Beyond Music Row
Travel Tips: Alternative Attractions
Country music is both a cornerstone of the Nashville economy and a dominant force in local tourism, but there's more to Music City, USA than steel-string guitars, hot fiddle licks and plaintive ballads. If you can't work up any enthusiasm for the Grand Ole Opry and other musical attractions, you can still have a fine time seeking out other facets of local life and culture, such as:
— Fine arts: Nashville's premier art museum, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts (www.fristcenter.org), opened in April 2001 in what used to be the city's main downtown post office. The center has no permanent collections of its own, but rather it serves as a venue for traveling exhibitions from around the world. Other local art museums include the small but noteworthy Carl Van Vechten Gallery on the campus of Fisk University (www.fisk.edu), which houses 20th-century photographer Alfred Stieglitz's personal collection of modern American and European paintings and photographs, and the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art (www.cheekwood.org), a grand Georgian-style mansion displaying a diverse collection of painting, sculpture and decorative arts.
— Early Americana: A number of notable historic sites are located in and around Nashville, including The Hermitage (www.thehermitage.com), President Andrew Jackson's early 19th-century plantation home; Belle Meade Plantation (www.bellemeadeplantation.com) and the Belmont Mansion (www.belmontmansion.com), two magnificent examples of upper-class residential architecture from the mid-1800s; the Stone River National Battlefield (www.nps.gov/stri), site of the bloodiest Civil War battle west of the Appalachian Mountains; and The Parthenon (www.parthenon.org), an impressive late 19th-century replica of the Parthenon in Athens with basement galleries housing a collection of 19th- and 20th-century American art.
— Tippler's tour: Drive a little more than an hour southeast of Nashville and you'll come to Lynchburg, home of the historic Jack Daniels Distillery (www.jackdaniels.com). Founded in 1866, this oldest licensed distillery in the United States still produces the company's famous Tennessee sour mash whiskey. Free tours are offered from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except major holidays. While you're in Lynchburg, take a stroll around the town square and savor the authentic small-town atmosphere.
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