This time we really ARE going to Nashville - Day 5 - Music Row,Madame Tussaud's & The Grand Ole Opry

[Redrach1903]

Tuesday 5th September

Today we were up bright and early at 7.45. Because we got home at a sensible time the previous night, three were no fuzzy heads. Hurrah! We had tea/coffee and watched the news/weather. There was rain and a few storms forecast for today. Humph.

We were ready to leave at 9.15am and got an Uber to Five Daughters Bakery which is located on 12th South Street. I had heard about the maple bacon doughnuts and I needed one in my belly! Chris doesn’t have at a massive sweet tooth (alien), so he wasn’t as excited as me!

By the time we got there is had started drizzling, but nothing too bad!



We got in and I immediately zoned in on my target (King Kong is it's official name haha). Chris decided to try a Boston Crème.



Look at it. All their doughnuts have 100 layers. ONE HUNDRED.



Mine was lovely. A bit weird, but lovely! Hahaha! Chris didn’t enjoy his. I tried it and I could see why, it was VERY rich.

Sugary mission complete, we decided to chance it and walk back into town which was about 2 miles away. The sky didn’t look great, but it wasn’t due to really rain until later in the day.



We passed this rather odd looking house on our way. I thought it looked like something out of a horror movie!



The area we were in was called Edgehill. Which explained Edgehill Records in Nashville (the show)! The penny dropped!



Finally, after what felt like a looooooooong walk, we made it to our destination. Music Row!



Poor Chris was desperate for the loo, so he ran off to some apartment suites and relieved himself before we had a proper walk around. In case you hadn’t guessed by the name, Music Row is where all the recording studios of Nashville are as well as headquarters of the Country Music Association.







I really like how the song writers get recognition for their songs doing well! Usually you just see all the praise being heaped on the singers!



History.







Sorry, more Nashville (the show) trivia! This is the statue that Juliette is draped over while she shoots the video for Telescope in Season 1.



We were now at the end (or start, I suppose) of Music Row, which is right next to The Gulch.

kr



From there had about an another mile to walk back to Downtown. Follow the Bat Building!



We stopped at the bridge and watched this train. Chris gestured to the driver to honk his horn and he obliged



USA USA USA



Once back in Downtown, I wanted to go and find a particular building. I had a rough idea where it was, but I used google maps to help.



Any fans of the show recognise it? It's the Highway 65 offices They have the logos permanently on display which I think is very cool!



It is actually the Hilton Homewood Suites though, which I'm sure you can see from the first photo!

Anyway, it must be time for a drink, right?





As you can see, we went to Skulls Rainbow Room on Printers Alley. It was dead.





It turns out the entertainment doesn’t start until evening in there. Said entertainment is a burlesque show. We didn’t come back to see what it was like, but I've heard good things! We stayed for one drink and left. I don’t even think I had a real drink, just a diet coke! Chris, I'm sure, would have had a beer. When we got outside it looked like we had just missed a downpour as the ground was soaked.

We decided to nip round to Tootsies cos you know, more rain was coming This guy was playing when we first got in. He was good, but I don’t remember his name. He was also quite funny. When he asked us where we were from and we said Scotland, he said "quick, someone throw a punch at them to make them feel at home". What a reputation to have!



Tim Daly was on after him, the same dude we saw on our first day! He was great again, he really interacts with the crowd (as you can see at the end of the video).





The girls sat in front of us got chatting to us. They seemed really interested in Scotland – castles etc!. They were nice enough girls, but really liked the sound of their own voices and wouldn’t shut up. I got a bit fed up hearing their life stories after a while! They seemed a bit braggy about all the states they have visited. Yeah, but have you left your own country? Nope

Anyway, the rain was hammering down outside, so we stayed put. The drinks were flowing and once again I found myself on Loretta cocktails which are just way too easy to drink. At some point we ordered a slice of pizza each which was super yummy. We were both very tempted to order a second slice!



