MUSIC CITY AND MORE
Let your traveling shoes take you to Nashville
Chain stores and eateries leave many American cities looking like the same old place you visited last year. But that dull similarity ends the minute visitors hit Nashville, Tennessee. Exit your jetway and guitars along the airport corridors put you on notice you’re in a singular place. The reminders keep coming, whether you’re barhopping the Honky Tonk Highway, enjoying a show at the Grand Ole Opry, savoring the unique 12 South enclave or dining in America’s largest Kurdish stronghold on Nolensville Road.
Nashville of course is synonymous with this nation’s great country and western music tradition. The city celebrates that history in its live music venues, its fascinating music museums, and above all at Ryman Auditorium, for decades the revered setting for the nationally broadcast Grand Ole Opry. Setting Nashville apart is that the music recorded here is also created here. But what’s less understood is that Music City is a center of all kinds of tunes, about half the focus on forms other than country.
Newbies thinking they know what Nashville’s all about are in for other surprises. The city’s number one industry is health care, and it’s also a manufacturing mecca. Nashville’s food scene has dramatically evolved in the last 10 years, with superstar chefs arriving from food capitals nationwide to helm restaurants all over town. It’s an entrepreneur’s paradise that fetes and supports those intent on founding startups, who go on to profit from Nashvillians’ avid support. It’s an intriguing repository of history as well, from the Civil War to recorded music and even Southern cuisine.
Start with the legends
There’s no better way to start your visit than by touring the downtown museums devoted to music that made Nashville famous. Many of them can be found on or a few steps off Broadway, the legendary Honky Tonk Highway. Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum is a must, honoring gifted musicians who lent their talents to some of history’s greatest recordings. Ever wonder about the distinctive-sounding Dobro strummed on Jeannie C. Riley’s 1968 megahit “Harper Valley PTA”? Incredibly, it’s right here.
Among the most talked-about museums is the National Museum of African American Music, which opened last year. The museum curates and showcases the many musical forms initiated or inspired by African Americans, integrating interactive technology and history to bring yesteryear’s legendary artists to life. The photography of iconic musical figures is among the greatest treasures of the museum, which is at its best in tracing the influence of post-war rhythm and blues on the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.
Outside Ryman Auditorium sits a huge mural of a guitar bearing names of the most famous artists to play the Grand Ole Opry. The one word that garners the largest type face? “PATSY.” Nashville fetes its favorite daughter at The Patsy Cline Museum, where Cline aficionados can learn a trove of facts about their idol. Among them is that the most oft-played recording in jukebox history is Cline’s immortal “Crazy.”
In the same building, Johnny Cash fans have their own place of worship at the Johnny Cash Museum. There the legendary Man in Black is seen in all his stages, from fresh-faced Million Dollar Quartet member through his days as a movie and TV star and eventual enshrinement in the Country, Rock and Songwriters Halls of Fame.
Shop and dine
No trip to Nashville is complete without patronizing some of the many one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants that sprung from entrepreneurs’ fevered dreams. A fine place to find them is the 12 South enclave, home to gems like ladies’ fashion-forward boutique Emerson Grace and jewelry design studio Judith Bright. Next to a nondescript adobe building that happens to be Dolly Parton’s recording studio, Butter Milk Ranch and its proprietress, transplanted New Yorker Alyssa Gangeri, serve up some of the best small-batch cakes, laminated biscuits, croissants and scones this side of Brooklyn.
Of course, it is time-honored Nashvillian culinary arts that the city does best. Among dining spots you’ll want to check out is Hattie B’s, a family-owned local business doling out Nashville’s famed “Hot Chicken;” breakfast and lunch specialist Biscuit Love, focused on scratchbaked favorites from locally-sourced ingredients; and Arnold’s Country Kitchen, which specializes in the Southern favorite “Meatand-Three” — made up of one meat with three sides ranging from mac-andcheese to 7-UP pancakes. Don’t pass up a dessert of scrumptious banana pudding, a popular closer at many an eatery.
Of special interest are the restaurants along Nolensville Road, home to the nation’s largest Kurdish population. The savory specialties of immigrant entrepreneurs — combining meats like chicken and lamb with rices, savory herbs, vegetables and spices — make this lively district a fast-growing favorite of locals and visitors alike.
Iconic circle
Your most memorable times will come at the Nashville shrines where country music and its countless stars play yearround. None is bigger than Ryman Auditorium, which literally and figuratively is in the heart of Nashville. The 130-year-old Ryman, also known as “the Mother Church of Country Music,” is a National Historic Landmark and served as the home to the Grand Ole Opry for more than 40 years (1943-1974).
A multimedia tour walks visitors through Ryman’s history, then lets folks head to the concert stage, to imagine the giants — from Hank Williams, Bill Monroe and Waylon Jennings to more recent arrivals like Bruce Springsteen — who stood right there.
Speaking of the Grand Ole Opry, don’t leave town without taking in a show at the Opry in its very comfortable modern setting, the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry is the nation’s longest-running radio show, having launched 95 years ago, and on Saturday nights showcases a blend of old, new and legendary country artists, who perform from the iconic wooden circle transplanted from the Ryman to the stage of its successor.
A final treat? After dark visit the Honky Tonk Highway, lined with dozens of honky tonks whose world-class talents pump out great music every day of the year. Simply walking the street and taking in the sights and sounds of thousands of music lovers is a show in itself, one that will have you itching to plan an encore visit to Music City.