Those who know me well, know that I am a lifelong fan of classical music, and have little time to spare for other styles. Although I've been known to enjoy dipping into jazz, blues, and Celtic music as well, I'm usually classical all the way. So what was I doing in Nashville, the world capital of country and western, and what could I find to amuse myself there?
The answer to the first question is easy. My oldest sister, my nephew and niece-by-marriage, and their two daughters gave me all the motivation for the visit. N-by-M Sarah was performing her senior year violin recital at Middle Tennessee State University, a short drive down the road in Murfreesboro, and that gave me the timing of the trip as well as the classical music experience!
But I found out through several days of exploration that Nashville has a great deal to offer, even to those like myself who are not fans of country and western music. For those who are devotees of C&W, maybe this post will motivate you to add on a couple of days to your next trip here for some of the other sides of this bustling, diverse, and beautiful city.
Nashville lies on a rolling area of low hills, threaded by the Cumberland River, the Stones River, and a number of smaller streams and creeks. Streets rise and fall as they wend their way among the hills, and there are any number of pretty views awaiting just over the next rise -- especially once you get off the main highways and freeways and into some of the more residential areas.
Like my home town of Woodstock, Nashville has gone to great lengths to create a network of parkland trails which are called Greenways. One of the longer ones is in the Shelby Bottoms nature reserve. The Greenway itself is a paved roadway reserved for pedestrians and pedal cyclists only -- no motor scooters or any other motor vehicles permitted. I had to drive a fair distance from my hotel, and park in a large parking lot -- then walk down the hill and across the Cumberland River on a sizable pedestrian/bicycle bridge, built in 2007.
At the other end, this intriguing modern sculpture stands on a circular plaza. Take a close look at the individual pieces.
The path winds its way down to the shoreline level and connects with the main Greenway through the Shelby Bottoms reserve. The term "Bottoms" refers to the low-lying land at the bottom of a valley, immediately adjacent to the river. The trail is lined with beautiful forests, with some leaves still in colour.
Other parts run along behind a high embankment on the edge of the river, an embankment thickly grown with rushes and other water-tolerant plants. The inland side of the trail, in many parts, is as much swamp as forest. Very quiet and peaceful, and beautiful in spite of the cloudy weather.
As you drive around Nashville, you get used to seeing the "Greenway Trailhead" signs in many different locations all through the city.
On another, and sunnier, day, I enjoyed more outdoor walking at the Hermitage estate just east of town, the plantation home of President Andrew Jackson. The estate lies on gently rolling landscaped parkland.
Numerous beautiful trees surround the buildings, which include some simpler log-cabin structures...
…as well as the red-brick main house and its outbuildings.
What's unique about the Hermitage, as opposed to many other museum houses, is that it remained for several generations in the Jackson family and then was sold directly to the State. Thus, the house still contains almost entirely the original furnishings, accessories, wallpapers, floors, and the like. Curtains and carpets which have had to be replaced due to old-age disintegration have been exactly copied. It's a fascinating time capsule of well-to-do life in a frontier location in the mid-1800s. Photography is forbidden in the house to protect the period contents from excessive light fading.
The visitor's center shows an excellent film about Jackson, which makes use of the views of multiple historians to balance off all the contradictions of the man (there were many). The uniqueness of the Hermitage experience lies in its refusal to whitewash Jackson's record as a motivating force of the removal of the Cherokees or as a slave-owning plantation owner. It's set side by side with his achievements as an early and vocal advocate of preserving the union of the states, and as a military leader. This affirms the importance of keeping the past, all of it, good and bad, before us if we are to hope to stop repeating its errors. The good and bad sides of Jackson are all part of a complex man, living at a complex time.
South and east of the city is a sizable man-made lake, the J. Percy Priest reservoir. It stretches some 10 miles in a straight line southeast from this dam, although the actual shoreline is many times longer than 10 miles as it twists and turns around among all the hills and valleys.
I passed a couple of peaceful hours at Long Hunter State Park. It's on the opposite side of the lake from the city, but connected by a bridge across a narrow neck of the water. There are some fine views of the many different arms of the lake.
There are also some unusual eroded rock formations along this stretch of the shoreline.
The park lies in a mature Carolinian forest, a real beauty spot with the fall colours.
Back in the city, the Bicentennial Mall was another must-do for a historian such as myself. It was built to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Tennessee in 1996, stretching along the two-block long parkland mall northwest of the state capitol. The black pillars mark out the decades of the 2 centuries.
The black wall at their base is engraved with information such as noteworthy statements, events, people, and social/cultural changes during those 200 years.
Nearby stands the state's World War Two memorial. The globe is engraved with distances to all the areas where Tennessee fighting units were engaged.
The unique aspect of this memorial, as this video shows, is the manner in which the globe floats and turns gently on steadily flowing water.
Adjoining the west end of the Bicentennial Mall is the State Museum, a thorough and engaging walking tour through the history of the state -- again with due attention to all aspects of human activity as well as the natural history of the region.
Definitely have to hand it to Tennessee -- both this State Museum and the State Park which I visited (see above) were free of charge.
The northwest end of the mall is occupied by a unique carillon housed in a circle of bell towers. The mall stretches in a straight line from there to Capitol Hill, crowned by the Tennessee state capitol.
