Nashville In 3 Days...

Day #1

Arriving early in Nashville, we headed downtown to the musical attractions around Broadway Street.  This is like the Vegas strip, except for country music fans!  One long street filled with honkytonk bars, shops, and restaurants.

We made sure to check out one of the most famous honky tonks in the city, Tootsies Orchid Lounge.  This place is full of historic memorabilia and some of the best musical acts in Nashville.  In fact, Willie Nelson got his first songwriting job after singing at Tootsies.  There are different stages located in the bar (upstairs & down) and the live music starts when the doors open every morning at 10am and continues until it closes at 2am.

Moving down the strip, we made stops at The Stage on Broadway, Legends Corner, and the Wildhorse Saloon.  Yee Haw!  It was actually fun to just poke your head into some of these bars to see and hear the musicians and their own style of country music.  The Wildhorse Saloon was definitely the biggest and best of the bunch....featuring a restaurant, bar, concert stage, dance venue, and TV studio.  Reba McEntire actually marched a stampede of live cattle through the streets of Music City and herded them past the front doors of this newly opened club back in 1994.  We took the opportunity to get our picture with the famous Wildhorse and hang out in this "wild" saloon.

We then headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame!  The current CMHF is located ten blocks away from downtown Nashville.  It was originally located on Music Row, before a new $37 million dollar museum was built in 2001.  The new buildings exterior is laced with images symbolic of music - notably the windows that mirror the look of piano keys.

This museum had it ALL!  Even if you are not a country music fan, there are so many great exhibits that are absolutely unbelievable to see.  A few of our favorite attractions inside the Hall of Fame include 1.) Elvis Presley's gold plated piano (you have to see it to believe it!), 2.)  Webb Pierce's 1962 Pontiac Bonneville that is customized with six-shooters as hood ornaments and door handles, steer horns mounted on the front grille,  and a saddle console with more than 150 silver dollars ornamenting the leather upholstery, and 3.) the Hall of Fame rotunda which features plaques honoring inductees displayed in a cathedral like space beneath the wrap-around inscription, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken."

This wasn't just any ordinary day in Nashville, it was July 4th.  In a few hours, we would be treated to some awesome fireworks over the Cumberland River.  As the sun set late into the evening, the entire street filled with people waiting for this big July celebration.  The place was a madhouse!  The fireworks sure did not disappoint!


We spent the rest of the night enjoying the fireworks over the waterfront....listening to the live music in the downtown streets of Nashville....and planning our next few days here in Music City.  Even if you don't love country music, this is one place that you've just got to experience.  We love it, and after just one day....we're glad to be here.

Day #2

The best part about being on your own when traveling, is you get to see and do what you want at your own pace.  Our pace is usually hectic....because we try to see and do as much as we can wherever we go.  This trip was no different.  Spending only a few days in each city, we knew we were going to have to squeeze a lot into our schedule to make it all work.

Today, we planned to visit the Ryman Auditorium, Studio B on Music Row, and get tickets for a dinner show on the General Jackson steamboat later in the evening.

We started the day with an early city bus tour.  This allowed us to see Nashville (state capitol building pictured here), and it also included a Country Music Mansion tour to see some of the homes of Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, etc. 

The most impressive property by far was Alan Jackson's Sweet Briar estate!  We were not allowed through the gates, but from the
street you could obviously tell ol' Alan's got some bucks!  If you
check out the YouTube video below, you'll see just how SWEET the
lifestyle of a Country Music Hall of Famer is!

After the Nashville bus tour, we stopped by the Ryman Auditorium.  This is the former home of the Grand Ole Opry which broadcast its shows from this 2362-seat arena from 1943-1974.  When the new Opry House was built in 1974, a 5 foot circle was cut out of the original stage from Ryman Auditorium and inserted into the new Opry stage - located directly behind the lead singer's microphone.

The Ryman Auditorium is named after a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman, Thomas Ryman who originally built it as a Tabernacle church in 1892.  It is still referred to as "The Mother Church of Country Music" in honor of its former Union Gospel Tabernacle heritage.

