Road Trip 2018: Day 28 - CMA Museum & Grand Ole Opry

Nashville - Our place was less than a mile from Centennial Park - so up in the morning and off to a walk in the park - which also hosts the Parthenon (replica of the Greek Parthenon including the statue of Athena. We will visit this on Tuesday as it's closed on Mondays. A quick visit to Kroger's for groceries and back to the apartment to get ready for some sightseeing.

We Lyft it to the CMA Museum, only to find out that the tour to the famous RCA StudioB are sold out for the day. So we buy tickets for the Museum and the RCA StudioB tour for the next day. The Museum is three floors of Music memorabilia. While the focus is mainly Country music which started with banjo's and fiddle's, there's is rock, jazz and r&b too. Very interesting and educational. Along with the evolution of Country music, there is a history of the parallel evolution of musical instruments and audio equipment. Items on display included the early banjo's and fiddles to the many types of guitars - regular/steel/custom, and costumes of singers from early times to today. Also on display was Elvis's Gold Plated Cadillac, with TV, stereo, bar & phone inside. Lunched at the Mexican cafeteria in the Museum and got back for some rest.

Evening concert at the Grand Ole Opry was at 7pm - It was a tribute to Ray Charles by artists that were influenced by him and included - Boyz II Men, Chris Young, LeAnn Rimes, Travis Tritt, and others. It was a fantastic two hours. This program was being recorded live by PBS to be broadcast in February 2019. As it was a live recording, some of the singers had to sing their songs twice for a retake - so we got to enjoy them twice over! After the convert, we managed to make it in time for some Nashville Hot Chicken at the famous Hattie B's - Hot as in Spicy Hot. Had to drink a beer to cool it down - wow!