MOORESVILLE — To count on fingers and toes the sheer number of artists, record companies, hitmakers and music legends with ties to North Carolina is no easy task. Did you know Nina Simone was born in Tryon or that John Coltrane was born in Hamlet? Thelonious Monk hails from Rocky Mount too. I sure didn’t. Not until I started digging into the history of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, an organization that has spent more than three decades recognizing the musicians and industry figures who helped put the state on the musical map.
Founded in Thomasville in 1994 by Doug Croft, the nonprofit began inducting artists in 1999, but finding a permanent home proved difficult. The organization was largely inactive from 2002 to 2008 until music executive and record label founder Mike Curb stepped in, providing a building in Kannapolis to house its growing collection of memorabilia. The museum opened in June 2009, followed by a revived induction ceremony that October.
In 2014, the Hall of Fame relocated to its current home inside the Curb Music & Motorsports Museum in Kannapolis, where more than 65 exhibits document the careers of musicians whose contributions stretch across nearly every genre imaginable. Instruments, stage clothing, photographs and personal memorabilia tell the stories of artists ranging from Charlie Daniels and Arthur Smith to Randy Travis, Roberta Flack and The Avett Brothers…