Why go
Compare the Ryman Auditorium, once home to the Grand Ole Opry, with the Opry’s later home to understand how one program spans different stages. Lower Broadway offers live music in honky-tonks, while the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and Tennessee Performing Arts Center broaden the performing arts picture.
The full story
Nashville’s music culture is tied to both performance and recording. The Ryman Auditorium hosted the Grand Ole Opry before the program moved to its present venue in 1974. Music Row became associated with the recording business, while Lower Broadway developed a cluster of honky-tonks where visitors can hear live country music. A museum visit and a performance reveal different parts of that story. The city’s arts life reaches beyond country music. The Nashville Symphony performs at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center hosts stage work. Vanderbilt University was linked to the Fugitives and Agrarians, two twentieth-century groups of writers and critics. Food also gives the city a recognizable vocabulary: hot chicken, hot fish, barbecue, and the meat-and-three. These traditions make a meal a useful counterpoint to an evening spent in a music venue.