The Music Behind the Man

Relative Scale developed three interactive media experiences for the Center, designed to bring the stories of bluegrass music to life, inviting guests to explore its roots, discover influential musicians, and experience the music in new ways.

The refreshed Common Threads interactive invites guests to explore the people, places, instruments, and traditions that influenced Southern music through a collaborative touch table. Featuring archival imagery, audio, and interconnected stories, the experience reveals relationships across generations and genres. A companion display allows museum educators to share and present selected stories to larger groups within the space.

In the Pickin’ Story exhibit, five interactive stations introduce guests to the instruments that define bluegrass music, from the banjo and fiddle to the guitar, bass, mandolin, and dobro. Visitors can virtually play each instrument to hear its unique sound, explore its history and role in the music, and join others in a collaborative jam session to discover how bluegrass is built, one instrument at a time.

Finally, the Strings on Screen experience explores how Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt brought bluegrass into American homes through television. At a touchscreen, guests choose from three videos, each exploring a different theme: Louise Scruggs and her impact on the careers of Flatt & Scruggs, Flatt & Scruggs in pop culture, and Martha White’s sponsorship of the duo. Each video is a choreographed three-screen presentation that combines archival performances and storytelling to highlight the people, partnerships, and musical innovations that helped bring their music to a national audience.