Nashville
Nashville Hot Chicken, Meat & Three & the Nashville Food Scene
Nashville's food culture (the culinary scene of a city that has evolved from a regional Southern food tradition into one of the most celebrated dining destinations in the United States): Nashville is the home of Nashville Hot Chicken (the uniquely Nashville form of fried chicken — the spice-coated fried chicken served on white bread with pickles that has been exported from Nashville to fried chicken restaurants across the United States and the world), the 'meat and three' (the Southern tradition of a cafeteria-style restaurant serving a meat and three vegetable side dishes), and an increasingly sophisticated restaurant scene driven by the city's rapid population growth and economic boom.
Belle Meade Plantation, Civil War History & Tennessee Heritage
Belle Meade Plantation (5025 Harding Pike, Nashville — the antebellum plantation established 1807 by John Harding, expanded into one of the most celebrated Thoroughbred horse breeding farms in the world by his son William Giles Harding (1808-1886) and his son-in-law William Hicks Jackson (1835-1903)) and Nashville's Civil War history define Tennessee's complex heritage.
Natchez Trace Parkway, Percy Priest Lake & Nashville Outdoors
Nashville's outdoor recreation (the outdoor activities available within a short drive of downtown Nashville — the city surrounded by rolling Tennessee hills, rivers, and lakes that provide some of the finest outdoor recreation in the American South): the Natchez Trace Parkway (the 444-mile (715-km) National Parkway running from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville — the most scenic road in middle Tennessee and one of the most beautiful cycling routes in the eastern United States), Percy Priest Lake (the 14,200-acre (5,748-hectare) reservoir on the Stones River 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Nashville — the primary water recreation area for the Nashville metro area), and the Cumberland River Greenway define Nashville's outdoor character.
Fisk University, the Nashville Sit-Ins & Civil Rights History
Nashville's civil rights history (the story of how Nashville became the training ground for the civil rights leaders who changed America): the Nashville sit-ins of February 1960 (the non-violent direct action campaign organized by students from Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, and the American Baptist College — the campaign that desegregated Nashville's downtown lunch counters in May 1960, making Nashville the first major Southern city to desegregate its lunch counters): the leaders (John Lewis (1940-2020), Diane Nash (b. 1938), James Bevel (1936-2008), and Bernard Lafayette (b. 1940) — the Nashville student activists who became the most important tacticians of the national civil rights movement.
Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Heritage & the Soul of Nashville
The Grand Ole Opry (the weekly live country music concert and radio broadcast held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville — the longest-running live radio broadcast in American history, begun October 5, 1927 on WSM Radio as the 'WSM Barn Dance' and renamed the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 by announcer George D. Hay) is the institution most responsible for the global spread and commercial success of country music, and the single institution most central to Nashville's identity as 'Music City USA'.
Nashville Sports Culture — Predators, Titans & the Athens of the South
Nashville's sports culture (the city that in the span of 25 years has acquired a major NFL franchise (the Tennessee Titans, established in Nashville 1997), a major NHL franchise (the Nashville Predators, established 1998 — the team whose arena, the Bridgestone Arena (1 Bridgestone Arena, Nashville), sits at the top of Lower Broadway and is the most centrally located major sports arena in the United States), and an MLS franchise (Nashville SC, established 2020)) has transformed Nashville from a city known only for music into a major American sports market.
Lower Broadway, Honky-Tonks & Nashville's Live Music Scene
Nashville (the capital of Tennessee, population approximately 715,000 in the city and 2.1 million in the metro area — the 'Music City', the country music capital of the world, and the city that has transformed itself in the 21st century from a regional Southern city into one of the fastest-growing and most visited cities in the United States): Lower Broadway (the 6-block strip of neon-lit honky-tonk bars, live music venues, boot shops, and souvenir stores between 1st Avenue and 5th Avenue in downtown Nashville) is the most famous entertainment strip in the American South and the defining image of Nashville as a music city.
Centennial Park, the Nashville Parthenon & Arts Scene
Nashville's Centennial Park (the 132-acre urban park in Midtown Nashville, home to the full-scale Parthenon replica (the only full-scale replica of the ancient Athenian Parthenon in the world, built 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and housing a fine arts museum and the 42-foot (13m) replica of Athena Parthenos)) and arts scene define Nashville beyond music.
The Nashville Songwriting Culture, Writers Rounds & Bluebird Café
Nashville's songwriting culture (the culture that makes Nashville unique among American music cities — the city that is home to approximately 100,000 musicians and songwriters, where the 'song' rather than the 'performer' is the primary commodity of the music industry, and where the 'writers round' (the format in which 3-4 songwriters sit in a circle and take turns performing their original songs, each accompanied only by an acoustic guitar) is the primary live music format) is embodied most perfectly in the Bluebird Café.