Home › Travel Guides › North America Travel Guide › United States of America › Tennessee › Nashville › Nashville Nightlife
Image gallery

Downtown Nashville

© Creative Commons / Jimbenttree

-600
Nashville Local time

Weather in Nashville
Sunny
9
°C
United States of America

Nashville Nightlife

Music is the focus of Nashville's nightlife. Acts play throughout the day and into the night. Nashville also attracts rock, swing, blues and jazz musicians. Downtown is the hub, with the liveliest places along Broadway or in Printer's Alley. The legal drinking age in Tennessee is 21 years and bars are licensed until 0300, but most tend to close earlier on Sundays. Dress code is 'anything goes' in the honky-tonks and 'smart-casual' elsewhere.

The free, weekly listings magazine The Rage (www.nashvillerage.com) and the more comprehensive free weekly paper, Nashville Scene (www.nashvillescene.com) provide listings.

The dominance of country music tends to overshadow the fact that Nashville is also a hotbed of many other types of art and culture.

Bars in Nashville

Broadway Brewhouse Downtown

One of the most respected brewhouses in the South, this downtown branch has around 75 beers on tap at any one time, and a 18m (60ft) bar to accommodate those seeking out the perfect pint. To accompany the ales, they serve up original pizza recipes, including Cajun and Brisket. The bar is especially busy whenever there’s a local sports fixture, but it’s worth the crush for the choice of drinks.

317 Broadway
Tel: (615) 271 2838.
Website: www.braodwaybrewhouse.net

Patterson House Bar & Restaurant

This new addition, located in the trendy Gulch area, offers an elaborate selection of authentic cocktails poured over eight types of twice filtered ice and uniquely mixed with house made syrups and bitters. The joint also offers a 15-item menu with everything priced under $11. Weekends are busy, so pick a week night and sit at the bar for the full experience.

1711 Division Street
Tel: (615) 636 724.

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

Close to the stage door of the church-like Ryman Auditorium (original home of the Grand Ole Opry), musicians used to nip in here for a drink between shows and famous visitors have included Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristoffersen. It’s a little rough and ready, but in a good way, and 2010 sees its 50th anniversary, so it must be doing something right.

422 Broadway
Tel: (615) 726 0463.
Website: www.tootsies.net

Clubs in Nashville

Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar

Slightly less tacky than the New Orleans street that it is named after, come to hear a full daily line-up of live blues. It’s a notoriously busy venue, located in Pinter’s Alley so enjoying lots of passing trade. The bar is amply stocked with local beers, and good food is available, particularly southern-themed sandwiches, such as shrimp po-boys.

220 Printer's Alley
Tel: (615) 242 5837.
Website: www.bourbonstreetblues.com

Mai

Mai is a new upscale lounge located in the Gulch. Mai promotes itself as ‘Nightlife Redefined’, which may be pushing it a bit, though it is pretty trendy for Nashville. It features a chic dance floor area and exclusive VIP area (complete with its own restrooms) and attracts a crowd more likely to breakdance than line dance. Don’t expect to see too many cowboy hats.

125 12th Avenue North
Tel: (615) 2511889.
Website: www.mainashville.com

The Bluebird Cafe

This music club is the place for singers and songwriters to be noticed. Many, such as Garth Brooks, played here as virtual unknowns, and have gone on to fame and fortune as top recording artists. Around 100 people can fit into the performance room, and you could be rubbing shoulders with some high-flying music industry executives. But don’t let that out you off.

4104 Hillsboro Road
Tel: (615) 383 1461.
Website: www.bluebirdcafe.com

Wildhorse Saloon

One of the newer institutions in town, the WIldhorse is famous for its line dancing nights, and has live bands virtually around the clock. To celebrate its opening in 1994, a herd of live cattle was actually stampeded past the venue. Now, the converted historic warehouse is a three-floor, multi-purpose venue – including the largest restaurant and largest TV screen in the city. Arrive in the early evening for those line dancing lessons.

120 Second Avenue North
Tel: (615) 902 8200.
Website: www.wildhorsesaloon.com

Live Music in Nashville

The Ryman Auditorium

Best known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry, the auditorium first opened in 1892. The Opry was based here from 1934 until 1974, when it moved to its current home. The list of performers here reads like a who’s who of country music, everyone from Elvis down, essentially. The venue seats 2,300 people, and its church-like appearance serves it well as a place to worship country heroes.

116 Fifth Avenue
Tel: (615) 889 3060.
Website: www.ryman.com

Culture in Nashville

Blair Recital Hall

For another chance of a classical fix, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra
performs in various venues throughout the city across the year, including the Blair Recital Hall at the Blair School of Music. The NCO’s mission is to provide ‘Music Without Boundaries’ to Nashvillians, and has a reputation for breaking musical moulds.

Venderbilt University
www. blair.vanderbilt.edu

Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Designed with the perfect acoustics of the European concert halls, this is the permanent home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The neoclassical building is a work of art featuring a custom-built pipe organ and versatile concert hall that can convert from raked to cabaret seating, or transform into a spectacular ballroom for world class performances.

One Symphony Place
Tel: (615) 687 6500.
Website: www.nashvillesymphony.org

Tennessee Performing Arts Center

The principal venue is the TPAC, which is home to the Nashville Ballet. They regularly peform classic such as Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, sometimes with a local twist or contemporary interpretation. TPAC also hosts any number of touring contemporary dance shows.

505 Deaderick Street
Tel: (615) 782 4000.
Website: www.tpac.org

Tennessee Performing Arts Centre

One of the city’s larger music venues, the TPAC hosts bigger names through to the honest to God legends of the country music scene and beyond. It occupies an entire city block, and has four performance theatres, the biggest housing 2,400 people. The venue also hosts touring Braodway shows, as well as plays and contemporary dance – that is, just about anything big enough that passes through town.

505 Deaderick Street
Tel: (615) 782 4000.
Website: www.tpac.org

Tennessee Repertory Theatre Company

While national touring companies fill the main stage, this locally respected troupe performs a wide range of material at either the James K Polk Theatre or the Andrew Johnson Theatre, in the same venue. The company prides itself on high standards, and locally produced plays utilising local talent wherever possible.

Tel: (615) 244 4878.
Website: www.tennesseerep.org

Travel Deals

Recommended Sites:

Protect yourself from malaria
Before you travel, find out if your holiday destination is in a malaria zone.
(An educational initiative organised and funded by GlaxoSmithKline Travel Health. UK/MARK/0173/10 September 2010)
Africa, the way it should be seen
We´re cutting the cost of Africa overland trips by up to a whopping 40%. 25% off many trips departing by 30/6/12.
Travel insurance
For residents of over 150 countries. High levels of medical, evacuation, emergency & most adventure activities covered.