The Music Triangle – Muscle Shoals, Memphis, & Music City

Estimated Tour Pricing Inclusions: 9 nights’ accommodation; 9 breakfasts; 4 lunches; 3 dinners; admissions, entrance, and guide fees as stated in the itinerary, including taxes, and gratuity. Except gratuity for guide fees is not included on adult tours unless otherwise requested.

• Belle Meade Plantation
• Hermitage Plantation
• RCA Studio B
• FAME Studios
• Stax Museum of American Soul Music
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• The Grand Ole Opry
• Nashville City Tour
• Musicians Hall of Fame Museum
• Ryman Theater
• Honky Tonk Row
• Johnny Cash Boyhood Home & Museum
• Patsy Cline Museum
• Tina Turner's Hometown
• Distillery Tasting Tour
• Elvis Presley Birthplace & Graceland
• National Civil Rights Museum

• Arrive in Nashville and depart for Welcome Luncheon and Tour of Belle Meade Plantation. Arrive Belle Meade Plantation to experience everything that is beautiful about the South.
• Later, arrive at the Gaylord Opryland or other hotel of choice and check in. The rest of the evening is free to explore and have dinner on own

• Enjoy breakfast at your leisure at the hotel this morning. Meet your GUIDE in the hotel lobby and depart for RCA Studio B, a music recording studio in Nashville, built in 1956. Originally known simply by the name "RCA Studios", it became known in the 1960s for being an essential factor in the development of the production style and technique known as the Nashville Sound.
• Experience: SHARING THE ART OF SONGWRITING™ Experience for yourself what makes songwriting in Nashville so unique with this interactive co-writing program. Work closely with one of Nashville’s most accomplished songwriters as they guide your group in composing original lyrics of their own. End this session with a group recording of Nashville’s newest tune.
• Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American vernacular music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amassed one of the world's most extensive musical collections.
• Lunch on own while visiting. Depart and enjoy a Backstage Tour of the Grand Ole Opry. It’s a must-see for everyone in Music City! Walk in the footsteps of country music's superstars and get an exclusive look at what happens behind the scenes of the show that made country music famous.
• Enjoy dinner on own at Opry Mills. Possible show option at the Grand Ole Opry for an additional cost.

• Enjoy breakfast at the hotel at your leisure this morning via voucher. Meet your GUIDE and depart for a Guided City Tour.
• Ryman Theater - Otherwise known as the Mother Church of Country Music, it’s more than a Nashville landmark. Ryman Auditorium is one of the most active and celebrated venues in modern music. Generations of artists, seekers, creators, rule-breakers, and rebels have made their mark on this famous stage. From Elvis to Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash to Wu-Tang Clan, Paul Simon to Tom Petty, B.B. King to Kings of Leon, the Ryman is a source of inspiration where legendary moments are still in the making.
• Johnny Cash Museum and Patsy Cline Museum - Though she left the world tragically at the age of 30 in 1963, Patsy Cline made an indelible mark on Country Music and remains one of the biggest names in Country history. The Patsy Cline Museum celebrates the life of the legendary songstress and features hundreds of never before seen artifacts, personal belongings, videos, and much more, (located above the Johnny Cash Museum).
• Musicians Hall of Fame Museum - The Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum is a premiere Nashville attraction and the only one of its kind which honors all musicians regardless of genre or instrument. The MHOF timeline starts with the beginning of recorded music and inductees are nominated by current members of the American Federation of Musicians and by other music industry professionals.
• Depart and return to the resort for free time and dinner on own tonight –OR- enjoy the evening on Honky Tonk Row. Many of Nashville's famous nightspots are found on Broadway between First and Fifth avenues. Honky Tonk Row consists of several nightclubs, pubs, and bars that have become renowned for regional country music musicians who have used these stages as a platform for fun, fame, and fortune. This is where a lot of country stars have been discovered. Well-visited honky tonks include Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, The Stage, Legends Corner, Second Fiddle, and many others. The music starts mid-morning every day and keeps going non-stop into the wee hours of the morning! Most clubs on Honky Tonk Row have no cover charge, so you can come and go as you please until you find live music perfectly suited to your taste.

• Enjoy breakfast at your hotel prior to checking out and visit the Andrew Jackson Hermitage Plantation. The Hermitage is a historical plantation and museum located in Davidson County, Tennessee, 10 miles east of downtown Nashville. The plantation was owned by Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, from 1804 until his death at the Hermitage in 1845.
• Enjoy lunch on own and shopping in Franklin’s “Great America Main Street.” Centered by the Town Square, you’ll find unique shops and restaurants. Arrive at Leip er’s Folk Distillery and enjoy a tasting tour. Leiper’s Fork Distillery creates high-end premium whiskeys using local ingredients and pure limestone filtered water, resulting in superior whiskeys with a signature taste.
• Depart for Muscle Shoals and check into our area hotel before dinner.

