27 Things to Consider Before Moving to Nashville

Nashville was named the “#1 Friendliest City in America 2013” by the readers of Travel + Leisure, something many local boosters like to brag about. Now just because they’re friendly doesn’t mean Nashville isn’t attractive, or lacking in personality. They’re just nice. Not like in a boring way or anything, but polite and welcoming. Okay, you’re judging Nashville. You think it means they’re bland. Look, can’t a city just be friendly without everyone getting all suspicious that it’s some kind of act or that they’re covering up for being dull? Please, keep reading…

Know Your Laws

Gathering roadkill to consume IS legal in Nashville, but don’t celebrate that by tattooing a minor because that is NOT legal. Also, you cannot carry a skunk into the state, nor keep a cheetah as a pet. You’ll want to avoid listening to your personal CD player while roller skating and absolutely no rollerblading while being towed behind a moving vehicle. Sorry, but that’s the law in Nashville.

Life Ain’t Easy for a Beer Named Sue

Is your name Sue? Or, do you know someone named Sue who’s a challenge to buy gifts for? Life will be better in Nashville because the local Yazoo Brewing Company produces a beer named Sue. This flavorful beer may even inspire your inner songwriter, and hopefully your lyrics are better than ours, which are just an obvious rip off of Johnny Cash…

Well, my daddy drinks a lot for a retiree / And usually leaves no beer for me / Just this stale Bud Light and an empty bottle of Coors / Now I don’t blame him cause he drinks my brews / But the meanest thing he’s done for sure / Was the time he went and drank up all my Sue.

Vintage Paradise

Until your flux capacitor is properly installed in the DeLorean, you’ll have to do your shopping in the present. But if vintage clothing, records, and home decor is your thing then Nashville’s probably your heaven on earth. Get vintage threads at Hip Zipper and Closet Case Vintage, home decor at Pre To Post Modern, and a little bit of everything at Savant Vintage. And that is just scratching the surface.

What Will You Name Your Band?

There are over 400 Craigslist ads posted each week by musical acts looking for members. These range from country acts on the verge of stardom to a couple bros looking for a babe to front their Limp Bizkit cover band. Regardless, coming up with an original band name is going to be tricky.

Backup Plan if Band Fails…

If music stardom isn’t in the cards, Nashville is an ideal city to have that dream crushed. According to Forbes, the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin area is the “2nd Best Big City for Jobs in America,” and it saw 3.8% employment growth in 2012. So if your cruel fate does not include becoming America’s Next Top Crooner, then consider a backup career in health care. Nashville’s home to 300 health care companies, including Capella Healthcare and Hospital Corporation of America, and there are hundreds of thousands of area jobs in the industry.

Hot Chicken

Nobody knows exactly who or when, but some culinary visionary in Nashville’s history took a perfectly fried piece of chicken and imagined something greater. Before the buffalo hot wing was an idea this American hero had the genius to give fried chicken a cayenne infusion, and hot chicken was born. This Nashville specialty is on the menu just about everywhere, and there’s even an annual Music City Hot Chicken Festival to celebrate it.

Tornadoes

Even though they’re not filled with sharks, Nashville’s tornadoes can still be terrifying and deadly. While Nashville is not located in Tornado Alley, it is located in Dixie Alley, which traditionally has seen more tornado deaths because of its dense population. On the upside, not all Tennessee tornadoes are bad. At Dollywood, the “Tennessee Tornado” is a triple spiral-looping roller coaster that hits speeds of 70 miles per hour.

Can You Afford a Home in Nashville?

According to the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, the median price for a single-family home sold in Nashville in July, 2013 was $204,000, a significant increase from $181,250 a year ago. For condos it was $154,500, which was down from $156,220 in 2012. View Nashville homes for sale on Estately here.

Renting in Nashville

If you’d prefer to rent an apartment, be warned that Nashville’s rent is the 8th highest in the nation, and third highest in the south. According to Colliers International, there’s a 95.1 percent occupancy rate in Nashville, and the average rent is $865. To view the Tennessee Titans-themed party pad for sale in the photo above just click on the image.

The Sports

Nashville is now home to two professional sports franchises:  the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators. In addition, there are also the Nashville Sounds (Triple-A baseball team), Nashville Rollergirls (roller derby), Nashville Grizzlies RFC (USA Rugby Division III club), and Nashville Women’s Rugby Football Club (women’s rugby).

Weather

Overall, Nashville has a comfortable climate, except for the hot, humid summers, and also the severe thunderstorms in spring and fall. The long springs and autumns are nice, unless you’re an allergy sufferer and then they’re miserable. It doesn’t snow much, but there are tornadoes and occasional flooding. It’s sunny a lot, though.

Nashville’s Parthenon vs. Athens’ Parthenon

Each year thousands more tourists travel to Greece and visit the crumbling Parthenon in Athens, and it doesn’t even have a roof like the one in Nashville.

Blue Island in a Sea of Red

Like a cherry Kool-Aid packet being stirred in cold water, the state of Tennessee is turning increasingly red. However, the state’s Democratic-leaning citizens have holed up in urban areas like Nashville and Memphis. They’re surrounded, but not giving up without a fight.

