Musical Labor and the Nashville Studio System

Abstract Many of the most iconic recordings of the Nashville Sound era gained popularity not simply because of the recording artist whose name appeared on the labels of the singles and albums that contained them, but because of the contributions of Nashville’s session musicians who crafted arrangements and “hook” motifs. Yet, for the most part, these session musicians were never credited and received only a seemingly small one-time fee for their efforts. This chapter considers the creative impact of Nashville’s session musicians through a careful examination of several chart-topping Nashville Sound–era recordings, exploring the ways that the arrangements and “hook” motifs that they created shaped the works. Moreover, this chapter suggests that, although session musicians were seldom credited for their work, many of them presented clear artistic identities that are anonymously visible across a wide spectrum of recordings.