• Enjoy breakfast at the hotel prior to checking out. Tour FAME Recording Studios - Studio A and Studio B offer cutting-edge facilities for hit-makers, chart-toppers, and emerging talent melding the best of vintage and twenty-first century recording equipment and techniques. Historic facilities, the latest technology, world class engineers and staff, FAME Recording Studios was a sound like no other.
• Depart and visit the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - opened in early 1969 by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as the Swampers) – David Hood on bass, Jimmy Johnson on rhythm guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums, and Barry Beckett on keys. They began working together at Rick Hall’s FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, where they became well-renowned in the recording industry for playing a unique style of funky R&B with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Etta James.
• Depart for lunch on own at select downtown Tuscumbia Restaurants. Visit the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then saw to its Phase One construction of a 12,500 sq ft after a statewide referendum in 1987. It currently stands in the town of Tuscumbia. Depart and check-in to our area hotel.
• Dinner tonight is at the oldest Greyhound Bus Stop. Enjoy a visit by Elvis Presley, BBQ and Catfish, free flowing wine and beer (BYOB we stock and take). Depart and return to the hotel for the evening.

• Enjoy breakfast at hotel prior to checking out then visit Elvis Presley Birthplace - More than 100,000 visitors tour the Elvis Presley Center each year, which includes the Elvis birthplace, the Elvis Presley Museum and Memorial Chapel, and Elvis Presley Park. Visit Tupelo Hardware Store - A family business since 1926, it is well known as being the store where “Gladys bought her son his first guitar.”
• Enjoy lunch on own in Tupelo, then depart for Memphis.
• Check into your hotel then depart for an included dinner in Memphis.

• Enjoy breakfast at your hotel and enjoy the Elvis Experience at Graceland! Your tour includes: Graceland Mansion Audio-Guided Tour with New Orientation Film, Access to Elvis Presley’s Memphis, Elvis’ Two Custom Airplanes, Presley Motor Car Museum, Elvis: The Entertainer Career Showcase Museum, and Elvis Discovery Exhibits.
• Enjoy lunch on own while visiting then visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. What began as a tiny record store in an old movie theater at the corner of McLemore Avenue and College Street in Memphis, it grew to become one of the most important music recording studios in the world. When the modest Capitol Theater in the heart of Soulsville USA was transformed into Stax Records in 1959, it began launching the careers of unknowns who would become icons, cranking out a massive catalog of smash soul hits. On its many and varied labels, Stax Records also recorded such legends as Big Star, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Moms Mabley, and the Grammy-winning comedic genius, Richard Pryor.
• Depart and enjoy a Memphis Mojo Tour with Backbeat Tours! The Home of the Blues comes alive on this city tour aboard the nation's only music bus. All of the guides on this tour are professional Beale Street musicians who play and sing selections from the city's rich musical heritage, while entertaining you with comedy, history, and behind-the-scenes stories of your favorite Memphis personalities. Enjoy an exciting introduction to Memphis on this action-packed drive through the city. It's great fun for all ages!
• Return to the hotel for a free evening to enjoy the available amenities and have dinner on own along exciting Beale Street.

• Enjoy breakfast at your hotel. Depart and visit the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the original Lorraine Motel, site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 assassination. This award-winning museum traces the history of the American Civil Rights Movement and honors its leaders through interactive displays, artifacts, hands-on exhibits, and audiovisual programs.
• Enjoy lunch included today and feast upon a delicious Southern home-made BBQ buffet.
• Depart and visit the Rock & Soul Museum. The museum tells the critical story of the musical pioneers who overcame racial and socio-economic obstacles to create the music that changed the cultural complexion of the world. Depart and visit the legendary Sun Studio, the birthplace of Rock N Roll. Return to the hotel for a free evening and dinner on own along Beale Street.

• Enjoy breakfast at hotel and depart for Dyess, Arkansas. Visit the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Visitor Center - It is furnished as it appeared when the Cash family lived there, based on family memories.
• Depart and visit a working Cotton Gin.
• Enjoy lunch on own while exploring.
• Stop for a Photo Opportunity at ‘The Painted House’ - the original movie set farmhouse, used in the 2003 Hallmark Hall of Fame film production of "A Painted House". The house is patterned after the Arkansas boyhood home of novelist John Grisham, who wrote "A Painted House."
• Visit the Southern Tenant Farmer’s Museum - enhancing knowledge and understanding of tenant farming, and agricultural labor movements in the Mississippi River Delta, in an effort to preserve the history and promote the legacy of sharecropping, tenant farming, and the farm labor movement. Depart and return to your hotel.
• Free evening in Memphis to enjoy entertainment & dinner on own.

• Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before checking out then depart for West Tennessee Delta Heritage/Tina Turner, located in the hometown of Anna Mae Bullock, who you probably know as Tina Turner. The “Queen of Rock” is remembered here with an exhibit inside the historic Flagg Grove School, her childhood school, filled with costumes, gold records, and memorabilia donated by Tina.
• West Tennessee is also home to the Country Blues sound and to pioneers such as “Sleepy” John Estes, Hammie Nixon, and Yank Rachell. “Sleepy” John’s last home is open for visitors to peek inside.
• Enjoy lunch at Brook Shaw’s Old Country Store then arrive at the Nashville Airport for departure.

Base rate does not include motor coach transportation, airfare, airport transfers, driver gratuity, guide gratuity, (student groups exempt) or any upgrades or add-ons unlisted from itinerary as stated. Pricing may vary based on day of arrival or other conditions. Personalized itineraries with custom pricing and/or additional transportation can be created and added based on client needs and upon client’s request. MARS will customize quotes or personalize itineraries for FREE.

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