Nashville, Tennessee — Activities
Nashville Culture
The dominance of country music tends to overshadow the fact that Nashville is also a hotbed of many other types of art and culture. There is the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Nashville Chamber Orchestra, not to mention many theaters, music schools, art galleries and dance venues. Indeed, many musicians lead dual lives, switching from country to classical with ease.
The city’s prime venue is the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), 505 Deaderick Street (tel: (615) 782 4000; website: www.tpac.org). TPAC, as it is known, has three theaters, which usually have shows running simultaneously. The large Andrew Jackson Hall hosts rock concerts, musicals, opera and dance. The small James K Polk Theater is used for drama and more intimate musical evenings and the Andrew Johnson Theater is also for smaller-scale events, such as TV shows, conferences, trade shows and drama productions.
Nashville’s new state-of-the-art Schermerhorn Symphony Center, One Symphony Place (tel: (615) 687 6500; website: www.nashvillesymphony.org) was designed with the perfect acoustics of the European concert halls, and is the permanent home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The neoclassical building is a work of art featuring a custom-built pipe organ and versatile concert hall that can convert from raked to cabaret seating, or transform into a spectacular ballroom. There are world-class performances year-round plus many educational programs for children and students, and free outdoor summer concerts.
Nashville’s daily newspaper, The Tennessean (website: www.tennessean.com), features listings in its Thursday and Sunday editions. Key Magazine (website: www.nashvillekey.com) is a weekly guide to events in the area, while Nashville Scene (website: www.nashvillescene.com), published every Wednesday, is an in-depth guide to events in the city.
All tickets can be obtained from the various venues directly or from Ticketmaster (tel: (615) 255 9600; website: www.ticketmaster.com), which is based at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. There are additional Ticketmaster outlets in most major department stores.
Music: The Nashville Chamber Orchestra (tel: (615) 256 6546; website: www.nco.org) performs in various venues throughout the city, including the Blair Recital Hall, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, 2400 Blakemore Avenue (tel: (615) 322 7651; website: www.vanderbilt.edu/blair). The Nashville Opera (tel: (615) 832 5242; website: www.nashvilleopera.org) performs at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, 505 Deaderick Street (tel: (615) 782 4000; website: www.tpac.org); and the Nashville Symphony (tel: (615) 687 6500; website: www.nashvillesymphony.org) performs at Nashville’s world-class Laura Turner Concert Hall in the stunning new Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Theater: The theater scene flourishes with a range of companies and venues. Major touring productions are staged at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), 505 Deaderick Street (tel: (615) 782 4000; website: www.tpac.org), while the Tennessee Repertory Theater Company (tel: (615) 244 4878; website: www.tennesseerep.org) performs at either the James K Polk Theater or the Andrew Johnson Theater, in the same venue (TPAC). The Nashville Children’s Theater, 724 Second Avenue South (tel: (615) 254 9103; website: www.nashvillechildrenstheater.org) also stages good performances, and holds the honor as the nation’s oldest children’s theater.
Dinner theaters provide a wonderful evening’s entertainment. Some of the best-known ones include Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theater, 8204 Highway 100 (tel: (615) 646 9977 or 1 800 282 2276; website: www.dinnertheater.com); Miss Marple’s Mystery Dinner Theater, 135 Second Avenue North (tel: (615) 242 8000; website: www.missmarples.com); Nashville Nightlife Breakfast and Dinner Theater, 2620 Music Valley Drive (tel: (615) 885 4747; website: www.nashvillenightlife.com) and Mystery.COMedy, various locations (tel: 1 877 505 5999; website: www.mysterycomedy.com).
Dance: The principal venue is the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, 505 Deaderick Street (tel: (615) 782 4000; website: www.tpac.org), which is home to the Nashville Ballet (tel: (615) 297 2966; website: www.nashvilleballet.com).
Film: Nashville has numerous multiplex cinemas showing the latest major releases, such as Regal Hollywood 27, 719 Thompson Lane-100 Oaks Mall (tel: (615) 298 3445; www.regalcinemas.com) and Regal Opry Mills 20 & IMAX, 570 Opry Mills Drive (tel: (615) 514 3462; website: www.regalcinemas.com). Two other venues concentrate on art house films - the Sarratt Cinema, 2301 Vanderbilt Place (tel: (615) 343 3361), and the Belcourt Theater, 2102 Belcourt Avenue, Hillsboro Village (tel: (615) 846 3150).
