Is Nashville Worth Visiting If You Don’t Like Country Music?

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Yes. Country music is central to Nashville’s image, but the city’s rock clubs, songwriter rooms, art museums, African American music museum, restaurants, and neighborhoods give a non-country fan a full trip. The honky-tonks of Lower Broadway are built around country, and you can enjoy Nashville while spending an hour there or skipping it.

Music That Isn’t Country

Nashville’s studios have long recorded far beyond country. The Tennessee Encyclopedia notes that early rock acts such as the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly recorded in Nashville in the 1950s and that Bob Dylan recorded much of Blonde on Blonde here in 1966. Today you can build an evening around venues like these:

  • Exit/In, at 2208 Elliston Place near Vanderbilt, which calls itself “Nashville’s Music Forum Since 1971” (Exit/In).
  • The Basement East, at 917 Woodland Street in East Nashville (The Basement).
  • Cannery Hall, a multi-room venue with a main stage and smaller rooms (Cannery Hall).
  • The Station Inn in the Gulch, a listening room for bluegrass, classic country, and roots music (Station Inn). Bluegrass grew out of the same rural Southern traditions as country, so if you dislike country specifically, a bluegrass night may or may not suit you.

Check each venue’s calendar for your dates; their lineups change nightly and are where you will find rock, indie, Americana, and other genres.

Museums for Non-Country Visitors

  • The National Museum of African American Music, which describes itself as the only museum dedicated to music created, influenced, and inspired by African Americans, open Monday noon to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (NMAAM).
  • The Frist Art Museum at 919 Broadway, with rotating exhibitions (Frist).
  • The Tennessee State Museum, free, at 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd (Tennessee State Museum).
  • The Parthenon in Centennial Park, a full-scale replica of the Athenian original with an art museum inside (Centennial Park Conservancy).

Even the Ryman Auditorium, closely tied to country history, opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle and has hosted many kinds of performers; its tour is about the building as much as the genre (Ryman history).

Food and Neighborhoods

Nashville’s restaurants, from hot chicken and meat-and-three to international cooking in South Nashville, have nothing to do with musical taste. Neighborhoods such as East Nashville, Germantown, the Gulch, and 12 South each have their own restaurants, bars, and shops. A guide to choosing among them is in the real Nashville beyond Broadway.

A Plan for a Non-Country Fan

  1. Day: NMAAM and the Frist, or the State Museum and the Parthenon.
  2. Evening: dinner in a neighborhood, then a show at Exit/In, the Basement East, or Cannery Hall.
  3. Optional: one hour on Lower Broadway to see what the fuss is about, on your own terms.

If you are still unsure, look at the venue calendars for your travel dates before booking; if two or three shows catch your eye, Nashville will work for you.

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