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| Ranking Among U.S. Cities / Regions: #24 |
| Venturers: 7 |
| Mid-Venturers: 7 |
| Centrics-Venturers: 7 |
| Centrics-Authentics: 7 |
| Mid-Authentics: 7 |
| Authentics: 7 |
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| • The driveway at President Jackson’s Hermitage is shaped like a guitar |
| • Nashville’s first hit was called “Here’s Your Mule,” written in the 1850s |
• The Jack Daniel Distillery is America’s oldest registered distillery (1866)
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| • Elvis Presley made more than 300 recordings in Nashville |
• “The Grand Ole Opry” is the world’s longest-running radio show (1925)
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Music City USA
In Nashville, music isn’t just the entertainment that lures millions of visitors every year. Music is big business. The city hosts scores of song-publishing firms and recording companies. What tourists see — and hear — is live music of many genres offered up in more than 120 venues around town.
Nashville has other faces, too. A southern city, it has antebellum homes to explore and gardens to inspect. With its mild climate, the city offers outdoor options, whether on a golf course or in a canoe. And, for a totally different entertainment choice, there is NASCAR racing at the Nashville Superspeedway.
About Nashville
America’s Music City is a relatively small metropolis (population: 600,000; metro area: 1.5 million) set amidst rolling hills and horse farms in north-central Tennessee. It is also the state’s capital. Tourists venture into that bucolic countryside for sightseeing or other activities, but the prime touristic reason for coming to town is usually the music.
Nashville’s musical roots are country and gospel, but the environment is ecumenical, also having brought blues, Christian contemporary, folk, hip-hop, jazz, pop and rock into its recording studios and onto its stages. In addition, Nashville’s newest major venue is Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home to the city’s orchestra. The center is sited across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, effectively making a point.
By day, tourists have the museums, including the Grand Ole Opry Museum and a new Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. However, the Country Music Hall of Fame is the centerpiece, and it includes an option to tour the Historic RCA Studio B. That studio is a kind of shrine for serious fans of country, rock and all the other genres once heard there. More than 35,000 songs were recorded in Studio B, 1,000 described as hits. Dedicated fans are also likely to take backstage tours of the Grand Ole Opry House and Ryman Auditorium, both of which are venues for the radio show, and make a daytime pilgrimage down Honky Tonk Highway (Lower Broadway) looking for the legendary Ernest Tubb Records and Gruhn Guitars, the latter known for its vintage instruments. The daylight Honky Tonk itinerary may include the 1879 Hatch Show Print, a letterpress poster shop best known for its posters of Opry stars.
It’s easy to determine what to do at night — hear music — and it is difficult because there are so many choices. They range from the “Grand Ole Opry” itself, musicals and stage productions to the more intimate clubs that dot the city offering everything from lively dance clubs to spaces for listening quietly to favorite sounds. Nashville says of its city: This is the place music calls home. More than 10 million visit this house each year.
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• Cut your own CD in Ryman Auditorium’s own recording studio.
• Study whisky. Free tours are offered at the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg and the George Dickel Distillery in Tullahoma. Spend some time in historic Lynchburg Square and have lunch there before driving the 17 miles to your next stop. At the George Dickel facility, mail a letter to friends from the only U.S. Post Office in a distillery.
• Pursue your love of the blues at B.B. King’s Blues Club & Restaurant.
• Get the skinny on ghosts in Nashville, described as one of the most haunted cities in the country. Take a guided walking tour or a carriage tour. You can choose a walking tour that features haunted taverns and a few drinks with their ghosts.
• Camp near the Percy Priest Lake, and spend the daytime canoeing, hiking or fishing for largemouth bass. Or, go boating or waterskiing at Old Hickory Lake. Or hike in that area.
• Schedule your visit to coincide with the September Music City Jazz, Blues & Heritage Festival in Riverfront Park.
• Haunt Honky Tonk Highway, that section of Lower Broadway peppered with popular clubs like Second Fiddle, the Stage, Tootsie’s and others.
• Come to town in late March for Tin Pan South, a series of events — including a symposium — celebrating songwriters and their craft, then stay on for as much of Awesome April as you have time for. The year’s fourth month is chock-a-block with music events including awards events and Gospel Music Week.
• Run in the Country Music Marathon or half-marathon in April, but don’t slow down for the music. Fifty bands play at 27 entertainment stages while racers make the run; this is followed by a free concert at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
• Go to the races, meaning car races. Nashville is well fixed with options: Music City Motorplex, Music City Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway.
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• Take a guided tour of Nashville that focuses on African-American history in the city.
• Join a walking tour that highlights the untold tales behind Nashville’s published history, operated by Gray Line Tours.
• Jump on a Segway for a new way to take a downtown “walking” tour.
• See a show at Nashville’s oldest professional theater, the Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre. Dinner is a southern-style buffet; a box lunch is available for those who prefer a matinee.
Or, go more upscale at Miss Marple’s Restaurant & Dinner Theatre, where the fare is a gourmet dinner and a comedic murder mystery. The first table of dinner guests to solve the mystery wins a prize.
• See the Nashville Zoo at a brisk pace: Join the Nashville Zoo 5K Run/Walk in January.
• Tour the restored homes of two U.S. presidents: Andrew Jackson and James Polk. At President Jackson’s Hermitage, costumed guides are your hosts. A wagon tour of the 1,120-acre property highlights slave life and takes you to out buildings, the Jacksons’ tombs and an heirloom garden. President Polk’s home is an hour south in Columbia.
• See a “Grand Ole Opry” program, bearing in mind this fabled institution is only one of more than 120 live music venues in Nashville.
• Take dance lessons at the Wildhorse Saloon. They are free.
• Attend one of the Tennessee Jazz & Blues Society concerts offered April through August on the lawn of the Belle Meade Plantation. Also, add Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman to your dance card. The events are scheduled for each Thursday, June and July.
• Take something of the Nashville sound home. Shop at the historic Earnest Tubb Record Shop, and fill out your collection of bluegrass and country music.
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• Buy an inclusive package that provides a hotel room and ensures you will see the city highlights and get to a “Grand Ole Opry” performance.
• Tour the Historic RCA Studio B where legends Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley, among others, recorded numerous songs. Entry ticket must be purchased with your admission to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Then, take a look at the new Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.
• Board the General Jackson Showboat, a 300-foot paddlewheel riverboat, for a cruise on the Cumberland River and a dinner show.
• Pay your respects to the king when you attend the long-running musical show, “A Tribute to the King: Thru the Years 1953-1977.”
• Play golf or tennis. The climate is right, neither too hot nor too cold.
• Hear the Nashville Symphony in the city’s sparkling new Schermerhorn Symphony Center which, with 30 soundproof windows, is one of the few major North American concert halls with natural light.
• Sleep in a train station, meaning the 125-room Union Station hotel. The hotel was carefully restored to preserve the unique design features that make this building an architectural treasure.
• Rummage through the goodies at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds Flea Market, held the fourth weekend of every month.
• Enhance your schedule with a guided backstage tour at the Grand Ole Opry.
• Live in the past at the 18th Century Colonial Fair in early May, or make that the Tennessee Renaissance Festival on all weekends of the same month.
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For more information, consult the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau at www.visitmusiccity.com
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