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Nashville: touring the
roots of country music
In Nashville, you don't
have to look far to
catch the sound
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It's Friday night at the Bluebird Café, and waitresses balancing trays overhead deftly squeeze through the tightly packed club delivering beer and Buffalo wings to customers before the all-female band, Queen of Hearts, starts the show.
For wannabe songwriters in Nashville, this is the place to be, and everybody knows it. Songs heard here tonight could one day be picked up by big-name country-music artists and skyrocket to the top of the charts. It wouldn't be the first time. Before Garth Brooks was a household name, he used to hang out at the Bluebird on Sunday Songwriters nights, belting out songs he wrote.
This is no hotel lounge where music is just background noise to chitchat and laughter. A glance at the cafe's slogan printed on the cover of its menu, "Shhh," lets everyone know to save the conversation for between sets.
Country
Music Hall
of Fame
Nashville,
Tenn., is the
center of the
country-music
universe, and
the city's
Country Music
Hall of Fame and
Museum pays
homage to the
stars of the
past.
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A night at the Bluebird is like an evening of off-Broadway theater, and with a cover charge that is rarely over $10, it's an inexpensive way to enjoy some of the best Nashville music this side of the Grand Ole Opry.
The eclectic audience consists of locals and out-of-towners, but one thing they have in common is a love of Nashville and its country-music culture.
Pam Tillis, daughter of country-music legend Mel Tillis, describes Nashville as "a giant incubator for musicians." She should know. Ms. Tillis played the club almost 20 years ago and made Bluebird history by being a part of the first Women in the Round show.
Tonight's band, the Queen of Hearts, follows this now popular format, where four musicians sit in an intimate circle surrounded by the audience and take turns playing their original songs. These band members casually bat witty one-liners and jokes back and forth, and the atmosphere is like having a few girlfriends drop by and play in your living room.
The Bluebird shows visitors talent that could become the wave of the future, but the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum takes them through the past. Before the days of sophisticated special lighting effects and state-of-the-art sound systems, performers depended on glitzy costumes to wow the audience, and one highlight of the museum is its extensive collection of costumes worn by legends such as Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. Today's younger country stars often perform in jeans and T-shirts, but there was a time in country music when there was no such thing as too many rhinestones or too much fringe.
A "platinum package" is offered that includes not only admission to the Hall of Fame and Museum but also a tour of historic RCA Studio B, known as the cradle of the Nashville Sound in the 1960s. But don't think country-music stars were the only ones cutting records there. Elvis Presley was the king of rock 'n' roll, but more than half of his records were made in Studio B in a city known for country music.
It must have been odd, not to mention uncomfortable, to sit on a rock-hard church pew
Wildhorse
Saloon
The
Wildhorse
Saloon
hosts
the
hottest
bands
playing
the best
in
contemporary
country
music.
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in the Ryman Auditorium while listening to your favorite country music, but that's what Grand Ole Opry fans did from 1943 until 1974, when the Opry moved to its current home near the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
The Ryman was vacant for 20 years, but today it is one of the busiest concert venues in Nashville. So continue your country-music history lesson with a tour of Ryman Auditorium and Museum, a national historic landmark known as the Mother Church of Country Music because of the building's original use as a house of worship. Oh, and while the new Opry house still has church pews for seating, unlike the Ryman, these have padding.
The Wildhorse Saloon is country music now, and you can count on finding Nashville's hottest bands here playing the best in contemporary country seven nights a week. So rustle up a pair of cowboy boots at one of Nashville's Western wear stores and mosey on over to the Wildhorse
for a couple of free line-dancing lessons. With a little practice, you'll be doing the Boot Scootin' Boogie in no time.
Come hungry, because the Wildhorse is not only a place to kick up your heels to country music, but a restaurant known for tangy ribs, Southern barbecue, melt-in-your-mouth steaks and, most of all, deep-fried pickles.
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Grand Ole Opry A sign that a performer has truly arrived: Carrie Underwood sings at the Grand Ole Opry. |
When a Grand Ole Opry performer stands on that magic 6-foot circle of dark, worn oak cut from the Opry's former home at the Ryman, she knows she has made it. She is literally standing on the same spot that Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and so many other country music stars did before her.
What started in 1925 as "The WSM Barn Dance," has evolved into the Grand Ole Opry. Broadcast live every Saturday night by WSM-AM (650), it's the longest-running continuous radio program in the nation and the ultimate country-music experience.
Country-music pilgrims from around the world flock to the Grand Ole Opry every weekend to pay homage to rising young stars, superstars and country legends that perform this uniquely American music.
And what better way to conclude a country-music odyssey than to spend an evening reveling in the music of generations of artists playing everything from contemporary country to old-time honky-tonk?