Nashville, Tenn. November 14, 2014 – Friends, family, and fans gathered at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Thursday, November 13 for a VIP reception to celebrate the opening of Tanya Tucker: Strong Enough to Bend. The exhibition, which covers highlights of Tucker’s colorful career, will run through May 2015.

Pictured at the Tanya Tucker: Strong Enough to Bend opening reception are (l-r): The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Carolyn Tate, Tanya Tucker, daughters Presley Tucker and Layla Laseter, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Kyle Young. Photo by Jason Davis, Getty Images

Tucker’s story is told through a collection of artifacts that illustrate her tough and tender duality and ahead-of-her-time tenure as a female country crossover star. Gorgeous stage costumes, including several Nudie’s Rodeo Tailor designs from very early in her career and gowns worn at award shows contrast with her numerous National Cutting Horse Association awards and a Harley-Davidson 1992 Screamin' Eagle— customized in her special hue of pink paint. A copy of the September 26, 1974 Rolling Stone magazine featuring Tucker as the first female country artist to appear on the cover underscores her impact, as do Tucker’s outfit from the 1994 Super Bowl halftime show and a script from her 1981 appearance on an episode of the massively popular TV series The Love Boat.  

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 CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print®.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at countrymusichalloffame.org  or by calling (615) 416-2001.