Nashville

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County.[3] It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, banking and transportation industries.

Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 613,856 as of 2006,[1] according to United States Census Bureau estimates. The 2006 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,486,695, making it the largest and fastest-growing metropolitan area in the state.

Education
 
Administrative Building of Free Will Baptist Bible College.Nashville is often labeled the "Athens of the South" due to the many colleges and universities in the city and metropolitan area.[citation needed] These colleges and universities in Nashville include American Baptist College, Aquinas College, The Art Institute of Tennessee- Nashville, Belmont University, Draughons Junior College, Fisk University, Free Will Baptist Bible College, Gupton College, Lipscomb University, Meharry Medical College, Nashville School of Law, Nashville Auto Diesel College, Nashville State Community College, Strayer University, Tennessee State University, Trevecca Nazarene University, University of Phoenix, Vanderbilt University, and Watkins College of Art and Design.

Within 30 miles (50 km) of Nashville in Murfreesboro is Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), a full-sized public university with Tennessee's largest undergraduate population. Enrollment in post-secondary education in the city is around 43,000. Within the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area which includes MTSU, Cumberland University (Lebanon), Volunteer State Community College (Gallatin), and O'More College of Design (Franklin) total enrollment exceeds 74,000. Within a 40 mile (65 km) radius are Austin Peay State University (Clarksville) and Columbia State Community College (Columbia), enrolling an additional 13,600.

The city is served by the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and numerous private schools, such as Harpeth Hall School, Montgomery Bell Academy, Father Ryan and Saint Cecilia Academy, the latter of which was named as one of the Top 50 Catholic High Schools in America (2004, 2006 and 2007).

Culture
 
Ryman Auditorium, the "Mother Church of Country Music"Much of the city's cultural life has revolved around its large university community. Particularly significant in this respect were two groups of critics and writers who were associated with Vanderbilt University in the early twentieth century, the Fugitives and the Agrarians.

Popular destinations include Fort Nashborough, a reconstruction of the original settlement; the Tennessee State Museum; and The Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The State Capitol is one of the oldest working state capitol buildings in the nation, while The Hermitage is one of the older presidential homes open to the public. The Nashville Zoo is one of the city's newer attractions.

Country music
Many popular tourist sites involve country music, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium, which was for many years the site of the Grand Ole Opry, and Belcourt Theater. Each year, the CMA Music Festival (formerly known as Fan Fair) brings thousands of country fans to the city. Nashville was once home of television shows like Hee Haw, and Pop! Goes the Country.

Nashville was once home to the Opryland USA theme park, which operated from 1972 to 1997 before being closed by its owners Gaylord Entertainment, and soon after demolished to make room for the Opry Mills mega-shopping mall.

Lower Broadway is home to many honky tonk bars and clubs.[citation needed]

Christian pop music
The Christian pop and rock music industry is based along Nashville's Music Row, with a great influence in neighboring Williamson County. The Christian record companies include EMI (formally Sparrow Records), Rocketown Records, Beach Street and Reunion Records with many of the genre's most popular acts such as Rebecca St. James, tobyMac, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, Avalon and Newsboys based there.

Jazz 
Kirk Whalum visiting the audience at a riverfront concert in 2007Although Nashville was never known as a jazz town, it did have many great jazz bands including The Nashville Jazz Machine led by Dave Converse and its current version, the Nashville Jazz Orchestra led by Jim Williamson as well as The Establishment led by Billy Adair. The Francis Craig Orchestra entertained Nashvillians from 1929 to 1945 from the Oak Bar and Grille Room in the Hermitage Hotel. Craig's orchestra was also the first to broadcast over local radio station WSM and enjoyed phenomenal success with a 12-year show that was aired over the entire NBC network. In the late 1930s, he introduced a newcomer, Dinah Shore, a former cheerleader and local graduate of Hume Fogg High School and Vanderbilt University.

Radio station WMOT in nearby Murfreesboro has aided significantly in the recent revival of the city's jazz scene, as has the non-profit Nashville Jazz Workshop, which holds concerts in a renovated building in the north Nashville neighborhood of Germantown.

Civil War
Civil War history is important to the city's tourism industry. Sites pertaining to the Battle of Nashville and the nearby Battle of Franklin and Battle of Stones River can be seen, along with several well-preserved antebellum plantation houses such as Belle Meade Plantation and Belmont Mansion.

Art museums
Nashville has several arts centers and museums, including the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located in the former post office building; Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art; the Tennessee State Museum; Fisk University's Van Vechten and Aaron Douglas Galleries; Vanderbilt University's Fine Art Gallery and Sarratt Gallery; and the Parthenon.

Parks
Metro Board of Parks and Recreation owns and manages 10,200 acres (4,120 ha) of land and 99 parks and greenways (comprising more than 3% of the total area of the county). 2,684 acres (1,086 ha) of land is home to Warner Parks, which houses a 5,000 square-foot (460 m²) learning center, 20 miles (30 km) of scenic roads, 12 miles (19 km) of hiking trails, and 10 miles (16 km) of horse trails. In late 2005, Centennial Park began offering free wireless broadband internet service.

Warner Parks, the largest municipal parks in the state, are home to the annual Iroquois Steeplechase.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains parks on Old Hickory Lake and Percy Priest Lake. These parks are used for multiple activities including fishing, water-skiing, sailing and boating. Percy Priest Lake is also home to the Vanderbilt Sailing Club.

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