14-02-2025
Nashville valentines: Celebrating what we love about Music City
Love takes many forms, and on this Valentine's Day we wanted to celebrate our love for the city we call home.
We composed valentines for some of our favorite things about Music City.
Adam's valentines
🎨 Murals: Art is everywhere in Nashville. Bright and beautiful murals can be found on garage doors, under bridges and on the side of old silos.
Some celebrate our city's rich musical heritage, others elevate the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who once called Nashville home. My personal favorites are the more inscrutable pieces like the Black Cat Tips mural on Charlotte Avenue.
The bottom line: Our public art scene stretches way beyond the Angel Wings.
✍️ Songwriters: Musical geniuses live among us in Nashville. Of course some of them are instantly recognizable superstars, but many of the biggest talents on Music Row are career songwriters who make a living writing songs that other artists make famous.
You might run into Taylor Swift collaborator Liz Rose at the airport. "Strawberry Wine" writer Matraca Berg might be standing beside you in the Kroger check-out line. Erin Enderlin was a student at Middle Tennessee State University when she wrote a hit for Alan Jackson.
Pro tip: Visit The Bluebird Cafe to see these songwriters take their own star turns.
🧁 The Cupcake Collection: This locally owned Germantown bakery has been serving delicious treats since 2008. They have served more than 5 million cupcakes to date. My favorites are the strawberry and red velvet flavors.
The bakery offers same-day delivery online and through Uber Eats, in case you're looking for last-minute gift ideas.
You can read founder Mignon Francois' inspiring life story in her memoir "Made From Scratch."
Nate's valentines
🎶 Music teachers: As you may expect in Music City, Nashville is home to some amazing music educators.
Our 8th grader plays trumpet in the magnificent Meigs Middle band, which is led by the impossibly talented director of bands Franklin Norris.
Our 5th grader is developing a love for the piano thanks to his fantastic teacher Janne Henshaw. Thanks to these teachers, our boys are likely to end up like singer-songwriter mom and not their dad, whose only musical skill is singing R.E.M. songs off-key in the shower.
☕️ Thriving coffee shops: The number of fantastic locally-operated coffee shops in Nashville has proliferated in the last 15 years. There are too many great shops to single out just one.
A few of my favorites are Beck's Farmhouse Coffee in Joelton, Crema in SoBro and East Nashville, Weak Coffee Co. in East Nashville and Steadfast in Germantown.
🍞 Sourdough at Spread Market & Larder: The bakery, craft grocer and wine shop in Germantown may be home to the best sourdough in the city.
In addition to their sourdough loaves, Spread does an impossibly good sourdough cinnamon rolls.
