Nashville

A dear friend moved to Nashville around a year and a half ago to attend Belmont University, where he is working on his masters degree in Music. After a trip home for the Christmas holiday, we – myself, my fiancé, and a friend – followed him back to Nashville to spend the week of New Year’s.

It was my first time ever visiting Nashville and I was absolutely charmed with the city, which my fiancé and I decided looked – downtown – like a bright, clean, nice-smelling New Orleans’s French Quarter.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, my friend took us to a purple-bricked building that titled itself World Famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge on Broadway. Wall-to-wall, nearly floor to ceiling, was stacked with yellowing and cracked framed photographs of all the faces that had graced Tootsies’s little stage. From insanely famous to only known to a few, there had to be literally thousands of star-studded boots that had tapped to a tune on those wooden stage floorboards!

There was a live band playing, with (sexy) singer and guitarist Jake Maurer. Onstage as well was a pretty blonde fiddler; as good as she was cute – the devil likely would’ve met his match against this girl!. Jake’s MySpace page lists a fiddler bandmate as Kari Nelson – hopefully we’ll see more of her in the future. In all honesty, we were packed nearly like sardines in that little bar, but everyone was having a wonderful time and the music was just top-notch.

It eventually got too crowded, so we moved next door to a larger yet less-packed bar called The Second Fiddle. This place had the largest, most interesting collection of old radio receivers I have ever seen. The walls were lined with shelves holding these relics of the original always-available music. I honestly didn’t even know that many types of old and antique radios existed!

We had a great time there before heading home to enjoy a private party at home to ring in the new year.

On our last day in Nashville, our friend took us to The Red Door Saloon, where we stayed until dark and I got to experience “real life” shuffleboard (to date, I’d only ever played it on the Wii). The bar had a great atmosphere, friendly patrons, and a very hip look overall.

I’d recommend visiting all of the few places we dropped in on during our stay in Nashville. Though most of our time was spent at home, catching up with old friends, I hope to return to Nashville next year and see some more of its sites and attractions.

The city, overall, is simply lovely; there is just no other way to describe it. It is clean, well laid-out, and most of the buildings fit a similar architectural-style; giving it all a very attractive and pleasantly uniform appearance. Vanderbilt University is nestled neatly within the city, its charming, collegiate facade not at all contrasting with the more modern structures in its vicinity.

Everything is just so carefully done to flatter its neighbors and enhance the overall beauty of the city. Coming from the dirty, random claptrap that is most Louisiana cities, it was a pleasant surprise. In fact, when driving by a two-story home near Vanderbilt – obviously housing some college students – it seemed so shockingly out of place to see dozens of beer bottles strewn along the front porch and tossed carelessly about the yard that we all reflected on just how incongruous it seemed in the otherwise tidy city.

I will definitely be returning to Nashville someday, and with plans to see and do more. Our time there was very special – made even moreso by our dear friend and host, who took special pains to make sure we at least saw the important hotspots and experienced some of Nashville’s lesser-known treats (such as Gigi’s Cupcakes and Cinco de Mayo, our friend’s favorite Mexican eatery).

I would recommend a trip to Nashville to anyone. The hilly countryside, the charming city, and the chance of bumping into a celebrity in little, downtown honkytonks will make a memorable trip for anyone.

I stayed one night, passing through on my Deep South road trip. The main street is a tourist trap. I heard too late that the best music is to be heard away from the centre, so if you’re going for the country music, do your research first.

I just recently moved out of Nashville. I lived in Nashville for two years & absolutely fell in love with it. Of course like every place it has it’s good & bad but overall the people are great! They’re so friendly & inviting. Coming from the north before taking the plunge & blindly moving down there I had a lot of ill informed notions about it & a couple of fears. I thought it would be racist rednecks pluckin banjos around the clock with absolutely nothin to distract me from the impending hell(okay slight exaggeration but close). Boy was I wrong! There is a wide variety of people (in addition to the average white & black Americans-Mexicans, Kurdish, Uzbek, etc.) & a slight variety in scenes (old fashion south, urban, high society, college scene, new country, etc.). Overall the weathers great. THE SKIES ARE GORGEOUS!!!! They’re usually a beautiful deep sky blue with perfectly placed fluffy clouds. There’s a lot of great sites, ex: the Parthenon/centennial park (great place to spend a gorgeous day outside), The Frist Museum (great collections on display always), Cheekwood botanical garden(don’t wait till mid summer everything dries up & wilts :( ) & MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE- THE ZOO! It’s set up really nice-it’s compact in that there isn’t long distance walking but still lots of exhibits. The scenery at the zoo is very lush & imaginative. I spent a lot of time there. They have great music venues-always something going on pretty much everywhere. Just pick up their free paper, the Nashville scene or the other one(can’t remember the name) for up to date events. There are even some great trendy bars/night clubs that have absolutely nothing to do with country (if country ain’t your thing). By the time I left I got infected with the country bug. Oh and you have to check out the Opry Mills Mall-basic outlet mall but great design & they have a SANRIO & the Opryland Hotel. It know it sounds weird to visit a hotel you’re not staying at (& I can tell you you ain’t stayin at that hotel unless your wallet is pretty big) but the hotel is amazing! It’s like a mini city. It’s got water falls(literally), a revolving restaurant & a night club among many other things. They decorate it especially for the holidays too. I hope to make it back there someday.

Music

My Boyfriend are going to see my Aunt on our Christmas break, which she lives in Knoxville. So, I wanna stop through Nashville while were in TN.