To Music City

We left home around 7 am and headed to Nashville via Lexington for a short spring vacation.  We picked Emily up around 9:30 at her apartment and got on the Bluegrass Parkway south toward Nashville.  We stopped in Bowling Green, Kentucky for a quick lunch at Bob Evans then on to Nashville. 
The black locust trees were in full bloom all along our drive along I-64 to Lexington then on the Martha Lane Collins Bluegrass Parkway to Elizabethtown, Kentucky where we picked up I-65 that took us all the way to Nashville.  We always love to drive when the trees are in bloom.  There is nothing like having the highway lined with red bud in April or black locust in May.  Of course in the fall a completely different show of color brightens our drive.

We arrived at our motel, the Knight’s Inn then realized that it was only noon due to the change to Central Time.  Since we figured it was too early to check in, we drove around Music Row and passed by some famous recording studios then went to the Parthenon.  Although Centennial Park was busy, we had no trouble parking within an easy walk of the Parthenon.  Lake Watauga and Parthenon are all that remain in Nashville from the 1897 Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.  The original Parthenon was intended to be only temporary, lasting only a few months for the Tennessee Centennial.  However, due to public demand, it was rebuilt as a more permanent structure only to suffer major damage from a tornado shortly thereafter.  It was rebuilt as it is today and is the only full scale replica of the Parthenon in existence. 

There were a lot of reproductions of statuary and artifacts from the Parthenon in Greece and plenty of signage to explain the significance of the items.  The42 foot tall stature of Athena has also been recreated, not from ivory and gold like the original but from plaster, gypsum and fiberglass.  It is made to replicate how the original would have looked in 438 BC.

After leaving the park, we check in at the Knight’s Inn and rested before the evening out at the Grand Old Opry.  We left the motel at 5 pm and went to the Opry Mills Mall and ate at the food court there.  There were a lot of options and we all enjoyed our dinner.  We had a short drive around to the Grand Old Opry and walked around the grounds a bit before going in.  A Minnie Pearl look-alike was posing for photos and chatting with visitors outside.  We found our seats in the auditorium and was pleased to have a good view of the stage.  We learned later that as Minnie Pearl was aging she wanted her character to continue.  To assure the continuity and quality of the character, she interviewed and approved the actors portraying her character today.  Around 6:30 the Minnie Pearl impersonator came out and warmed up the audience before the first host, Jeannie Seely took the stage.  She did a couple of her songs and introduced a young singer-songwriter, Sara Haze who performed two of her songs.  Bobby Osborne was next, the surviving member of the Osborne Brothers.  They did three songs including Ruby and, of course, Rocky Top, their most famous hit.  We were surprised when Bobby announced that they will be coming to Hamlin to perform on June 1.

The next hosts were the Whites.  We have always liked the Whites with Buck on piano, Cheryl and Sharon on guitar and vocals and Rosie doing vocals.  They played Keep on the Sunny Side from their part in O Brother, Where Art Thou and introduced a new singer-songwriter, Joel Crouse, from Massachusetts.  One of the main acts introduced by the Whites was Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.  At 86, Stanley didn’t do any vocal solos but accompanied his grandson, Nathan Stanley and others in performing some bluegrass favorites.

After a brief intermission, George Hamilton IV performed his popular song, Abilene, along with his son, George Hamilton V.  He introduced Old Crow Medicine Show who played two of their more popular songs as well as performing Tennessee Whiskey as a tribute to the late George Jones who recently died.  The Opry Square Dancers finished out the George Hamilton IV set.

The last host was “Whispering” Bill Anderson who sang a couple of his songs and introduced Charlie Daniels who came out with his characteristic gusto.  He went through two fiddle bows in his first song, The South is Gonna Do It Again.  Of course, he played The Devil Went Down to Georgia as well much to everyone’s delight.  We were impressed with the helpful staff at the Grand Old Opry and that people were encouraged to take photos or even to approach the stage to get better snapshots.  Bill Anderson and other hosts chatted with visitors during breaks and seemed to genuinely welcome guests to the Grand Old Opry.

We left the Grand Old Opry around 9:45 and fought traffic for the short drive back to the Knight’s Inn and to bed.

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