Nashville, Father & Son Find Music City Harmony

Nashville – Garth Brooks is the number one best selling country music artist of all time.

San Diego freelance writer Doug Hansen contributed this guest post.

Nashville, Tennessee is the perfect destination for travelers with divergent interests. I know this because I traveled here with my adult son and – in spite of our differences – we both had a great time. Consider this: Blake is an avid fan of sports, country music, and craft beers. I like museums, hiking, and history.

How did we manage? For starters, we took an authentic traveler’s approach to the city. Yes, the country music scene is world famous but, when we looked beyond the obvious, we discovered that Nashville has much more to offer.

Nashville is a great fall destination.

Montgomery Bell State Park

In order to see a bit of the Tennessee countryside, I arrived two days before my son and joined friends at Montgomery Bell State Park about 40 miles west of Nashville. This was in mid-October, which was perfect because the Park was awash in a sea of brilliant fall foliage colors. During the drive from Nashville, I passed through small, rural Tennessee towns with their ubiquitous churches, general stores, and town halls set among rolling hills. My friends and I wanted to sample the much-heralded Tennessee barbecue, so we headed to the highly rated Carl’s Perfect Pig, “where a waist is a terrible thing to mind.” For around $10, we had a mouth-watering meal of “Bar-B-Que” beef, baked beans, and fried okra.

Authentic travel: Living like a local in Nashville…watching football at Vanderbilt University.

Nashville for sports fans

Blake and I began our time together with a football game at Vanderbilt University, whose team was playing my son’s Mizzou team. Sadly, both teams performed poorly, but we left (at halftime) satisfied that at least we had experienced a football game together.

Next stop: downtown for dinner and music on the famed Lower Broadway strip. With over 150 live music venues, we easily found places we could both enjoy that offered blues, rock, and all flavors of country music. Not many cities in the world can rival Nashville’s variety and high quality of music that streams nightly from one bar after another.

Nashville: slave cabins at President Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage.

Nashville for history buffs and horse racing fans

The next day, we checked out the historical side of Nashville, starting with the Belle Meade Plantation. With a history dating back to the early 1800’s, the plantation symbolizes the success and ethical dilemmas of the Old South. In addition, as a place for horse racing fans it has few equals. Every horse entered in the Kentucky Derby for the past twelve years can trace its roots back to Belle Meade.

We also toured Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, situated on 1100 acres. Here, a small museum presented the story of President Andrew Jackson’s fascinating life and the history of America from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. Blake and I meandered along the estate’s 1.5 miles of trails that led to a collection of original slave cabins, the gardens where the President and his beloved wife were buried, and to their antebellum mansion where over 95% of the furnishings are original.

We later stopped at Centennial Park to see one of the more incongruous, but impressive sights in town – an exact copy of the Greek Parthenon. I know. Go figure. The Nashville Parthenon contains the world’s only full-scale replica of the original, 42-foot tall, shiny gold statue of Athena.

Nashville’s favorite son Elvis Presley recorded more than 250 songs at RCA Studio B.

Music Row and the Country Music Hall of Fame

Nashville offers a rich variety of historical and cultural sites, but what sets it apart from virtually every other city in the U.S. is its vast musical heritage and contemporary music scene. The city hosts the largest community of songwriters in the world, and its Country Music Hall of Fame is considered the Smithsonian of country music. Located downtown near the music strip, the Hall of Fame houses the largest collection of country music artifacts in the world.

You cannot escape the presence of music in Nashville – not even at the MacDonald’s near the Grand Ole Opry, where a large collection of historic radios and guitars are on display.

At the legendary RCA Studio B near “Music Row,” we saw firsthand the place where music history was made. Elvis Presley recorded over 250 hit songs here, and its recording legacy includes countless other country stars.

The Listening Room Cafe is one of many popular Nashville live music venues.

Listening Room Café

My musical highlight was the evening we dined while listening to three local songwriters playing guitar and singing their award-winning songs at the Listening Room Café. The intimate setting, unlike the noisy (but fun) bars, allowed us to better appreciate their musical talent. One of the songwriter’s San Diego students, retired baseball pitcher Barry Zito, surprised us all with his impromptu performance of a country ballad. This was another wonderful random music adventure in Nashville.

As I look back at our trip to Nashville, not only am I thankful that Blake and I were able to find such a fun place that we could both enjoy, but I am struck by the fact that in addition to being a  mecca for country music, Nashville offers that and so much more.

Doug Hansen is a travel writer and photographer in Carlsbad, CA. You can find more photos and articles at www.HansenTravel.org He previously wrote about grizzly bear sightings in British Columbia, Canada for Authentic Luxury Travel. 

The Grand Ole Opry is an American icon and Nashville’s number one attraction.

Category: USA Midwestern States