When Tim asked us where we were from, a woman came up to us and said “are you from Scotland?” When we said yes she asked where about and when we said Aberdeen she said “us too”! Wow! We didn’t expect to bump into locals in Nashville! Turns out one of the couples were from Kincorth which is where my Dad grew up. Small world!

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At about 1.30pm I had to drag Chris out as we had to get back and get ready for the rest of the afternoon/evening! We were going to Madame Tussauds and then the Grand Ole Opry! We ordered an Uber and it was along in no time. Steven was our driver and he was very nice and chatty. He was telling us he once had Scarlett from Nashville as a customer! Once home we got ourselves ready and were good to go at about 3pm. Our showers hadn’t sobered us up much and we were a tad on the tipsy side! Ha! At least the rain had stopped though!



We got an Uber and were dropped at Opry Mills around 3.30pm. Opry Mills is where the outlets and Madame Tussaud’s are. The original plan for today was to spend the whole day over here and do shopping first, but then I realised that security is pretty tight at the Opry, so we wouldn’t have been able to go in with lots of shopping bags!





I had bought our tickets online in advance, so we just handed them over and walked on in. We were pleased to see that is was very quiet and we pretty much had the place to ourselves! The first waxwork we saw at the entrance was Taylor Swift.



And Rihanna.



Then we were properly inside and you walked through all the different eras of music. Starting with Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday and Hank Williams.



Chris having a close up look. He thought some of them were freaky cos they looked so real! I have to agree actually!







The next bit was all about radio and the original Grand Ole Opry show.



Patsy Cline



Most of the displays had instruments next to them so you could pick them up, have a go or just pose for a photo. I thought that was pretty cool!



Opry stars back in the day!



Loretta Lynn (she makes good cocktails)



Minnie Pearl. HOWDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.



Waylon Jennings.



Kenny Rogers.



Next up is Tammy Wynette, who Chris took a bit of a shine too. He had no idea who she was (“who’s that blonde bit of stuff?” I think were his words )



Awww, the look of love



Then we went through to the Recording Studio! We were yet to see another soul in the place! Happy days!



Here’s me, just hanging with Johnny Cash...



Who needs June Carter?



(My name is) Jerry Lee Lewis (“I’m from Loooooooousiana” hehe)



Carl Perkins



The king of rock n roll himself.





The Soul Lounge was next where Chris enjoyed a little dance with Diana Ross! Hahahaha!



See what happens when you take your tipsy husband to a waxwork museum….







She didn’t seem to mind though…



Hahahahahaha this photo ends me!



Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong



More instruments to play with!





Having the time of this life!



Slappin da bass! If you’ve seen I Love you Man, you’ll get the reference!








Ooooh oooh ooooh look what’s next! Freakin’ Deacon Claybourne! And Rayna James! Haha! For those who don’t watch the show, these are the two main characters and I’m sure by now you’ve figured out I have a wee crush on Deacon!







I was straight in about! I enjoyed this very much hahaha! I definitely was not stroking his stubble like a creep…..







Once Chris finally dragged me away, he got some time with Rayna





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We then moved through to the Rock Bar. Here we have Kid Rock.





Jimi Hendrix



Bruce Springsteen. There was a game on that table where you had to complete song lyrics of his, was fun!



The MTV section was next, with popstars of today. Chris was a little happy here



Justin Timberlake



Miley Cyrus in her crazy wrecking ball phase.



Bruno Mars



Queen B….





How to give yourself an inferiority complex…..



The next section was all themed around backstage. First off was Luke Bryan.



Tim McGraw



Blake Shelton



Faith Hill



I had a little pose, pretending to be a superstar getting ready at the dressing table





The final display was the Grand Finale at the Grand Ole Opry!





Jason Aldean



Eric Church



Keith Urban



Carrie Underwood



Alan Jackson



Clearly born to be on stage





And then we were done. We really enjoyed it here, especially as it was so quiet! I’ve been to the one in London and it is always chaos! We could take our time here and pose for silly photos without worrying that we were holding anyone up. I would definitely recommend it!

We were hungry now, so we went to scope out a few menus around Opry Mills and settled on the Aquarium Restaurant.



