityroots.com or at the door.

The first hundred people to arrive at the concert will receive a Sam Phillips gift bag featuring a catalog for the museum exhibit Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips and a Hatch Show Print poster. Every ticket buyer will get a coupon for $3 off museum admission. Concert ticket stubs can also be used to get the $3 museum discount. The show will be streamed live at musiccityroots.com/livestream.

Dickinson joins an all-star group of blues, country and rock & roll musicians, who have been influenced by Phillips and his pioneering work. They will pay homage to the music Phillips recorded in Memphis during the 1950s and 1960s. Among the artists scheduled to perform are Billy Burnette and Shawn Camp, Sleepy LaBeef, Colin Linden and Bobby Rush. They will share songs associated with and inspired by Phillips’ career, and between sets Phillips’ biographer, Peter Guralnick, and Phillips’ youngest son, Jerry Phillips, will be interviewed briefly on stage. The concert is presented in support of Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips.

One of the most innovative and inspiring figures in the history of American music, Phillips introduced the world to Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Rufus Thomas, Ike Turner and many more. Blurring class and color lines, Phillips set out to undermine barriers of racial segregation and discrimination, just as the Civil Rights movement gathered force. The exhibition takes an in-depth look at Phillips and the social and cultural impact of the music he created in heavily segregated Memphis.

Open through June 2016, Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips is accompanied by public programs, including live performances, guest lectures, family activities in the Taylor Swift Education Center, film screenings, panel discussions and more. The schedule of activities is updated regularly at countrymusichalloffame.org. 

This is the second time the museum has partnered with Music City Roots. In 2014 the two entities celebrated the 10th anniversary of the museum’s acclaimed exhibit Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues. 1945–1970.

For more information about The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips, click here. Follow @countrymusichof on Twitter and join the conversation using #CosmicSamPhillips. 

About the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture.  With the same educational mission, the foundation also operates Historic RCA Studio B, Hatch Show PrintTM, CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive and CMF Press. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission, and under agreements with the National Endowment for the Arts.

About Music City Roots
Music City Roots is a weekly live radio show and HD webcast featuring the finest roots and Americana music based in or passing through Nashville. Since going on the air in October 2009, Music City Roots has broadcast the authentic sound of today’s Music City, embracing the traditional and the progressive in equal measure. Every Wednesday night at 7:00 pm Central, four or five guest artists perform to an intimate audience of 300-600 people, with a live broadcast to the world via Livestream.com. Veteran Grand Ole Opry announcer Keith Bilbrey emcees with help from musical host, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale, and interview guy Craig Havighurst. Thirteen episodes per year are edited for distribution by American Public Television via flagship PBS-affiliate WNPT in Nashville. A syndicated version of the radio show is also broadcast on a growing network of terrestrial radio stations nationwide.