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Country Music Capital of the World

State bird, mockingbird.   State flower, iris.   State tree, tulip poplar.

Davy Crockett was from tennessee, the frontiersman that wore a coon skin hat, An was the US senator for Tennessee at one time,  They made: movies, TV shows and wrote songs about Davy. Said he killed his first Bear when he was only 3 years old, (somehow I drought it).
He was and is a legend, and I heard he did kill a bar with his knife (I believe that). He was the Cornel  in charge of the Tennessee Mountain men he, was finally killed with his men, at the Alamo in Texas.

Music, Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry, Every Country star has been at the Grand Ole Opry, Songs like: Wa Bash Cannon Ball, All Shook up, I Walk the Line, Coat of Many Colors, All the greats have been sang by the Greatest at the Opry, and they still are.

Until the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the opening of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the building of the interstate highways, life had continued in the remote hills and valleys of eastern Tennessee in much the same way as it had ever since the arrival of the first pioneers. Now visitors flock here for its endless expanses of natural beauty; and as a result, especially in the fall, the Smokies can get clogged with traffic. Most communities are small, and either over-touristed or just bland. The two main cities, modern Knoxville and picturesque Chattanooga , have much in common, including healthy post-World War II industrial growth, thanks to cheap TVA power.

The cotton-trading capital of the Delta, MEMPHIS , perched above the Mississippi two hundred miles west of Nashville and three hundred south of St Louis, is one of the great destinations of the South. Visitors come from all over the world to celebrate the city that virtually invented blues, soul and rock 'n' roll, as well as to chow down in the unrivaled barbecue capital of the nation. A visit to Memphis, the home of the Sun and Stax record labels, with its frequent festivals and vigorous nightlife, feels like an invitation to share in a genuine and enduring local culture.

Culturally and geographically, Memphis has more in common with the deltalands of Mississippi and Arkansas than with the rest of Tennessee. Founded in 1819 and named for Egypt's ancient Nile capital, its fortunes rose and fell with cotton . The Confederate defeat that ended the slave trade briefly plunged it into economic chaos, and severe yellow fever epidemics didn't help, but thanks to its potential for river and rail transportation Memphis soon bounced back. The nation's second largest inland port became a major stopping-off point for black migrants escaping the poverty of the Delta, and many stayed, significantly shaping the city's identity.

For a couple of decades after the 1968 assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Memphis tottered on the brink of terminal decline, with downtown hit by a massive case of "white flight." In the past decade, however, the city has regenerated itself yet again, its new self-confidence typified by the extraordinary 321ft stainless steel Pyramid that now dominates the riverfront skyline. The famous blues corridor of Beale Street is booming once more, perhaps a little ersatz but always entertaining, while Elvis Presley's Graceland - a refreshing change from the usual "gracious southern home" - provides an intimate and exuberant glimpse of Memphis's most famous son.

The City
Downtown Memphis has in the last few years started to come back to life, at the cost of losing some of its old cotton-era buildings. The central streets parallel to the river are steadily acquiring new hotels, restaurants and stores

NASHVILLE attracts six million people each year - a mixture of devoted fans and the just plain curious - to immerse themselves in country music . They come to enjoy themselves, and the city makes sure that they do, offering not just the relatively mainstream Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry , but all the wonders of "Tacksville." To make the most of this facet of Nashville, you need to abandon any idea of detachment, and get out there among the nightspots and gift emporia, joining the quest for souvenir T-shirts, Stetsons, rattlesnake belts and photos of your favorite star.

However, there is a real city beneath the rhinestone glitter. Nashville has been the leading settlement in middle Tennessee since Fort Nashborough was established in 1779. State capital since 1843, it is now the financial and insurance center of the mid-South, as well as a fast-growing manufacturing base. Giant Nissan and Saturn motor plants have been attracted to its immediate hinterland, and rapid growth since World War II has transformed a once-compact city into a sprawling conurbation stretching out in all directions along the undulating roads, here known as pikes .

For all its blue-collar "Nash-Vegas" image, Nashville has maintained a strong reputation for learning since planter times, and is home to sixteen higher education establishments, including Vanderbilt University and the renowned black colleges of Fisk University and Meharry Medical School. The city likes to see itself as the "Athens of the South" - and, endearingly, has built a replica of the Parthenon to bolster its claim. Even at night, Nashville offers more than country music, with enough going on to satisfy most tastes. It has also boosted its image by attracting an NFL team (the Tennessee Oilers) and NHL side (the Nashville Predators) here.

The other conspicuous element in Nashville's make-up is religion . There are over seven hundred churches, more per capita than anywhere else in the country. But what really earns it the tag of "Protestant Vatican" is the proliferation of colleges for training preachers and missionaries, church administrative offices and Bible-publishing plants.

Approximately 110 miles east of Memphis and twelve south of Savannah, Tennessee, via US-64 and Hwy-22, SHILOH NATIONAL MILITARY PARK (daily 8am-5pm; $2; tel 901/689-5275) commemorates one of the most crucial battles of the Civil War. After victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, General Grant's confident Union forces were all but defeated by a surprise early-morning Confederate attack on April 6, 1862. A stubborn rump of resistance held on until around 5pm, and the Confederates elected to finish the task off the next morning rather than launching a twilight assault. However, Grant's decimated regiments were bolstered by the overnight arrival of new troops, and instead it was their dawn initiative that forced the tired and demoralized Confederates to retreat.

Shiloh was the first encounter on a scale that became common as the war continued, putting an abrupt end to the romantic innocence of many a raw volunteer soldier. Over 20,000 men in all were killed. Even the war-toughened General Sherman spoke of "piles of dead soldiers' mangled bodies ? without heads and legs ? the scenes on this field would have cured anyone of war."

The visitor center displays artifacts recovered from the battlefield and shows a twenty-minute film. A self-guided ten-mile driving tour takes in the National Cemetery , whose moss-covered walls contain thousands of unidentified graves.