The exhibit features photographs from Rode’s 2024 book, “Songwriter Musician: Behind the Curtain with Nashville’s Iconic Storytellers and Players.” The exhibit is free and will be open to the public through July 2026 in the museum’s first-floor gallery.

The book is the culmination of decades of stories captured on film: playing snooker with John Prine, celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Brad Paisley, traversing Tennessee with Ketch Secor and more. The idea for the book was inspired by a 1991 photo Rode took of Country Music Hall of Fame member Chet Atkins, whom Rode met shortly after moving to Nashville in 1990.

Select photographs on display include:

• Country Music Hall of Fame member Chet Atkins in his Nashville office (1991)
• John Prine at Nashville’s Melrose Billiard Parlor (1994)
• Country Music Hall of Fame member Willie Nelson on his tour bus outside Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House (1995)
• The Chicks at Nashville’s Westwood Studios (1999)
• Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown onstage at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse (2005)
• Country Music Hall of Fame members Cowboy Jack Clement and Kris Kristofferson in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood (2011)
• Country Music Hall of Fame member Loretta Lynn on Nashville’s Music Row (2018)
• Keb’ Mo’ in his Nashville home studio (2021)
• Rhiannon Giddens at Nashville’s Noelle hotel (2023)
• Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill at his Nashville home studio (2023)