Nashville

Nashville is Music City, the working capital of country music and an increasingly diverse recording, songwriting, and live-performance economy. Session musicians, producers, sound engineers, and a serious music-video production scene operate around Music Row, East Nashville, and the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway. Beyond music, healthcare and a growing tech sector have brought corporate production work into the mix. Crews here are used to fast turnarounds around live shows and touring schedules, and the city's Southern hospitality shapes how briefs and call sheets get handled.

Hot chicken (properly fiery, from Prince's-style spots), meat-and-three plates, biscuits, and barbecue that leans more Tennessee than Texas or Carolina. Broadway's honky-tonks run live music from midday into the early morning, most with no cover charge; tip the bands in the jar. Tipping at restaurants runs 18 to 20%. Sundays historically slowed the city down; that has loosened but some businesses still keep shorter hours. For the country baseline on tipping and ID rules, see /countries/united-states.