NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum has collaborated with Org Music to release “Let Me Dream On” a collection of previously unreleased songwriting demos, band rehearsals and live recordings by acclaimed Nashville singer Johnny Bragg. The album, which will be available on vinyl as part of Record Store Day Black Friday, Nov. 29, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the museum’s award-winning exhibition “Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues,1945-1970.”
Bragg wrote and recorded classic 1950s R&B hits, such as “Just Walkin’ in the Rain” (as lead vocalist of the Prisonaires) and “Rollin’ Stone” (fronting the Marigolds), while serving time at the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Bragg was released from prison in 1967 and continued to record for Nashville’s Elbejay Records.
“Let Me Dream On” is a time capsule of classic Nashville R&B and includes historical notes written by music historian and author Colin Escott and the museum’s editorial staff. The album will be available through participating RSD Black Friday stores.
For years, Bragg’s primarily self-recorded rehearsal tapes from the 1960s and 1970s lay dormant and unheard in a garden shed in Nashville. After Bragg passed away in 2004, his daughter, Misti, found his reel-to-reel tapes and contacted the museum to preserve and digitize them. The 15 previously unreleased recordings on “Let Me Dream On” illustrate the enduring beauty and power of Bragg’s music.
