BlueShoe Nashville Travel Guide



Things to Do

		Art Exhibits
		Free Things to Do
		Dining in Nashville
		Happenings
		Mansions & Museums
		Music
		Nashville Virtual Tour
		Parks & Outdoors
		Theatre
		TN Wildflowers

Nashville Travel

		CMA Music Festival 2008
		CMA Awards Show 2008
		Grand Ole Opry

Street View Tour

		Midtown photo tour features West End area


Planning Your Trip

		Airlines Serving BNA
		Mileage to Nashville
		Maps
		Nashville Hotels
		Weather in Nashville

Top Things to Do

		Live Music in the City
		Grand Ole Opry
		Ryman Auditorium
		Country Music Hall of Fame
		General Jackson Showboat Cruise
		Frist Center for the Visual Arts
		The District: Lower Broad & Second Ave.
		Centennial Park & the Parthenon
		Cheekwood Gallery & Botanical Gardens
		Belle Meade Plantation
		The Hermitage: Andrew Jackson's Home
		Farmers' Market

About BlueShoe

BlueShoe Nashville:
615-383-3012
Toll Free:
1-877-201-7663
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST, Monday to Friday

blueshoe nashville

May 2008
Nashville, Tennessee

May 2, 2008: The biggest event of the year in Nashville is just a little over a month away. If you're considering coming to the CMA Music Festival, BlueShoe has a range of hotel/ticket packages available. Our four-day passes include our own favorite Section 134, along with choice seats on the floor. If you're looking for a Nashville hotel room during the Festival (and already have your tickets), please give us a call. We have rooms available in the downtown, midtown, and Opryland/Airport area of Nashville. Phone: toll free 877-201-7663.

April 18, 2008: Although the precise date for Nashville's CMA Awards Show 2008 has not yet been announced, we have now opened our waiting list for our hotel/ticket packages.

April 16, 2008: Today the CMA released more names of the major artists who will be performing at the nightly concerts of the CMA Music Festival: Trace Adkins, Bucky Covington, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sara Evans, Little Big Town, Montgomery Gentry, Craig Morgan, James Otto, Kenny Rogers and Randy Travis. Other artists already confirmed to appear at LP Field include Rodney Atkins, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Jewel, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood and Dwight Yoakam. If you're interested in coming to the Festival, look over BlueShoe's offering of hotel/ticket packages. We have wonderful seats on the floor and in the lower level (sections 136, 135, and 134) available.

April 4, 2008: A new gallery of wildflower photos from a hike on the Mossy Ridge Trail in Percy Warner Park has been added to our Tennessee Wildflower Guide.

April 1, 2008: Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival begins today in Nashville. See what the folks over at Google are doing to celebrate the first of April.

March 31, 2008: Photos of the latest wildflower hikes from Edwin Warner Park show the early blooms of Virginia Bluebells.

March 27, 2008: Oh, merry month of March--you're all over the place with rain, snow, and lovely sunny days. What is certain in the midst of the variable weather is that the great spring display of wildflowers is starting right now in Nashville and the rest of middle Tennessee.

March 18, 2008: Spring officially arrives this week with the vernal equinox on March 20 and it's not too soon to start planning your Tennessee wildflower hikes.

March 15, 2008: CMA Music Festival 5-night hotel/ticket packages are now available for purchase directly online.

March 6, 2008 : This week the CMA issued their first press release on the artists scheduled to perform at the CMA Music Festival June 5-8, 2008. This is the lead-off announcement for the biggest musical event of the year in Nashville. See the lineup at BlueShoe's CMA Music Festival 2008 page.

March 1, 2008: Doing anything next Tuesday, March 4, at 5:30 a.m.? CBS’s “The Early Show” is inviting Nashvillians to a live concert featuring Miranda Lambert and Rodney Atkins at the Wild Horse Saloon in downtown Nashville. The concert will be televised as part of The Early Show's coverage of the Academy of Country Music’s nomination announcement. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will be announcing the nominations. The broadcast is live from 6 am to 8 am Central Time, but CBS is asking that you arrive by 5:30 a.m. They suggest that people send an email to confirm that they are coming, but the venue is large and can accommodate a large number of people if they simply show up. Please email Nicole Keller (kellern@cbsnews.com) for more information or to confirm you'd like to come.