The crown jewel of Nashville, for me, is Centennial Park, developed on the grounds occupied by a sizable exhibition in 1897 which celebrated the centennial of Tennessee. Again, ample numbers of trees and shrubs, which surround a beautiful artificial lake.
As you drive around Nashville, you get used to seeing the "Greenway Trailhead" signs in many different locations all through the city.
On another, and sunnier, day, I enjoyed more outdoor walking at the Hermitage estate just east of town, the plantation home of President Andrew Jackson. The estate lies on gently rolling landscaped parkland.
Numerous beautiful trees surround the buildings, which include some simpler log-cabin structures...
…as well as the red-brick main house and its outbuildings.
What's unique about the Hermitage, as opposed to many other museum houses, is that it remained for several generations in the Jackson family and then was sold directly to the State. Thus, the house still contains almost entirely the original furnishings, accessories, wallpapers, floors, and the like. Curtains and carpets which have had to be replaced due to old-age disintegration have been exactly copied. It's a fascinating time capsule of well-to-do life in a frontier location in the mid-1800s. Photography is forbidden in the house to protect the period contents from excessive light fading.
The visitor's center shows an excellent film about Jackson, which makes use of the views of multiple historians to balance off all the contradictions of the man (there were many). The uniqueness of the Hermitage experience lies in its refusal to whitewash Jackson's record as a motivating force of the removal of the Cherokees or as a slave-owning plantation owner. It's set side by side with his achievements as an early and vocal advocate of preserving the union of the states, and as a military leader. This affirms the importance of keeping the past, all of it, good and bad, before us if we are to hope to stop repeating its errors. The good and bad sides of Jackson are all part of a complex man, living at a complex time.
South and east of the city is a sizable man-made lake, the J. Percy Priest reservoir. It stretches some 10 miles in a straight line southeast from this dam, although the actual shoreline is many times longer than 10 miles as it twists and turns around among all the hills and valleys.
I passed a couple of peaceful hours at Long Hunter State Park. It's on the opposite side of the lake from the city, but connected by a bridge across a narrow neck of the water. There are some fine views of the many different arms of the lake.
There are also some unusual eroded rock formations along this stretch of the shoreline.
The park lies in a mature Carolinian forest, a real beauty spot with the fall colours.
Back in the city, the Bicentennial Mall was another must-do for a historian such as myself. It was built to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Tennessee in 1996, stretching along the two-block long parkland mall northwest of the state capitol. The black pillars mark out the decades of the 2 centuries.
The black wall at their base is engraved with information such as noteworthy statements, events, people, and social/cultural changes during those 200 years.
Nearby stands the state's World War Two memorial. The globe is engraved with distances to all the areas where Tennessee fighting units were engaged.
The unique aspect of this memorial, as this video shows, is the manner in which the globe floats and turns gently on steadily flowing water.
Adjoining the west end of the Bicentennial Mall is the State Museum, a thorough and engaging walking tour through the history of the state -- again with due attention to all aspects of human activity as well as the natural history of the region.
Definitely have to hand it to Tennessee -- both this State Museum and the State Park which I visited (see above) were free of charge.
The northwest end of the mall is occupied by a unique carillon housed in a circle of bell towers. The mall stretches in a straight line from there to Capitol Hill, crowned by the Tennessee state capitol.
The crown jewel of Nashville, for me, is Centennial Park, developed on the grounds occupied by a sizable exhibition in 1897 which celebrated the centennial of Tennessee. Again, ample numbers of trees and shrubs, which surround a beautiful artificial lake.
Move a little farther around the lake, and this imposing structure comes into view.
It's a detailed, accurate-as-possible, reproduction of the famous Parthenon in Athens as that temple appeared when it was newly built. The structure utilizes local stone rather than the white marble of the original, but scholars did their best to keep it true to the subject. This structure, too, was built for that 1897 exhibition. Although only temporary in intention, it was preserved until the 1920s, when the original lightweight materials were crumbling. At that time, the city took it down and replaced it with the present and more permanent stone structure.
The lower level, hidden below ground, houses a permanent art collection as well as rotating curated exhibits. The main level is likewise an exact replica of the layout of the original Parthenon. And it's here, in the naos or main hall that you find the astonishing re-creation of the statue of Athene Parthenos which stood in the naos of the original Athenian temple.
The original sculpture, created by Pheidias, has long since vanished, but there are numerous documents describing it in detail, and these have been used as sources to guide the artist and bring the re-created version (created in 1982-1990) as close to the lost original as anyone could reasonably expect to come in this day and age.
In the outstretched right hand of Athene stands the goddess Nike (pronounced in Greek "Nee-kay"), the personification of victory. Her wings partially raised, she holds the laurel wreath of victory with which to crown Athene. The allegorical figure of Nike was often conflated with Athene during the fifth century BCE in Athens. To bring the scale of this entire monumental work into proportion for you, little Nike is over six feet tall! The entire sculpture stands 42 feet tall.
The shield is intricately decorated both on the inside and the outside. The inside displays scenes of the battle between the gods and the titans. The gilded outside of the shield shows more battle scenes carven in the surface.
Even with this quick survey, it's obvious that Nashville and its surrounding area have a great deal more to offer in addition to all the many attractions related to the country music scene. I had a great time there; it's just too bad that the weather was so unpredictable and variable.