It wasn’t busy, so we were seated straight away. It was very cool in here, we enjoyed looking at all the fish and I especially love Stingrays, so was happy!









Cute salt and pepper shakers,



I ordered the chicken fried chicken and Chris went for a burger. To drink I had a cherry coke and Chris had a Michelob Ultra (what else?).





Our meals were absolutely delicious! My chicken, veg and mash were all wonderful and Chris loved his burger! Was nice to have a proper meal instead of grabbing something in between drinks in a bar too haha! The total including tip was $48. Before we left we had another look at the tanks.



And then headed across to the Grand OIe Opry house as I wanted some photos before the crowds descended. It had turned into a glorious evening, a total contrast to the rain during the day!



There was a couple taking photos of one of the big guitars and I asked if they wanted me to take one of both of them. We then heard their accents. They were also from Aberdeen! What are the chances!? Anyway, we chatted to them for a while and they returned the favour and took our photo for us



We said cheerio and continued taking our own photos.





A rather impressive air guitar, don’t you think? Haha!





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The Grand Ole Opry House! It was so cool being here!







Happy!







It was really lovely around here, everything was perfectly maintained.



We still had a while till show time, so we headed back over to Opry Mills.



We saw folk scooting about in these – ace!



There is a massive Dave & Busters arcade in here and Chris was keen to play some games. However, it ended up being a non starter as we couldn’t find where to buy tokens. When we eventually found a member of staff they directed us to the bar in another room, but when we got there they were taking ages to serve the folk in front of us and we gave up!



Shame really, as I was well up for shooting some zombies!



Chris’s disappointment soon melted away when he saw a machine full of his fave sweets – runts! He always buys some of these in Orlando and I think he was still in mourning after leaving them on the plane on our way home in April!



Check that delighted face!



Right, time to go see some country music! Woo! We wondered back over, went through security and then got a drink while we waited for the doors to open. I noticed the bottles of water were on a par with Disney prices!



The doors opened at 7pm on the dot and we were in! Eeeeeep.





We were shown which entrance to use to get to our seats. We were in Section 23, Row E and this was our view. Not too bad!



Felt really strange being in here after seeing it so much on the TV show!



Opry selfies! As you can see in the first photo, Chris was starting to flag a bit. It had been a long day and the wee sesh in Tootsies didn’t help! Haha! Plus, you will note there was no nap again today!





I nipped to the loo before the show started. They were very nice loos!



On my way back I managed to get a programme. Tonight’s line up:



Before the first act came on there was a woman doing a warm up routine, getting the crowd going. They of course did a typically patriotic shout out to any veteran’s in the crowd.



Starting to fill up!



And then it began! First up was Jeannie Seely! She was funny, I liked her a lot. My fave song she did was called “who needs you” which was clearly written after a break up! Haha! She has been a member of the Opry for 50 years! Wow!



Each artist sang 3 songs each.

Next up were guest artists A Thousand Horses. They were really very good. I have downloaded a couple of their songs since and my favourite (which they performed on the night) is “Preachin' to the Choir”. Have a listen, you’ll like it (video below)! The other two songs they sang were “Smoke” and “Weekends in a Small Town”







Next up was another guest artist, Jamie Lynn Spears (aka Britney’s little sister). She has a lovely voice and her songs were nice. She kept flicking her long hair though and that was really distracting hahaha! The only song I remember of her was “I got the Boy” which was a song she wrote for another country artist.





We were laughing at all the adverts in between each artist. Each section of the show had a different sponsor. It is still a broadcast live radio show you see! They kept going on and on about this chicken. It was too funny!



Next up were Daley & Vincent who are Opry Members. They were good, great musicians, but not really our type! I think they are a bit of a religious pair, so definitely not up our street! Haha!



They brought this cute old veteran up on the stage and he was sooooo sweet. It had been his life long dream to go to the Grand Ole Opry and he was finally there. Everyone in the room stood up for him and it was really quite emotional! Bless him!



