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General Tennessee Release

In Tennessee, the Stage is Set for You!

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From the Mississippi River to the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee is waiting for you to discover the best of America’s riveting history, exciting outdoors, great musical styles, friendly people and mouthwatering foods! Take a back road or stroll city sidewalks; it’s all here, so come to Tennessee where you’ll be center stage on your next vacation!

Tennessee has endless blockbuster entertainment from Beale Street blues and Elvis’s rock ’n’ roll in Memphis to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry and Music Row’s country, gospel, and pop music to the bluegrass of Appalachia. There’s world-famous events including BBQ cook off’s at Memphis in May, Gaylord Opryland, and Jack Daniel Distillery.  Tennessee offers eclectic festivals like South Pittsburg’s Cornbread Festival, Bell Buckle’s Moon Pie Festival and Jonesborough’s International Storytelling Festival.  And for Tennessee’s fine arts, there are world-class galleries like the Frist in Nashville, the Hunter in Chattanooga and Knoxville’s Museum of Art.

Outdoor enthusiasts can take a hike through the deep forests of Big South Fork, raft down roaring Olympic gorges of the Ocoee  River, follow pioneer footsteps through the Cumberland Gap and the Great Smoky Mountains, and catch a glimpse of the nesting American bald eagles in the cypress trees of Reelfoot Lake. Can’t decide? You don’t have to. In Tennessee, you’re welcome to try a little bit of everything.
History is everywhere, from the homes of U.S. presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson,  to the Civil War battlefields of Shiloh, Stones River and Franklin.  Tour the self-guided Antebellum Trail through Davidson, Williamson and Maury counties, and ride along the ancient Natchez Trace Parkway in Middle Tennessee. Travel by paddlewheel in Clarksville and Savannah. Explore English ancestry in Elizabethton and Rugby, and follow the origins of country music in Bristol, Knoxville and Nashville.

And there are museums to showcase it all. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore details Cherokee Heritage, and the American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge chronicles our transition from the 18th century to the Atomic Age. The Stax Rock ’n’ Soul Museum and Sun Studio in Memphis reveal our influential impact on American music in the last 50 years, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville showcases all of country music’s roots. The Casey Jones Village in Jackson illustrates one man’s deeds in legend and song, and the International Towing Museum in Chattanooga reveals how everything has a history worth telling.

Hear our best music for yourself in small town festivals and attractions. There’s the Smithville Fiddler’s Jamboree where famous musicians are actually discovered, and the Brownsville Blues Festival rooted in talent that started in the cotton fields and played all the way to Memphis. Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge is jam packed with musical shows, and the Cumberland Playhouse in Crossville offers the best in Broadway musicals every year.  And The Dixie Carter Performing Arts Center in her hometown of Huntingdon offers some of Tennessee’s finest theatrical events.

Tennessee is a four season state. In deep winter, there’s cross country skiing at Roan Mountain State Park. In spring, massive clouds of white dogwood blooms fill the forests of East Tennessee in and around Knoxville and are celebrated each year at Knoxville’s Dogwood Festival.  In summer, cool off in Sweetwater’s underground Lost Sea, or take a pontoon ride at Birdsong Resort in Camden to see divers harvest freshwater pearls. In the fall, pause under a tree of brilliant fall leaves at one of our 54 state parks.  So, what are you waiting for? Come to Tennessee, where you’ll be center stage!

West Tennessee

The land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers is a stage rich with natural, historical and cultural drama. The biggest earthquake in American history, an 1811-12 show-stopper gave us Reelfoot Lake near Dyersburg. In West Tennessee, David Crockett lost a Congressional election and left for the Alamo in Texas.  The Civil War took its toll at Shiloh, the scene of the first major battle in the Western theater of the war.
The blues may not have been born here, but the minute they learned to walk, they found their way to Beale Street in Memphis. West Tennessee was the stage for black and white musicians who turned the world on its ear. The Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum chronicles this amazing story. Graceland offers an insiders look at the life of Elvis, and Soulsville reveals Stax Records’ greats like Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding.

Now it’s your turn to take the stage in West Tennessee. Walk to the National Civil Rights Museum. See the microphone Elvis sang into at Sun Studio. Take a road trip to Alex Haley’s home in Henning, where Roots began. Reel in a monster catfish at Birdsong Resort in Camden or Pickwick Landing State Park. Make a whistle-stop at Casey Jones Village in Jackson before going to La Grange, home to the best antebellum homes in the state. West Tennessee invites you to be swept away by the land between the rivers.

