Nashville April 9-16, 2016 – A Synopsis 

We just completed a successful family vacation to Nashville Tennessee.  I highly recommend Music City as an adult vacation destination.  Nashville is absolutely booming as evidenced by 15 cranes in its skyline.  It is a very tourist friendly location with most destinations within walking distance or a $5 Uber ride of downtown hotels. April was a good time of year as it was 60 to 70 degrees – perfect for walking.

If you are into music (mostly country, but not exclusively), eating and drinking in an urban environment, Nashville is perfect. I assume there are other things to do, but those were our focus. We went for a week and never ran out of things to do. You could get a great flavor of the town on a long weekend if you don’t want to make a big time commitment.  This was not a sit around vacation – we were in pretty much constant motion – which was our plan.

There were lots of highlights and you can find my day-to-day blog here. Below are my Nashville greatest hits.

Family – when you have adult children it is priceless to have their full attention for a week.  We did this last year in Seattle and it was a big success. We had an equally great time together this year. A special shout out to my wife Laura and daughter Al for all the pre-planning. Al took the extra responsibility of being our daily event coordinator.

Country Music Hall of Fame – There is the Hall itself and then there are its “children:” RCA Studio B, Hatch Show Print and the Ryman Auditorium. All are well run and have a consistent message focused on the history and appreciation of country music. Tour them all and see any show available at the Ryman (we saw Jethro Tull – further proof Nashville is not all about country).  As an added bonus we got to support the Hall and its mission by attending the All For The Hall concert.

Grand Ole Opry/Eric Church – The Opry is a musical variety show. No matter who is the headliner, be prepared for something old, something new and something corny and that is all part of the charm. We had the good fortune of seeing Eric Church give an intimate, joy filled and mischievous 60 minute performance (he was scheduled for 30 minutes).

Arnold’s Country Kitchen – Arnold’s a simple cafeteria specializing in southern comfort food (lunchtime only). Assume you will need to wait in line 15 minutes, share your table, eat your lunch and move on for the next guest (they are expanding so it will likely get better).  But the food is  worth it – best fried catfish I have ever had.

Corsair Distillery – I have never toured a distillery before so this was a new one for me. Corsair is a small operation and you can tell there is a passion going into the product.  The bonus: the whiskey is amazing. Their Triple Smoke was like an Isly Scotch.

Robert’s Western World – Nashville’s Broadway is a strip of honky tonk bars, most of which have live music. We did not explore every one of them, but the one that stuck out was Robert’s. It was small, crowded, old, just enough of a dive to feel right and it had the most authentically country band I heard in Nashville (John England and the Western Swingers).

The Musicians Hall of Fame – This Hall could easily get lost in all that Nashville has to offer. If you are a music fan of all popular genres it can’t be missed.

Mammoth Cave – Mammoth Cave National Park is about a 90 minute drive from Nashville. It is an amazing work of nature.

The Listening Room Cafe– The Listening Room Cafe is a simple performance space with a good bar and restaurant too. We got to see some young singer songwriters chase their dream.

Yazoo Brewing Company – We visited several breweries in Nashville and Yazoo is the most successful, yet it has not lost its soul.

There was still tons that we did not do, so I guess we will just have to go back. Thanks Music City for a great time!