Vince Gill performed outside the Hall

The new building will house every Country gold or platinum disc ever awarded, as well as guitars, stage outfits and other memorabilia of Nashville's most famous export.

The Hall of Fame and Museum has been designed to look from different angles like a piano, a church and even, from the air, like a stack of records.

It replaces a much smaller building which was closed in 2000, and is part of a downtown regeneration which includes a new art museum, football stadium, hockey arena and library.

Performances

The Country celebrities arrived for the opening ceremony from three starting points: the old Hall of Fame, and two venues, the Grand Ole Opry House and the Ryman Auditorium.

In a series of performances outside the new museum George Jones sang Amazing Grace, Kathy Nattea sang Hank Williams' House Of Gold and bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs picked Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

Among the exhibits are a gold Cadillac owned by Elvis Presley and Merle Haggard's pardon on burglary and escape convictions - signed by then California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1972.

Emmylou Harris said: "The Hall of Fame is much more than these fantastic artefacts like Patsy Montana's boots.

"But really it is the music itself being preserved by passionate musicologists that continue to keep the music for the whole world."