Tuning In to Music City

Nashville, Tennessee is known as the "Music City."  Perhaps the biggest factor in drawing visitors to Nashville is its association with country music. Many visitors to Nashville attend live performances of the Grand Ole Opry, the world's longest-running live radio show. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is another major attraction relating to the popularity of country music.

Local Nashville WSM-AM announcer David Cobb first used the name, "Music City" in reference to Nashville during a 1950 broadcast, and it stuck. It is now the official nickname used by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Nashville is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and many major record labels. The name also dates back to 1873, where after receiving and hearing a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Queen Victoria of England is reported as saying that "These young people must surely come from a musical city."

It poured buckets and buckets of rain today.  Not a fit day to go outdoors.  So we decided to head downtown to visit Nashville's museums and other venues.  A multitude of music clubs and honky-tonk bars can be found in downtown Nashville, particularly the area encompassing Lower Broadway, Second Avenue, and Printer's Alley, which is often referred to as "the District".

In fact, Broadway at its glitziest is memorialized on fire exit doors of the Country Music Hall of Fame, making a fitting tribute to the city and its music:

Well, of course, we planned to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, but we had two favorites that took priority.  David wanted to see the Johnny Cash Museum, and Kathy wanted to see the Patsy Cline Museum.  So we started with those.

The museums for both artists were very well curated.  Each was organized in primarily a chronological order, tracing the respective lives and careers of these two great country music artists.  Both museums blend biographies of the artists with photos of their lives and careers, clothing and other memorabilia.  They also allowed visitors to sample some of each artist's best performances.  Below, David samples a recording of Johnny Cash from his 1980's:

After learning about Johnny Cash, we moved upstairs to the Patsy Cline Museum and enjoyed a detailed timeline of her career and tragically short life: 

Of course, we had to see Patsy's trademark cowgirl outfits, many of which were sewed by her own mother:

It was time to stroll over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which celebrates and tells the story of American country music.  The building is unique in its architecture, and the lobby entrance is very dramatic:

David likes Emmylou Harris -- especially her album with Mark Knopfler, and we were lucky to visit while the Museum had an exhibit on Emmylou Harris.

The exhibit on Emmylou Harris had some quirky displays, including this adorable photo of her as a young cowgirl:

The musum's architecture is as much a part of the exhibit as the displays on each of the artists who have contributed to the development of American country music.  This view from the third floor, looking down to the second floor, is an example:

One exhibit touched a personal chord.  It shows memorabilia relating to the Broken Spoke, a dance hall and honky-tonk in Austin that we visited in 2014.  We remember it vividly because we took Texas Two-Step lessons there.  Read all about that adventure in our blog entry titled, "Texas Two-Step!"

Who can think of country music without thinking of good old Willie Nelson, who happened to write Patsy Cline's great hit, "Crazy," as well as many others, and Waylon Jennings?  They exemplified the "outlaw country" music of the 1980's, and the museum contains an exhibit about the genre popularized by them.  Kathy couldn't resist joining Willie and Waylon in a pose:

Singing all this country music can build a powerful hunger, so we headed out into The District to look for lunch.  We passed by "Tootsies," a famous Nashville joint, but the music was much too loud and ear-splitting.  We eventually chose lunch at Rippy's Bar & Grill, where a talented trio performed original country music for us as we tasted absolutely scrumptious baby-back pork rib wraps, graced with sides of unique coleslaw and turnip greens:

Sadly, it was time to head home, but not before making a stop at Tennessee Brew Works.  We had tasted their blonde ale and wit bier at Rippy's, and we felt compelled to pick up a couple of bombers of their scrumptious Belgian-style quad and wine barrel-aged Belgian style dubbel.  As we write this blog entry, we're enjoying a short glass of each and listening with pleasure to a new album of Patsy Cline songs we picked up after visiting her museum.

Here's a toast to the Music City!