Nashville is Music and More

Next stop, Nashville USA.  Home of Country Music.

I-40 from Knoxville to Nashville is beautiful, with green rolling hills and for us, continued perfect weather.

We drove into downtown Nashville first, to see what it was all about.

The tourist section is in the historic district and only a couple of blocks long, with live music exuding from nearly every door:

Nearby is the symphony hall:

And the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum:

The photo below is not mine.  Do you see the piano keyboard?

We actually ran out of time, and did not visit the Hall of Fame.  We find that we are not able to do everything as we travel across the country.  We need time to regroup, rest, do chores, and so on.  We don't rush around trying to see everything during our 8 months of travel, it would be too exhausting.  So we have to prioritize, and visit those things at the top of the list, those things that interest us most. 

What we did visit in Nashville was the Johnny Cash museum.  It is housed in an older building, and is small, consisting of five rooms that are smaller than the average living room.  But it was crowded with visitors of all ages while we were there, and the exhibits are well done and informative.

 There are many headsets and computer tablets where you can chose songs to listen to from each decade of his recording career.

 

Lee and I spent a lot of time listening to his music.  I have always loved the deep timbre of his exceptional voice.  I was raised on Johnny Cash, in a way.  He was one of my dad's favorite performers, so we listened to his albums all the time when I was a young girl.  He was the only country music artist we listened to, when I think about it. 

Did you know Johnny Cash wrote and performed songs successfully over six decades?  He was the youngest member to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980, and the only person to be a member of all three of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.  He released 96 albums between 1954 and 2003, one of the most prolific performers of all time.

One room was dedicated to Johnny Cash's film career, with many clips from his movies and TV appearances over the years.  I am glad we were able to spend so much time in this museum.  I appreciate his role in 20th century American music all the more now.

The next day Lee and I visited the town of Franklin, south of Nashville.  It is a charming small town with good restaurants and several shops, that was the scene of a major battle towards the end of the Civil War.  We toured the Carnton Plantation, one of the larger plantations of its day.  It was used as a hospital during the Battle of Franklin, and to this day has blood stains in south-facing rooms, which had the most light.  Surgery was performed on makeshift tables set next to windows, and it is next to those tables where the blood stains are most evident.  (No photography is allowed inside the house.)

Four Confederate generals were killed in this one battle, and all four lied in state on this lower porch as their soldiers filed by, offering their respects.  It was a devastating battle for the southern states.

This is the front side of the house:

The plantation had over 30 slaves in 11 cabins.  Only one of the cabins remains:

 

I especially like the formal garden:

This magnificent Osage orange tree was planted in the 1850's, so was a silent witness to the carnage of the battle:

We also had the opportunity to drive approximately 15 miles of the Natchez Trace, which was high on my list.  Spring and fall are the best times to explore the Trace.  The autumn colors are spectacular, I have heard, and in the spring the dogwood trees all along the route are in full bloom.  The dogwoods must be a sight to behold.  Traveling the Natchez Trace during the spring is still on my bucket list.

The Natchez Trace runs from Natchez to Nashville, and is 444 miles long.  It has an interesting history.  The trail was first created by animals, and was also used by North American Indians for 10,000 years.  Frontiersmen used it more recently, including John James Audubon, the famous bird artist.  Of greatest interest, perhaps, was the use of the trace by boatsman from Nashville.  They would load their packet boats with goods in Nashville, and go south to Natchez on the Mississippi River.  After unloading their goods, they would dismantle the boats and sell the wood, then walk the almost 450 miles back to Nashville. Parts of the original trace still exist, and they look like deep ditches because of the number of people that walked it over thousands of years.

I visited Nashville once before, with my parents when I was in college years ago.  We attended a concert at the Grand Ole Opry, and I remember it being a very good show.  I am not a country music officiando.  In fact, I rarely listen to country music.  But one doesn't have to be a country music fan to appreciate the Grand Ole Opry.

So we bought tickets for Friday night, and the auditorium was full.  For those who don't know, the Grand Ole Opry started broadcasting country music for the radio 88 years ago, and continues to do so to this day.  While Lee and I were in Nashville, programs were recorded on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  Programs last 2 1/2 hours, and start exactly at 7 p.m.  Several artists perform, including well-known singers and up and coming newbies.  An announcer, on stage, reads ads for sponsors every 10 minutes or so, and encourages the audience to clap. Not that the audience needs much encouragement - the music is really good.  As I said, I don't listen to country music often, but I do love a good guitar, fiddle, mandolin or banjo performance any time, as well as good voices.

We heard the following artists, and all were fabulous: Connie Smith, Chris Janson, Jesse McReynolds (85 years old!), Diamond Rio, The Whites, Sam Bush, Riders in the Sky (fun and funny guys!), Lindsay Ell, Tracy Lawrence, Vince Gill, Sunny Sweeney (loved the words to her songs), and Kix Brooks (I loved his deep voice and black hat!).  To be honest, the only name I had heard before the concert was Connie Smith.  For those of you who know country music, please excuse my ignorance.  This coming Tuesday night, Trace Adkins and Carrie Underwood, amongst others, will perform.  I know those two names!

Lee and I learned about the flooding of Nashville in 2010, and I found photographs on the Internet that showed the extent of the flooding.  The Grand Ole Opry was hit hard, and the shows were held elsewhere for the six months it took to refurbish the building.

 

In the photo below, the Grand Ole Opry is to the left.  On the right is a section of a large shopping mall, which was closed for two years following the flood.  It has been reopened, which is good because we ate their frequently and walked it for exercise.  Our campground was conveniently close by.

 I don't usually cover hotels, but we found one in Nashville, next to the Grand Ole Opry, which is a worthy destination in itself.  It is the Gaylord Opryland Resort.  It's main feature, and attraction, is a huge botanical conservatory in the center of the hotel that connects the wings.  Well, actually it's more like three conservatories.  One is so large, it has it's own street of shops and restaurants.

 

Following are several photos of the conservatories:

The hotel rooms, as you can see below, look out over the conservatory:

 

Bananas!

The hotel has two or three lobbies, I lost track.  And a huge convention center.  During hot or cold weather, a person would never have to leave the hotel and be quite comfortable!  The main entrance had a gorgeous glass sculpture and overhead, a circle of stained glass:

The Gaylord Opryland Resort is next to the Grand Ole Opry, and was also affected by the flood of 2010:

It cost millions to restore, of course, and the resort wisely built a 10-foot high "floodwall" (part earthen, part brick wall) around itself with an impressive system of pumps.  I loved one of the new lobby carpets, of reeds and dragonflies:

This post has gone on long enough, so it is time to quit.

Bye, y'all!