Ke$ha Is Locally Sourced

Nashville is the flame musical moths from around the world flutter to, but the city also churns out plenty of local artists. For example, there’s pop star Ke$ha, a product of Brentwood High School. Miley Cyrus is local also. There are lots of others, but those are the two most Googled of late. Such a strange world we live in…

Music History Is Everywhere

Yep. Everywhere. Wander into an empty lot and look under a rock and you’ll probably find Dolly Parton’s guitar pick or the petrified crust off Elvis Presley’s fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. There’s also the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, RCA Studio B, the Grand Ole Opry, the legendary Ryman Auditorium (Mother Church of Country Music), headquarters of Country Music Television, the Nashville Symphony, Music City Walk of Fame and more than 130 music venues.

Nicknames

Nashville’s known to go by a variety of stage names, including the Music City, The Protestant Vatican, Country Music Capital of the World, Athens of the South (lots of colleges), Little Kurdistan, Wall Street of the South, Rashville, Twang-Ri-La, and Powder City (former gunpowder factory).

Lots of Celebrity Barns

Unlike celebrities in Hollywood, Nashville’s rich and famous often opt for life in the country, which is surprisingly close to downtown. Just outside of town there are dozens of farms and ranches owned by famous music and Hollywood celebrities. If you’ve got $20,000,000 you can buy Faith Hill and Tim McGraw’s barn. It also comes with four residences, 750-plus acres, and it was once owned by Hank Williams, Sr.

Mermaids?

Nashville is the 9th Best U.S. City for Mermaids, according to this listicle by Estately. In more relevant news, Nashville was also named to USA Today’s list of Best Urban Green Spaces in North America, was 3rd on Travel + Leisure’s list of America’s Best Cities for Ice Cream, and was 2nd on Forbes‘ list of Best City For Jobs 2013.

Music City

Contrary to what your Great-Aunt Mildred says, Branson, Missouri is not the country’s top city for music. Nashville didn’t get the title of Music City just by being the country music capital of the world, it’s also home to plenty of rock bands, Christian record labels and a host of gospel acts. Jack White’s record label is stationed here, and it’s home to the Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Sheryl Crow, rapper Young Buck (when he’s not in prison), and plenty more.

Nashville? You Mean Like the TV Show?

If there’s one thing that binds Americans together its a shared ignorance of basic geography. Thus, if you tell someone from outside of Tennessee that you’re moving to Nashville there’s a 50 percent chance the person will only know of it because of the Television series Nashville. Sure, Nashville is a state capital and one America’s most iconic cities, but to many it’s just a musical drama about country music stars.

No More Than 8 Women May Live Together

Local sororities, convents, or other homes packed with the ladies are in danger of running afoul of local laws. In Tennessee, it’s illegal for more than eight women to live in the same house because that would constitute a brothel. Keep this in mind if you’re considering moving to Nashville with your all-women marching band or an elite roller derby squad.

Meat & Three

“Meat & Three” would be a great name for a Nashville band fronted by some dude named Meat. However, it’s actually a local term for a meal consisting of a choice of meat and three side dishes. Options consist of southern classics like roast beef, fried catfish, turnip greens, mack and cheese, fried green tomatoes, and other calorie-rich items. These meals are sure to stick to your ribs, and probably your arteries, too. They are delicious and there’s no shortage of spots offering this classic cuisine. Enjoy some sweet tea with it to up the odds of diabetes.

Batman Building

Officially, it’s known as the AT&T Building, but the locals call it the Batman Building. There’s no listing for Wayne Enterprises among the many businesses headquartered here, but it’s all still a little bit suspicious…

Little Kurdistan

Since 1976, Nashville has been a destination for waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iraq. Over 11,000 Kurds now live in the Nashville area, roughly 70 percent of all Kurdish people in America. The growing Kurdish population has even given rise to calling Nashville “Little Kurdistan.” The Nashville area is home to tens of thousands of foreign-born persons, primarily from Latin America and Asia. More complete immigration statistics can be found HERE.

Low Odds of Cutting a Record

Of those who submit a demo to all four major record labels the odds of a record deal are about 1 in 42. Not great, but the odds of having your own music recorded on a vinyl record are 100 percent if go to United Record Pressing in Nashville. North America’s largest volume producing vinyl record plant still presses LPs the old-fashioned way in their factory, and they offer tours for $10.

Carrie Underwood Isn’t Going to Date You

Carried Underwood is very lovely, and she’s conveniently located just outside of Nashville, but she is no longer single. She’s married to Mike Fisher, a professional hockey player for the Nashville Predators. This news is probably crushing, but try and be happy for her. She deserves to be happy. You have to let her go!

The Buckle on the Bible Belt

Sometimes called the Protestant Vatican, Nashville is home to over 700 churches, a handful of christian colleges, and Gideons International—the people who stock hotels with Bibles. The city is the headquarters for the Southern Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention USA, and the National Association of Free Will Baptists. But wait, there’s more… it’s also home to the world’s largest producer of bibles (Thomas Nelson), as well as Christian record companies like EMI Christian Music Group, Provident Label Group and World Records.

Did we leave anything important out? Let us know in the comments.