Ernest Tubb Record Shop and Midnight Jamboree

Ernest Tubb opened his Nashville record shop in 1947, initially at 720 Commerce Street before relocating to 417 Broadway — a single room packed with country music records two blocks from the Ryman Auditorium. Tubb stocked obscure pressings, regional releases, and the kind of music that major retailers in 1940s America largely ignored. As Nashville's recording industry grew through the following decades, the shop became a pillar of the Broadway strip and a resource for fans willing to travel to find what they were looking for.

The more significant institution Tubb launched from the shop was the Midnight Jamboree — a live radio programme broadcast on WSM immediately after the Grand Ole Opry's Saturday night show ended. Starting in 1947 and continuing for decades, the Jamboree featured artists performing in the record shop itself, with customers and passers-by forming the studio audience. It became the essential second half of a Nashville Saturday night: the Opry at the Ryman, then the Midnight Jamboree at the record shop two blocks away. Artists not yet established enough for the Opry played the Jamboree. Artists who were already famous played it because they wanted to. Tubb himself performed on it regularly until near the end of his life. Elvis Presley was among the guests who appeared in the shop during its peak years.

Tubb died in 1984. The Broadway location eventually closed, and the record shop operation moved to Music Valley Drive near the Opryland complex. The Midnight Jamboree continued broadcasting on WSM into the 21st century, one of the longest-running live radio programmes in American country music. The original Broadway address where it all began is now tourist retail, with no marker for what the room once was.