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Nashville, TN

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Nashville, TN

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Start your Music City tour downtown, where the area of Lower Broadway and 2nd Ave, known as the District, is lined with honky-tonks, record stores and souvenir shops. Every bartender and diner waitress here has a story, about how Willie Nelson used to write lyrics on a napkin in the corner, or the time Elvis dropped by for a glass of milk.

Your first stop should be the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, which takes up a full city block. “Honor Thy Music” is the museum’s motto, reflecting the near-Biblical importance of country music to Nashville’s soul. The building, designed to look like a piano keyboard, contains written exhibits tracing country music’s history from twangy hillbilly music to the slick Nashville Sound of the 1960s to today’s alt-country. See thousands of artifacts, such as Elvis’ gold Caddy and Maybelle Carter’s Gibson L-5, and duck into private sound booths to listen to tracks from the Country Music Foundation’s extensive archives. For a few extra dollars you can purchase an audio tour narrated by contemporary country stars like Vince Gill and Dolly Parton. Or you could go for the full package deal, which includes a trip to Ryman Auditorium and shuttle bus to RCA’s Studio B, where Elvis recorded “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”

A few blocks away is the other musical giant of downtown Nashville: Ryman Auditorium. It was built in 1890 by born-again riverboat captain Thomas Ryman to hold religious revivals, and was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. Today, the biggest names in country, rock and comedy play the Ryman, and if you can snag one of the 2000 seats, you most definitely should. While you can walk into the lobby during the day, auditorium tours are by ticket only.

Pick up a rare Dock Boggs banjo record at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, the place for country and bluegrass albums since 1947. Opened by country impresario Ernest Tubb, the shop was the original home of the Midnite Jamboree, the second-longest-running radio program in America. It’s now broadcast from the Texas Troubadour Theater, but you can catch it on Saturday nights on 650-AM.

Down the block is Gruhn Guitars, one of the top vintage instrument stores in the world. Chat with ultra-knowledgeable staff about the funky customized Gibsons and $25,000 antique fiddles. Then swing by Hatch Show Print for a vintage letterpress concert poster, the definitive Nashville souvenir.

Dine like a record exec at the white tablecloth Capitol Grille in the Hermitage Hotel, a throwback to the days of three-martini lunches and post-prandial cigars. Indulge in old-school favorites like giant Caesar salads and steak frites.

In the evening make the pilgrimage to the Bluebird Cafe, tucked away in a suburban strip mall. This is most decidedly not the place for boot stomping or yee-haws. Guests sit sedately at reserved tables, eating or sipping cocktails as they watch singer-songwriters pour out their souls on the tiny stage. Wannabe acoustic country performers absolutely have to play the Bluebird on their way up - their struggles are dramatized in the 1993 River Phoenix movie The Thing Called Love, filmed here. Be warned, management will kick you out for talking during the show. Open-mic night is legendary.

Unfortunately, visiting some of Nashville’s big attractions means braving the sprawling suburban wasteland of cheap motels and chain restaurants known as Music Valley, 10 miles northeast of downtown. It ain’t pretty, but, in the right spirit, it can be fun.

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You can’t swing a chicken in Nashville without hitting an award-winning musician. Here are a few of our favorite Music City tunes from the 1930s on.

• “Crazy,“ Patsy Cline

• “Friends in Low Places,“ Garth Brooks

• “Honky Tonk Blues,“ Hank Williams

• “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys,“ Willie Nelson

• “Oh, Pretty Woman,“ Roy Orbison

• “Passionate Kisses,“ Lucinda Williams

• “Ring of Fire,“ Johnny Cash

• “Wabash Cannonball,“ Roy Acuff

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The Willie