There was an intermission after them, so we both went to the loo. When we came back there was some sort of competition in which folk could win some cowboy boots from one of the sponsors. It involved one person throwing a hacky sack and another tryint to catch them in a cowboy boot. Haha! I think they both won boots in the end!

The show started again and the next was guest artist Sundance Head. He won The Voice USA last year and oh my goodness, you can tell why! What a set of pipes that guy has!



He was telling us that his house in Texas had been destroyed in Hurricane Harvey and his wife was back home trying to sort out their lives. What a shame



Anyway he was just brilliant, we both were blown away. There was one song he did called “Darlin Don’t Go” and I legit had goosebumps. I wish I had filmed it. I found this video of him singing that song on The Voice, but I think he did it better at The Opry!



The penultimate act were called High Valley, Opry Members. They seemed like nice guys and their music was enjoyable, but I honestly cant remember any of the songs they did! They are brothers and were brought up in Canada in a very rural community, a bit Amish they said, but without the funny hair haha! They apparently weren’t allowed to dance when they were kids (say what?!), so they asked everyone to stand and up and dance to their final song



And now it was time for the final act of the night and the one we had really come to see! The Charlie Daniels Band. I’m pretty sure everyone knows the song “The Devil went down to Georgia”. Well, these lads are behind it! They were excellent, so full of energy. Charlie did get a bit preachy at one point, all about the state of the country and then massively bigging up veterans. All the locals were hanging on his every word though! In Simple Man, there’s a line that goes “Now I’m the kind of man who wouldn’t harm a mouse, but if I catch somebody breaking in my house, I got a 12 gauge shotgun waiting on the other side”. Oh man, you should have heard the cheers! I’m telling you, there’s no way they will ever get guns away from America. Ever. I do like that song though







Soon enough, the fiddle came out! YAY!





You’re not supposed to take video recordings here, but I saw others doing it, so I thought I would too! Just look at him go. He is 81 years old! I can’t remember what this song was called, but they said it was a new one.



Their final song, they announced, would be a little song called The Devil went down to Georgia. Well, the whole place irrupted! What an atmosphere! It was ace seeing this live!

It looked like he broke his bow in the first video cos he threw it away and got another one!





Brilliant, loved the Opry so very much! We weren’t ready for home yet though, oh no! We had backstage tour passes! We went and waited with allllll the other people that also had passes and waited to be put into our group.



Woohoo!



We were in the maroon group and our guide was a young guy who’s name escapes me, but he was lovely and very knowledgeable. He told us that, unlike the Ryman, we were free to take as many photos as we liked! YAY!

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The first bit we were taken to was where they house all the instruments. Our guide told us that this is where the Opry band learn the songs they will be playing that very night. They don’t read sheet music! If they don’t know the song, they will listen to it and then just pick it up from that! Talented much?



We then walked through a kind of hangar bit backstage and saw this display in honor of the TV show! I asked if the episodes filmed at the Opry were filmed with a real live audience and he said they were! He also said that sometimes the staff get to be extras!



We were then shown the artists entrance.





There’s even a TV studio here! Some bits of Nashville are filmed in here. He also said the TV show “Hee Haw” was filmed there. That didn’t mean much to me, but others seemed impressed!



All the plaques of the Opry Members.





In this bit there is also a mail box belonging to each member, where they can get mail sent. He told us that Alan Jackson used to work sorting out the mail when he was young! He also said that, ironically, his is always the fullest box due to all the fan mail he gets!

We were then taken to view all the dressing rooms! Into the Circle is the one reserved for those making their Opry debut!





Stars and Stripes room. I think he said that was the room Charlie Daniels was using that night! I was hoping some of the artists would still be milling about, but by the time we got to the dressing rooms they were all gone! Bah!

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This one is called “Now that’s funny” and hosts any comedians playing at the Opry.



Corridor shot. Reminded me of when Avery bangs into Juliette on the pilot episode hehe!





Locker room.



Next up – It Takes Two! The dressing room reserved for people performing duets.



Deacon and Rayna



Friends and Neighbors room.



Welcome to the Family.



Cousin Minnie room – for Minnie Pearl.



