MUSIC CITY

[HostDave]

If you think that there aren’t new places to explore in America, then think again. While the American Queen has ranged from Minnesota to Louisiana and from Missouri to Pennsylvania during her 2012 inaugural season and throughout 2013, our guests let us know there is even more of America that is ripe for exploration by riverboat. We are a company driven by what our guests want and we take the time to listen to your comments and to incorporate your feedback into the experience we offer on the American Queen.

That’s why in 2014 we will be offering our first voyages on the Cumberland River to Nashville, TN, America’s Music City. We encourage you to download our 2014 brochure here for more details. Choose from two 9-day vacations. One departs Jeffersonville, IN for Nashville on October 17, 2014 and the other leaves from Nashville headed to Jeffersonville on October 24, 2014.

Our guests are a varied group. Some are sailing on a river journey for the first time while others have sailed previously either with us or one of the companies, such as the former Delta Queen Steamboat Company, that provided our inspiration for river travel. Nashville has grown rapidly as a tourist destination through the past few decades and is one of our most requested cities. It was part of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company’s roster of itineraries, although never with the American Queen. You’ll find that the Cumberland River is a wonderful, intimate river where you are always right next to shore. It makes for a remarkable sailing experience but also precise navigation. For example, sailing from downtown Nashville, the American Queen has to travel downriver far enough to find a spot wide enough to turn around and head upriver to her ports of call.

Nashville is so unique because it is so true to its roots. The city was built upon its music. The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. has a wonderful website where you can learn about the many attractions the city has to offer. The website describes the very beginnings of Nashville and its subsequent development into Music City today, noting that “music has been the common thread connecting the life and soul of the city and its people.”

Nashville’s boosters go on to point out that the “earliest settlers celebrated in the late 1700s with fiddle tunes and buck dancing after safely disembarking on the shores of the Cumberland River, a spot now commemorated on First Avenue North with a replica of the original Fort Nashborough. Nashville’s first celebrity, the noted frontiersman and Congressman Davy Crockett, was known far and wide for his colorful stories and fiddle playing.”

“As the 1800s unfolded, Nashville grew to become a national center for music publishing. The first around-the-world tour by a musical act was by the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Nashville’s Fisk University. Their efforts helped fund the school’s mission of educating freed slaves after the Civil War – and also put Nashville on the map as a global music center. In fact, upon playing for the Queen of England, the queen stated the Fisk Jubilee Singers must come from the ‘Music City.’

“In 1897, a group of Confederate veterans chose Nashville as the site of a massive reunion. The event was held at the former tabernacle that would later become known as the Ryman Auditorium. So many former Confederate soldiers poured into town that a new balcony was built inside the tabernacle to accommodate their great numbers. It was dubbed ‘The Confederate Gallery,’ a designation still visible today as the Ryman continues to host an array of musical events.

“Before even the Ryman became known as the downtown home of the Grand Ole Opry, it already enjoyed a national reputation. Enrico Caruso, John Phillip Sousa and the Vienna Orchestra gave roof-raising performances there that earned the Ryman the nickname ‘Carnegie Hall of the South.’

“In 1925, the establishment of radio station WSM and its launch of the broadcast that would be called the Grand Ole Opry further secured Nashville’s reputation as a musical center and sparked its durable nickname of Music City. The Opry, still staged live every week, is America’s longest-running radio show, in continuous production for more than 85 years.

“In recent years, cable television has broadcast Music City’s stars and music to the world. CMT and GAC have taken country music to a new level of acclaim and recognition. The gospel music series hosted by Nashville’s Bobby Jones on Black Entertainment Television is now cable’s longest-running program. Nashville has also become a hub for pop, rock, bluegrass, Americana, jazz, classical, contemporary Christian, blues, and soul music. Artists like Robert Plant, Kid Rock, Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, and Michael Buble, among many others, have come to Music City to write and record. Names like Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, Michael McDonald, Keb’ Mo’, Sheryl Crow, Paramore, Hot Chelle Rae, and Jack White have chosen to call Nashville home.

“The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home to the renowned, Grammy award-winning Nashville Symphony, anchors the downtown end of the recently designated Music Mile. The Music Mile is a symbolic stretch of roadway connecting the $123 million Symphony Center with the music district of Music Row, the vibrant new entertainment venues on Demonbreun Street, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Music City Walk of Fame and the Bridgestone Arena. The Music Mile perfectly illustrates how the music of Music City is indeed a common thread throughout the business, cultural and entertainment sectors of Nashville.

“Live music can be seen and heard every day and night of the week in Nashville. The world-famous honky tonks, located on Broadway, offer free live music 365 days a year. And with more than 130 music venues around town ranging from large arenas and concert halls to small clubs and featuring nearly every genre of music, it’s easy to see why this is the city that music calls home.”

We’re excited to include Nashville on two of our cruises in 2014 and we encourage you to download the online version of our brochure here for more detailed information about our 2014 schedules. Our thanks also goes to the friendly folks at the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. who provided much of the information for this blog and have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome as we first began to explore the possibility of adding their city and the Cumberland River to our roster of itineraries in 2014.