The status of Nashville as country music's capital city dates back to the Twenties and the arrival of thousands of migrants fleeing rural poverty. The music they brought with them, rooted in the folk songs of Tennessee's first Irish and British settlers, soon mutated in the urban environment into something new, incorporating elements of Tin Pan Alley musicals, religious hymns and the songs of ex-slaves.
As radios and record players became widely available for the first time, the recording industry began to take off, and Nashville became the obvious geographical base for the musicians of the mid-South. Radio station WSM had championed the country sound since 1925, and its live weekly Grand Ole Opry concerts spearheaded the city's burgeoning live music scene.
The first big commercial boom came in the decade of prosperity after World War II. Nashville proliferated with recording studios, publishing companies and artists' agencies. The big labels recognized that a large slice of the (white) record-buying public wanted something a bit safer than rockabilly. The easy-listening Nashville Sound they came up with, pioneered by Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, perpetuated by the likes of Barbara Mandrell and Kenny Rogers and virtually preened free of twang by Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, remains the clean-cut face of country though country music has always had its earthier side and the concentration of stars and music-biz executives has turned Nashville into something of a downmarket Hollywood.
Though Nashville's country scene is both conspicuous and accessible, submerging yourself in it takes time and quite a lot of money; prices are set at what the industry knows enthusiastic fans will pay.
Downtown at 116 Fifth Ave, you can take a self-guided tour of the Ryman Auditorium (daily 8.30am4pm; $6; tel 615/254-1445), the former home of The Grand Ole Opry. With its wooden church pews and glass cases filled with flowered frocks and bootlace ties belonging to the stars, it's certainly an evocative place to visit it also presents live performances in the evening. Around the corner, among the Broadway honky-tonks, Hatch Show Print at no. 316 (MonFri 9.30am5.30, Sat 10.30am5.30pm, hours vary on Sun; tel 615/256-2805) has been in business since 1879. It still prints and sells evocative posters from the early days of country and rock'n'roll, using the original blocks, along with probably the best postcards in the USA. Flamboyant leather and sequined garments are sold in Dangerous Threads , at the foot of Second Avenue nearby at no. 105, but to see some really outlandish stage costumes, visit Manuel's Exclusive Clothing up toward Music Row at 1922 Broadway.
Blue route trolleys run along Broadway to the Country Music Hall of Fame , at 222 Fifth Ave S (daily 9am5pm; $10.75). This is packed with costumes, guitars and personal possessions of the stars, including Boxcar Willie's hobo hat, Gram Parsons' acoustic guitar and Elvis's gold Cadillac, whose forty coats of paint contain crushed diamonds and fish scales. Film and TV clips abound to help to clarify the arcane distinctions between bluegrass, cowboy, rockabilly, honky-tonk, Cajun and western swing.
Music Row is the heart of Nashville's recording industry, with companies like Warner Bros., Mercury and Sony operating out of plush office blocks. Almost adjacent are the garish souvenir shops on Demonbreun Street, and several tacky "museums."
With the exception of the Grand Ole Opry itself, Opryland , the area nine miles northeast of downtown on Briley Parkway, just off the I-40 E loop, isn't all that country. The old theme park has been ripped down and replaced by Opry Mills , a giant series of malls filled with flagship stores, restaurants and cinemas. Also leaving from here are paddlesteamer trips on the beautifully restored General Jackson Showboat ($2565; tel 615/871-6100). You can ride a bus #34X to nearby Music Valley , opposite the Opryland hotel, which boasts the popular Nashville Palace , along with a museum dedicated to Willie Nelson and others, that showcases wax dummies and surplus cars of the stars. A factory outlet mall, various stores and movie theaters all compete to snatch the tourist dollar.