Book Nashville theatre, tours & attraction tickets

Few American cities carry their identity as openly as Nashville. The Tennessee capital has built its reputation on music, and not just country, though the Grand Ole Opry remains the gravitational centre of that story. Since 1925, the Opry has broadcast live performances that shaped the sound of a nation, and attending a show there, whether in the original Ryman Auditorium on Fifth Avenue or at the purpose-built venue out on Opryland Drive, is to sit inside a piece of genuinely living history. The backstage tour extends that experience, moving visitors through dressing rooms and stage wings that have hosted virtually every significant name in American roots music.

The city spreads across the Cumberland River's western bank and its surrounding hills, with distinct neighbourhoods pulling visitors in different directions. Downtown's Broadway strip is the obvious first port of call, its neon-lit honky-tonks stacked three storeys high and audible from the street at almost any hour. But Nashville rewards those who move beyond it. The Gulch, once a rail yard, has become a dense pocket of galleries and restaurants. East Nashville, across the river, carries a quieter creative energy. And to the southwest, the Belle Meade area represents a different chapter of the city's past entirely, its antebellum estates set back from wide, tree-lined roads.