Live-music venues worth the trip in Nashville, Tennessee

The 1892 tabernacle known as the Mother Church of Country Music and the longtime home of the Grand Ole Opry. Pew seating, wood everywhere, and acoustics that need no help.

Nashville’s rock club on Elliston Place since 1971, a ~500-cap room that has run everything from emerging bands to arena acts working out a small show.

The larger East Nashville sibling, ~400 cap, opened in 2015 for local acts, national indie touring, and the occasional tribute night.

A cinderblock bluegrass and roots room going since 1974, a Gulch fixture now surrounded by towers it refused to sell to. Still the real thing for traditional country and Americana.

The 90-seat songwriter listening room in a Green Hills strip mall, open since 1982, where the writers play in the round and the room stays silent. Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks were heard here first.

Nashville’s dedicated jazz club, a stone-walled basement in the Gulch with live jazz seven nights a week and a speakeasy feel.

A ~200-cap room under 8th Avenue South, no frills and good sound, a dependable launch spot for local and touring bands.