A view from the balcony at the new Grand Ole Opry
Admit it - as LA is to long-haired rockers and Chicago is to steamy blues - when you think Nashville, you''ve got country music on your mind. And why not? As the self-proclaimed ''Country Music Capital of the World,'' Nashville revels in its down-home glamour. Banners and billboards announce new recording stars and releases like accolades （称赞；盛赞）in a high school yearbook, and streets bear the names of country legends like Roy Acuff and Chet Atkins. Music City (as Nashville''s promoters like to call it) has even caught the attention of non-country singers - from Joan Baez to Jello Biafra - though their reviews have not always been favorable. Still, for a city that''s staked（本意为把…押下打赌，拿...冒险） it''s reputation on its trademark sound, there''s no doubt about it - Nashville''s tune is catchy.
Straddling the Cumberland River in northern central Tennessee, Nashville lies midway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. From the state capitol - the city''s highest point - a busy, compact downtown of narrow one-way streets and high-rise office buildings slopes eastward to Broadway, Nashville''s central artery. Southeast of the capitol along 2nd Ave and Broadway, the renovation of historic commercial buildings has carved a downtown tourist destination called ''the District.'' Music Row, the other main commercial district, is less than a mile southwest of downtown.
Record shop named after the famous country singer
In the rest of sprawling Nashville, it''s hard to pinpoint（准确地确定）what constitutes a neighborhood, but a few are easily discernible（可识别的）. Elliston Place is a compact stretch of bohemian alternative culture about a mile west of downtown and north of West End Ave. South of this is the Vanderbilt University campus. East of Elliston Place and abutting（邻接；毗连） the university, Centennial Park is the site of the mock（仿制品）Parthenon leftover from the Centennial Exposition of 1897. This whole area is known as West End, and it centers on a cluster of restaurants along Broadway and West End Ave on either side of the university; you might also hear it referred to as ''Around Vanderbilt.''
Many tourists never set foot in downtown Nashville, confining their visit to the massive Opryland complex a few miles northeast of town. Here, the prefabricated（预先制造；预先构思） Music Valley boasts budget motels, franchise restaurants and outlet stores.