February 21, 2008 : There was a break in the weather last weekend so we took to the trails for the first wildflower hikes of the season. On Saturday we joined the folks in the hunt for hepatica at Shakerag Hollow on the Perimeter Trail at Sewanee. We did find hepatica leaves, but it was still early for the blooms. On Sunday we hiked the Mossy Ridge Trail in Nashville's Percy Warner Park and found the remarkably tiny and lovely Harbinger of Spring in bloom.

February 19 , 2008: February has been a busy month thus far for BlueShoe Nashville. We've begun our Street View Tours of Nashville, starting with midtown and downtown Nashville photo tours. These easy-to-use virtual tours will lead you through Nashville with photos and annotated descriptions (including insights into Nashville hotels and restaurants). And even though it's still only February, we took the first wildflower hikes of the season this past weekend. Our photos of the walk at Shakerag Hollow on the Perimeter Trail at Sewanee and a hike on the Mossy Ridge at Percy Warner Park in Nashville will be posted in the next day or so. It remains chilly, but spring is definitely on the horizon.

February 14 , 2008: It's a cold, clear beautiful Valentine's Day here in Nashville. The Antiques and Garden Show opens today at the Convention Center and Suzy Bogguss and Raul Malo sing tonight in An Evening of Great Love Songs.

February 10, 2008: Take a virtual tour of downtown Nashville. The first segment of our street view photo tour of Broadway Avenue is now online. You'll begin your stroll at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and progress east, toward River Front Park and First Avenue. Along the way, you'll see prominent buildings and a number of historic markers telling the story of the founding and building of Nashville.

February 9, 2008: The Nashville Antiques and Garden Show will be in session at the Nashville Convention Center next week Feb. 14 to Feb. 17. The theme of Italian Gardens seems aptly chosen for the show's debut on Valentine's Day. And if you're looking for just the right evening event for a romantic occasion, consider Orchestra Nashville's An Evening of Great Love Songs-- featuring Matraca Berg, Suzy Bogguss, Gretchen Peters, and Raul Malo. Performances will be Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 at Grace's Chapel in Leiper's Fork.

February 4 , 2008: It's Super Tuesday and Tennesseans are going to the polls to cast their votes in the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. It's fun to imagine Anne Dallas Dudley's delight if she could see how the political world has evolved in the 88 years since she campaigned here in Nashville for the 19th Amendment.

Feb. 3, 2008: We've long supported and loved the Nashville Farmers' Market so we're delighted to discover the burgeoning interest in community supported agriculture (CSA). At Nashville Gardens, we've begun a collection of some of the useful websites about sustainable gardening in Nashville and Tennessee. We're also pleased to announce that the TN Organics Farmers' Association will hold their 4th Annual Conference in Nashville on March 15 at TSU.

February 1 , 2008: The Nashville Shakespeare Festival presents Hamlet at the new Trout Theatre on the Belmont University campus. Final performances are Feb. 1 & 2.

January 30, 2008: Old Crow Medicine Show will be playing the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium this Saturday, Feb. 2.

January 28, 2008: It's still January, but the Tennessee State Parks are confirming that spring is coming. Fall Creek Falls and Standing Stone State Parks have announced their annual spring wildflower events and we've updated our calendar of hikes at BlueShoe's 2008 Guide to TN Wildflowers accordingly. Shall we utter a small "yippee"?

January 26, 2008: Our first annotated street view virtual tour is now online. This photo tour takes you along West End in midtown Nashville between 19th and 20th Avenues, turning onto 20th Avenue North and back at the next block on Hayes Street. Photos feature West End Avenue scenes near Vanderbilt University, including Nashville hotels and restaurants. This is the first in a series of street view tours of Nashville. A street map shows the route of the walking tour.

January 21, 2008: Yes, it's cold. Yes, it's January. Yes, we do need an upbeat musical number or two to help fight the winter doldrums. And obligingly, here comes Nashville Opera's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic masterwork, HMS Pinafore. It opens this Friday (Jan. 25).

January 18, 2008: We're just put our CMA Music Festival 2008 ticket inventory online for viewing. You can see precisely what floor level, lower level, and Gold Circle seats are available for BlueShoe's 2008 CMA Music Festival packages. BlueShoe's Virtual Tour of LP Field makes it easy for to see the view of the stage from each section (this is a clickable photo map). For more information about the events of the Festival, please go to our main CMA Music Festival page. The Festival takes place in downtown Nashville and at LP Field June 5-8, 2008.

