Spring Break in Music City

This week was spring break where I teach (University of Cincinnati), so my husband and I drove down to Nashville TN to catch some live music and see what that up-and-coming city is all about. He had been there briefly many years ago, but otherwise we had never really done the town.

Outside Opryland

We saw a terrific show at the Grand Ole Opry -- photo of us in front of the place (and the big guitar) is here-- as well as an intimate, acoustic set at the red-hot and hard to get into Bluebird Cafe.
Other highlights included a tour of RCA's Studio B, where Elvis recorded the majority of his music, along with many other influential musicians of the 1950s and 1960s.
The food scene, however, was disappointing. Admittedly, I didn't do much advance research and made no reservations, so we were at the mercy of our location -- downtown, walking distance to the honky-tonks and so forth -- and the advice of random people. We got sent to barbecue joints, Southern cooking meccas, and the like. Everything was very heavy, and for the most part not all that good.
We would return to Nashville though, and the Opry, to hear the amazingly high quality of musicianship on display at the major venues. And next time, I'll try to plan better in terms of where to eat.

The band Exile at the Grand Ole Opry 3/19/13