5 Historical Trips and Tours to Take Before Summer Ends

 

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Music History

From Music Row, to the Ryman to the Grand Ole Opry, there is more country and folk music history in Nashville than almost anywhere else.

You could spend a day visiting any of these places.

In 1897, a group of Confederate veterans chose Nashville as the site of a massive reunion. The event was held at the former tabernacle that would later become known as the Ryman Auditorium. So many former Confederate soldiers poured into town that a new balcony was built inside the tabernacle to accommodate their great numbers. It was dubbed “The Confederate Gallery,” a designation still visible today as the Ryman continues to host an array of musical events.

Before even the Ryman became known as the downtown home of the Grand Ole Opry, it already enjoyed a national reputation. Enrico Caruso, John Phillip Sousa and the Vienna Orchestra gave roof-raising performances there that earned the Ryman the nickname “Carnegie Hall of the South.” The Ryman’s unrivaled acoustic qualities continue today – it has received Pollstar magazine’s prestigious “Theater of the Year” award four times in the past ten years as the best auditorium in the nation to experience live music.

In 1925, the establishment of radio station WSM and its launch of the broadcast that would be called theGrand Ole Opry further secured Nashville’s reputation as a musical center and sparked its durable nickname of Music City. The Opry, still staged live every week, is America’s longest-running radio show, in continuous production for more than 85 years. It ignited the careers of hundreds of country stars and lit the fuse for Nashville to explode into a geographic center for touring and recording. The modern- day empire of Music Row, a collection of recording studios, record labels, entertainment offices and other music-associated businesses, populates the area around 16th and 17th Avenues South.

On top of all this, you could also visit the County Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville.

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