Country Hall of Fame salutes 'cosmic genius' of Sam Phillips

For years the East Gallery at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has held biographical exhibits honoring various Hall of Fame inductees. To tell the story of legendary producer Sam Phillips, though, the museum had to nearly double the size of the room.

"Flyin' Saucers Rock & Roll: The Cosmic Genius of Sam Phillips," opens Friday. The 1,400-square-foot exhibit honors the 2001 Hall of Fame inductee and his work, which not only laid the foundation for so much of the past 60 years of American music, but also made an impact on the social landscape of the mid-20th century.

"He was trying to give opportunities to both black and white artists that otherwise may not have had the chance to record," says Michael Gray, exhibit co-curator.

Gray explains that, even before Phillips founded iconic label Sun Records in 1952, he was recording and producing blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King in his studio, Memphis Recording Service, and licensing the songs to other labels.

"One of the major points we tried to make in this exhibit was the way Sam Phillips was instigating social change by undermining racial segregation and discrimination … blurring those racial and class lines planted the seeds for a cultural revolution," Gray says.

Although Sun Records was an integral part of Phillips' life, the museum wanted to tell his whole story, Gray explained. And while Sun Records and some of its biggest stars — Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins — make up a significant part of the exhibit (one of the biggest display cases houses the recording equipment Phillips used in Sun Studio to create the "slapback" echo effect on recordings such as Presley's "Blue Moon of Kentucky"). "Flyin' Saucers" traces Phillips' entire life, beginning with his childhood in Alabama as the son of sharecroppers.

Artifacts on display include Phillips' high school band jacket; a guitar that belonged to Howlin' Wolf; the 1953 acetate recording of "My Happiness" made by a teenage Presley in Phillips' studio (the fragile, one-of-a-kind disc is on loan from Jack White, who purchased it for $300,000 earlier this year); a stage costume worn by Cash; a test pressing of John Prine's "Pink Cadillac," which Phillips worked on with his two sons; and items from WHER, a radio station launched by Phillips and Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson that was staffed by women.

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Without Phillips, the landscape of American music and culture would look vastly different. One of his productions, "Rocket 88," a song recorded by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (a band that featured a young Ike Turner) in 1951, is considered by several music critics and scholars, including exhibit co-curator Peter Guralnick, to be one of the first rock 'n' roll records because of its raw energy and distorted guitar, which was caused by a broken amplifier.

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"A lot of artists made their first records for him, and a lot of those artists made their best records for him," Gray says. He adds, "Not only did Sam create a sound, but a sensibility. He used the term 'perfect imperfection,' (meaning that) he put the feeling of music over technique." More than half a century later, the concepts popularized by this "Cosmic Genius" continue to influence producers and musicians around the world — or maybe the universe.

Reach Juli Thanki at 615-259-8091 or on Twitter @JuliThanki.

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To learn more

At 11 a.m. Saturday, exhibit co-curator and Phillips biographer Peter Guralnick will moderate "Go, Cat, Go: Sam Phillips in the Studio," a panel discussion featuring musicians Sonny Burgess, J. M. Van Eaton, W. S. "Fluke" Holland and son Jerry Phillips.

At 2 p.m., Burgess, Van Eaton, Holland and Jerry Phillips will pay tribute to songs associated with Sam Phillips in a tribute concert called "Get Rhythm," after the Johnny Cash song. These musicians will be joined by a number of artists influenced by Phillips' work, including Chuck Mead, the Secret Sisters, Billy Swan and Marvell Thomas. More information can be found at countrymusichalloffame.org.