PROGRAM REGISTRATION: After you have your room assignment, come over to the Road Scholar desk in the lobby to register with the program staff at our desk. You'll receive your arrival packet containing the most up-to-date schedule and program information that we'll review during our orientation session.
INTRODUCTIONS & ORIENTATION: 5:00pm.: After introductions of your fellow participants and the program staff, we will have an informative overview of the program including a review of the updated daily schedule, responsibilities, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer any questions you may have.
Please be aware that program activities and scheduled times could change due to local circumstances. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Dinner will follow orientation. Thank you for your understanding.Dinner: It's a short walk to dinner at a popular Nashville restaurant near the hotel. Enjoy local cuisine and begin getting to know your fellow music lovers.Lodging: Hampton Inn & Suites Nashville-DowntownMeals Included: Dinner
Studio B, originally RCA Studios, is the home of thousands of hits that helped to define the “Nashville Sound.” Chet Atkins was one of the originators and Elvis mastered more than 200 songs here. An expert guide will share many of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of this unique space where so much history has been created using the pianos, mics, and accessories you will see.
The Country Music Hall of Fame is the highest honor in country music. The award recognizes persons who have made outstanding contributions to country music over the lengths of their careers. We will explore the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum with its vast collection of memorabilia illustrating the evolution of country music through the turns of two centuries. The museum has a treasure trove of historic country video clips and recorded music, dynamic exhibits, and state-of-the-art design. Lunch: Music Row is an area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tennessee that is home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and Contemporary Christian music industries. Music Row is widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry. In this area, one will find the offices of numerous record labels, publishing houses, music licensing firms, recording studios, video production houses, along with other business who serve the music industry, as well as radio networks, and radio stations. Restaurants are also a big part of Music Row. We will let you select from a list of restaurants we provide and then you may go on your own or with a group of friends or join the coordinator for lunch at one of the many popular spots on Music Row. This lunch is not included in your program cost.Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: We will board our private motorcoach for a field trip to see some of the city’s highlights and learn about the history of this famour music city. Our route will take us by homes of some of Nashville’s top recording artists. Music has always been the common thread connecting the life and soul of Nashville and its people. The first permanent settlement began on Christmas Day 1779, celebrated with fiddle tunes and buck dancing. Davy Crockett, Nashville's first celebrity, was known far and wide for his colorful stories and fiddle playing. Nashville become a national center for music publishing. The first around-the-world tour by a musical act was by the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Nashville's Fisk University. Their efforts helped fund the school's mission of educating freed slaves after the Civil War and put Nashville on the map as a global music center. Dinner: DINNER WITH LIVE MUSIC IN THE ROUND: Dinner will be at The Listening Room Cafe where music surrounds you and entertainment will amaze you.Lodging: Hampton Inn & Suites Nashville-DowntownMeals Included: Breakfast, Dinner
After the excursion, we will arrive and check in at Hampton Inn & Suites at Peabody Place, in the heart of the Memphis entertainment district, half a block from world-famous Beale Street.Dinner: The menu at world-renowned B.B. King’s Blues Club and Restaurant on Beale Street offers a variety of the South's most delicious comfort food influenced by flavors from New Orleans all the way to the Mississippi Delta, including authentic Memphis-style BBQ ribs, chicken, pulled pork, and other delicacies.Evening: PERFORMANCE: B.B. King's Blues Club. The house band is B.B. King’s All Stars, and guest musicians include some of the best in the business for one of the most diverse, sophisticated lineups of modern blues and R&B in Memphis — a good show every night of the week. Feel free to jump up and dance or sit back and relax. This is the real deal! Then go out and hear music up and down Beale Street on your own. Lodging: Hampton Inn & Suites Memphis - Beale StreetMeals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Learn the story of musical pioneers who, for the love of music, overcame racial and socio-economic barriers to create the music that shook the entire world. The museum provides a comprehensive Memphis music experience – the sounds of rural field hollers, work songs, blues, country and gospel of the sharecroppers in the 1930-40s that eventually collided and fused with the urban sounds of Beale Street (urban blues and jazz), SUN Studio (rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly), STAX Recording and HI Records (rhythm and blues, soul music). This is the story of the body of music that had the most influence on the culture and lifestyles of the world during the middle 20th Century to this day. It affected the way we talked, walked, combed our hair and dressed – not only in Memphis or the U.S., but around the world.Lunch: Select one of the many restaurants on Beale Street or venture one block for many more selections for lunch on your own or with newfound friends.Afternoon: Free Time – Coordinator will work with you on planning your afternoon. You are in the heart of all the Memphis activities and museums.Dinner: No need to rush back for dinner but instead we have left this dinner selection for you to choose the restaurant. You may decide to join the coordinator for dinner also.Evening: Free evening to explore Memphis on your own or with newfound friends. This is a good time to go to the Peabody Hotel and see the marching of the ducks. the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced with ducks. The Peabody ducks march at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily. Each day at 11:00 a.m., a parade of five mallard ducks, led by a "duckmaster," makes its way from the roof of the hotel down to the lobby. There, a red carpet is rolled out and John Philip Sousa's King Cotton March begins to play. The ducks march into the fountain of the Peabody's Grand Lobby. At 5:00 p.m., the ceremony is reversed when the ducks return to their rooftop home. Lodging: Hampton Inn & Suites Memphis - Beale StreetMeals Included: Breakfast