6 THINGS YOU MUST DO IN... NASHVILLE
NASHVILLE calls itself ‘Music City’, and nobody’s arguing. As well as roundthe-clock performances, there are legendary concert halls, recording studios and museums celebrating musical titans. But, as
GARETH HUW DAVIES discovers, there’s more to the city than just this – there’s alsoo a replica of Greece’s Parthenon,n, a lively food scene and a host of new hotels…
1...BOOM TOWN
NASHVILLE, Tennessee, is on the top ten list of places to go in 2016 in two directories – Lonely Planet (‘having a ball in this Southern boom town’); and Rough Guides (‘an exciting time for the city’).
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the ‘Smithsonian of country music’, displays the fabulous heritage of this music capital. Throughout 2016 it hosts an exhibition on Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, who both recorded in the city. There’s also a permanent Johnny Cash Museum.
Want to see where the hits were recorded? The celebrated RCA Studio B – ‘Home of a Thousand Hits’, a quarter of them m by Elvis – is open to o visitors. And if you fancyy taking up the guitar, you u will never see as many y instruments in one place e as at Gruhn Guitars, , while the Ernest Tubb b Record Shop is a must for those seeking rare country records.
2...MUSIC EVERYWHERE
FEW cities on Earth can match Nashville’s downtown streets for live music. Honky Tonk Highway, on Lower Broadway, is the beating heart. Bars here pump out live blues, rock, country, jazz, soul and bluegrass from 10am to 3am.
And if the newly restored Ryman Auditorium, built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892, is the ‘Mother Church of Country Music’, the Grand Ole Opry, the city’s other great performance centre, is its starship. Nashville does classical too, in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
3...ATHENS3 OFO THE SOUTH
BEFOREB Nashville embracedem music in the 1900s,19 it built its reputation as the ‘Athens of the South’, promotingpr the culture of Classical Greece. It marked the Tennessee Centennial celebrations in 1897 by building a full-size replica of the Parthenon.They rebuilt it, in concrete, in the 1920s and made it the city’s main art gallery.
It is a spectacular reminder of how the original Parthenon in Athens must have looked before it was partly blown up in 1687.
4...GOOD READ
IN 2011, the city’s last specialist bookshop closed in the face of competition from e-books and online sales. Local novelist Ann Patchett decided to fight back. She opened Parnassus Books, named after the mountain that, in Greek mythology, is the pinnacle of learning and the arts. The bookshop is doing so well that it is now expanding.
5...STATION STOP
NOT long ago, an old building in a US city was very likely to find itself at the mercy of a wrecking ball.
But now, more often than not it is transformed into a smart hotel. Nashville’s Gothic-style Union Station is a good example – it has become a luxurious inn complete with original early 20th Century details such as limestone fireplaces, oak doors and panels, and a stainedglass vaulted ceiling. In the Hotel Indigo, which used to be a bank, the original travertine flooring has been retained in the guest rooms.
Among the city’s recently built hotels is the 404 Hotel, which has just five rooms with local art filling the walls. There’s high praise for its restaurant next door. Another new boutique hotel is the Thistletop Inn, out of town in Goodlettsville, which resembles something between a Loire Valley chateau and a Colorado mountain ranch.
6...THE PLACE TO EAT
ONCE all music-followers in Nashville could do was grab a burger before a gig. Today the city’s sophisticated culinary scene is a draw in itself. Food guide Zagat reports a multitude of new openings and ‘notable chefs moving in to tap into the energy’. Bright new places for brunch include Fifty First Kitchen & Bar, for its bread pudding French toast with hickory syrup; Le Sel, for its duck confit omelette; and Marché Artisan Foods, for its breads and pastries. For dinner, try Josephine’s take on PennsylvaniaDutch country cooking; and Husk for its Southern food such as cornmeal-crusted catfish with sweet onion tartar sauce. Coffee shops worth lingering in include Crema and Dose.