Nashville for a newbie....

So traveling to Nashville for the first time, will have a couple nights to myself, any live music venues or food or museums to recommend?

 

You'll feel like you're the only person in Nashville who isn't at a bachelorette party.

(I'll post again when I get home and have a few minutes. It's a cool city.)

 

Thanks!

 

The Southern (on Third?) has really good food and the prices aren't crazy. I had a Cajun shrimp BLT there that was unbelievable. But I believe it's only available during the week. Lots of good music at the bars near the arena but I really liked BB Kings the best. It's on Second, I believe.

 

OK, I'm back...

Best place I found to eat was Puckett's Grocery at 6th and Church. (It's a restaurant.) Ate a couple of meals there and wish I had even more.

Also ate at Acme Feed and Seed, on Broadway down by the river. Pretty good. Nice atmosphere. They had a record section and I picked up an old, out-of-print Cheap Trick record, still sealed. That made me happy.

The Ryman is an amazing old theater with a great history. No one was playing there while I was in town so I took the tour. Totally worth it.

The Johnny Cash museum looks like a cheesy storefront operation but is actually really nice. They've got some great stuff in there. Well worth the visit.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a totally mixed bag. There's some really cool stuff there. When I went there was a great exhibit on Johnny Cash bringing Bob Dylan to Nashville to record. They had Gram Parson's embroidered suit, which was worth the trip to me. They also have a lot of kitschy stuff (the cornfield set from "Hee Haw!"), the mundane (the IKEA desk chair Dave Cobb sat in while producing a Jason Isbell record!), and the just plain stupid (the plaid shirt Blake Shelton was wearing when he moved to Nashville!). Also, strangely, almost no mention of Willie Nelson anywhere. Even up in the top level where they have all the plaques for the Hall of Famers, his is up in the rafters and hard to find. Weird.

If you're a vinyl guy there are great record stores around. Jack White's Third Man Records is freakin' awesome if you're into records or the White Stripes.

I went for a week long music festival so I didn't do any of the honky tonk bars -- I was at concerts in different venues each night. (Saw Dwight Yoakam at the Mercy Lounge, and while I'm not the biggest Dwight fan, seeing him in a bar was pretty cool.) City Winery looked nice.

And I wasn't kidding about the bachelorette parties. They're everywhere. All up and down Broadway, drunk 20-something girls in matching t-shirts and new boots.

 

Robert’s for music across from Ernest Tubb record store. Music from 11am to about 1am, their artists focus on old style country but its friggin great.
Try to catch Daniel Donato somewhere in town, one of the truly great unknown guitar players.

 

Second Roberts. It's funky (there is an actual western wear store within the bar). And cruise through Tubbs and check out the Ryman, they're all within a block of each other. Also - Prince's Hot Chicken https://www.princeshotchicken.com/

 

It's been many years since I've been there, but I'll second on Puckett's. I remember going there for lunch and, like PC, could have eaten every meal there.

 

When I was there I felt like I could close my eyes and pick a place along Broadway Ave and have a good time.

I second the comment about the Johnny Cash museum.

 

This is a little esoteric, maybe, but there's a very cool print shop, Hatch Show Print, that does beautiful posters and such with old wood blocks. I got a Patsy Cline poster there that I really like.

If you like minor-league baseball, the Triple-A park there is really nice. Great guitar-shaped scoreboard.

 

Guys thanks for these great tips!! Just what I needed. I’m staying on Broadway luckily so I can do most of this.

 

POGTFO.