Travel: Three Tips for Seeing Nashville, TN

We’re in Music City, aka the Athens of the South. Here’s a quick look at some of the things we learned about this unique mid-sized city.

Clockwise, from upper left: Honky Tonk Highway; to-scale version of Parthenon; city’s signature “hot chicken”; Country Music HOF Wall of Gold Records; one of the HOF’s many memorabilia displays.

(This is what I hope will become a regular part of the blog: Sharing with you some of the more practical aspects of our experiences. It’s an honor-bound journalism genre of “news you can use.”)

We decided to turn an East Coast swing for a college commencement into an opportunity to visit one of the Beloved1’s bucket list destinations — namely Nashville. The Athens of the South. Music City. Home of Grand Ole’ Opry. Epicenter of the country music scene.

The Beloved1 did a great deal of pre-planning for our excursion, and, so far it’s paid off. Here’s a few things we learned if you make the trip one day, too:

1. Book a tour.

Nothing beats local knowledge — feet that have actually been on the street. Time after time in our travels we’ve found the best way to see a place is by hiring a tour guide. We spent $100 each for a three-hour, small-group, sight-seeing, food, and whiskey tasting excursion by Dabble Events. By the way, we booked at the suggestion of AirBnB, which is extending its services to travel experiences, too. Who knew?

Our guide, Scott, also a full-time musician, Tennessee native, and former eighth-grade teacher, leaned into all three vocations to regale us with story after story after story about Nashville’s history, its music scene, its best restaurants, and its hidden gems, such as its Jefferson, Germantown and 12South neighborhoods. Yep, folks, you can get the most of Nashville other than at its downtown neon-drenched Honky Tonk Highway.

He took us to Red’s 615 Kitchen, a hole-in-the-wall eatery that serves up the best of Nashville’s singularly local dish — deep-fried “hot chicken.” As in spicy hot. We also went to Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, a southern chain which is the only place a Texas expat here will take her Lone Star friends. (You know how those Texans are about their BBQ!) We had the ribs and brisket, replete with a variety of sauce styles from Nashville, Georgia, and Alabama. I’ll attest: Best I’ve had.

2. Don’t Rent a Car.

Nashville has rekindled my fondness for mid-sized cities. These days you no longer need to be in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or LA to enjoy the finest in food and culture. What’s more, Nashville makes it all so much more accessible than the big cities — you can walk, take a bus, or hop a ride-sharing service, all for a fraction of a daily car rental.

Oh yeah, the prices at Nashville’s best restaurants are in the $20-per-entre range, far lower than even those in our Sonoma County wine country. On our second night, the Beloved1 and I shared a honcho Pig & Leaf Pork Milanese chop dinner at 1 Kitchen for $25.

We booked into an delightful little, Music City-themed AirBnB in Nashville’s West End neighborhood, which put us a short stroll away from good restaurants and bars, such as BrickTop’s. Where they kindly let us split a seared tuna dinner. But this is what I call class: Instead of bringing the entire entire and extra dish, they served us two smaller but still beautifully plated portions. On arrival from the airport, we enjoyed a late night, light dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill that specializes in bison and offers a classic, old-time bar. We’ve had our eye on the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill.

We also walked to Centennial Park and its to-scale reproduction of Greece’s Parthenon. Both were developed for Nashville’s 100th birthday in 1897. While ersatz, the Nashville’s Parthenon gives you an “unruined” perspective of the temple’s monumental size, built by the Athenians four-hundred years before Christ.

3. Go to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

While I like music, I’m not an aficionado. But boy, two of the nation’s premier music museums are not to be missed. One is Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which capsulizes the music of my life through its multimedia displays and memorabilia. The other: Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum — and for the very same reasons. They’ll give you sensory overload, but you won’t be bored.

Country and rock are derivatives of each other. You can’t understand rock n’ roll without understanding its roots in country. Ken Burns connected them brilliantly in his 2019 documentary Country Music. Watch it! To grossly truncate the tree, the Carter Family with its Appalachian folk music begat Johnny Cash and June Carter who begat Elvis who begat The Rolling Stones and so on.

You can’t understand America without understanding its culture, and you can’t understand its culture without understanding its music.

Like the Rock & Roll HOF, the Country Music HOF is a feast for eyes, with its displays filled with star-studded memorabilia (including Elvis’ Cadillac.”) Basic ticket prices: $27.95 for an adult — nada on any senior discount. We rented an audio guide for $5 extra each, but never mind the extra expense. You don’t need them, because the displays are accompanied more-than-adequate, easy-to-read descriptions.

And again, it cost us less than $10 to get from our AirBnB (near Vanderbilt University, by the way.)