Ernest Tubb Record Shop Back Open. And Yes, They Have Records

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Don’t ever give up on hope in country music, or its most storied institutions. That’s the lesson to draw from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in downtown Nashville. So much more than just a record store and a relic of music’s past when physical media was much more important, the Record Shop played a role in disseminating country music to the world. It also hosted the Midnite Jamboree each week for decades where Loretta Lynn and so many others launched their careers.

But for the last ten years or so, the record shop located at 417 Broadway in Nashville’s hopping Lower Broadway entertainment district has been in peril in one capacity or another, from bare shelves and mismanagement, to being purchased by the owner of Robert’s Western World across the street during the pandemic in hopes of revitalization, to then being sold off in an estate dispute between the new owners and the previous owner David McCormick, resulting in the closing of its doors in the spring of 2022.

But then hope was renewed when a group of investors that included Nashville studio musician Ilya Toshinskiy, Ernest Tubb’s grandson Ernest Dale Tubb III, and others stepped up to buy the property for  for $18.3 million in July of 2022. They promised at the time that the Ernest Tubb Record Shop would return. But after years of waiting, and rumors that the property would just become another multi-story Lower Broadway bar, folks began worrying all over again.

All the worrying appears to be for naught though. With little fanfare or pageantry—let alone a press release—the Ernest Tubb Record Shop officially opened its doors once again on Monday, October 13th, coining itself the new “World Headquarters of Country and Western Music.”

As opposed to a record shop, the first story is now a bar and restaurant (‘Ernest Grub’ the menu proclaims), with both a front stage and a back stage for performances. The second story that sat mostly unused in the previous incarnation of the Record Shop is now where the Record Shop itself is, along with another bar, and another stage for performances. Though the record inventory is a little light at the moment, a marquee above the bar proclaims “more vinyl to come.”


And if you’re wondering or worried who exactly will play the new venue and if it will be just another classic rock revue like so many of Lower Broadway’s bars, that’s another development to be positive about. Wild Bill and the Bruisers, Sweet Megg, Victoria Camp, Austin Stambaugh, and other throwback country and roots acts are who’s been playing on the stages so far, and that seems to be the style of music that will be featured.

Much of the memorabilia and photos from the original Ernest Tubb Record Shop are back on the walls. The iconic Ernest Tub Record Shop sign has also been reinstalled after being updated with neon.

Eventually the property will also have a third story with a rooftop bar, but that phase of the development is currently not completed. That might be one of the reasons the Record Shop reopening seems to be of a “soft” nature as opposed to lots of fanfare. They haven’t even really announced the opening on social media at this point, and barely acknowledged it.

Saving Country Music has put in numerous calls and emails to speak to someone about the reopening to no avail. Nonetheless, there is life, commerce, and music happening at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop once again, and in a remodeled, revitalized, and hopefully, well-loved concept that will be around for decades to come.

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First opened in 1947 on Commerce St. as a retail enterprise for country legend Ernest Tubb, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop moved to its more iconic location on Broadway in 1951. Frustrated at the lack of country records stocked at many retail establishments across the country, Ernest Tubb decided to open up the store right around the corner from the Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry was held. The location also became the venue for the Midnite Jamboree—the official/unofficial afterparty of the Opry every Saturday night.

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