Road Trip Music in Tennessee

From the blues and Elvis in Memphis to the heartbeat of country and the soul of gospel in Music City through the high lonesome of the Great Smokey Mountains, Tennessee is a state and a people filled with music, and with musical contrasts which yet seem to work together. Right now, middle Tennessee and Nashville are recovering and still hurting from recent major flooding, the worst the area has seen in more than a hundred years. As the Great American Road Trip winds through Tennessee, take a listen to music from two Nashville natives -- and it may not be quite what you’d expect.

















Amy Grant is a fine songwriter -- she has new album out, in fact, and well worth your listening. Her album from a few years back called Legacy...Hymns & Faith will take you deep into the heart of the American South, though. If you grew up in the region, this music played in the background of your daily life, whatever your religious thoughts. If you’re not familiar with the area, listening to this music will teach you more about it.

Matraca Berg is the writer behind many top country hits, and even more songs that make fine album cuts for stars including Patty Loveless, Martina McBride, and Pam Tillis. Her own solo albums such as Lying to the Moon & Other Stories sometimes take a bit of looking for. They are well worth it, filled with great singing and vivid, insightful writing, which is by turns funny, serious, thoughtful, and lyrical.

The Cumberland River winds through the heart of downtown Nashville. Here’s Berg singing Oh Cumberland.




you may also wish to see.
Berg often appears with musical friends Gretchen Peters and Suzy Bogguss as Wine Women & Song

Music Road: Nashville floods -- how you can help
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee - another way to help Nashville
Music Road: Amy Grant: Mosaic

This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’ll find there.
For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins

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