Nashville

E.D. Thompson chronicles the many changes that Nashville has gone through during the past 50 years. He writes a weekly column on Nashville Nostalgia and also does a weekly radio broadcast.

This is E. D. Thompson's second collection of facts and memories about the Nashville that we remember. If you read Nashville Nostalgia, then you know that you are about to add to the knowledge and happiness that you derived from that book. If this volume is your first look back at the Nashville of your childhood and your parents' childhood, then you are about to embark on a journey through the history of a city like no other. More Nashville Nostalgia will remind you why Nashville is called the Athens of the South and Music City USA, where your favorite department stores and movie theatres were located, when Hillsboro High School burned down, what big bands played in Nashville, and who Alfred Leland Crabb, Louis Nicholas, Jere Baxter, Ken Bramming, and Bettie Page were. On every page is a name, a food, a street, or a pastime which will spark a happy memory-and for the parts which are new to you, this book will make you wish you had known them! My father's love for the past is infectious, and you will find yourself sharing his wistful reverence for those sights and sounds which will never come again but which will never leave our memories and our hearts. The only treasure more valuable than Nashville nostalgia is more Nashville nostalgia!

Nashville is a name synonymous with music. Years before the first radio broadcast of country music from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, music and publishing were central to Nashville's self-identity. Thousands of songs flooded into the Cumberland and Tennessee River valleys from Southern Appalachia, sung by folk performers. These songs became the foundation for the folk-hymn traditions that grew throughout Tennessee. Into this stream flowed a body of African American spirituals, gospel, and minstrel songs. The arrival of trained German musicians brought classical styles to this gathering stream of musical confluences. These musicians found a home in the academies and businesses of Nashville. Nashville Music before Country is the story of how music merged with education, publication, entertainment, and distribution to set the stage for a unique musical metropolis. The images for Nashville Music before Country come from private collections as well as public libraries and archives.

Beginning in the 1990s, the geography of Latino migration to and within the United States started to shift. Immigrants from Central and South America increasingly bypassed the traditional gateway cities to settle in small cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the nation, particularly in the South. One popular new destination—Nashville, Tennessee—saw its Hispanic population increase by over 400 percent between 1990 and 2000. Nashville, like many other such new immigrant destinations, had little to no history of incorporating immigrants into local life. How did Nashville, as a city and society, respond to immigrant settlement? How did Latino immigrants come to understand their place in Nashville in the midst of this remarkable demographic change? In Nashville in the New Millennium, geographer Jamie Winders offers one of the first extended studies of the cultural, racial, and institutional politics of immigrant incorporation in a new urban destination. Moving from schools to neighborhoods to Nashville’s wider civic institutions, Nashville in the New Millennium details how Nashville’s long-term residents and its new immigrants experienced daily life as it transformed into a multicultural city with a new cosmopolitanism. Using an impressive array of methods, including archival work, interviews, and participant observation, Winders offers a fine-grained analysis of the importance of historical context, collective memories and shared social spaces in the process of immigrant incorporation. Lacking a shared memory of immigrant settlement, Nashville’s long-term residents turned to local history to explain and interpret a new Latino presence. A site where Latino day laborers gathered, for example, became a flashpoint in Nashville’s politics of immigration in part because the area had once been a popular gathering place for area teenagers in the 1960s and 1970s. Teachers also drew from local historical memories, particularly the busing era, to make sense of their newly multicultural student body. They struggled, however, to help immigrant students relate to the region’s complicated racial past, especially during history lessons on the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement. When Winders turns to life in Nashville’s neighborhoods, she finds that many Latino immigrants opted to be quiet in public, partly in response to negative stereotypes of Hispanics across Nashville. Long-term residents, however, viewed this silence as evidence of a failure to adapt to local norms of being neighborly. Filled with voices from both long-term residents and Latino immigrants, Nashville in the New Millennium offers an intimate portrait of the changing geography of immigrant settlement in America. It provides a comprehensive picture of Latino migration’s impact on race relations in the country and is an especially valuable contribution to the study of race and ethnicity in the South.

Derived from first-hand accounts and oral histories collected and stored at Vanderbilt University as well as newspapers and other local history sources, this collection is an invaluable look at the “Gay Nineties” in Nashvillians’ own words. It is, however, not a complete insight into Nashville in the 1890s. Readers should take note that the book focuses almost exclusively on the experiences and worldviews of white Nashvillians. These stories have incredible value for local historians and anyone interested in Nashville history, but the book’s failure to deal with race—as evidenced by Waller’s belief that “the social order was thought to be providential,” which was clearly not true for Nashville’s Black residents who struggled against the unjust systems designed to oppress them—is a grave shortcoming.

Move to the beat and savor the unique creative energy of Music City. From hot Southern food to warm Southern hospitality, you can experience it all with Moon Nashville. Explore the City: Navigate by neighborhood or by activity with color-coded maps, or follow one of our guided neighborhood walks See the Sites: Visit the Grand Ole Opry, Tennessee State Capitol, and Country Music Hall of Fame, or pay respects to the King on a day trip to Graceland. Stroll the Vanderbilt campus, shop for vintage records and a well-worn pair of cowboy boots, and go honky-tonking late into the night Get a Taste of the City: Sample authentic hot chicken, dine at a classic cafeteria-style meat-and-three, or find your new favorite food truck Bars and Nightlife: Tap your foot to some live music at the Bluebird Café or pull up a barstool for a flight of classic Tennessee whiskeys. Get inspired by up-and-coming singers in The Basement before finding your voice at Lonnie's Western Room karaoke, or try a free dance lesson at Wildhorse Saloon Local Advice from Nashvillian Margaret Littman Flexible, strategic itineraries including a two-day tour, a foodie weekend, and "Music City Without Moola," plus day trips like Land Between the Lakes, Bell Buckle, and the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg Tips for Travelers including where to stay, how to safely cycle the city, and more, plus advice for LGBTQ visitors, international travelers, and families with children Maps and Tools like background information on the history and culture of Nashville, easy-to-read maps, full-color photos, and neighborhood guides from Midtown to Music Valley With Moon Nashville's practical tips and local know-how, you can plan your trip your way. Hitting the road? Try Moon Blue Ridge Parkway Road Trip or Moon Nashville to New Orleans Road Trip. If you're heading to more of the South's best cities, try Moon Memphis or Moon Atlanta.

This behind-the scenes look at the Nashville music industry reveals inside tips on how to break through the system and get heard. The new edition includes the latest strategies for Internet marketing, best techniques for pitching songs and artist packages, and more. Songwriters and musicians learn how to get their songs heard in Music City, USA, and find the industry's decision makers.