Nashville! - Retrospective travel blog

We have done three trips to Nashville in the past three years, all of them in November/December and all of them basically just to see live concerts.

I tell people I love Nashville and it’s absolutely true, although it’s basically with the caveat that I’ve seen maybe 5% of Nashville (downtown and the area around Grand Ole Opry) So the tourist parts of Nashville are quite fun. The rest of the city that people actually live in? I have no idea. But that’s not the point.

Our first Nashville trip was the result of a couple of things - a variety of people we know saying how much fun they had in Nashville and we should go, and Food Network celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan having restaurants in the city.

So we booked ourselves a trip to Nashville, made reservations at The Mockingbird, and I also bought ourselves tickets to a charity dinner that Maneet was holding when we were there in the hopes we would meet her. Which we did. She’s absolutely lovely.


We also did our first trip to the Grand Ole Opry where we got an amazing show featuring Tricia Yearwood and Wynonna Judd, neither of which were announced when we basically bought our tickets blind. So that worked out well.

Our second Nashville trip was basically an in-and-out to see the Amy Grant/Vince Gill Christmas show. We’ve been Amy Grant fans since we were teens and had never seen her in concert. The show was at the Ryman Auditorium, and was just tremendous. The Ryman is such a fantastic venue for live music and this show was exactly what I needed at that point in my life.



Then last December we went back to Nashville to see The Birth of a King by Tommee Profitt live at the Bridgestone Arena. If you’re unfamiliar with TBOAK (as it’s commonly known), Tommee Profitt is a music producer who about five years ago created a cinematic reimagining of Christmas carols called The Birth of a King. He then did one live performance in Nashville that was filmed for YouTube (also released as a live album) and because popular enough that he then did two, one night sold out performances at the Grand Ole Opry. Those were so popular that last year he brought the show to Bridgestone Arena and sold it out. 

To say I’m an enormous fan of TBOAK is an understatement. The live concert album/performance is an absolute masterpiece of musicianship and as someone who has sung in a worship band at church for about two decades now, I was blown away by the artistry, creativity and overall vision for this project. I listen to the live album year-round and Noel is literally one of the best things I've ever heard in my life. Seeing TBOAK in person became one of those bucket list items for me and the fact we got to see it live in its biggest setting yet was one of those moments in my life I’ll never forget. It was more than a concert - it was a worship experience unlike anything I’ve experienced and a glimpse of Heaven. So special. I’m not going to post clips because I don’t want to run into copyright issues, but spend 90 minutes listening to the TBOAK live show on your favourite streaming service. It’s worth it. (Also, if Tommee ever does a live performance of his new The Resurrection of a King album that he put out at Easter, we’ll be right back in Nashville for it.)

Beyond the specific shows we went to see, the main Broadway strip of Nashville has tons of bars that do live music pretty much all day and night without cover charges. So you can sit and listen to bands all day and enjoy without breaking the bank. We spent many an hour just bar hopping to listen to music and it’s always a good time. And downtown Nashville is full of great food options - you’ll never go hungry.

The only real downside of Nashville is getting there and back. There are basically no direct flights at the time of year we have gone and we’ve largely been stuck with red-eyes leaving after midnight and connecting first thing in the morning in Atlanta for a hopper over to Nashville; and then return flights leaving at 5 am back to Atlanta to then fly back to Edmonton. It’s a pretty long and tiring haul.

If you want more pix from our Nashville trips, I have story collections on my Instagram that show way more than what I’ve talked about here.


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