Nashville

Date: November 13, 2018 – November 15, 2018
Location: Nashville, Tennessee

After visiting our friends in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we flew to Nashville, Tennessee. After leaving our luggage at the Airbnb, we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

This is Elvis Presley’s 1960 Gold Cadillac limousine. It has 40 coats of paint that is made from crushed diamonds and fish scales. The car also has 24-karat gold plate trim and the inside has gold as well.

This is Webb Pierce’s 1962 Pontiac Bonneville that he paid Nudie Cohen to customize. Nudie was popular for designing decorative rhinestone-covered suits and then later cars.

Pierce’s car has a seven-foot wide pair of steer horns mounted on the front grille. On the inside there is a western saddle console, horseshoe-shaped pedals and more than 150 silver dollars on the leather upholstery.

After the museum we got a late lunch on lower Broadway and listened to live music at Honky Tonk Central.

We came to Nashville because both Brian and I had never been. The dates that we picked to be in Nashville fit in with other areas in the United States that we were visiting. It wasn’t until a couple days before we arrived in Nashville that we realized the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards would be taking place during our time in Nashville. A complete coincidence!

We purchased last minute tickets and attended the show.

From our seats we could see the artists arriving.

Jason Aldean and girlfriend Brittany Kerr

Here is Jason Aldean and Trisha Yearwood talking to each other before the awards started.

Trisha Yearwood

Kelsea Ballerini arriving.

Kelsea Ballerini

Luke Bryan kicked off the awards show.

During his performance of What Makes You Country, he brought other new artists on stage. Below is Luke Combs.

The hosts for the night were Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.

Here is Luke Combs receiving the award for new artist of the year.

Thomas Rhett performing Life Changes.

Dan & Shay performing Tequila.

During all of the commercials on television the artists would get up and talk to each other. Here are Keith Urban and Thomas Rhett talking.

Carrie Underwood performing Love Wins.

Little Big Town presenting the Album of the Year award.

The Album of the Year was Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves.

Florida Georgia Line and Bebe Rexha performing Meant to Be.

One of the performance stages was near the back of the stadium.

Luke Combs performing She Got the Best of Me. A few other artists also performed on that stage.

When Keith Urban started performing Never Coming Down, it was hard to find where he was on stage. Turns out he was standing on top of the gold lights on the stage.

Pistol Annies performing Got My Name Changed Back.

Dierks Bentley and Brothers Osborne performing Burning Man.

Brad Paisley performing Bucked Off.

Lara Spencer and Martina McBride presenting the Male Vocalist of the Year award.

Carrie Underwood accepting the Female Vocalist of the Year award.

Keith Urban was announced as the Entertainer of the Year. Here he is hugging his wife, Nicole Kidman.

Keith Urban accepting the Entertainer of the Year award.

After the awards were over, many of the artists went to congratulate Keith Urban.

Keith Urban and Luke Bryan hugging

The CMAs were enjoyable. We are glad that we went.

November 15, 2018

We went to the Tennessee State Museum, which was recommended both by our Lyft driver and by Brian’s friend Mike. It is free to enter.

The new museum opened on October 4, 2018. The museum is mostly from 1760 to present day, but there is a little bit that goes back to 13,000 BCE.

This is a carved rocking horse sculpture of The Tortoise and the Hare done by Russ Jacobsohn.

It is interesting to see what items from the 2000’s are now being put in museums. Brian had the Motorola flip phone, Gameboy, Super Nintendo, and video games all pictured below.

We enjoyed the Tennessee State Museum and were surprised that the entire museum is free.

After the museum we went to Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery.

We took a tour of the distillery.

After the tour, we sampled Nelson’s Whiskey and Belle Meade Bourbon.

After the distillery, we went to lower Broadway for food and to hear more live music.

Nashville was very enjoyable. It was fortunate that the dates worked out perfectly so we could attend the 52nd CMA Awards.