Maybelle’s Guitar Belongs in the Hall of Fame
5/25/04

Word comes from Nashville a prospective buyer is being sought for Maybelle Carter’s 1928 Gibson L-5 guitar. Sometime last week, the guitar, which Maybelle bought with royalties from the historic Bristol sessions for a purported $275, was removed from its display case at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

For a mere $575,000 the guitar, which is essentially considered to be the most important guitar in the history of almost any musical genre, can be yours.

Why isn’t the country music community more outraged? How is it the most important guitar in the history of country music, less American music in general, can simply be put on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder?

Maybe they just don’t care. After all, this isn’t the first time an artifact with such historic importance has bypassed the Hall of Fame. Bill Monroe’s F-5 Lloyd Loar Mandolin sits in a bank vault after the Hall was outbid by a non-profit foundation that never came up with the $1 million sale price. Roy Acuff’s fiddles went to Branson’s resident Japanese Fiddler Shoji Tabuchi. Patsy Cline’s dresses were sold at auction last year by her brother and pieces from the Jim Reeves estate have been sold shamelessly piece by piece after being purchased by a Nashville carnival operator.

In fact, you could find everything from a Hank Snow suit to Faron Young’s shirts at a non-descript yard sale we attended last year during Fan Fair.

And it’s not just the heirs who are cashing in: everyone from Porter Wagoner to Jack Greene has packed up their historic guitars and shipped them to a Japanese collector who was willing to get out his checkbook.

This week Sotheby’s announced it would auction belongings of Johnny Cash including five of his Grammy awards.

I was at the Hall of Fame when Marty Stuart played Maybelle’s guitar to open the new building in 2001. It was an emotional experience to see the guitar up close after it was placed behind glass. To look over the headstock with her name misspelled “Mae Belle.” To imagine her fingers running up and down the fingerboard while the melodies flowed from the sound holes.

It’s not so much the sale of the guitar that bothers me. The “unnamed heir” selling it could probably really benefit from the asking price. And who knows, maybe Maybelle would have taken the money if she were here today.

But Maybelle isn’t here today. That’s the point. Why isn’t more being done to ensure this guitar stays at the Hall of Fame? Where are the “superstars” of country music who have made millions of dollars on the backs of people like Maybelle Carter? How much would the Garths and the Rebas and Alans and Vinces miss $575,000 to ensure Maybelle’s guitar is not lost to a private collector?

Last year I was at the Hall of Fame for a lecture by Eddy Arnold. Eddy had just made the largest donation of materials in the museum’s history. Everything from his guitars to films and costumes and manuscripts became the property of the Hall of Fame. He urged other stars to do the same so that history would not be lost in an estate fight.

Everyone just assumed the Carter guitar was given to the Hall of Fame. Guess what? It wasn’t. Three cases down is Hank Williams’ famous suit – on loan.

The new Country Music Hall of Fame is a beautiful building. But what good is a new building if there’s nothing in it? It’s time for country music to put its money where it’s mouth is and keep Maybelle’s guitar where it belongs: in the Hall of Fame.

Craig