Ron and I are on a week-long bus tour of The Music Cities, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Our first two days are in Nashville and we are staying at the huge Gaylord Opryland Hotel. This is a destination in itself with several enormous atriums (atria?) housing gardens and a river and shops and restaurants. The rooms are very comfortable, but an added bonus is that the hotel is beginning to decorate for Christmas. This hotel is about three minutes from the Opryland Theater. Fun!


I am someone who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge or expectations about places we visit, but that is especially true of Nashville. We visited the RCA Studio B where many recordings were made. Elvis recorded many of his hits here. It is rather an underwhelming place to visit until you hear the story of the place and the history it embodies… at which time it becomes rather amazing and impressive. In the Studio B, there are no fluorescent lights as would be typical for the time. Elvis thought fluorescent lights were rather cold and uninspiring. He had colored flood lights that could be changed to create the mood needed for various songs. The acoustics were such that the blue X on the floor designated the “sweet spot” where Elvis would stand for the best recording. One of this studio’s nicknames is the Home of a Thousand Hits because that is how many hit songs were recorded here during its years old operation.