Look What Music Has Done To Nashville

Bachelorettes, Bibles and Amazon: Is Nashville the perfect model for a second-tier city? That's the headline in The Guardian, a British daily newspaper that's been around since 1821. With the Internet, it's seen around the world.

Nashville, the "it" city right now. If you thought things were crowded on Music Row, The Guardian tells you why. Ninety-four people-plus or minus move into Nashville every day. Fourteen million visit.

In the last week of April, the town will explode with the NFL draft, a Buffett concert and a major marathon. It's insane and music was the catalyst for all this despite what any might tell you. The Opry, TNN and the ABC show, Nashville, with Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift put the city in the forefront of cool places. The 14 million don't come to see the healthcare company buildings. They come to party!

If you walk down lower Broadway to the honky-tonks, you hear lots of live music ... almost every club has one or more live bands.

Country music is there, of course, but hardly exclusive. With the Lil Nas X hit at the top of the Billboard Top 100, Country is what someone says it is. Country and Bluegrass music performed by Porter and Dolly and Tammy and Loretta made Nashville famous. Johnny, Waylon and Garth took it to the next level, then Taylor took it around the world, starting at Country and going everywhere else. (Her new music comes April 26th.)

Read that Guardian story! You will learn about the struggles going on in a town that is Music City USA.

As the writers fight in Hollywood, the writers in Nashville are still fighting with the streaming folks. Unfair royalty payments, but too few ever mention that.

Garth is one of the few acts working this weekend as he plays to 75,000-plus at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Things will really heat up after Easter as the NFL Draft will talk over downtown...100,000 and then some. Tim McGraw and others will do free concerts. Nashville can't say no to anything these days. From all those Bird cycles littered everywhere to events on top of events grinding everything to a stop downtown.

Nashville still makes Bibles and will soon make Bob Dylan-branded booze in an old church. The town is changing and so is Music Row. Kelsea Ballerini just became an Opry member this week. Digital is moving faster that broadcast can understand ... Better fasten your seat belts and take along a good parachute.