Recently, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum displayed several artifacts from blind folk and blues singer Cortelia Clark. The temporary display, Cortelia Clark’s Everyday Blues, explores the story of the Grammy-winning artist and beloved Nashville figure who performed for years on the city’s downtown streets and is supported by a new video available on the museum’s YouTube channel.
Clark, who came to Nashville in 1919 when he was 17 years old to work in a broom factory, learned how to play the guitar from another blind man. By the 1960s, he was playing almost daily on Fifth Avenue North by a Woolworth store. It was there where Clark came to the attention of RCA Records producer Felton Jarvis who then recorded Clark live — talking and playing on an average city day. “The 1966 album Blues on a Street won a Grammy in March 1967 for Best Folk Recording. Not long after, Clark was filling his kerosene heater which exploded, setting his wood-frame house on fire, leaving Clark badly burned and resulting in his untimely death weeks later on Christmas Eve in 1969.
The items, which will be on display until September 2025, include Clark’s broken Grammy (damaged from the fire), the Kay 6116 Super-Auditorium model guitar he was playing on his album cover, and another guitar owned by Clark, a Kay 5113 Plains Special.
The supporting video approaches Clark’s story through his Grammy and the guitar played on the album. The video includes interviews with Clark’s friend, producer and champion Mike Weesner and museum staff members Michael Gray, vice president of museum services, and Jack Clutter, instrument collection curator. The video also includes Warren Denney, the museum’s vice president of creative, who sat down with Weesner.
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