On the Town

Where's all the country music?

It's on Lower Broadway, in the honky-tonks and small, smoky bars nestled around the mother of country, the Ryman Auditorium. Required stops include: Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Robert's Western World and the Wildhorse Saloon. (See Circuit 2: Lower Broadway in the Drink section for more info.) The Station Inn, on 12th Avenue South, is the finest and most famous bluegrass clubs around. The Bluebird Café in Green Hills has gained an international reputation for presenting the best original country songwriters. It's an intimate space; people in the front row are an arm's length away from the performer on stage. Talk to a friend during the show and you can be shot on site.

And, of course, there's the Grand Ole Opry. But you already knew that.

What if I don't like country music?

Fear not, for Nashville has something for you. The town's got a thriving indie music scene and the concert venues to show them off. If you wear your turtle shell glasses and thrift store tees with pride, be sure to check out the schedules for 12th & Porter, the Belcourt, Kung Fu Coffee House, Exit/In and Springwater. Fans of all types of music should check out the Dancin' in the District lineup at Riverfront Park. Blondie and the Psychedelic Furs are playing this Saturday, and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic are coming two weeks later. You've already missed the reunited Spin Doctors, everyone's favorite band from 1994. So hurry up! Dancin' in the Disctrict ends Sept. 18, and good shows by over-the-hill bands are hard to come by.

If punk is more your scene, you have a bit less to choose from. Ever since Guido's New York Pizzeria dropped off the face of the earth, the pickins have been pretty slim. Try The End and The Muse. Or try opening your own venue.

Looking for rap or hip-hop? Nashville's hip hop community is growing rapidly, but there aren't that many strictly hip-hop venues in town. Exit/In, Printer's Alley and 3rd & Lindsley host a lot of rap artists. Wall Street in Murfreesboro books local rap artists Big Fella and Te'Arthur. Also be sure to check out the concert lineup at Vanderbilt's frat row and Rites of Spring concert series. The audience may be full of white guys in polo shirts, but Vandy manages to pull in names like Jurassic 5, Tone Loc, Black Eyed Peas, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes and Nelly. Yes, those Commodores are all about the Benjamins.

And of course, there's Christian music. Nashville is the center of both Southern music and the Bible Belt, which means that some big Christian rockers live around here. Both Jars of Clay and Michael W. Smith live in Nashville, so be sure to check their tour schedules for stops at home. Aside from Rocketown (See: Where can I see a show if I'm underage?), there aren't that many strictly Christian venues in Nashville; bands play everywhere from 12th & Porter to 3rd & Lindsley to one of our many local mega-churches.

Doesn't Faith Hill live around here?

Yes, yes she does. She lives with her husband, Tim McGraw. Sheryl Crow, Trisha Yearwood, Ben Folds and LeAnn Rimes also call Nashville their home. Alan Jackson and Billy Ray Cyrus also live nearby. They all have nice, big houses and won't be hanging around your dorm room any time soon. (No word on whether Trisha does frat parties.)

What are the good clubs?

NV is one of the trendy new nightclubs on Second Avenue. A New-York style club, NV plays everything from '80s New Wave to Goth and Industrial. If you want only goth, try the Asylum. Every Saturday from 9 p.m.-3 a.m., DJs Rick41 and Ichabod spin goth, industrial, and EBM music at the Asylum.

Excess and Orbit are after-hours clubs right next to each other. Since they don't open until after 1 a.m., they're filled with only true partiers. The Pub of Love is inconsistently good; sometimes boring, sometimes awesome. Club Caliente is a fun Latin and salsa club that lets you shake your bon bon, or whatever it was that Ricky Martin once sang. (Mercifully, he doesn't live here.) The dancers range from experienced salsa dancers to drunk college kids who have no idea what they're doing. Don't be fooled by its obscure location in a Hickory Hollow shopping mall; Prizm covers the hip-hop scene with flair. Want some techno? The Connection is primarily a gay club, but it's also one of the most fun places to dance.

Local bands/artists to watch

We don't have the space to review them all, so here's a list.

Indie, hard and regular rock: Lambchop, The Whole Fantastic World, Feable Weiner, Jetpack, The Shazam, Kings of Leon, Supe & the Sandwiches, Asschapel, Let's Say Baltimore, The Features, Mercator, Lotushalo, Swan Dive, Imaginary Baseball League, Aireline, Intrinsic, Forget Cassettes, Death Comes to Matteson, Venus Hum, Legendary Shack Shakers, Cassio Casanova, Blue Morning, Folk Medicine, Lylas, The Taste.

Dance/Pop: Jennifer Lemmon, My Brother.

Bluegrass and Country: Chris Knight, Bobby Bare Jr., the Cherry Blossoms, Nickel Creek, Saddlesong, Bonepony, Old Crow Medicine Show, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Darrell Scott, Gretchen Peters, Fred Knobloch, Gary Allen, Jesse McReynolds, The Sidemen.