North Carolina Music Hall of Fame: A State's Deep Musical Roots

North Carolina has produced more musical talent than most people expect from a single state, and this museum in Kannapolis exists to make that case. The Hall of Fame was founded in nineteen ninety-four, started in Thomasville, and eventually settled in Kannapolis, first in a renovated historic city jail and since two thousand fourteen inside the Curb Museum for Music and Motorsports.

The inductees span the full range of American sound: Andy Griffith, James Taylor, Ronnie Milsap, Jodeci, Roberta Flack, Eric Church, and over a hundred more, all with deep roots in North Carolina. The state's musical geography runs from mountain bluegrass to Piedmont blues to beach music to hip-hop, and the hall attempts to hold all of it. More recent inductees have included Luke Combs and Jermaine Dupri. For a small city, Kannapolis turns out to sit at the center of a very large story.