The most famous film set here is Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975), a sharp satire of the country music scene. A more recent film about the music business is The Thing Called Love (1993), starring River Phoenix and Sandra Bullock. Various country music bio-pics have been filmed here, including Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), in which Sissy Spacek portrays Loretta Lynn, and Sweet Dreams (1985), starring Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline. Other notables include Last Dance (1996) with Sharon Stone, The Green Mile (Tom Hanks, 1999), The Last Castle (Robert Redford, 2001), Head of State (Chris Rock, 2003), Two Weeks (Sally Field, 2006), and Adrenaline (2007).
Literary Notes: Nashville has numerous literary connections, including the city’s name, which comes from an ancestor of the humorous poet, Ogden Nash. The United States’ first official Poet Laureate, Robert Penn Warren, studied English at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University and his novel, At Heaven’s Gate (1943), is set in the financial world of 1930s Nashville. Although not born in Nashville, novelist Alfred Leland Crabb lived there for much of his life and wrote several historical novels set in the city, including Breakfast at the Hermitage (1945), as well as the non-fiction Nashville: Personality of a City (1960). The distinguished Southern novelist Peter Taylor also attended Vanderbilt and set many of his short stories in Nashville, including some from his collection In the Miro District and Other Stories (1977).
Perhaps best known for penning the hit record Harper Valley PTA (1968), the musician and writer Tom T Hall wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Storyteller’s Nashville (1979). Outsiders’ views on Nashville include those of Trinidadian-born V S Naipaul, who visited the city for his book A Turn in the South (1989). New York Brat Pack author Jay McInerney is married to a Nashville jewelry designer and spends part of his time in her hometown, which increasingly features in his fiction, including The Last of the Savages (1996). An inside view of the contemporary music scene can be had in Walkin’ After Midnight (2000), by Lauren St John, which includes interviews with such luminaries as Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris. Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto; Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South; and Steven Womack, mystery writer and winner of the Edgar Alan Poe award, are all Nashville natives or long-time residents. Famous screenwriters include Delbert Mann (Marty, 1953); Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society, 1989; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, 1989; Medicine Man, 1992) and Keith Walker (Free Willy, 1993).
Nashville Tours
WalkingTours
The City Walk is a marked trail of 3km (2 miles), which begins at Fort Nashborough and ends at the Hatch Show Print Shop on Broadway. Visitors should either follow the blue line or obtain a leaflet from the Visitor Information Center, Gaylord Entertainment Center, 501 Broadway, corner of Fifth Avenue (tel: (615) 259 4747; website: www.visitmusiccity.com). Explore Nashville’s shadowy past on one of Music City’s historical ghost tours. Lantern-bearing professional storytellers conduct 90-minute walking tours after dark to some of the city’s well-known landmarks. Available through Nashville Ghost Tours (tel: (615) 884 3999 or 1 888 844 3999; website: www.nashvilleghosttours.com).
Bus Tours
Numerous companies offer bus tours of Nashville, invariably focusing on the country music scene and often including a drive past the homes of some of the stars, such as Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. Grand Ole Opry Tours (tel: (615) 889 9490) offers a variety of tours, one of which includes an exclusive backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry building as well. Other companies include Gray Line Tours (tel: (615) 883 5555 or 1 800 251 1864; website: www.graylinenashville.com/tours.cfm), Johnny Walker Tours (tel: (615) 834 8585 or 1 800 722 1524; website: www.johnnywalkertours.com) and the very funny and very irreverent NashTrash Tours (tel: (615) 226 7300 or 1 800 342 2132; website: www.nashtrash.com).
Boat Tours
General Jackson Showboat (tel: (615) 458 3900; website: www.generaljackson.com) takes you back to a bygone era aboard the 91m (300ft), four-deck paddlewheel showboat. Named after the first steamboat to operate on the Cumberland River, and namesake of the Tennessean-born US President, the General Jackson offers a variety of cruise packages, which navigate the Cumberland River from Opry Mills to Riverfront Park in Downtown Nashville. Dance under the stars after dinner and a show in the Victorian Theater, or enjoy the lunch buffet and music under a Southern blue sky.
Wanderin’ Star Yacht Charters (tel: (615) 851 4274; website: www.wanderinstar.com) offers three-hour sailing cruises on Old Hickory Lake on a Catalina 25. Gourmet cocktail cruises or evening sunset cruises are the most romantic. Sailing lessons also available. Cruises and lessons run between April and October.
