Nashville’s music scene is hot in the recording studios with over 500,000 residents connected to the music industry. However don’t expect to visit a strip like Branson or Las Vegas with one mega theatre after another playing two shows a day. Prepare instead for a metropolitan southern city with a historic downtown, sprawling suburbs, and a variety of music festivals throughout the year. Each June during Fan Fair, it’s all country. The four-day festival attracts top country artists and their fans from all over. Music flows from special stages set up on the Riverfront and nightly concerts held in the 68,000-seat Nashville Coliseum. Otherwise major venues like the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry House, and the 14 honky-tonks downtown give the public a good feel of Nashville’s musical scene year-round.
I preferred the Ryman Auditorium right downtown because of the acoustics. Built in 1892, the Mother Church of Country Music was extensively renovated in 1992. I stayed until after 2 a.m. at the Marty Stuart Late Night Jam (part of the Fan Fair package) to hear Wynonna Judd and her band. Many in our group had left because it was late, loud and the wooden benches were hard. We listened to about four country groups including the outrageous Kentucky Headhunters that night, and yet months later, I can still hear Wynonna’s version of You Can Change the World. She was awesome, and I’m not even a country-music fan, simply appreciate a top-notch performance.
Rock & Roll Artists in a Country Museum?
While touring the Country Music Hall of Fame, I learned about a country-rock connection that started back in 1950s with Elvis where country artists blended with Pop to create the Nashville sound. It surprised me to read about Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers and even the Eagles. They were all artists I had never expected to find in a Country music museum. The $37-million-dollar facility is five times larger than the previous one located on Music Row, the street with all the recording studios and publishing companies. Major steps are being taken to revitalize Nashville’s historic Music Row and create an up-scale live music and dining destination. For now, we walked through the Country Music Hall’s exhibits of vintage guitars, stage costumes and artifacts, even Elvis’s gold-colored Cadillac. You can easily spend two to four hours here and even make your own CD with selections from your favorite artists.
The Grand Ole Opry felt like a throwback to the 1940’s with the live radio-show audience, the hillbilly-type jokes and the funny, recorded commercials. This first-class 4400-seat theater reminded me more of the facilities you find on the Branson strip. The theater is located about twenty-minutes northeast of downtown in Opryland with the 6000-room Opryland Hotel, the General Jackson Showboat and the Opry Mills shopping mall. You could stay here and never have to leave the facility, however I think you would miss some of the real flavor and history of Nashville. The hotel rivals a Vegas property spread over nine acres of indoor gardens complete with boutique shopping, giant waterfalls, tropical plants and a narrated boat ride. Opryland offers packages to Fan Fair activities as well as a shuttle to the downtown activities.
The honky-tonks on Broadway downtown didn’t appeal to me because of the smoke and loud music the night we visited. Maybe the afternoons are better. Local aspiring artists perform in them every day during four-hour shifts from 11 a.m. through midnight for tips. You never know what big name might walk in and join the performers. My brother from Seattle loves the honky-tonks. Smoky bars and chitchat are right up his alley. I prefer an intimate setting with acoustic music and was told there were a few clubs in town like the BlueBird Café. Unfortunately it had been rented out by a fan club during my trip.
Nashville, more than Music
Nashville is also known as the Athens of the South. So if music isn’t your thing, there are plenty of attractions from art galleries to museums to historic sites and good restaurants as well. I found the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens a wonderful 55-acre natural respite, especially walking the Japanese garden’s path through a lush canopy of bamboo. The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is worth a stop simply to see the gorgeous art deco interior of this renovated post office and visit their fabulous gift shop with unique items and great prices. I also enjoyed the continental cuisine of the Park Cafe and King Arthur, our charming waiter at Jimmy Kelly’s steakhouse. Of course there’s always the Tennessee Titans or the Nashville Predators for the sports fans in the family.
Before You Go:
Contact the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp
(800) 657-6910
VisitMusicCity.com