The Nashville network

My recent visit to Nashville made for a nice contrast to my childhood visits to Tennessee. As a kid my family would occasionally make sojourns to the twin cities of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both fun places known for hayseed kitsch and cuisine. Nashville bore the signs of most major cities, skyscrapers, parking garages and rerouted traffic. Smaller than Atlanta in both size and population, Nashville is a much more walkable town. Shops and boutiques are concentrated on a few convenient blocks. Restaurants emit smells of everything from wings any way you like 'em to Chinese stir-fry. I passed on the tour of the Grand Ol' Opry and the headquarters of CMT. I did see budding country music singers waiting to be discovered as they played on the streets outside these places. I heard Rockabilly bands blaring from the bars. That was as close as I needed to come to local music.