Nashville is a sacred city for country music pilgrims and a goofy playground for the curiously amused. "Tacksville," as it is affectionately nicknamed, is defined by the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, but it also has a genuine collection of honky-tonk bars, rattlesnake boot dealers, and rousing Sunday gospel masses. Very much alive beneath the rhinestones and hairspray lies a historic city that has led Tennessee through its American journey since 1779. Civil war battlefields and plantation homes cover the countryside, and farms surround the music industry powerhouse. Despite its "Nash-Vegas" image, the city sees itself as a cultured "Athens of the South" which is why they built a replica of the Parthenon.

The other conspicuous element in Nashville's make-up is religion, leading to its other nickname as the "Protestant Vatican." There are over 700 churches, more per capita than anywhere elsein the US, many seminaries, and a bible-publishing plant. Music lovers, history aficionados, sports fans, and pop culture buffs alike stream into Nashville with fixed preconceptions and specific expectations, then find themselves heading home with a whole new appreciation and understanding of the foot-stompin' capital of the USA. Come on down!