Nashville

In all my years of traveling I had never been to Nashville, Tennessee. A while ago me and the Mrs. were talking about where we would like to go and we said Nashville. Shortly thereafter a client scheduled a conference there and off we went. Well, almost. Their first conference was flooded out by the Nashville flood so we went to Jacksonville, Florida. But they soon rescheduled Nashville and then we made it.

We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. We had been to another Gaylord property in Orland, Florida, so we kind of knew what to expect. According to their literature there is 9 acres of indoor atrium gardens. There is a river with fish in it and you can take a ride in a boat tour through the hotel for only $10!

It was nice and all, but I never find human recreations of nature to be inspiring. I find them a bit tawdry, a cheap imitation. I know they are not cheap, but they are not close to the real thing. But if you like your nature climate controlled and a short walk from your hotel room, they've got you covered!

We did venture outside the property, we took a tour of Nashville with Grayline Bus Tours. It was a straight-up tourist trek through the city, cost about $45 a ticket. I am not much of a bus-tour-type, but I would do it again. They did a good job.

Our tour guide was a local with a Tennessee accent as smooth as a barrel of Jack Daniels. He gave a great running account of the sights as we were seeing them. Obviously, music is a BIG deal in Nashville. Before we went I understood it was a big deal there, but once we got on the tour I began to understand it to be a seriously big deal to them.

We saw all the old recording studio buildings and the downtown honky-tonks. We stopped the tour at the historic Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Oprey. Loved it. What a great old theater. 

The shot at the top of the blog is the sun coming through the stained-glass on the upstairs level. The shot to the right is the hallway where those windows are located. Walk through these doors and you are in the Ryman, home to so many performances by so many music legends.

I couldn't help myself, I grabbed my uke and jumped up on that famous stage for a quick verse of "Rocky Top" and a photo.

The next stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was great and very interesting. They had all the usual stuff you might expect; outfits worn on stage by this act or that, one of Elvis' cars, original lyric sheets and time-lines of who came when and did what. I'll leave all that to the real country fans who have more of an appreciation for it. What fascinated me was this squirrel statue. It's a little stuffed squirrel bluegrass band. Why this is in the hall of fame, I have no idea, but it did raise the level of the exhibition in my mind. Nothing like some raw freaky to bring it home. Click on the picture to make it bigger and see the squirrel's facial expressions.

Our last night in town after work we slipped over to the new Opryland Theater, which is right next to the Gaylord Hotel. Here is a picture of me standing in front of a giant tourist-trap guitar out front of the theater. You cannot see the other 30 anxious country fans waiting to take that special picture that everyone else is taking.

The Grand Ole Opry was quite a thing. 4400 seats and a live radio broadcast at the same time. We saw 91 year old Little Jimmy Dickens and the Riders in the Sky, and many other acts. Interestingly, the each play only a couple of songs in their set and they are quickly moved on and off the stage as the announce reads old-time radio ads for Humana. 

It's quite a show, with quite a tradition. I am not sure it is for everyone, but I loved it. 

So that's about it for our trip to Nashville. It was great, and I would love to spend more time there. It has its own definite, distinct vibe, like San Francisco, Miami, Chicago or New York. There is no other place like it, and I think that is just the way they like it!

Next blog stop: Arches National Park.