Bill Anderson whispers the final notes of “Still,” acknowledges the applause and, as he has done for 36 years, banters with the Grand Ole Opry audience.
“I love it when people come down here in front of the stage and take pictures of my coat,” he says, alluding to the garment’s elaborate adornment.
“I bought it this afternoon at Porter Wagoner’s yard sale,” Anderson continues, milking every second of his pose for the cameras. “I’m going back next week and buy the pants to match.”
When the laughter ceases, Anderson introduces the Melvin Sloan square dancers, who in turn yield to country music legends Jack Greene, Connie Smith and Jeannie Seely.
For 2 1/2 hours, the party continues. Unrehearsed. Spontaneous. Loretta Lynn sings. Grandpa Jones plays the banjo. Wagoner shows off his threads. If not for the 3,500 or so spectators and WSM radio listeners from New England to Colorado, you’d swear you were at a family reunion.
Ever since 80-year-old Uncle Jimmy Thompson played his fiddle into a radio microphone on Nov. 28, 1925, the Opry has represented an American institution.
Just as Hank Williams, Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb called the Opry home, many of today’s country music celebrities — Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Dolly Parton — are members.
To begin to comprehend what this bond signifies and to best appreciate a place billed as Music City USA, it’s important to reach beyond the Opry and into Nashville’s clubs and cafes, museums and shops.
Adjacent to a garage along 12th Avenue South, all but hidden between a recently revitalized downtown area known as the District and scores of recording studios along Music Row, the Station Inn appears the antithesis of the Grand Ole Opry.
Folks are quick to remind, too, that the music played here isn’t country. It’s bluegrass. Bluegrass at its best.
“Any guests in the audience who want to borrow a guitar, just come on up,” a musician says. And as Jerry Douglas, John Randall Stewart and Carl Jackson, one after another, accept the invitation and play into the night — for pure enjoyment, not money — it becomes evident that they are as revered here as Anderson and Wagoner are at the Grand Ole Opry.
Meantime, at the Bluebird Cafe in suburban Green Hills and at Caffe Milano in the District, another Nashville tradition is in progress.
There, established and aspiring songwriters perform their newest works, evaluating audience reaction and hoping that a producer or singer will stop in to listen.
By contrast, the bustling new Caffe Milano symbolizes the rebirth of the District, an area by the Cumberland River once dominated by peep shows and tawdry bars. Chet Atkins entertained here on Monday evenings this summer. But for a cover charge averaging about $10, patrons at this Italian eatery are just as apt to hear jazz, soft rock or the Brazilian samba.
Locals and tourists congregate each night in the District, choosing between the glitz of Planet Hollywood or the Hard Rock Cafe and the down-home informality of Wolfy’s, Henry’s Coffeehouse and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, where musicians play for tips into the wee hours.
You can dance away the night, too — or better yet, the daytime hours, when admission is free — on the Wildhorse Saloon’s 3,300-square-foot maple floor.
Nashville represents the ideal weekend escape for the musically inclined. The beat goes on all week. And all day.
Back on lower Broadway, a midday stroll introduces other Music City USA traditions.
At Gruhn Guitars, on the corner of Broadway and Fourth Avenue, the showroom inventory is visually stunning and offers a historical perspective on instrument development. Collectors, investors and celebrities — from Eric Clapton to Steven Seagal — come from all over the world to shop here. Some have paid up to $150,000 for an instrument.
A half-block away, Hatch Show Print, which opened in 1879, is America’s oldest surviving show-poster printer.
In Nashville, country music legends aren’t merely embraced. They are immortalized. Museums and showrooms all over town honor individual performers. But the most comprehensive testimony is found at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, a half-mile west of downtown in a neighborhood known as Music Row.
Exhibits include Elvis Presley’s celebrated “Solid Gold Cadillac,” a 1966 limousine with gold records attached to its ceiling, a gold telephone between seats and, well, you have to see it to believe it.
About 100 classic instruments are showcased. Among them: an 1888 mandolin, a 1920s banjo-ukulele, and guitars played by Buck Owens, Jimmie Rodgers, B.B. King and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.
While the museums commemorate the past, the Opryland theme park celebrates the future (although it also houses the Grand Ole Opry Museum).
The park is closed for the season now, but it will be open 4-10 p.m. from Nov. 22 through Dec. 31 (admission $12.99, $8.99 ages 4-11).
During the regular spring-to-fall season (when admission is $28.99), it’s easy enough to spend an afternoon wandering about these 120 acres, where 30 chilling, thrilling and spilling rides — including the Wabash Cannonball and Dulcimer Splash — play second fiddle to nine venues that showcase live music performed in large part by energetic young singers and dancers.
“A lot of talented entertainers (Lorrie Morgan, for one) get their start at Opryland,” says Opry President Bob Whittaker.
With four performances daily for three major shows, it’s possible to see them all and have time left to savor bluegrass and gospel in other venues.
Just outside the main gates, in Opry Plaza, informal get-togethers — perhaps a bluegrass jam session or songwriter showcase — are a special feature on many Sundays during the season.
Opryland also is home to The Nashville Network, where admission is free to tapings of “Prime Time Country” at 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays even though the park is closed. Tickets usually are available, but reservations are required; call 615-889-6611.
Also, during the season, Opryland’s General Jackson showboat plies the Cumberland River on day and night music cruises. Performances are in the paddle-wheeler’s 1,000-seat theater.
Still, Nashville’s main attraction remains the Opry.
And perhaps the most fascinating revelation for first-timers is that, despite the live audience and a 30-minute Saturday night TNN segment, this remains foremost a radio program. Even many of the commercials are announced from the stage.
Performances are scheduled at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Friday’s late show is dropped in the winter), and each program features more than 20 individuals or groups doing one or two numbers each.
“People are constantly asking why and how the Grand Ole Opry has survived for 72 years,” Whittaker says. “It’s the only venue in America where on one night you can hear the pioneers, legends, today’s superstars and newcomers, and where everybody gets paid the same.”
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For a 160-page 1997 Nashville vacation guide, write the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, 161 4th Ave. North, Nashville, Tenn. 37219; or call 615-259-4700.
