The Grand Ole Opry, the show that effectively created the country music industry, broadcasts live every weekend from this purpose-built auditorium in Music Valley, ten miles north-east of downtown. The 4,400-seat hall is intentionally rustic — wooden pews, a barn-board backdrop — and the show is consciously old-fashioned: a rotating line-up of around a dozen acts, two-song slots, comedy in between, all broadcast live on WSM-AM.
Daytime backstage tours run continuously when shows are not in performance. Evening tickets are reasonably priced (compared with Broadway honky-tonks) and the experience is genuine — this is where serious country artists still come to make a debut. Pair the trip with a stop at the Opry Mills outlet mall and the Gaylord Opryland Resort nearby.