January 13, 2008: It is always a pleasure to receive the Sewanee Herbarium's newsletter, The Plant Press, with its succinct and well-written articles about native plants in middle Tennessee. But the winter issue is particularly welcomed. Arriving in my mailbox sometime during the short, dark days before the winter solstice in December, it contains the early spring schedule for wildflower events at the University of the South. So even as we are shivering in the winter doldrums, we are given a date in mid-February to anticipate the first signs of spring. This year retired botany professor George Ramseur will lead the search for one of the earliest and loveliest of spring ephemerals--hepatica in Shakerag Hollow on the Perimeter Trail on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008. Read more about the coming spring botanical events at BlueShoe's 2008 Guide to Tennessee Wildflowers.

January 12, 2008: The CMA will be releasing, in a month or so, their first press announcement for the 2008 lineup of artists at the CMA Music Festival. We'll cover the February announcement here at BlueShoe and link to it. Meanwhile, if you'd like to get a sense of all that the Festival offers, take a look at the full entertainment schedule from 2007. For information on hotel/ticket packages, visit our Fan Fair 2008 page. We have downtown and midtown hotels, along with splendid seats in sections 136, 135, 134 and on the floor. Call 615-383-3012 for more information.

January 1, 2008: If the ghost of Bill Monroe was hovering in the air of the Ryman Auditorium last night, I think it would have grinned. Del McCoury's Band and a brilliant young group from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the Steep Canyon Rangers, offered up a blend of bluegrass tradition and innovation that had the audience enthralled. It was a night of superb pickin'.

The Ryman is known as the Mother Church of Country Music, but the old planks of its stage can boast another historic first: it was the place where bluegrass music was born. As Del McCoury reminded the New Year's Eve audience, it was here that a man named Bill Monroe created a new kind of music. In the 1920's, 30's, and 40's Monroe began infusing Appalachian mountain music with aspects of blues, gospel, and jazz. Much of Monroe's creative process took place at the Ryman where he starred as a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry. Bluegrass historians generally agree that the final ingredient to this new form of music was added on a Saturday night in 1945. That evening, a young man named Earl Scruggs joined Monroe and his band, including guitarist Lester Flatt, on the Ryman stage. When Scruggs stepped up to the WSM microphone and played his 5-string banjo with his innovative three finger roll, bluegrass music as we know it today was born. The audience that night, reputedly, went wild. Sixty-two years later, Monroe's creation seems to be thriving. Del McCoury's rich tenor rang out high and true last night. It was a good way to welcome the new year in Nashville.

December 26 , 2007: The first edition of our 2008 Guide to Tennessee Wildflowers, including hikes and events planned this spring, will be online soon.

December 21 , 2007: It's not too late to give a CMA Music Festival 2008 ticket/hotel package as a Christmas present. We can customize a gift certificate and send it to you via email as late as mid-afternoon on Christmas eve; the color document will be ready to print and give. Call BlueShoe Nashville at 615-383-3012 for hotel and ticket choices.

December 13 , 2007: Planning your New Year's Eve in Nashville? Consider ringing in 2008 at the Ryman Auditorium with Del McCoury and his superb bluegrass band. Tickets will go on sale here in the next few days. Meanwhile, if you're interested, give us at call at 615-383-3012.

December 8 , 2007: If you're searching for a unique Christmas gift with a Nashville theme, go to BlueShoe's Nashville Web Store. We'll customize a gift certificate for any of your purchases and for last-minute shoppers, we'll send the certificate via email to your choice of the giver or the recipient. The certificates are in color and ready to be printed and wrapped. All of the current items are travel packages (including a train lover's excursion). Check back in the next week for some interesting additions to the store. There'll be cowboy stuff you can wear and, of course, something you can play (musically, that is).

December 4 , 2007: Nashville's 55th annual Christmas Parade is this Friday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. The Parade begins at Seventh Avenue and Broadway, marches east to Second Avenue, and then crosses the Woodland Street Bridge to finish at LP Field.

November 27, 2007: We have two excellent sets of floor level seats for sale for the little shindig Friday night at the Sommet Center (Gary Allan opening for Keith Urban). Seats are in section 3 and 4. Call BlueShoe at 615-383-3012 for details or go here for more information.

November 22, 2007: After a week of unseasonably warm weather, a front has moved into Nashville bringing chillier temperatures for Thanksgiving Day. Happy gatherings to all.

November 15, 2007: Keith Urban brings his "Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing" tour to Nashville's Sommet Center on Nov. 30. A limited number of 5-star Hermitage Hotel/ticket packages are available from BlueShoe. Packages feature premium floor level seats in sections 3 or 4.