Women of Country room.



This next one belonged to Porter Wagoner. It’s the only dressing room with a shower if I remember correctly!



The next part of the tour took us to the green room where artists can hang out and get a drink of juice/coffee etc. There is no alcohol allowed though!





In the above photo you can see a big painting. Our guide was telling us about the 2010 Tennessee floods in which Nashville and the Opry took a big hit. The Opry had to close for 5 months to be renovated. Anyway, that painting somehow survived, but the water was up to the half way point of it and you can actually see the tide mark when you look closely!

Back to more dressing rooms. This is the Roy Acuff room and the only room that didn’t have a barrier at the door as Roy had an open door policy and they’ve decided to carry that on!



I think this is the Men of Country room!



Some memorabilia.





The final part of the tour saw us going backstage and then onstage! Very very cool.











Techy things.



Waiting in the wings for our Opry debut





Then we got to stand on the circle and get our photo taken! The circle, which you can see is a slightly different wood from the rest of the stage, is a six foot cut out from the original stage at The Ryman. The artists usually stand on the circle to perform and it’s a big deal to do so! Think of all the legends that have stood on that piece of wood!



And that was the end of the tour! It was great, really interesting and so very cool to see backstage at such an iconic venue!

Before we left I went and bought the photo above and then we went for a quick look in the gift shop. We bought a guitar pick magnet/bottle opener and then went outside to order an Uber.





Our Uber came at about 11.15pm and we asked him to stop at a gas station so we could grab some more milk and tea bags for the apartment. On the way back to the apartment I checked my emails and had a rather alarming email from the apartment owner asking if we were ok to check out by 11am the next day as they had new guests arriving. Eh what now?! We were not due to check out until the day after that. Queue massive panic. I quickly logged into my Air BnB account to check I hadn’t made a colossal mistake, but nope, it said the 7th September! I replied to Bree and explained we weren’t due to check out until Thursday and kept everything crossed that she had just gotten her days mixed up. Thankfully, by the time we got home she had replied and had indeed made a mistake, so all was good! Phewf! We had a cup of tea and were off to bed by midnight!

Steps today – 17,920

Tomorrow we go back to Opry Mills for a bit of shopping, check out the Gaylord Opry Resort and go to the Bluebird Café at night!

Day 6 is here

[Nesbits]

Excellent day, what fun you had.

[Mary A]

Jeannie Sealey was the first act when we visited the grand ole opry last year, she's very funny! We stayed at the Homewood suites on that trip, the 65 references were lost on me but DH informed me of their meaning.
We're planning a few days there next year as part of ds's 21st birthday trip, can't wait to see all the great bands again (and consume a few bushwackers!)

[WileyCoyote]

ooh, busy old day there !
We thought Skulls was really cool , although Printers Alley was a bit of a let down. Madame Tussauds looks brill, loving your pics, Chris is such a hoot getting into the swing of it - fair play to him !
I'm not so sure about those donuts at breakfast, I would have been high on all that sugar !
Looks like a Grand night at the Opry - Jeannie Seeley must sing that song a lot - she did it when we were there ! We laughed at the adverts too, its hard to keep a straight face when they are re assuring you there are no anti biotics in the chicken ( Negan the Vegan was in stitches)

Am envious of the backstage tour, that really does look excellent.
You have some fab pics from today, real good fun.
Brill day and meeting some "locals from home" - it really is a small world ...

[RachelM]

What an amazing day x

[Lisa_Lollipop]

What an awesome day... that maple bacon donut looked blooming amazing, I would have been all over that!

So happy you got to meet Deacon... even if it was only waxwork version!

Such an amazing night at the Grand Ole Opry, just brilliant you got to go back stage for a tour and actually stand on the stage... such a dream come true for such a Nashville fan!

Can't even imagine the panic you felt when you got that e-mail, thank goodness it was a mistake and quickly clarified!

Oh and you looked absolutely stunning in that black dress, such a beaut!

Another fab day, thank you so much for sharing... I can't wait to hear all about the Bluebird Cafe! xxx