Music City, U.S.A
Nashville
Nashville was founded on Christmas Day, 1779, and became the state capital of Tennessee in 1825. It’s the second largest city in the state, next to Memphis. If you don’t fly or take the train, reach the city from east or west via Interstate 40, or from north or south by Interstates 24 and 65.
The most visited structure visited in Nashville today, except possibly for the mansions of the current music moguls and the Ryman Auditorium, is The Hermitage, the Antebellum home of the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson. The Hermitagewas built in1819, and was added-to in 1831. However, the interior was burned extensively in 1834, then repaired, reconstructed and the entire building painted white to cover the smoke stains on the portion that survived the fire. Most of the outbuildings remain, and the garden holds the tombs of Jackson and his wife.
Both The Hermitage and the adjacent home, Tulip Grove, are located about thirteen miles east from Nashville, on local highway 70, north of Interstate 40, near the intersection of local highway 45. Tulip Grove was built by Jackson for his nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson. The mansions are open for public visit, at a fee that permits access to both homes and Hermitage Church.
Another mansion of the area and era, available for public inspection for fee, is Belle Meade, built in 1853, about four miles west ofThe Hermitage, and also on local highway 70. Restored and refurnished, Belle Meade, once the plantation mansion on a 5300-acre racehorse farm, now in a thirty-acre park, is a fine example of pre-Civil War opulence. In noting Nashville’s Civil War connection, an important confrontation did take place in Nashville in December 1864. The battlefield is not preserved; the land, like the Belle Meadeacreage, now having been developed for city expansion.
Past history aside, most visitors to Nashville today go there for the music. As George D. Hay, performer and the founder of The Grand Ole Opry explained it in 1925, “The Grand Ole Opry is as simple as sunshine. It has universal appeal because it is built upon goodwill, and with folk music, expresses the heart-beat of a large percentage of Americans who labor for a living.” Mister Hay, or The Solemn Old Judge as he was known when he wore his performer hat, might revise his judgment if he could see it now.
The coming of radio nationally, a local radio station, WSM, owned by The National Life and Accident Insurance Company, promoter George Hay and an eighty-one year old fiddler, one Uncle Jimmy Thompson, melded as a unit and the beginning of a lasting musical phenomenon on November 28, 1925. At first the show was the WSM Barn Dance, but two years later, it was re-christened The Grand Ole Opry. It was strictly guitar and fiddle, and maybe more traditional stringed instruments until about 1938. Vocalists, if they accompanied the bands at all, were just background. The first of the big name country singers, Roy Acuff and Eddie Arnold emerged that year and the Opry never looked back. Once singers were a major part of the mix, actually the major personalities among the performers, the Opry went national, with commercial sponsors, with NBC in 1939.
The Grand Ole Opry was housed in several facilities during its growth years, and in 1943 moved into the historic Ryman Auditorium, a former church. With a new second balcony installed, it could seat 3000. This author once enjoyed a concert in that rarified atmosphere. Growth persisted though, and the next move came in 1968 with a move to Opryland USA and the 4400-seat Opry House. Subsequently, due to some weather and flood damage at Opryland, the Opry temporarily moved back to the Ryman. In September 2010, following repairs, the Opry returned back to the more spacious Opryland Opry House, but for a while, The Grand Ole Opry was right where it belonged, holding forth in the Church of Country Music.
Fans must visit the Country Music Hall of Fame on their trip to Nashville. The original Hall of Fame and Museum opened on Music Row (Music Square East and Division Street) on April 1, 1967. The Music Row location of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was closed December 31, 2000. The building was razed to become part of the music licensing firm BMI’s office complex. On May 17, 2001, the grand opening of new $37,000,000 Country Music Hall of Fame was opened ten blocks away in downtown Nashville. Enjoy the show.
*