The Ryman has hosted two presidents (Roosevelt and Taft), Elvis Presley, the Johnny Cash TV show, and many popular jazz, rock, pop, and country music superstars.

After our brief tour of the Ryman, we caught a shuttle that took us across town to the historic RCA Studio B recording studio.  Studio B is one of the world's most important and successful recording studios.  More than 35,000 songs were brought to life in this studio, including over 200 songs by Elvis Presley (by far more than any other studio). 

As you walk back the hallways leading to the recording studio, pictures hang of all the famous recording artists who recorded in this building -  Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Chet Atkins - among many others.  After passing through the lobby and front offices, you enter the equipment room which houses many of the old analog audio tape machines.  Back in the 1960's, a sophisticated style characterized by background vocals and strings became famously known as the Nashville Sound.  This area also allows you to gaze into the actual recording studio through a large window.  Once into the studio, Jenesa and I were able to sit and play the same '46 Steinway piano that Elvis played back in the 1960's.  Elvis also recorded one of his famous hit songs in complete darkness in this studio.  If you do a little research you can find out the answer!

After Studio B, we were off for a dinner show and cruise on the General Jackson steamboat!  This 300-foot paddle wheel riverboat is one of the largest showboats in the country.  It boasts four massive decks with a beautiful two-story Victorian Theater located in the center of the boat.  The cruise offers dinner and live entertainment - including a broadway-type theater show.  All of this happens while cruising the Cumberland River adjacent to Nashville.  


As day turned to night, it was beautiful to see the Nashville skyline lit up as we cruised down the river.  The coolest part was seeing the "Batman Building" (Bell South tower) rising high above all others.....I tried my best to get a good pic!  If you look closely at the picture, you'll see the Batman "ears" sticking up in front of you - first tall building center-left!


Day #3

To kick off our final full day in Nashville, we planned to visit the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, see the Dukes of Hazzard museum, and buy tickets to the Grand Ole Opry performance later in the evening.

I have to admit, I've never seen a more impressive hotel and resort than the Gaylord Opryland.  It is absolutely an EYE-OPENER!  This place features 2,881 guest-rooms, of which 750+ face the atrium with private balconies, porches, and large bay windows.  The resort has 6 full-service restaurants, 3 lounges, 8 eateries, 14 retail stores, an arcade and nightclub, spa and salon, and a frickin' "Delta Flatboat" which floats through the 4.5 acre atrium on a 1/4 mile waterway giving guests a guided tour of all the plant species and artificial waterfalls.  Truly amazing to see!
 
I was getting dizzy snapping pictures left, right, up, and down!  They have designed the atrium to resemble a Cajun theme, borrowing elements of New Orleans, Louisianna.    When the Delta Atrium was christened, water samples from more than 1,700 rivers throughout the world, including every registered river in the United States, were poured into the river that is seen above in the Garden Conservatory. 

Right next door to the Gaylord OpryLand Resort is the Opry Mills Mall.  The mall is the largest outlet, retail, shopping, dining, and entertainment destination in Tennessee.  It boasts over 200 stores, including the Aquarium Restaurant - featuring a 200,000 gallon tank full of fish, shark, stingray, and more!  The line was out the door waiting for a seat, and we did not have time to check out the deep sea theme inside the restaurant.  Check it out online for pictures!

The highlight of our evening was tickets to the Grand Ole Opry!  The Opry was located right across the street from the OpryLand Resort and Mall.  The Opry is Tennessee's #1 attraction, and hosts many country music legends and chart-toppers of today!  Since 1925, the Opry has featured a live radio broadcast of country music each week.  Hundreds of thousands of people make a pilgrimage to Nashville each year to see the Opry.

We had pretty good seats as we were entertained by host Porter Wagoner (famous for his rhinestone suits and early partnership with Dolly Parton) until the live country acts began. 

One of the more popular singers during the evening was Lori Morgan, famous for songs Except For Monday, Something In Red, and What Part Of No.  It was definitely a nice way to end our 3 day stay in Nashville.  So much to see and do, it is likely we will go back someday.