Middle Tennessee

You really want to get at the heart of Middle Tennessee? Then hop in the car, grab a map and just listen for the music. You’ll hear country, blues, rock… you'd expect that.  But there's so much more to hear when you take the time to listen.

Like the creak of floorboards in pre-Civil War mansions along the Antebellum Trail. Or an anvil ringing at 1700s Mansker's Station in Goodlettsville. Amid the murmurs of excited antique shoppers in downtown Franklin, the faint echo of Civil War battlefields still haunt the breeze, including at Franklin’s Carter House as well as the Carnton Plantation, setting for the New York Times bestseller, Widow of the South.   In quaint small towns like Pulaski and Murfreesboro, the wind carries whispers of history through museums, courthouses and recreated pioneer villages. Clopping hooves and braying mules punctuate the song of Columbia's Mule Day festival, while impromptu proclamations of love for a little chocolate and marshmallow cake are the beat of Bell Buckle's Moon Pie Festival. Head down the road to Lynchburg, where the trickle of a natural spring yields up some of Mr. Jack Daniel's world-famous sour mash whiskey.

Have a hankering for more natural music? Tennessee's got you covered with the sound of world-record bass, jumping in the placid waters of Dale Hollow Lake and Center Hill Lakes, named by USA Today in the “Top Ten Best Places to Float Your Houseboat.”  

When the sun goes down, the notes flow from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium as well as the more than 100 live music clubs throughout the city, including Exit In, Bluebird Café, City Hall, Mercy Lounge, the Cannery, 3rd & Lindsley and B.B. King’s Blues Club, which showcase the talents of up and coming artists. Nashville is also home to countless major record labels, music publishers and recording studios.
Fall brings the whirling lights and the screams of delight from children and adults alike at more than 50 county fairs including Wilson and Williamson and at the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville.  The heart of Tennessee is singing to you just down the road, too. Can you hear it?

East Tennessee

There’s no doubt about it, East Tennessee is singing your song down from the 6,000-foot ridges in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited destination in the country’s national park system, to the shaded gorges of the Tennessee, Nolichucky and Holston rivers. Here, settlers living in rustic log cabins, worked hard and created ballads from the heart. Visitors today are welcome to tour some of their restored homesteads as they listen for the echoes of fiddles and dulcimers still ringing through the hills.  Appalachian music abounds, along with rock, gospel, country and bluegrass at the 20+ live music shows featured at Dollywood, Tennessee’s premiere amusement park in Pigeon Forge. 
There’s music in wood craft, too, in towns, like Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, the official “Honeymoon Capital of the South,” where quality mountain crafts abound. Hear the songs of laughter as families enjoy Riply’s Aquarium and fabulous outlet shopping at Tanger’s Mall. Join with the thousands who attend shows in one of the dozens of musical theatres in East Tennessee.  Dolly Parton’s home town of Sevierville even showcases 100 years of aviation history at The Tennessee Museum of Aviation or you can create your own high-flying memories in helicopter rides above the clouds.
East Tennessee’s urban areas are diverse.  Knoxville features a vibrant Volunteer waterfront district on the banks of the Tennessee River and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.  In the fall, feel the energy of Tennessee Football as UT fans come alive to support our state’s favorite college pastime.  

Chattanooga is ripe with attractions and adventure from the Tennessee Aquarium, the world’s largest fresh-water aquarium, to the legendary natural wonders of Rock City and Ruby Falls. Oak Ridge brings a history all its own as the Secret City of the Manhattan Project, and now is Tennessee’s “City of Energy”. The bustling Tri-Cities area - Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport is known as “America’s First Frontier”.  Park your car at a quaint B&B in Jonesborough and listen to tall tales from our colonial past or celebrate NASCAR at the Bristol Motor Speedway & Dragway where fans can even take a cruising tour down Thunder Valley, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” track.

Outdoor enthusiasts can hear the wind sing as they hang-glide at Raccoon Mountain and thrill to the churn of white water as they raft or kayak the Olympic-quality Ocoee River in the Tennessee Overhill.  For the novice, outdoor adventures include hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail, canoeing the Hiwassee or drifting over the landscape in a colorful hot-air balloon. For the avid golfer, Tennessee offers five Bear Trace courses designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.

Just remember, the stage is set for your next vacation in Tennessee. Order your free travel guide now at www.tnvacation.com or dial 1-800-GO2-TENN.

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