There’s a whole lot more to Nashville than its country music legacy, but when you go there for the first time, as I did on a FAM trip in early December, that’s what you most want to experience. Fortunately, music legends and lore are everywhere you turn, even in the midst of a building boom that is adding innumerable new hotels, chef-driven restaurants and art galleries to the city’s traditional mix of honky-tonks, barbecue joints and recording studios.
Right in the downtown core are a barnyard full of country music landmarks, all of them a short walk from each other, as well as Music City Center, the city’s main convention venue. The logical place to begin is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the dazzling centerpiece of the Fifth Avenue arts and entertainment district. Its permanent gallery chronicles the history and roots of country music through an engaging series of videos, touchscreens and displays of memorabilia that include everything from Elvis’ 1960 gold Cadillac Fleetwood to Patsy Cline’s purple and white fringed cowgirl dress. Changing exhibits spotlight newer artists (Brad Paisley was featured during our visit) as well as the legends. (The 1960s collaboration between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan was also featured)
“Our mission is to show how broad the range is of music coming out of Nashville,” said curator Michael Gray. “We look at all the influences behind country music—folk, bluegrass, Western, rock, R&B.”
Event spaces at the Hall of Fame are no less varied. Groups can gather in the 10,000-square-foot Event Hall with its 40-foot glass walls framing views of downtown, or in the 4,500-square-foot circular Hall of Fame Rotunda with its bronze plaques honoring the performers and producers who shaped country music. Other options include the 800-seat CMA Awards Theater, a live-music venue also that is also adaptable for general sessions, sales meetings, broadcasts, press conferences and more.
A further sense of Nashville’s musical legacy comes from the guided tours of RCA Studio B that depart by shuttle bus from the Hall of Fame several times daily. The tour heads into the heart of Music Row, where the lineup of studios also includes Decca Records’ Quonset Hut where Dylan’s Nashville Skyline LP was recorded as were many hits by Patsy Cline and other artists. Built in 1957, Studio B soon became “the cradle of the Nashville sound” and a home for such artists as Dolly Parton, who first came there as a 14-year-old songwriter, as well as Elvis, Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, Chet Atkins and Roy Orbison. Along with touring the intimate rooms with their vintage recording consoles that produced over 1,000 hit records, groups can also make their own customized recordings with a professional sound engineer.
Just steps from the Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium, where the Grand Ole Opry show was broadcast from 1943 to 1971 and is now performed on selected dates during the winter, is another iconic attraction. Known as “the mother church of country music,” the red-brick auditorium offers scheduled tours highlighting its storied past with memorabilia that includes everything from Minnie Pearl’s hat to costumes from the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter, which was filmed at the Ryman. Accommodating up to 2,300 people, the Ryman is also a venue for private concerts, awards shows, onstage dinners and other events.
Designed to honor the musicians who played on famous recordings but were not always famous themselves, the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum is another essential stop for appreciating the Nashville sound. The museum recently formed a partnership with the GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live in Los Angeles to offer a new gallery with interactive exhibits pertaining to the GRAMMY awards as well as recording booths and a studio and rehearsal room where visitors can get a full recording experience.
Located in a small strip mall outside of downtown, the Bluebird Cafe is a 90-seat venue that has gained worldwide recognition as a performance space for budding songwriters as well as such established stars as Kathy Mattea and LeAnn Rimes. Along with hosting private events at the cafe, Bluebird’s event services team also provides songwriting teambuilding activities for corporate groups that can take place at venues throughout Nashville as well as around the country.
As it turns out, songwriting events have become a staple activity for many groups meeting in Nashville, according to Scott Wright, vice president of corporate sales for the Nashville CVC.
“With the help from professional songwriters, teams write their own songs and then get up onstage and perform them,” he said. “You can make a recording and then get a CD to take home. Nashville is the only big songwriting community in the world now, so we’re the perfect place for this.”