November 1, 2007: The Americana Awards Show is tonight at the Ryman Auditorium and features Ricky Skaggs, Bruce Hornsby, Joe Ely, Todd Snider, Old Crow Medicine Show, Emmylou Harris, Amy LeVere, the Avett Brothers and host Jim Lauderdale.

October 30, 2007: The song has ended, the music goes on: Sunday night Porter Wagoner died in a Nashville hospice. He was 80 years old. This past spring he celebrated his 50th year with the Grand Ole Opry. The rich voice, the rhinestones, the gentility...these defining traits of the legendary Wagoner are well-remembered, but did you know he admired the Grateful Dead (and the admiration was mutual)? Or that he relished new technology and carried an iPod in his inner breast pocket? We mourn the loss of this estimable man . . .

October 29, 2007:Middle Tennessee shows its own style in regards to haunted houses for Halloween tours, including a haunted woods and a haunted barn. A list of ghost tours and spooky places can be seen here. If you're hankering for an evening of fright AND fine music, consider the Oct. 31 performance at the spectacular new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in downtown Nashville. Lon Chaney's 1925 silent movie classic Phantom of the Opera with be shown to live organ accompaniment by Tom Trenney.

October 28, 2007: Looking for CMA Awards Show tickets for Nov. 7? We have hotel and dinner packages available here.

October 10, 2007: Ah, the days are turning golden and the nights cooler. The trails at Warner Park beckon. Enjoy the early fall weather with a stroll or a visit to Nashville's Farmers Market.

October 1, 2007: Halloween hullabaloo: it's fall in Nashville and to celebrate the season we're offering a Phantom of the Grand Ole Opry Package. You'll get Gold Circle tickets to the Opry at the Ryman Auditoriumfor Tuesday, Oct. 30 AND for the following night (Halloween) you'll thrill to the chills of Lon Chaney's 1925 silent movie classic Phantom of the Opera with live organ accompaniment by Tom Trenney. This performance of the Phantom takes place at the spectacular new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in downtown Nashville. The Opry and the Opera come with two nights accommodations at the charming Guesthouse Inn Vanderbilt (about 15 blocks from both the Ryman and the Schermerhorn).

September 28, 2007: Keith Urban will perform at the Sommet Center in Nashville on Friday, Nov. 30. BlueShoe's 5-star Hermitage Hotel packages for this special event feature premium seats on the main floor. Call 615-383-3012 for details.

September 20, 2007: The CMA announced its first lineup of artists for the Awards Show on Nov. 7: Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, George Strait, Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban are scheduled to perform. More names will be released in the coming weeks. If you'd like to attend, BlueShoe is offering hotel/ticket packages that feature Platinum, Gold, or Bronze level seats.

September 9, 2007: The World of Bluegrass is coming up the first week in October, featuring the popular BlueGrass Fan Fest.

September 1 , 2007: It's a holiday weekend and there's college football to enjoy (Vanderbilt plays Richmond tonight at 6 pm), while downtown on the river it's the Fifth Annual Music City J.A.M. (Jazz and More) Festival. The music begins at noon and runs to 6:30 pm. and then again tomorrow, 1 pm to 9 pm.

August 30, 2007: CMA Awards 2007 nominees were announced today and it's big news for Brad Paisley, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Alison Krauss, and John Rich.

August 26, 2007: The cool elevations of Roan Mountain are a pleasure to remember as we enter the fourth recording-breaking week of high temperatures here in Nashville. New photos of the mid-July wildflower expedition on the Cloudland Trail are now up.

August 22, 2007: The heat belies the fact that fall is almost here. It's just a few days and counting before the return-to-campus weekend at Vanderbilt University. Classes for the new term begin next Wed., Aug. 29, but the dorms open and the students descend on Saturday. West End Avenue will be hopping with traffic and there'll be a line of cars waiting their turn to get into Kirkland Circle. For Nashville newcomers looking for a place to eat, visit BlueShoe Cafe: Dining Guide to Nashville. And maybe, just maybe, the heat will break and we won't see another weekend with days pushing 100 degrees. Autumn has a lovely sound to it, doesn't it?

August 18, 2007:In the hot and muggy month ofAugust 1920, a national drama brought its final and perhaps most spectacular act to Nashville. Revisit the battle for women's suffrage and what was called "the War of the Roses". Today is the 87th anniversary of the legislative showdown that made history in Nashville and the rest of the country with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Featured photo: The Bellsouth "Batman Building," one of the landmarks in downtown Nashville, overlooks the old brick storefronts of Lower Broad--a row of cowboy apparel stores and honky-tonks such as Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.