Nashville Latest News......Music Calls Us Home!

July 2011 - Read the latest article by Sara Nelson at MailOnline: Tennessee temptation: Guitars, stars, bars - and why Nashville is no one-note town.

Music is the very heart of Nashville....Long recognised as the world's capital of country music, the flip side of Music City boasts sounds of pop, rock, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, classical, contemporary Christian, blues and soul. You'll find Nashville to be a friendly, dynamic community, supported by rhythm tracks of culture and history that make it uniquely and authentically "Music City".

Nashville never sleeps and you can hear great music 24/7, 365 days a year. A great place to begin a tour is on Lower Broadway, where the main thoroughfare halts at the banks of the Cumberland River. Honky tonks with evocative names like Tootie's Orchid Lounge and Robert's Western World (which is a boot store and music bar all in one!) line the street. From lunch til late you can bar-hop for free, enjoying live music, burgers and barbecue.

The centre point downtown is the entertainment area known as The District, home of the line-dancing haven Wildhorse Saloon; Printer's Alley and Second Avenue blues clubs, including BB Kings; the Ryman Auditorium (longtime home of the Grand Ole Opry); and Gruhn Guitars (a guitar shop but a show in itself when browsers try out vintage instruments).

You'll catch star-dusted pickers and songwriters all over town, in places like the bluegrassy Station Inn, the rockin' Exit/In or the song-centred Bluebird Cafe. Of course, the ultimate country venue is the Grand Old Opry House, where every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday legends and current stars perform on the nation's longest-running live radio show.

Nashville is justly proud of its cultural contributions and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum sets a fine example. Standing as the benchmark of Nashville's "Music Mile" the facility is an architectural wonder in itself. The main building, with windows like a piano keyboard, ends in a Cadillac tailfin-style flourish. Inside, a million artefacts are part of an interactive experience that also explores country's connections to blues, R&B and pop.

Music, like the weather, is exceptional year-round. In April, Tin Pan South music festival brings hundreds of songwriters together for a weeklong festival celebrating songwriters and their craft; in June the city buzzes with the concerts and fan-events of the CMA Music Festival. The summer offers Musician's Corner, weekly free concerts at Centennial Park that run every Saturday through to mid-October. In the autumn you'll find riverfront concerts spotlighting the diverse sounds that make Nashville hum. September's calendar is filled with an array of music festivals. Nashville's fastest growing music festival, Next Big Nashville + Leadership Music Digital Summit showcases the best of the thriving Nashville music scene and artistic community with over 150 bands performing over five days, as well as daytime speakers and panel discussions covering hot topics in the music industry. Later that month the Americana Music Association Festival and Conference features over 50 showcases and performances from both established and emerging artists ending with the Americana Awards. A few weeks later the International Bluegrass Music Association's Fan Fest and Awards Show features performances by the industry's top performers on four stages over the course of six days. Also in the autumn, the CMA Awards stir up frenzy with the likes of BBC Radio broadcasting live to Britain. In November during the week of the Country Music Awards (CMA), and other times throughout the year, you may experience the induction ceremonies of the Music City Walk of Fame. Past inductees include Reba McEntire, Elis, Roy Orbison, Emmylou Harris, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix and Dolly Parton.